Posts by BenWilson
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You did what?!
Won't I look silly if there really is a gold mountain on Jupiter, which does turn out to belong to me. Also at the Pearly Gates. I'll be forking out to Pascal over his wager too.
'But WHY do you believe in magic? It's stupid!'
I expect if you were for some unfathomable reason involved with a truly devout Catholic, this would have come up well before any thoughts of marriage. I'm blessed by being with one of those ones that's only a member for the perks. A rorting Catholic, not really that uncommon.
You do know that they will count you among their followers forever and ever more, right?
Fortunately I'm the one who fills out the census form.
All up it seemed like a reasonable deal. Venues are expensive, especially ones with massive high ceilings and tons of stained glass, seating for hundreds, a good sound system, open on weekends, with a dude to sort out all the paperwork. I'm not religious enough about my atheism to front up with thousands of dollars of hard cash just to avoid 15 minutes of tokenism that probably actually appealed to half the audience anyway. We had lightning flashes through the ceremony which looked awesome through the stained glass, and a no-less-silly side of me felt secretly pleased that the Thunder God smiled on our union.
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Some folks also don't approve of marriages where the parties are of different races, religions or widely disparate in age (my parents ticked all three boxes), but the Marriage Act doesn't indulge them. And shouldn't.
Yes, my Mum got a bit steely-eyed about me devoting my undying soul to the Catholic Church, until I pointed out to her that to me it was like devoting my secret mountain of gold stashed on Jupiter to the Catholic Church. We got a free venue and celebrant, someone who meant something to my wife and her family (and considering we were in Australia, I didn't have any such attachments), and the cost was I had to listen to some meaningless priest-babble for a bit*, then we did the bit that actually mattered, signing a legal document with multiple witnesses, which mentioned nothing about undying souls, nor any of the 'honor, cherish, obey blah blah blah". Actually, I think my wife broke the obey vow within minutes, and she's constantly pointing out that "to have and to hold" didn't mean "twice a day" like I was pushing for, and anyway she never signed anything about it.
*well actually they did also insist on pre-marital counseling, and TBH, I think that was a good idea. Mostly it was good sensible advice from old hands about how exactly you can stay in love with someone for a long time, with the exception of the bits on contraception and child-rearing where I had a good old laugh at their expense - "Pull out? Money shots are actually Church policy?" - "Yes, I certainly will discuss religion and God with my children, although considering I have a degree in Philosophy they'll be well bored of it in no time".
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I'm not about to get divorced or downgraded to a civil union just because civil unions have lesser status, any more than I'm going to beggar myself because there are poor people. But I do think having 2 different grades of marriage is stupid appeasement to religious bigots. What government would have the cojones to get around to this kind of "minor" fix-it-up, though? I expect there's a long wait coming up and that does suck for anyone gay wanting to adopt. I suppose the workaround is having children via someone who is not your partner, and is willing, but that's a big ask, and clearly inferior in many cases to adoption.
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Some more options:
Mate. Works everywhere except the Commonwealth.
Soulmate. Dualists only.
Helpmate. Probably best only after 20 years.
Spouse. A bit dry.
Other Half. Suggests you are a bit broken.
Concomitant. Does evoke prison imagery rather like...
Ball and Chain.
Consort. Not sure if it's gender neutral.
Counterpart. Might make people scared of them.
Familiar. Typically magic is expected.
Monogamist. Way too close to monotonous. -
And it always makes me think of hubcaps for some reason.
I hate "Bubby" even more, to refer to the children. It always makes me think of Hugo Weaving in Bad Boy Bubby.
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I was going to say that I'm sure the Germans have one, and we should 'borrow-word' it into English.
In Italian we have the lovely word compagno/compagna
But we should use the beautiful Italian one instead.
Yes, Zivil-Gewerkschaft doesn't sound better.
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Lamproite pipes don't create a massive mountain, but ya have to factor in that Hobbits are short so maybe it is all relative...
If I remember The Silmarillion correctly, Middle Earth's terra-forming was the result of demi-god conflicts, so it needn't be geologically correct. But the way that it's described, I just can't think of any real mountain I've ever seen that resembles it. Maybe the Matterhorn.
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I am extremely curious to hear where The Lonely Mountain is, though. Tolkien's description just doesn't match any actual mountain I've ever seen anywhere. There is no implication that it's a volcano, which would after all be a fucking stupid place to build a massive mine complex, not least because there would be no jewels to be mined, and the chances of the entire thing flooding with hot magma would be off-putting. He wasn't quite so into his geographical accuracy in The Hobbit as he was in LOTR. I think it's mean to be a magic mountain. Which suggests backdrop CG for about half the story.
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I'd have to say that Edward Woodward would be.
It's a dream porno name.
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Campbell does make an interesting point, though, regarding the cost of any settlement with actors being "chump change for Hollywood", and the real issue being the actual tax incentives. I read in Campbell a suggestion that Jackson's real target in all of this is the government, and tax breaks, and he may be playing on the natural desire of the Nats to use it as a casus belli for union bashing - so long as they can bash the unions, he gets his tax break.
But I'm not actually convinced Jackson is that cynical. If it were all the same to Jackson, he would just take it where the incentives are best. I think he wants to make it here, quite badly, for reasons that go well outside of just the money. And I think he's taken especial umbrage at the highly unprofessional dealings he's had with the Australian union.
I'm also not sure whether the cost of this industrial action is just to be measured in the chump change Campbell is talking about. Delays, and threats of more delays in a massive production are never chump change for a company desperate for cash flow.
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