unicorn

Probably like most other audience members, I was unaware of the similarity to the Broadway production (of which I was unaware), and purchased the ticket on the basis of the company's blurb and familiarity with the musical. Certainly, I hadn't read the NYC reviews, nor have I ever watched the Tony Awards ceremony. When the group advertised the show, they were upfront about the casting, which didn't bother me, but they specifically said the words were not changed, which was factually false. Along with many other audience members, I felt duped, and reacted accordingly. Liars most often eventually get their due, and their ticket sales and donations obviously suffered. I'm still waiting for Trump to get what should be coming to him... 😉

Yes, that link does confirm that Russia does, indeed, have a fence all along its border with Norway: "...On the Norwegian side there are no physical hindrances on the border and it is permitted to move all the way to the border itself, except for Storskog, Skafferhullet, and some hydro power stations, where there are fences where roads reach the border. On the Russian side there is a fence located anywhere between 0 and 5 kilometers (0 and 3 mi) from the border. Although not electrified, it has sensors which will notify the border controllers if touched. The fence stretches the entire distance between the Barents Sea and the Gulf of Finland and was built during the Cold War to keep in the population of the Soviet Union. It remains the only barbed-wire fence along a Russian border in Europe...". The only reason @Moses's photo doesn't show a fence is that Russia's fence is often well inside its territory. It reminds me of the old Russian saying: @Moses большой лжец.

Well, you're kind of talking out of your ass again. At the time I had purchased the tickets for the Woklahoma!, the production hadn't started so there were no reviews. I did stop buying tickets to their shows after that (including forgoing the woke 1776). The fact that many others felt the same as I did was highlighted by the group's bankruptcy. The proof's in the pudding.

A second movie came out recently, Killers of the Flower Moon, which is well over 3 hours long, as is Oppenheimer. Neither my fiance nor I feel comfortable holding our bladders for that long, so we'll wait until they come out on a streaming service to which we subscribe, or perhaps will see them on a long plane flight (we'll be on a very long flight LAX to DOH on Qatar Airways in late January). If it's really necessary to have movies that long, I feel they should have intermissions. Anyone else here agree with me?

By the way, as I reported on another site, the group which produced those problematic works cancelled their season and essentially went bankrupt several months ago. I guess that even in a more progressive city such as Los Angeles, there weren't enough paying audience members willing to buy tickets to such productions.

Actually, in this instance I agree with most of what @Moses has said on this subject (yes, they shouldn't sell rail tickets unless there is a visa, but no, it's not the Russian border guards' duty to enforce Finnish law unless they've agreed to do so), but this statement seems to be a preposterous speculation, unless you have real evidence to back it up. And, no--an unsubstantiated statement by the Russian press is not evidence.

Well, he got pretty close. USSR casualties were enormous, and they paid a heavy price. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-27-mn-15973-story.html "...Paintings, drawings and diaries, some released only this month, show that cannibalism was so much a fact of everyday life that parents feared their children would be eaten if allowed out after dark...". 😬 Even Putin needs cannibals these days... https://torontosun.com/news/world/murkiest-characters-putin-recruiting-cannibals-serial-killers-for-ukraine-war-report-claims "Putin recruiting cannibals, serial killers for Ukraine war, report claims...".

It looks as though this war encouraged Hitler to invade the USSR 😕: "...the very poor performance of the Red Army convinced Hitler that an invasion on the Soviet Union would be successful. In June 1941, Hitler declared, "we have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down"."

It seems like a no-brainer to me. It only makes sense to encourage longer vacations in the country, without requiring visa runs to Cambodia or Laos. The weather can be quite unpleasant in many European countries in their winter, and if a tourist wants to spend several weeks of his foreign cash in Thailand, that's a bonus for the Thai economy. If there's a down-side, I don't see it. I just looked it up upon reading the above post, and it looks as though Americans and Canadians are only allowed visa-free for 30-days as well. I don't see the wisdom in limiting tourism from wealthier nations. Canadians especially might like to escape their cruel winters...

Thanks for the info. It looks as though the practice is mainly due to tradition, although I suppose a woman can be made to look like a male teenager, perhaps more easily than most middle-aged men. Do you know if this tradition goes back to the 18th century? Was this role never intended for castrati or counter-tenors? Last year's LA Opera performance was the second time I attended that opera, and I remember the first time I attended that opera was some years ago at the SF Opera. I remember feeling upset at that time as well, that the role wasn't given to a counter-tenor. I didn't realize that this has simply been the tradition. I'm curious as to what happened in Mozart's day.

