July 2
I was pretty eager to get up and go, but Meghan wasn't. I didn't mind sleeping in a little bit late, 'cause it was nice to snuggle up to her, but eventually I thought it was time that we should get up and I had to pee anyway so I got out from under her arms and went to the bathroom and she still hadn't gotten up when I got back although her eyes were open.
She wanted me to come back to bed and I reminded her that we were going to go ride horses today and she said that we could still do that but five more minutes in bed wouldn't hurt especially since there was no point in taking a shower before we went.
Well, that was a good point, so I got back in bed with her but I didn't get under the covers and she held my hoof and kissed my nose and said that I was really cute when I'd just woke up.
That was nice of her to say, especially since I could see some of my mane was all tangled from sleep. I shook my head in the hopes of getting it more in order, and it stuck on my cheek so after she laughed at me she pushed it back with her hand.
Then she sat up and gave me a proper kiss and went off to the bathroom herself.
I got out my brush and was running it through my tail when she came out of the bathroom and took it from me and started to give me a proper brushing. Then she asked how I'd want my tail for riding horses and I hadn't really thought about it.
She asked me to stretch out on the futon and she could get on my back and show me how humans rode horses. I told her that I knew, because a girl at the Val Day had ridden me, and so had Trinity.
She said that they were kids, though, so maybe they weren't doing it right, and also I probably hadn't looked to see exactly what they were doing, which was a good point.
So I did and turned my head so I could see how it was done and she told me to keep my wings in and then got in bed next to me, sort of crawling on her knees, and she put her hand on my back to steady herself and then swung a leg over my back and sat down.
Then she kind of wiggled her butt on my back a little and tightened her legs against my side and said that that was how it was done. She said that if I was a riding horse, I'd also have reins that she would put in her hands, and a saddle horn that she could hold on to.
It was going to be kind of weird to balance like that and my hind legs didn't bend like a human's, so I wasn't sure that I could sit on a horse the same way.
She said that we might as well experiment, so she got off my back and lay down on her stomach on the futon and said that the first thing to do would be see if I thought I could balance myself well on her back.
I took my time placing my forehooves 'cause I didn't want to hurt her, and I asked before I put weight on them, but she kept assuring me that it was okay, and so I sort of stepped across her back until I was straddling her with my hind legs which felt really weird, and then I sat back and pushed myself up with my forehooves.
It didn't feel very natural at all, but I thought it would work all right. I said that it was kind of uncomfortable to have my hind legs spread like that, but I was pretty sure that it would work. So she asked how stable I felt, and I wiggled around a little bit and said it felt pretty good.
And she asked if my tail was going to be in the way, and it kind of was, but it was no worse than sitting in a chair. So I thought it would work out.
She wanted to try it kneeling, too, to take all the weight off my legs, because she said that might feel completely different to me. And so I got off her back and then we both got off the futon so that she could put the blanket on the floor to protect her knees. Then she told me to get back on the futon and she'd kneel right next to it and I could climb directly on her back like that.
It hurt my hips a little bit more when I didn't have my hind legs supporting any weight at all. It wasn't really a bad pain, more of a stretching in a way I wasn't used to. And there was a little bit more pressure on my dock than I would have liked, but it wasn't all that bad.
It turned out that the hardest part was getting back off of her. I couldn’t figure out how to do that without risking scratching her back with my hooves and I couldn't really pull either of my hind legs up to the point where I could use them. She had to crouch down, which looked really awkward for her.
So that was a problem we hadn't anticipated, and I was glad that we'd tried this.
We discussed it a little bit, and then I tried just sitting on her back like I would in a chair, and that worked out pretty well, but Meghan said I might have trouble balancing because of how much a horse's back moved as it walked. And I hadn't really thought about that, so she had me walk around the apartment and told me to pay attention to what my back was doing.
That was kind of weird. It was one of those things that I never really thought about, but she was right.
