Hello my dear ones. Thank you so much for being here and reading the next chapter. But first, I will explain a little bit what is going on, I think. In this chapter, a new character appears who will play an important role later in the story.
This character is Linet, a young maid in a sexual relationship with Teárlach. Their relationship is characterized by very intense, rough sex, but it occurs with Linet's consent, as I'm placing her within the realm of BDSM. This means we're entering the darker aspects of sexual experience, which are nevertheless based on Linet's consent.
I've done a lot of research on this topic, and I hope I'm meeting the needs of the sub/dom community (BDSM).
It's up to you whether you choose to read this chapter or not. Whatever you decide, please take care of yourself. ♥
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
I had that doctor’s appointment this morning. He didn’t even do an exam/swab, just had me tell him again the same things I told the nurse in yesterday’s messaging spree and prescribed me Fluconazole tablets. Two. Take one today and one in four days. Which naturally necessitated a trip to the Pharmacy. I took the first pill as soon as I got back to the car.
I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter. I placed two orders, including Chewy. Pip’s supper was leftover chicken so no cooking, yay!
I decided to hit my own cupboard for today’s tea, The Republic of Tea’s Orange Spice (green tea blended with oranges and spices, which tells me exactly nothing new o_O). I was worried it would be strong because of the spice part, but I was reminded just how weak green tea is.
I handwrote ~2,300 words on my smallfandombang fic!! I was on a roll, and I can hardly believe it! And I even read more in Husband Material.
I also watched the Bills game, which was a heartbreaker. So close, and yet so far. They did it to themselves, though, so Denver deserved the win as much as I hate to say it. Interceptions and penalties are not going to win you the game. Congratulations, mistressofmuses!
Temps started out at 25.7(F) and reached 36.5. We were supposed to get less than an inch of snow, but got a bit more than that, with more expected overnight. Yay.
Mom Update:
Mom sounded okay when I talked to her; she actually sounded a bit tired. She said she had mostly felt well during the day, but at that moment was feeling a little off. Both Sister A and S were visiting, so that was nice.
Challenge #9 Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
There are so many tropes that I love but I'll try to narrow it down, though I'm sure I will forget a couple.
Amnesia: I lean toward partial amnesia rather than complete, but I'll read both! There's something really appealing about a character trying to figure out what has changed in their life since the last thing they remember, especially when it comes to the love interest. Seeing them look at a relationship with new eyes or try to struggle to remember the already established one gives me both angst and humorous possibilities, both which I enjoy. And I love it from the other side too! Where the LI wants them to remember but also wants to help them heal at their own pace (while pining!).
Canon Divergence/Fork In the Road: There are always points in canon, or even pre-canon, where I wonder 'what if x had happened instead of y' and it's just interesting to explore the possibilities.
Fake Dating/Relationship/Marriage of Convenience: Whether it is for something low stakes like needing a date for a wedding or trying to escape the "helpful" matchmaking of friends/relatives or a little more high stakes like going undercover, this trope is just fun and full of pining, angst, and potential for others, like misunderstandings and accidental love confessions. All of which I enjoy. I like it when one half of the ship has feelings or both have feelings and think that this is all they can ever get. Or when they don't even consider each other and slowly fall for one another while they're "pretending". This extends to marriages where the ship gets married for "reasons" and then just doesn't want to divorce but thinks the other one doesn't want that.
So that one B5 script book that supposedly came via FedEx a week ago still hasn't turned up, but today I got an extra copy of one I already have that I was not expecting with an Amazon order number that isn't in my orders anywhere.
A. and I have been watching High Potential and enjoying it very much. Today I decided I wanted to try writing a High Potential fanfic. So I went to AO3 to see what the big ships are, what the major tropes are, and so forth, so as not to jump into the fandom totally blind.
Of course the big ship is Morgan/Karadec, because they're partners on the show and we're supposed to interpret their differences as "opposites attract" and to want them to get together. But I just don't see it.
The second big ship is Morgan/Soto, which I find somewhat more plausible than Morgan/Karadec, except for the fact that Morgan appears to be so incorrigibly heterosexual as to render it impossible.
A few people shipped the canon ship Morgan/Tom, which I suppose could work, but I didn't find them to be a very interesting couple, and also he left town just as they were starting to get together. I suppose someone could do a fix-it fic to get them back together, but really I thought they were such a borin couple that I wouldn't even bother putting in the effort.