I'm glad I found someone. May I ask why you like to dig into your stew or other dish to remove the shrimp tails? I understand @thaiophilus's situation in which the tail serves as a handle for that particular dish, but when there's a soup or saucy dish, where does the pleasure come from in removing the tails? Doesn't it just make your fingers messy?

Here's the same aria performed by a real counter-tenor (not a cross-dressing woman):

Counter-tenors' vocal ranges are typically in the mezzo-soprano range. They typically play the roles castrati played in 18th-century operas, although the role of Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro if often played by a female soprano. It was played by a woman when performed at the Los Angeles Opera last year, for example.

I was at a restaurant the other day, and was most interested in the seafood stew (cioppino). I often get this dish served with the hard tails (exoskeleton) still on the shrimp, so I asked if I could have the dish with the tails removed. As often happens, the waiter said he'd have to ask the kitchen, but it was done. This always makes me wonder: are there people out there who enjoy digging into a soup (or risotto, pasta, jambalaya, etc.) to pick out the shrimp and remove their tails? Or are there those who actually eat the hard tail? What do those of you who enjoy these kinds of mixed seafood dishes prefer? Are there any of you who actually prefer the tails on? If so, why? When we make shrimp with pasta or gnocchi at home, we always buy the shrimp tail off. Why would anyone prefer shrimp with tail on? What am I missing?

Passing nutty laws which criminalize common, normal behavior makes a situation ripe for law enforcement malfeasance.

Life can be especially tough in transphobic and homophobic communities... https://nypost.com/2023/11/04/news/alabama-preacher-kills-himself-after-being-outed-as-transgender-curvy-girl/ "An Alabama preacher and politician killed himself Friday two days after being outed for having a secret life he shared online as a “transgender curvy girl.” F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, who was the mayor of tiny Smiths Station, with a population of just 6,756, as well as the pastor at First Baptist Church in nearby Phenix City, shot himself around 5 p.m. in front of sheriffs who were following him. Copeland was a married father of three. His suicide came after police were asked to do a welfare check and began tailing his car. “He exited the vehicle, produced a handgun, and took his own life,” the sheriff’s office said...". One wonders if the suicide might have been prevented if the police hadn't forced his hand. Maybe sending law enforcement wasn't the best move?

You could learn something from a zombie. 😉

That's the funniest joke I've heard in a while. Russia could barely defend itself when attacked by Turkey, France, or Germany individually. How long do you think it could defend itself against all 3, let alone with the US, Canada, and almost all of Europe alongside? Well, I guess at least Switzerland and Ireland would probably stay neutral.

One can be jailed for carrying electronic cigarettes in Thailand?? Yikes! 😬 I'm firmly anti-smoking, but that seems a little nutty.

What a reprehensible misrepresentation of what I posted. I never said that marching or protesting represented immature behavior. What I said was that taking hammers to an irreplaceable work of art represents immature (and counter-productive) behavior. Making an ass of oneself in the supermarket may result in a child getting his way if he has lousy parents. Making an ass of oneself as an adult will not only not lead to what the adult ass wants, but will often lead to jail time and/or civil penalties. Of course, I doubt these losers have the funds to pay for the damage they caused. However, they should go to jail and be forced to at least empty their bank accounts. If any of your family members were trained in pediatrics or family practice, they would have been educated on the consequences of poor parenting.

Both EK and MC have valid points, although EK exaggerates more than MC does. While the Rafah crossing is an exception to the Israeli strangulation of Palestinian movement, Palestinians are, for all intents and purposes, prisoners in their own land. Few can leave. They would even need a difficult-to-obtain visa to so much as enter Egypt. Palestinians are even severely restricted in their movements WITHIN their territories in the West Bank: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_freedom_of_movement EK does have a point that Hamas leaders steal from their own people, and are, to a very large extent, responsible for the misery of innocent Palestinian civilians (including most of their deaths). It is, indeed, shameful in the way in which Hamas sacrifices its own people in order to promote itself, all the while cynically blaming the Israelis. That being said, the Israeli government has gone out of its way to harass and provoke the Palestinians at every turn, including within West Bank territories which should not be under their jurisdiction. I believe that the US and its allies should have made it clear long ago that receipt of aid would be contingent on fruitful dialog, and, especially, with removal of the unnecessary Israeli encroachments/provocations into Palestinian (former Jordanian) lands.