She said that we could try both methods with her crawling on all fours, and I said that she didn't have to because if something went wrong on the real horse, I'd just fly off. But she wanted to, so she put on her pants so that her knees wouldn't get scraped up on the floor and then had me get up on her back again, and we went around the apartment once with me sitting pony-style and once with me straddling her, and she was right that the second way was more stable, but it was a little less comfortable.
She told me that the only problem she saw was that horses were wider and taller.
Then we went to have breakfast and I wanted to make waffles since I still had some batter left but Meghan said it might have gone bad even though it was in the icebox, so we dumped it out in the sink and she mixed a new batch of batter with my last egg and said that the smart thing to do was to use all the batter at once and keep the extra waffles in the icebox.
So we cooked all the batter (the last little bit only made a half-waffle) and when we were done eating she put away the extras and told me that if I had saran wrap they'd stay fresher longer. She said that was the clingy kind of plastic that she'd put over her cookies. I didn't have any of it, though, so I went into the living room and wrote it down on my little shopping list.
Maybe I could go shopping with Meghan during the weekend.
She made an appointment for an Uber-car to pick us up, then she got dressed and we went outside to the balcony to watch for the Uber-car.
The man driving the car thought it was hilarious that we wanted to go to the riding stables, and he kept looking back in his mirror and snickering all the way there.
When we got out of the car, the smells of the stables hit me and I'd thought I was ready for it but I wasn't and I took a side-step and ran right into Meghan's legs and she put her hand down on my withers and that gave me a minute to collect myself.
I should have spent more time around Earth horses before we did this. Over the months since I'd been to the draft horse show, the memories had kind of dulled and faded and it took me a little while before I could bring myself to go forward.
Well, by the time I'd gotten my thoughts back under control, a lady had come out to greet us and so had a thin-nosed dog who sniffed at me then got behind me and barked and then went off in the direction of the barn before turning around and coming back.
I was kind of paying attention to the dog, and so I didn't really notice that we were slowly moving towards the barn until it suddenly got dark and I saw that we'd gone inside and the dog sat down and gave me a satisfied look.
I heard a horse nicker at me so I nickered back and then a head came over the wall next to me and I felt hot breath on my back and so I turned and blew into her nostrils and she pulled her head back then put it back down and sniffed at me and I sniffed at her and then we were friends.
The woman—who said her name was Deanne—asked me if I was sure about this. I guess while I'd been paying attention to the mare, she and Meghan had been talking.
I said that I wanted to and she asked if I'd even ridden a horse before and I admitted that I hadn't but I'd ridden Meghan this morning for practice.
Then she narrowed her eyes and asked if this was some kind of sick fetish because if it was we had better leave right now.
It took a little while to clear up that misunderstanding but finally Deanne agreed to let us try and I gave her my plastic money and so she went with us and helped saddle up the mare I'd met before who was named Hoshi, which she said meant star, and she said that she'd gotten that name because of the white blaze on her forehead.
Meghan got to ride a mare named Peaches, and Deanne rode her own horse who was named Henry. It was a lot of work for her, because she had to saddle Henry and Hoshi and also make sure that Meghan saddled Peaches the right way.
Then when I got on Hoshi she had to shorten the stirrups, which are little foot-cups. I couldn't use them, but if she left them dangling they'd be in the way, she said.
I kind of looped the reins loosely around my forehooves and then Deanne used her telephone to take a picture of me, and then we went out into the training pasture.
Hoshi seemed to know what to do, which was good because I don't think I was controlling her at all. I didn't want to pull on the reins and hurt her, so I let her do what she wanted, which it turned out was walking along the fence for a while and then leaning down to eat when she found a patch of grass she liked.
Deanne said that she was trained to get moving when people pushed their heels against her barrel but my legs didn't reach far enough down to do that, so we got in a line and when Peaches started walking at Meghan's directions, Hoshi followed her, and then Henry brought up the rear.
We spent an hour in the training pasture and Henry kept sticking his nose at me and sniffing and Deanne kept having to pull him back. And I couldn't really control Hoshi at all; she'd sort of respond to me tugging at her reins but she wouldn't go anywhere unless she had Peaches to follow.