Which brings us to my favorite ship of the show: Morgan/Oz is a ship that's never going to happen in canon, but I think they'd make a good couple, and it'd be a more interesting ship than any of the above. Which is why at the time I started writing this post, there were 271 High Potential fics on AO3, of which exactly one was tagged Morgan/Oz: mine, in which Morgan and Oz are talking in bed, discussing how if their life were a TV show, the fanfic writers would ship Morgan and Karadec and they'd be totally wrong to do so. 😂
It comes courtesy of the Cline Observatory at Guilford College (I have used Photoshop here to lower the noise in the image and to raise the relative brightness of the asteroid). The folks there took it as a challenge to find the minor planet with my name on it (figurately, not literally), and having located what looks to be it, compared the image to an earlier image of the same patch of sky to make sure that what they thought as the asteroid was indeed wandering through. Johnscalzi is currently at magnitude 17 (extremely dim), so the fact they managed to image it at all is kind of remarkable.
If you’re looking for it yourself, it’s currently in the vicinity of the constellation of Leo, near the lion’s butt. The precise location, for this or any other day, can be had by going here, then clicking on the “Ephemeris” link near the top, and having done that, clicking the “generate ephemeris” button at the page you’re taken to. It’ll then generate all the information you need to find it. That said, again, it’s at about magnitude 17 right now, so you’ll need a big telescope, or the ability to do time-lapse image stacking, or, probably both.
I have neither at the moment, so I’m thrilled that the folks at the Cline Observatory took a little bit of time out their evening to give it view. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m hugely thrilled to have a minor planet named for me. Being able to see it, even just a little, is also hugely thrilling.
Just ordered a tool rack, workbench, and shelves for my garage.
I found some dining chairs that I like for $30, but I need to get the car's registration fixed first. I doubt that they would fit in the Kia? Maybe they would.
Bella somehow got mud on her side. I might need to bathe her. I just ordered some dog shampoo.
Woke up a little before 8 AM. Gracie wasn’t bugging me, which is surprising. There’s snow on the ground. The dogs don’t want to come in yet. I told them that was okay. They finally came in. Fed us all.
I told Gracie that I speak fluent Cat, and that swat Oliver gave her was “I’m annoyed,” not “I want to play”. I told her that I was in the process of learning Dog.
Overslept my nap. Got my groceries in.
I’m having an argument with an app that I canceled. I sent them an email a month ago asking them to cancel my account. They charged me again this month. I got them to cancel this time, but I want this last payment back. Sigh.
Had lunch. I’m thinking of taking another short nap (done). Started the evening feeding routine by letting the dogs out.
When I look at Facebook, I despair for humanity, so I should stop looking at Facebook.
Fed us all. I’m going to take a shower in a few minutes and put on clean sweats (done--oiled my body). Then I’ll set the faucets to dripping because it’ll be cold overnight (10F/-12C).
After an autobiography and several history books aimed at kids, this seems to be Tony Robinson’s first attempt at adult historical fiction, but he’s such a good narrator of other people’s books, his own seems to have landed without teething troubles. It covers the historical period of Alfred, later known as Alfred the Great, ruler of Wessex, and eventually King of the Anglo-Saxons until his death in the year 899. He was the youngest son of King Ethelwolf and three of his older brothers ruled before him. But this is not all from Alfred’s point of view. Chief amongst the viewpoint characters is Asser, idealistic monk (and eventually a bishop) who is credited with writing Alfred’s biography. The story concentrates of the rule of High Ethel Wolf, Alfred’s father and his children and heirs and also covers religious politics in Rome, with Asser and Cardinal Balotelli hoping for a better world, and to see an end to the predations of the Norlanders. For much of the story Alfred in in Rome, having been exiled by his father, while his older brothers jockey for position as the next High Ethel. The story moves from Anglo-Saxon Wessex to Rome and back again (several times) weaving a tapestry of historical fiction around real events. Expect Viking raids, down-to-earth rulers (good and bad), religious politicking, and some excellent characters. It’s a good listen.
The weight of the world grew too heavy yesterday. No one cause—between news, the demands of daily life, and, well, winter—even an unseasonable snowless January with plenty of sun strained the nerves. Too much. Too much.
