announcing ILÚVATAR, my multi-billion dollar company which will specialize in the dismantling of all other idiotically tolkien-named entities, that they shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite

I just do what you did here and rue the inherent typographical ambiguity it presents. But I think in practice it’s usually relatively clear what one means.

I’m sure we can find some sufficiently dreary and thankless task for all the middle aged people and pensioners who vote yes even if they can’t wear camo and lug around a rucksack

step one: hold a referendum on bringing it back. step two: draft everybody who votes yes.

“the people who are most gung ho about conscription are the ones least likely to be conscripted” is a solvable problem fortunately

i have a false tooth filled with a placebo in case i'm ever captured and need to be a control subject

Bonus: Bucharest cats and a neat book I picked up in Sibiu

german absolutely shouldn't be a language, i am sick to death of having to learn all these adjective endings

Writing systems being invented based on exposure to but not knowledge of other writing systems has happened occasionally throughout history. It’s not common (and still a major achievement), but there is precedent.

It is a known fact in historical linguistics that sometimes a change in a language occurs not because of some vast impersonal gradual force but bc speakers thought saying a word different on purpose was funny

Watson v Jones is the main precedent here afaict

Apparently case law on this sort of thing says you defer to the highest ecclesiastical authority in hierarchical churches (Rome in the Catholic case), and don’t get involved in interpreting canon law in detail (bc of the first amendment)?

My understanding is that churches are usually owned by the local diocese? As a legal structure there is no single US-wide structure that owns those properties, so it would be a matter of who particular bishops and archbishops sided with

Also the countryside is gorgeous: all rolling hills and distant mountains and spring flowers. Haven’t done any hiking on this trip, but maybe next time.

Transylvania is great: terrific wine, good food, beautiful towns and kickass architecture. Combining the castle and the church (two of my favorite kinds of tourist attraction) into one structure is especially fun.

8: Sibiu - Sinagoga Mare

7: Meeting extended family/fortified church in Moșna/bonus house in Sibiu

6: Sibiu - Evangelical Cathedral (not shown: very out of breath from climbing the tower)

5: Sibiu - Evangelical Cathedral

4: Sibiu

Hard to get a good shot that conveys this from a moving train but the Carpathian Mountains are really big!

3: Brașov - Beth Israel Synagogue

2: Brașov - Bisecra Neagra

Vacation photos 1: Brașov

Event Horizon eye makeup

love how every city on this planet I visit I find an Irish pub within five minutes

eepy

oh yeah. you could include allusions to all kinds of crazy avarin languages lol

need to figure out what the equivalent of the laryngeal theory for Proto-Elvish would be

Big blackletter Tengwar characters to represent the most famous manuscripts