It wasn't a total failure, though—the practice with Meghan had worked out pretty well so I didn't fall off.
We went on a little trail ride anyway, and the horses knew what to do, which was a relief. I could tell that this was a familiar thing for the horses, because they went along the path without much prompting, and Hoshi obediently followed Peaches for the most part, although there were a couple times when she stopped by a bush or tree that she liked and had some leaves and one time I ate a mouthful, too, just so see if they were as good as Hoshi seemed to think.
It was pretty good—it was sweet and sappy, and so I took a good look at its leaves and sniffed it so that I'd know to look for it in the future. I would have had another mouthful, but Hoshi had moved on a little bit and I couldn't reach any more.
When we were done with the ride we had to unsaddle the horses and rinse them off and Deanne did most of the work again and then she gave carrots to all the horses and because I asked nicely she gave me one, too.
I was pretty sore from riding and I saw that Meghan was walking a little bit funny, too.
While we were talking and waiting for the Uber-car to come and get us, we stayed inside the barn because the dog kept pestering me whenever I went outside but he didn't mind when I was in the barn. And Deanne said that they gave riding lessons and that if we worked at it perhaps I could get at least somewhat decent on a horse.
We had the Uber-car stop at Jimmy John's on the way home and we got sandwiches for a late lunch, and ate them out on the balcony, then went back inside and soaked in a hot bath for while which helped to relax my sore muscles. Then when the water had gotten cold and all the bubbles were gone, she drained the tub and we took a shower to wash off, then relaxed in the papasan and Meghan groomed me.
While she did, we talked about how the day had been and how weird it had been for me to ride Hoshi and she asked if I was going to want to do that again.
I said that I wasn't sure yet. I hadn't decided how I felt about it. Part of me thought that it felt like slavery, like we were taking advantage of them because they didn't know any better, but they seemed well-cared-for, and they were big enough that if they'd wanted to put up a fight I don't think any of us could have stopped them.
Then we sat and watched the birds for a while until we were both hungry again, and we decided to go back to Olde Peninsula because both their food and beer were good. Meghan got dressed in new clothes that didn't smell like horse sweat, and she reminded me to take my growler so we'd have beer to take home with us.
I got the smoked salmon poutine and she had a fajita thai roll-up and then we decided that since it was a holiday we were going to have dessert, too, so she ordered a peanut butter pie and I got a bread pudding and we shared them and they were both really good, too.
I was glad that we had to walk home, because we'd both eaten a little more than we should have.
It was dark by the time we got back home but we didn't go to bed right away. She sat in the papasan and I got up on her lap and we shared the growler between us and before it was even half-gone I fell asleep in her lap.
I don't remember falling asleep, but she woke me up when she had to get up and use the bathroom and she was kind of staggery and the growler was completely empty. She said she was sorry for drinking the rest but I didn't mind. And she was sort of swaying on her feet and so I let her put her hand on my back for balance and led her to the bathroom and waited outside so that she could use me to help walk back.
She made it to the futon without my help and also without her pants, then she fell onto it and I had to push her over a little bit so that there was room for me, too, and I couldn't get at the covers at all because she was on top of them.
I thought she might be cold without any covers, so I got one of the towels that wasn't too wet out of the bathroom and covered her legs with it then curled up next to her and fell back asleep.
Reminded me of Antean.
I like that she becomes friends by sniffing. Heh
http://poetry.eserver.org/light-brigade.html
Missing a period to mark sentence's end.
her knees
us up
Missing the first letter of the alphabet.
but
Silver! Don't let the dog boss you around!
(Aric doesn't get to work with anything this nice, does he?)
Meghan is gonna be so hung-over in the morning. Good thing Silver seems like a sympathetic friend.
I named my SSID "Bucephalus" in honor of the ancient partnership.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Alexander_%26_Bucephalus_by_John_Steell.JPG
My 1st thought was that Silver could use her wings to balance. My 2nd thought was that would probably spook the horses.
I've only been riding once, about 50 years ago when I was a kid. I still remember how much taller that horse was from the top looking down than it was from the ground looking up.