Cabin fever.
Not even the daily pilgrimage to commune with the good Foxtrotter boy was enough to silence the dread in my gut. The field where he lives in winter and where we ride is mud over frozen ground. If I get out there soon enough in the day we might have time for a road excursion before the early sunset thanks to the mountains—it depends. But the only remedy for what I was feeling was getting further out. Away.
Time in the woods.
So we climbed into the truck, visited the good boy horse on the way to other adventures (while entertaining him and the herd by bringing in a kiddie pool that blew into the fence, then was dragged out to be played with by bored horses). The Good Boy was eager to the join the herd investigating the pool as the husband brought it out of the field while I grained and groomed him. But he stood, quietly, when I was done and took him back into the field, waiting with head high until I unhaltered him. Once free, he trotted off a few steps before bursting into a tail-flagging gallop to check out the excitement. Much of an improvement over our first winter together. Two years of consistent handling has paid off.
That settled, we headed out north to the prairie. To the woods. Out to look at mountains. Canyons. Just plain out. A pattern that’s held true for us over the years, whether it was the madcap brief half-year we spent here when we were young, followed by visits to these woods and other places when we could snatch time away from work and other obligations.
Out.
Memories whispered around us as we drove, not talking about anything other than what we saw. Remembering those younger days. Time spent cruising on breaks from work, accompanied by beer when we were younger, now just plain water in our senior years. Recalling political and business discussions conducted with others during those drives, when four of us were skinny enough to fit in a pickup’s bench seat. Days when the world seemed simpler and less filled with shadows. A time before cell phones and computers. Almost a different world.
More than memories, wisps of stories flowed around me. That prairie and the woods and canyons surrounding it have been the inspiration for so many of the places in my stories. A ranch house once busy, now only seasonally occupied, looking out at a bunchgrass meadow? One of the inspirations for the Andrews Ranch in the Netwalk Sequence stories. That first pine grove where the road drops into the other side of that meadow? A setting from the Goddess’s Honor books. Over to the west, another small canyon sparked the creation of the Double R Ranch in the Martiniere Multiverse Family Saga, not far from the spooky village of Wickmasa from Goddess’s Honor.
And more.
The land. The land.
Three young spike bull elk raced across a draw near what used to be the stage stop of Midway to cross the road fifty feet in front of us, behaving more like whitetail deer than reversing direction to run away, like we normally see elk do. Better get it figured out before next hunting season, boys. A couple of coyotes trotted warily away from the truck, cautious, unlike the spike bulls. Then a small, cautious band of mule deer.
The land. The land. Tensions melt away.
Midway itself is but a shadow. Once a small stage stop between the canyons and town, for years its only remnant was an old barn that leaned further and further until a prairie wind took it down one December, a few years after we moved here. Now, what remains is a small shelter over a picnic table. Last spring when we drove by with family, we spotted four four-point mule deer bucks resting in the shelter’s shade, chewing their cud.
No bucks today. Just the spike bulls.
Further on, a male snow bunting flew up from a fencepost, fluttering along in front of the pickup until he reached the edge of his territory and dove off into the dried bunchgrass.
When we finally reached snow, the tracks from other drivers reassured us that the way was still open. We negotiated past trees that had fallen across the road and had just enough cut away to allow a single vehicle through. We pressed on, hoping to get to the old fire lookout over the canyon. Which—doesn’t usually happen in January. When we reached the lookout’s turnoff, we carefully made our way until we encountered a drift deeper than we wanted to tackle. Thirty, even twenty years ago we might have continued, even though it was late afternoon. Not now. We’re old and we’ve had to walk back from unwise decisions too many times to trust our luck.
But we still got canyon views—what we could see of the fog-filled canyons, anyway. Ridgetops barely poke out of the sea of fog, rolling in waves like the ocean suddenly was moved to this inland area.
The land. The land. Soothing. Healing. Itself, uncompromising despite human influence. It’s hard to keep the dread going out here. Maybe that’s why so much of my fantasy writing involves land magic—it’s easy enough to feel that the land is still a living thing out here.
Back again, with fewer critters but now more mountain vistas. The snow bunting picks us up where he left us off, flitting along until we reach the other side of his territory.
