[Game] Last one to post wins!

[BearBear]

"American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer."

Man I wanna do that. Instead I'm a scientist, inventor, non-fiction writer on the side, with a home business in the entertainment/private service industry. Not that I'm complaining, but I'm sick of city life in general. I like it and don't like it.

 

[pmmg]

I know what it is....

The word means both itself and the opposite at the same time. Wild and not-Wild in one word.

 

[BearBear]

O

 

[Ban]

Apparently everyone in Emperor Franz Joseph's court ate the same dinners as he ate, could live with their whole family in the Hofburg free of rent and were essentially guaranteed to keep their job forever no matter how much they slacked off. I vote for more Habsburgs!

That ought to wake this thread up.

 

[BearBear]

So they could all be poisoned at once

 

[Ban]

Boooooooo

 

[Mr. M. L.]

So they could all be poisoned at once

Probably not all at once, just when deemed necessary by the emperor. And of course he would be careful not to make the deaths too close to one another.

 

[Finchbearer]

Didn’t the Habsburgs basically breed themselves out of power?

I wouldn’t mind spending some time in a Vienna coffeehouse with some cake.

 

[Ban]

No, they bred themselves into power. A dynasty built on clever marriages. Sure, occassionally one turned into a Charles II, but Maria Theresia is supposed to have been just as inbred and she turned out fine. The modern Habsburgs are still around and continue to thrive in the world of politics and diplomacy.

Kaiserschmarrn for all !

 

[Finchbearer]

I started watching The Empress of Netflix a while back about Sisi, but her life was frought with sadness and difficulty I think I’d find it too hard to watch.

I’m guessing you speak German ban?

 

[Ban]

My spoken German is stilted, but I can read it and understand it when others speak it (provided the dialect isn't too thick). Sisi's life indeed was rough. Never accepted in the Austrian court due to her Bavarian sensibilities and assassinated at a young age. Would you recommend the series?

 

[Finchbearer]

My spoken German is stilted, but I can read it and understand it when others speak it (provided the dialect isn't too thick). Sisi's life indeed was rough. Never accepted in the Austrian court due to her Bavarian sensibilities and assassinated at a young age. Would you recommend the series?

I was enjoying it until I read more about her life. If you already know a lot about her then maybe the drama could be a bit fanciful or far fetched compared to the real story. I watched it with English subtitles because it is in German, all German / Austrian actors.

It’s funny, my grandmother was born in Bavaria, but raised in Austria, but she was Austrian by nationality.

 

[Ban]

I was enjoying it until I read more about her life. If you already know a lot about her then maybe the drama could be a bit fanciful or far fetched compared to the real story. I watched it with English subtitles because it is in German, all German / Austrian actors.

It’s funny, my grandmother was born in Bavaria, but raised in Austria, but she was Austrian by nationality.

I'll check it out. Growing up the Sissi films from the 1950s were always shown on television around Christmas. Usually on the German channels, but sometimes the Dutch or Belgian. There's a certain grandeur to them. One of the reasons why I associate the German language with Christmas haha.

 

[Finchbearer]

We have Christmas trees in the UK in part because of Prince Albert, who brought the tradition back from his native Germany. Of course there is the Celtic leftover of Yule, but that’s an separate entity. And I would agree that the Germans know how to do Christmas very well. We get some good German markets here in the cities around Christmas time.

 

[Ban]

Indeed, the Christmas markets are the other major reason for the association between German and Christmas I make. The one in Aachen is one I love to frequent, which by extension makes me associate Charlemagne with Christmas. Odd how the mind works. Yule is Nordic though, not Celtic.

 

[Finchbearer]

I think people associate Yule with the Winter Solstice, and they have sort of become one and all. It has its place firmly on the Wheel of the Year, which in part derives from Celtic tradition.

 

[Ban]

Right but the Wheel itself is a modern concept. The name and festival called Yule is Nordic. Wiccans and adjacent neopagan traditions might integrate it into their Celtic-derived belief system (though I personally think that link is tenuous), but in itself it is not Celtic.

I do respect these reinterpretations, but in themselves they are distinct.

 

[Finchbearer]

as far as I understand it’s a mixing of things yes, not exclusively Celtic. Anything we know about the Celts is patchy because they didn’t keep any real written records. I think it’s pretty representative of Britain though because of the mix of cultures we have, that being Celtic, Norse, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and I suppose Christian.

 

[BearBear]

Ooohh why don't you DM this conversation?

See? This is a safe space to discuss poisonous mushrooms and poisoning whole dynasties without the DMs.

Now who wants to bet when the next nuke is dropped in wartime? Over-under December 24th?

 

[Ban]

Don't you think you're a bit too old to be an edgelord BearBear? Speculating on nuclear warcrimes when there are active wars in the news is not my type of humour.