7536346
All corrections made; thank you!
I blame sleep-deprivation for the record number of mistakes on this chapter.
7536407
We do have the problem of interpretation:
Leviticus 18:6 says that one should not have sex with bloodrelatives, and then explicitly forbids everything except sex with daughters. One could interpret that as an exception. Another interpretation is that the operative part is "do not have sex with bloodrelatives" and the listed relations are extra bad because they bring shame and dishonor on the owner, but since one owns one's daughter before marriage, at least one does not shame and dishonor oneself, although one still did a bad thing. I can think of several ways the writers could have fixed the problem with the text:
* Explicitly exclude unmarried daughters if they felt that unmarried daughters are property fathers until marriage, which he can do whatever he would like to do with him.
* Explicitly include daughters in the list of forbidden relationships, but with a note that at east one does not shame and dishonor the owner if one has sex with one's unmarried daughter because she is the property of the father.
One does not have to be married to have sex because one can have concubines. Biblical marriage is between 1 man and 1 or more women and one can have concubines too.
Dayum girl, you saw how big that horse was and you Still rode it?
Apparently some Japanese black belt is claiming to have come off as the winner in a fight with a bear about a fish. Given bear should be fat and happy I thought it wouldve let him.
7535549 well thorium is 3 times as abundant as uranium, plus you know that as technology improves, they'll find more and develop new ways to extract it. Plus the energy density for nuclear is ridiculously high. My mane problem with solar is that it just isn't feasible. No production at night and production is messed up by weather fluctuation. It also doesn't work well globally, some areas just aren't going to be good for solar because of climate and location.
7535630 Huh, I was talking about MSR (molten salt reactor).
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Molten_Salt_Reactor.svg/2000px-Molten_Salt_Reactor.svg.png
the fuel is dissolved in molten salt an pumped through a system. Cooling is trivial, however, there is a massive problem that as far as I know, still needs to be solved. The wastes are dissolved in molten salt and they need to be taken out of solution. It has some pretty nifty safety features as well. It's non pressurized and any leaking material solidifies and is easier to clean up. See the part labeled as freeze plug. In event of power loss it melts and the fuel drains entirely from the reactor.
I'm definitely not holding my breath on nuclear. In the U.S. (where i'm from) the political climate is pretty anti nuclear, especially in California. It's so bad we shut down our storage facility without having an alternative facility. So the nuclear plant near where I go to school has to store the waste on site in water pools.
7536182
I'd assume that they have some way to heat food. Especially considering that food probably doesn't inherently float on clouds.
personally, I tend to scratch make stuff. I've never actually made pancakes or waffles from a box.
yep. If you mix it to much, the gluten molecules start to bind to each other making the pancakes more chewy and less fluffy. You actually want this in things like bread, where you want it to be chewier.
how'd you manage to do that?
This is the chapter where you put a horse on a horse so we can squee while we squee!
Meghan has absolutely no ulterior motive here.
Good night everybody!
Good job, dog.
It's a good thing she doesn't know about Aric then.
Good dog! Don't let the pony get away!
Dog was the cutest thing in the chapter.... Sorry Silver.
Also naked pony rides and naked human rides... Meg darling, are you sure YOU don't have a fetish?
7535806
Wasn't aware of this mixture, thanks.
And don't get me wrong. I'd be pro nuclear if the waste problem could be solved. The risk isn't with modern reactors, they are pretty much failsafe. The interim storage of highly radioactive waste though is very dangerous. You don't need a nuclear explosion to make large swathes of land uninhabitable, just a storage facility burning down.
What did Silver of the bit placed in the horses mouth?
7536757
Adding Cæsium for preventing freezing is not really necessary. Adding Bismuth to Lead for preventing freezing of the Lead is not necessary either. Solidification of the cooling liquid does not damage the reactor and heating the reactorcore liquidizes the cooling liquid. Given that freezing the core does not damage it, and thawing the core is not a problem, one might as well save money and drop the K (Potassium) and use straight Na (Sodium). Liquid Sodium is a good enough coolant.
