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1500 questions
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A book about a man finding three people more stupid than his fiancée
I read a book a while ago - I remember enjoying the read (I think it was intended to be humorous). I'm pretty sure it was a short story.
I must have read it in the last ten years, and there is a high chance it is therefore a children's book, but I'd…
Beastly Gerbil
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9
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Does Puzzle the Donkey have an allegorical relationship with any entity in the Book of Revelation or the Bible at large?
C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia are a great children's series which present an allegory the New Testament and Biblical history. That said, Lewis sometimes put in things that don't necessarily reflect traditional Christian beliefs, such as his…
Sidney
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9
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Is Barrett Emerson, portrayed in the TV series "Will", a real Christopher Marlowe patron?
There is a (new) ten-episode series, called Will, depicting the "lost years" of Shakespeare and taking many liberties. Most of the adult characters are real: Robert Southwell , Francis Walsingham, Richard Topcliffe. Evidently it is possible to watch…
Will Jagy
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9
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What is the Myth of Fingerprints?
In Paul Simon's album Graceland there is a song, "All Around the World". This song has a repeating theme in its verses, always some variation of:
There was no doubt about it,
It was the myth of fingerprints
The three instances are:
He says…
Mirte
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9
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2 answers
Why does Melville call Washington "General" rather than "President"
In Moby Dick, beginning of chapter 10, I read about the resemblance of Queequeg's head to George Washington's:
It may seem ridiculous, but it reminded me of General Washington's head, as seen in the popular busts of him.
Now to this European,…
Mario Trucco
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What is a "Cristopher"?
In the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer describes a character who is a yeoman in service of a knight. It's mentioned on line 115 that the yeoman has a shiny silver "Cristopher":
A Cristopher on his brest of silver sheene.
What…
user111
9
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2 answers
Why was the text of "HaTikvah" changed?
"HaTikvah," Israel's national anthem, was adopted from an earlier poem called "Tikvateinu," by Naftali Herz Imber. Here is the official text of the anthem (translation and transliteration can be found on the linked WP page):
כָּל עוֹד בַּלֵּבָב…
Shokhet
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Which items from Elliot S! Maggin's novel "Last Son of Krypton" mirror the Superman mythos of the comics in the same era?
It's a well-documented fact that the character of Superman has undergone many shifts over the decades.
In 1978, Elliot S! Maggin's first Superman novel The Last Son of Krypton was published. Now, you might be looking at that timeline (or the cover…
TML
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Who narrates "Ars Arcanum" in The Alloy of Law?
I just finished The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. As is the norm in many of Sanderson's Cosmere books, the story is followed by a short section titled "Ars Arcanum," with a description of some of the various kinds of magic present on that…
Shokhet
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Are the illustrations part of Shel Silverstein's poems?
Shel Silverstein's poems are illustrated by himself. The illustrations often provide the 'punchline' of the poem, as in the following examples (all taken from Falling Up.
Safe
I look to the left,
I look to the right,
Before I ever
Move my feet.
No…
Mithical
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4 answers
Who are all the Priestesses and Gods?
In Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series, there are the Aeslin mice, who believe the Price/Healy men are their gods, and the women are their Priestesses. They give them all names (like the Arboreal Priestess (which I think is Verity), the Precise…
user25
9
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1 answer
Did young Dream and Death really look like this?
In "The Parliament of Rooks" (The Sandman #40), Abel tells a toddler Daniel Hall a "children's story" about how he and Cain came to live in the Dreaming (pages 18-20). In the story, Dream and his sister Death appear similarly to Pop Vinyl…
Shokhet
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How does the line 'your faith was strong but you needed proof' match the rest of the verse in "Hallelujah"?
The second verse of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen goes like:
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and…
Mithical
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Why is the future "a safe, sterile laboratory"?
In an interview with Smithsonian Magazine, Ursula K. Le Guin describes the future as "a safe, sterile laboratory":
But the task of science fiction is not to predict the future. Rather, it contemplates possible futures. Writers may find the future…
user111
9
votes
0 answers
What exactly was Shadow's crime, and what was Laura's part in it?
There may or may not be unhidden spoilers from the novel here.
While watching the fourth episode of American Gods, where Laura and Shadow's mutual history has been revealed (to be the first major deviation from the novel), I noticed that the novel…
Gallifreyan
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