Dusk fell as we reached town, and the dread had flown. It will pick up again soon enough, but for a day, at least, the dread weighed less heavy. The thrill of those bull elk crossing in front of us. The Good Boy. The snow bunting. The ghostly waves of fog crashing on the dry inland shores.
The land. The land. Here today and tomorrow. Still itself, now and forever.
I recently read a Christmas novella in a mystery series I've followed for years. Unfortunately it needed some fact-checking/editing.
The is set in England after the First World War; the author is American. They tend not to make egregious errors.. until this time.
I don't think all that many British people know the details of 'how do you address the younger child of an X.' On the other hand, none of them would all Sir Douglas Haig "Sir Haig." yikes
On the other hand, I must again advise British podcasters (including some academics) that The Great Gatsby is by Fitzgerald, that the civil rights leader is Dr. King, and that a great portraitist of the Edwardian age is Sargent.
Their surnames are not Scott Fitzgerald, Luther King, or Singer Sargent.
The only well-known double surnames in the US, without a hyphen, are some actresses who add their husbands name to their own, e.g. Jada Pinkett Smith might be referred to as Pinkett Smith. This is vanishingly rare.
I may feel like a dishrag, but if so it's a dishrag who had a wonderful time returning to Arisia after six years, even if the ziggurat on the Charles is still a dreadful place to hold a convention. For the Dramatic Readings from the Ig Nobel Prizes, I performed selections from W. C. Meecham and H. G. Smith's "Effects of Jet Aircraft on Mental Hospital Admissions" (British Journal of Audiology, 1977) with what I hope was an appropriately haggard channeling of my sleepless night and Leonie Cornips' "The semiotic repertoire of dairy cows" (Language in Society, 2024) with what I hope was an appropriately technical rendition of cow noises. I heard papers on the proper techniques of nose-blowing, whether snakes dress to the left or the right, the sexual correlations of apples. It feels impossible, but it must have been my first time onstage since onset of pandemic. Readers who overstayed their allotted two minutes were surrounded by a chorus of bananas.
I had forgotten how much socializing my attendance of conventions used to entail. I turned the corner for registration and immediately spotted a nineweaving, followed in close succession by a choco_frosh, a_reasonable_man, and a sorcyress. I was talking to the latter in the coat check when Gillian Daniels came in and now I have a zine-printed copy of the second edition of her chapbook Eat the Children (2019/2026). I had not lengthy enough catch-up conversations with awhyzip and rinue and am now in possession of a signed copy of Nothing in the Basement (2025). I brought water with me and kept forgetting to duck outside to drink it. Dean gave me a ride home afterward and commented on my tired look, which was fair: six, seven years ago I could sprint through programming even after a night of anaphylaxis or a subluxed jaw and these days there's a lot less tolerance in the system. It seemed to be a common refrain. If I have fun and don't take home any viral infections from this weekend, it'll be a win.
The context for yesterday's frivolous low-stakes question was of course indexing for Eat Your Books, where I've been stalled on my current cookbook for... a while... for ...reasons... including but not limited to needing to ask for a bunch of new ingredients to be added, and then having a social anxiety about ever touching the work-in-progress again.
And then I did touch it again! And a recipe where I'd requested the new ingredient "mixed leaf salad" had instead... been given the ingredient "mixed greens", synonymous with the base ingredient "mixed lettuces".
The cookbook in question is The National Trust Cookbook; The recipe is Goat's cheese tartlets with pickled cucumber; the headnote to the recipe includes
Serve with a home-grown asparagus, pea and broad bean salad mixed with baby salad leaves.
The ingredients for the salad, helpfully listed under the subheading "To serve", are:
12 spears of English asparagus, woody ends trimmed off
55g/2oz podded broad beans
85g/3oz fresh or frozen peas
70g/2½oz mixed leaf salad with rocket leaves
3 tbsp extra virgin rapeseed or olive oil
1 tsp runny honey
So I am reassured that the breakdown of opinions falls almost entirely along side-of-the-pond lines, suggesting that the reason I'm going "this is neither of these two things??? if EYB told me I needed mixed greens for a recipe and turned out to mean mixed leaf salad I'd be extremely annoyed??? if a recipe told me I needed mixed greens for a recipe and turned out to mean lettuces--" because, yes, I think "mixed greens" are a thing that need cooking (probably referring to brassica but I only roll my eyes a little at pre-packaged bowls that decide that various forms of pea, broccoli, and leek also count), and "mixed lettuces" is a strictly narrower category than "mixed leaf salad".