Given what happens to NaK when exposed to air or water, lead is better in that it is much less reactive. Nak absorbs Neutrons and become radioactive, while Lead reflects Neutrons.
One can also use Liquid Mercury as a coolant, but unlike Lead, which at roomtemperature does not give off toxic vapor, Mercury readily gives off toxic vapor at roomtemperature.
I still love riding but now I prefer riding Paso fino horses.
now that I am back on the farm ware I grew up I am thinking of getting one agene.
That was weird,for every party involved.
Even the dog was confused I bet.
damn the first part was kinky ! well the second too ... also i dunno why Silver has such a hard time with the horse. Most of them react to voice commandos too, because horses are pretty smart, more so for the ones used for training. Because they figure out what they are supposed to do by the voice commandos of their trainer. damn ... i miss the time i was horseback riding ... maybe i should start again >__<
7537163
Ugh San Diego! It is a fun place but it is too much for me too. I live in northern California near Sacremento it is easy going compared to the other big cities. Plus all of the fun nature stuff is only 2-3 hours away like the redwoods trees!
Just thought you should know, Biscuit: I had a look at their menu recently, and it set my mouth drooling.
7536633 Well, photovoltaic isn't feasible without adequate storage and grid structure. Solar thermal is.
Ya dun got herded, Silver.
"Hoshi" also apparently means "dried". And the kanji that is applied to the name of every planet aside from Earth, "-sei", also has the meaning of "star".
Japanese is a weird language.
7536362 It might not be all about the Goodwill, but it is mentioned in this song. Basically I think of this song when I hear about Goodwill or Salvation Army.
And now I'm imagining training Winona for crowd control the next time the Flower Trio cause a panic...
(Don't take it personally, Silver! I have an Aussie, myself. He herds everyone.)
7537426
'Janine' and I agree, though I picked her up at a booth, from that fur con in Georgia.
7537403 It's not a matter of slow internet. My internet service is actually pretty good, or at least reasonable at worst. My hardware is pretty decent as well. The problem is that I've been using the same computer with the same operating system for ten years. It's simply a matter of compatibility.
The only time I remember having problems with my internet service was during that huge solar flare that hit us a few years back.
I was wondering how similar this would be to Peach Spark's experience in "The Pony Upstairs," and then you named one of the horses Peaches. Goddamnit Biscuit!
Free Peach Spark!
Free Peach Spark!
Free Peach Spark!
I wonder how things would go with a pony who spent a lot of time around the horses. Would they naturally gravitate toward leadership roles because of their higher volition? Or would their oddness overrule their horsiness, and prevent them from gaining much social traction? Man, if only you were exploring the dynamics of pony-horse interaction in a case where ponies register as horses to the horses. That would be interesting to see.
Also, now we get to see if Meghan is a grabby drunk when she's finally comfortable. (I'm hoping for 'yes!')
7537318
just look up how much water you are supposed to use! seriously its not so hard, double the amount of water to rice is what works best for me.
so 1 cup of rice = 2 cups of water ...
7537676
I never said that it was perfect. I you want my ideas for reforming the Supreme Court, here they are:
* Each state have have 2 Justices 1 male and 1 female, appointed for life (this way the Justices do not have to choose between what is popular and will get them reelected versus what is right).
* When a vacancy opens, the President has 20 working days (a workmonth) to submit a name.
* Upon receipt of a name, both houses of congress have a workmonth (20 workdays) to confirm or reject the justice with a ⅔ majority (a simple majority is good enough if one will be up for reelection, but because one does not have do-overs for lifeappointments, it should be a supermajority to make sure that this is the right choice) of both houses, with no stalling allowed.
That ain't gonna happen.
Innuendo leaks into reality, then Little horse gets conveyance on big horse. Half the comments are about nuclear reactors.
I love this site.
7536712
I'm fairly certain we've established at this point that Meghan does, in fact, have a fetish.
7537874
So your real name isn't Dale then?
