The Official Nonsense Thread

[Minty]

Oh, Piggy Dormer! Margaery Tyrell you may well grow to love, & realise what a shame it was the kingdom didn't fall under the control of her, Renly, the gay knight, the heterosexual lesbian icon stereotype & the brilliant Olenna Tyrell. The dynamics between them all ought to have been fully pursued rather than cut off in full bloom by the author. What a waste. Save for Tyrion, the Tyrell clan were far more interesting than the Lannisters.

She's got Baelish & the Lannisters well sussed, much down to the tuition she receives from her aunt Olenna, who is a sort of Eleanor of Aquataine character, & along with Varys two of those whose sole thought is saving the kingdom from those that would be in charge of it.

If you type in Season 3 Episode 4 into Google, the GOT episode is what comes up first, deservedly so. The whole "French Waiter" routine with Daenerys & the slavers (he not realising she can understand his lingo); Brienne telling Jaime The Public Schoolgirl what a mewling spoilt brat he was needing to man up, that horrible creep Kraster getting his long overdue cummuppance, & Varys wonderful meeting with Olenna, Westeros very own George Bernard Shaw meets Lady Bracknell moment. Best episode ever. I may have watched it a few dozen times.

What was I doing in new age shops? Many of them sold music from all manner of obscure goth or new age music labels. I also used to buy some of the wicca booklets out of academic interest. At that time I was what would be considered a good Christian, but I'd no time for the "ban everything" types, & was fascinated in the amount of crossover between the pagans & Christianity in terms of belief (in other words, the good ideas that Christianity pinched when it came to Britain).

Glasgow had what I regard as one of the only genuine pagan shops in Britain at one time called Paganus (rather than some dabbler wanting to be alternative for alternative's sake) at the old Virginia Galleries (which later collapsed). The middle aged lady that ran in was a real wicca priestess, but she refused to set up a coven & told those that came in if they were interested to get the books & practice themselves, there was no more right or wrong way than there was with Hinduism. She was a fascinating character, & I was sorry when she had to pack it in after being offered silly money to work for the local council instead. Mind you, she got dogs abuse from Christian groups holding pickets of her shop calling her a devil worshipper, so suppose she couldn't be blamed getting fed up with it.

(Meanwhile the basement shop that sold "I love Satan" t-shirts for the metallers never had any problems. Wonder if that had something to do with the staff being built like brick walls & being as friendly as bulldogs with barbed wire around their bollards!)

She loaned me a tape about a banned TV series about the Renaissance herbalist Paracelsus (one of the pioneers of scientific research) which Ken from Coronation Street was trying to get networked but the bible thumpers were threatening the BBC & ITV from showing it, claiming it to be blasphemous. She said back then there were a number of nasty people in loony Christian sects in high places trying to ruin his reputation because they didn't like his involvement with the druids & other new age types. In due course she was proven to be right on the money with that.