Airy, Airy, Au Contraire

Some of these are enclosures for existing devices, while others are completely custom-made.

I had like one, maybe two friends who were all like FUCK YEAH YOU PAINT IT WHATEVER COLOR YOU WANT, PURPLE BEDROOMS ARE AWESOME.

But when they actualy saw the finished bedroom, every single one of them was like, “Oh yeah, that’s really pretty.” (Well, the ones who supported me from the beginning were more like WOOHOO.)

MEAN YOU HAVE TO ABANDON

WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY.

When I bought my house, the kitchen was multiple shades of dingy white. It was dismal, but it was now mine! So went to the hardware store for paint (well, several trips, painted swatches on panel, etc — I’m very picky. But this was the final, ‘real’ trip). It was a busy day in the paint section. There were at least five people behind me in line.

Now, remember, latex paint is slightly lighter and brighter when wet than it is when dry. And I’d decided to paint my kitchen candy-apple red. The hardware store employee took my gallon off the Paint Jiggler and cracked it open to put a dab on the top, revealing the most incredibly deep pink, and behind me I hear the entire line of people say,

“Oh my god.”

…in perfect chorus.

This is the door to my garage. It used to be white. Live your best life.

Mischief the cat says “Who goes there?”

Every visiting friend says “This is so cool.”

my garage. It used to be

white. Live your best life.

not decorating trends; those have always existed. but the idea that color and decoration is inherently childish

this is the dining room at the Eustis Estate in Milton, Massachusetts, from 1878 (where I used to work, briefly). the walls are TEXTURED MICA SHIMMER on a green background. Adult Space For Adults!

A jewelry shop in Paris c. 1901. kids can’t buy jewelry!

who can forget the classic 1950s colorful bathroom? I’m not a huge fan, but still! adult space! bright colors; decorative designs!

So here’s two examples of traditional Norwegian farmhouse interiors. You know. The kinds of places peasants live in.

This type of painting is called “rosemaling” and today you usually find it on, like, carved wooden bowls and such that are only used for decoration. But back two centuries ago, it was very common to find the interiors of homes covered in it, in projects that were painted little by little over the decades. Because it’s beautiful to look at, paint is the cheapest way of decorating your house, and what else are you going to do on the long winter nights when it’s too dark and cold to work outdoors?

But mostly, they did it because it made them happy, and it was beautiful.

I wouldn’t do a bedroom that way again, but I’d definitely do a 90s celestial motif (I’m not calling it whimsigoth, that’s a name people who weren’t born the first time came up with) with lots of royal blue on the walls and ceiling and gold stencilled suns, moons and stars. Or three walls a nice light warm colour (perhaps a dusty pink or green!) and a feature wall of jungly or foresty wallpaper.

It's not a "Nissan Snail."

Nissan gave it a much better name.

Epic Fantasy never addresses where the food supply for the gigantic fortress or army comes from, or how the same noble family has been in power for thousands of years. Whereas Gritty Fantasy also never addresses any of those issues, but the characters call women whores every other sentence.

If it's High Fantasy, the wizards have colleges / guilds / academies. If it's Low Fantasy, there are like four or five wizards in the world and most of them are kind of lame. Tolkien is grandfathered into high fantasy / exempted because the bad guy is a demigod and so are the wizards. If it's Urban Fantasy, the wizards live in [Real City], [Real Country] and smoke gas station cigarettes instead of "Pipeweed." If it's Sword and Sorcery, the level of magic is somewhat negotiable: what is not negotiable is that the main character can wear a shirt or pants but not both (robes may be allowed).

If it's Dark Fantasy, the primary fantastical elements are vampires or werewolves or skeletons or something else that you can find in the median haunted house that's rated lower than PG-13.

If it's Science Fantasy, that means it's Fantasy. It contains too little science for the publisher to get away with calling it Soft Sci Fi and this is an extremely difficult bar to fail to clear, so the amount of science it contains is probably zero, at best vaguely gesturing in the direction of a scientific concept once or twice. It may have been intended to be "sci fi" at some point, but the author understood / cared so little about science that their editor just begged them to give up and call it magic.

But that brings us to Sci Fi. This is usually a little simpler. If it's incredibly obvious to literally anyone what scientific topics the author is bullshitting about / claims to understand but doesn't, it's Soft Sci Fi. If that is "Every single scientific topic," it's probably Science Fantasy (see above), but if the author argued with their editor and refused to call enough things magic / reflavor the space ships and ray guns, it might be a Space Opera Instead. If a basic high school level understanding of science is required to identify the areas where the author is bullshitting, it's hard sci-fi. If it requires a high school level science education but the reader got a "B" or higher average, it's really hard sci-fi.

Oz.

He's patient. He sees Willow, thinks about it, then asks her out, even with the awkwardness. He adores her for who she is. He gets her little gifts because he thought of her. He asks if she's ok with things and says he's not ready, when Willow suggests they sleep together. He's very sweet and gentle about his no too.