7537652
Well... I can't say I've ever succeeded but I cannot comment on ever trying. (You get up to some weird stuff when you're stressed, bored and working 12 hour overnights.
7537360
Exactly. Not everything is a perfect run. "Needs of the the many outweigh the needs of the few" and all that. What he was saying was like, "Welp. Spock sacrificed himself to save the Enterprise. The rest of the ship was saved, but it was a fail because Spock died."
7537840
Honestly, I wasn't serious - my inner contrarian had to pick the thing furthest from the majority of cutesy.
Well that seemed to be an interesting experience for Silver...
Just, just that whole section at the start. The way SG worded it is just... WHY DO YOU TEASE US LIKE THIS?!
That's a good boy, returning that horse to the stable.
Wait.
Yeeeeeah, careful how you phrase things there Silver. I bet Meghan was mortified when that came out of Silver's mouth and quickly worked to correct any misconceptions.
Again, why do your toy with us Silver?! WHHHHHHHHHY?
That dog.
7536137
I love that poem.
That's how you do it. A couple of sniffs, and you're BFFs.
7536294
I am disappointed that I have not yet found a good video of a heavy horse charge. One where you can really hear the thunder of hooves.
7536356
But that's the dog's job!
Nope. I doubt that even now K-College has anything that good.
7536381
Unlike some people, Silver's got sympathy even for self-inflicted wounds.
7536389
I've got Rarity on the dash of my Impala. Not quite as noble. . . .
7536392
If she kept them out, and just angled them a bit as needed, I don't think it would be too alarming for them. I did think of having her do that.
I need to get back up on a horse. It's been way too long.
7536615
A mare's gotta do what a mare's gotta do.
Pfft, bears are pansies.
lolcoaster.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Bear-with-my-guys.jpg
7536633
It depends on how you use it, IMHO. There's no reason I can think of to not put solar on rooftops, which gives you some energy. Likewise, there are some transparent panels that could be used on high rises or whatever; that would cut down on the load, and I think it would be a resonable assumption that energy usage would typically be higher on a sunny day.
But I think that's just one tool; I don't think that solar can address all of our energy needs.
Short of setting it out in the sun, they don't where Silver Glow lives. She's already mentioned that she's not used to having hot food for all her meals.
They just fly down to the village under their cloudtown if they want something that's cooked.
.
That's a skill I entirely lack.
Huh.
Turned on the wrong burner, and didn't notice until the frying pan's handle caught fire.
7536684
None whatsoever.
The dog knows what to do.
It is. That wouldn't help make Silver's case.
It's Silver Glow's reward for being a good pony.
The dog knows what's up.
7536712
Meghan never claimed that she didn't.
7536766
She hasn't really given a lot of thought to the horse's tack at this point. It's just something that's there to make the horse go where it's supposed to, but she hasn't reflected on it yet.
I seem to recall a PoE where a pony demanded to be hitched up properly to see what it was like. I think it was The Pony who Lived Upstairs.
7536915
If I could, I'd get myself a draft horse to ride. But I haven't got the space or the money or the time to properly care for a horse.
7536955
The dog was the only one not confused. She smelled like an equine, and those go in the barn. Simple.
It was annoying to him how reluctant Silver was to being herded, but he got the job done.
7537045
All the ones I've ever ridden didn't know voice commands. Also, they pretended that they didn't know any commands, but that was just because sometimes horses are assholes.
If she wanted to keep doing this, she'd do well to find a horse who does know voice commands, and who can be ridden without reins.
7537209
Not to brag, but 2-3 hours from my house would get me almost to the UP, to three Great Lakes, to Canada, and a couple of huge National Forests, or dozens of State Parks. Also Ohio, but the only place there worth visiting is Cedar Point.
Granted, we don't have Redwoods.
7537217
(You didn't think I was making up what was on their menu, did you?)
Yeah, it does. I don't remember them having so many choices when I went there back in the day.
7537333
And she didn't even realize it.
I just stole it the name from a book I'm reading.
7537361
It might not be all about the Goodwill, but it is mentioned in this song. Basically I think of this song when I hear about Goodwill or Salvation Army.
The fact that the chorus in the beginning seems to be saying "What . . . what . . . what . . ." really sets the tone for the rest of the song. Now I'm going to be thinking about this song next time I go to Goodwill.
7538972
¡Horses are DonkeyHoles!
7538972
It is
7537290
Maybe they'll actually pay if you're a cute little winged pony.
7537404
That's actually not a bad idea.
When my dad was a kid, one of his friends had a Newfie. That was a problem whenever they'd go swimming, because of course the dog would happily 'rescue' them.
7537437
7537457
I still would be, too, but the hard drive on Compy took a crap, and by then she was too old to be worth fixing. So I got a pretty decent new system at Best Buy, although it's got a crappy version of Windows on it. I miss having XP.
7537491
Hoshi (and to a lesser extent) Peaches are both named for horses in Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small. The gelding in the story is actually names Peachblossom, although I shortened it mostly because I can't not put a peach jokes in my stories.
Horses in some ways aren't all that smart. So if a pony gives the appropriate cues, they'll assume she's a horse. And she could probably wrangle her way into a leadership role if she wanted to, since she's smart enough to be thinking of the long game and the horses probably aren't.
I'd have to do some more research to write a good fic where a pony takes over a leadership role in a herd of actual horses.
Sorry to disappoint, but she wakes up with too much of a hangover to be grabby.
7537542
I swear, every time I come up with a good ratio, the next time it doesn't work at all.
7537735
This is why comment sections are so wonderful. Half the comments are directly about the story, and the other half are at best tangentially related.
Interesting, philosophical comments on stories is what prompted me to start writing on this site.
Oh yeah. Christine even warned Silver Glow about it, way back when. Silver's probably forgotten by now, though.
7537915
Nope, afraid not.
7537946
Maybe if you hadn't had so many radios, you would have succeeded.
7538002
I think different people, different cultures, and different times all have different measures of 'success.' Obviously, the best success is to win with all of your men unharmed, but if that's not possible, then I suppose you have to redefine your measure of success.
On a different subject, one thing that I think makes travel to Mars somewhat unpalatable for our government is that fatalities are almost assured in the program. I am sure that there are people who would sign up knowing that full well, but the political implications of sending off a group of astronauts to die in space are pretty horrific. Heck, if it was a one-way trip, people would probably still sign up.
7538057
Honestly, I wasn't serious - my inner contrarian had to pick the thing furthest from the majority of cutesy.
That was a good choice, then. Of the movies I've watched, I'd say that the worst one for her would be A Clockwork Orange.
7538273
Hopefully one she gets to repeat. Maybe she'll be better at it the second time.
7538347
Silver didn't quite catch on to Meghan's ulterior motives.
The dog knows his job.
And if Meghan had managed to get up to what she wanted to, there'd really be no misconception to clear up.
That dog knows what's up.
7536460
One could, I supposed, but it's my understanding that's not how most scholars and theologists interpret the statement.
One of the problems with books like the Bible is that they probably didn't put stuff in that 'everybody knew' (which is why I suspect is why it doesn't say anything about age of majority, since that was probably an older custom, present before the Bible was even written). And then there are things in there that we still don't know what they meant. You've probably heard of the mis-translation of auroch into unicorn in the KJV; the translators didn't know what kind of animal the Israelites were describing, so they went with the closest animal they could think of.
And this isn't a problem unique to the Bible, either. There's a reason we have courts who try and interpret what the Founding Fathers meant when they wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (and more recent laws, as well). And should the meaning of the laws change over time? When they said "All men are created equal," they quite likely meant "All white, land-owning, biological males."
My point is that the Bible, like many other religious and historical documents, needs to be seen in context, rather than just saying 'aha,' and pointing to individual verses.
I'm honestly not sure how concubines were viewed in ancient law, but it's possible they fell under the umbrella of 'slaves' and therefore didn't count. But I'd have to ask someone who knew a lot more about the beliefs of that historical period to have a definitive answer.