When Willow cheats with Xander he tells her the truth. She says sorry so she can feel better. He's not vindictive or cruel but he sets his boudries for dealing with it. He tells her what he felt. Even though he has a wolf/monster inside of him, he controls the anger and instincts, and steps away to understand it. Oz missed her and says he's willing to give things another shot.

He acts like the most adult and emotionally secure character in the group.

Even when he's with Veruca. Yes, it's a mistake but he accepts and takes responsibility. Never spiteful. He leaves because he needs to. Even his short return to find Willow and Tara. He knows what's best and she cares for Tara, so even heart broken, Oz wants Willow to be happy.

In the end, Oz was the "best" guy on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'll just always be a little disappointed he never got the full character and story arch he deserved.

Flava Flav and Paris Hilton the ones out here advocating hardest for the Olympic women's hockey team.

first it was the klingons—they’re originally supposed to be this cruel, bloodthirsty, war-obsessed people—and then tng comes along and it’s like wait no maybe war and violence is a part of their culture and actually ties back to ancient traditions and philosophies so we have to be woke about it.

hey these are the ferengi and they’re supposed to represent everything we hate about capitalist society; they’re greedy, scheming, profit-obsessed, and they look like ugly little trolls to emphasize how much we fucking HATE capitalism. oh wait fuck here comes deep space nine and we have to recognize that they’re PEOPLE. okok what if the pursuit of profit is actually part of their culture and ties back to ancient traditions and philosophies. so we have to be woke about it.

this is the borg, they’re a hivemind race of cyborgs who have no sense of individuality and their only motivation is assimilating people into their society. they want to assimilate humanity and we are completely defenseless against them because their technology is eons ahead of our own and they’re incapable of being reasoned with. oh sweet we have a borg prisoner this is the perfect opportunity to commit genocide against them. fuck actually we can’t commit genocide we’re woke and communists and in space.

hey these are the cardassians, they’re part of a cruel and vicious empire which is supposed to be a representation of fascism and authoritarian regimes, they’re a cold, bloodthirsty people with no sense of empathy or compassion, their society literally references 1984 on multiple occasions, and they’re known for the insanely cruel and inhumane methods of torture they use against their prisoners of war. we hate the cardassians…….. except, here’s a cardassian kid who grew up on bajor, and……. fuck. he’s a person. now we actually have to consider his humanity. and being racist is actually……. bad.

this is the jem’hadar, they’re genetically engineered soldiers who have no sense of individuality and only live to defend the state. they’re all born addicted to a synthetic drug that’s manufactured by the state and administered by their masters—this is how they’re kept subservient. they’re ruthless and powerful and they’re incapable of being reasoned with because their only motivation is violence and killing. so we should kill them all, right? FUCK….. what if they’re actually people. goddamnit. now we have to consider their humanity.

It was definitely tricky. Quark does some pretty terrible things early in the show, notably in "The Passenger" and "Invasive Procedures," which probably could have made the character deeply unlikeable. I think what mollifies that are a few of things:

Armin is a terrific actor and keeps the character relatable even when doing despicable things.

Quark isn't doing anything wrong by HIS culture. He's a very moral Ferengi and we tried to convey to the audience that everything he did was motivated, at least in part, by his culture. Additionally, Quark evolved over time to become more culturally flexible (settling the strike in "Bar Association" for example) and more "good" from a human perspective.

Quark never means to hurt anyone. Even when he arms bad guys or lets them onto the station, he doesn't directly harm anyone. In his mind, he's just a merchant providing goods and services and it someone does something bad with those goods and services, well, that's on them.

Worth noting, Quark has several redeeming qualities. He loves his family. He's a convivial host and a good listener. He treats his customers relatively well. He's also the least violent character in the entire cast, barring maybe Jake. And he's a snappy dresser!

Quark is funny. Viewers will often forgive the sins of funny characters more readily than humorless ones.

Quark's worse transgressions often backfire on him, making him suffer at least as much as anyone else. This is common with comedic characters and an old trick to keeping them likable.

Quark is, on the balance, more helpful than harmful to the rest of the characters. During the Occupation, Quark helped the Resistance, and while he got paid, he still took tremendous risks on their behalf. In the pilot, Sisko identifies Quark as a key member of the station community, to the point of forcing him to stay. Sisko sees his value and hopefully that helps the audience see it too.

So the creative team spent a good deal of thought and effort on keeping Quark likable despite his misdeeds. I think we succeeded for most viewers, though there are probably many who never warmed to his character.

Still, keeping Quark likable was an effort. It was definitely harder than doing the same for Garak, largely because Garak was recurring and never really a hero. Garak's moral ambiguity is part of his charm. Quark was a regular and viewers, especially back then, expected series regulars to be "good guys." That said, we didn't want Quark to be a pure hero, but we still wanted viewrs to like him. It was definitely, as you say, a balancing act.

So they could have called her HMS Doodlebug, but that would have sounded silly.

Btw (tw for cruelty to animals)