I had absolutely no idea that this might be a point of US/UK confusion, and thank you all for providing me with Data!
My nephew's not-yet-fiance sent me a Christmas card wishing me happy holidays from her and my nephew and included two photographs - one of her and her two dogs and one of her and my nephew. Oh and the envelope had two return address stickers - one on the back and one on the front - same address so, of course, I Google mapped the shit out of that. Google says most of her online presence is Facebook so my journey ended. It's ok, I know enough. I'm flattered to be included but it's still kind of weird.
Both cats are in the dog bed. I think it's all good under there.
Elbow Coffee was pretty good all things considered.
And now everyone but me is hunkered down waiting for the game to start. Assuming an hour of pregame crap, they have a couple of hours to wait yet.
Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
I cheated and read an article online that listed a bunch of tropes and these are my findings. I like hidden worlds and secret societies, but I strongly dislike chosen one stories. And I don't read a lot of fantasy, so I don't tend to encounter hidden worlds much. I guess I just like the idea of their being a secret mirror of our society. I've written a couple of fics where various pantheons of gods intersect with modern society and with each other because I like imagining what might be going on that we don't see.
I LOVE me an amateur sleuth. That's why Miss Marple has always been my absolute favorite, closely followed by Jessica Fletcher. Right now I'm reading Three Bags Full where the sleuths are the ultimate amateurs - a flock of sheep whose shepherd has been murdered! I also like amateur spies like Tommy and Tuppence and Mrs. Pollifax.
If I like the source material, I will try almost any type of AU. The only kind I tend to bounce off of are set in school; as a teacher, I find them so unbelievable that I can't suspend my disbelief.
I'm also very fond of crossovers. Sometimes I'll see someone bigging up a crossover on the AO3 subreddit and, even if I know nothing about either canon, I'll give it a try. I also really enjoy writing crossovers; it's like weaving together two different fabrics or putting together a puzzle.
And while we are on the subject of things I like, I love writing and reading drabbles. I enjoy a fic where someone has provided a link to a playlist. I like when people play around with form and experiment, even when it doesn't quite work. I like an author with audacity.
With their brand new film, The Rip (see our review here), launching on Netflix this weekend, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are making the rounds to promote the hell out of their new thriller from director Joe Carnahan. One stop on the duo’s list is The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where they spoke about the shift in the moviegoing experience, especially when the venue is your own living room.
Matt Damon on the demands of streaming
Speaking about watching movies at home, Damon said, trying to compete for the audience’s attention is an uphill battle. There’s so much competition: lights being on, people looking at their phones, kids playing, and dogs barking. You’re doing your best to hold their attention, but there’s so much going on around them that it’s challenging to hold court. Damon continues by saying these factors change the way you make movies. For example, instead of saving the project’s most significant set pieces for the big finale, studios want you to “go big or go home” within the first couple of minutes to hook viewers and keep them from turning off the movie. When you pay money to see a film in a theater, that’s what you’re there to do. Still, when you’re home, it’s all too easy to abandon ship and make excuses to engage with the rest of your life.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck on Rogan taking about how Netflix has changed filmmaking.
“you re-iterate the plot 3-4x in the dialogue because people are on their phones.” pic.twitter.com/YxybQJQubE
In addition to wanting an expensive hook near the film’s start, Damon says studios ask you to reiterate your plot three to four times to remind audiences what’s transpired. Why? Again, people are on their phones. I’m guilty of this from time to time, but it also depends on the environment. If I’m in my living room, it’s easy for my ADHD to kick into overdrive, and my phone’s right there. However, if I’m in a theater or at my friend’s home theater that he built, I’m locked in. I put my phone away. I don’t doom scroll. It’s nice.
While discussing what grabs their attention, Damon and Affleck praised Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s Adolescence, a celebrated crime drama series on Netflix, calling it masterfully shot and holding your attention in the palm of its hand throughout.
Affleck vouches for the moviegoing experience
While Affleck agrees with Damon’s assessment of the situation, he also sees the battle for attention as something to overcome. “Make shit the best you can. Make it really good,” Affleck says with certainty and defiance. He also thinks people will always go to the movies. When people talk about movies like Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, they’re talking about going to the cinema to see it. There’s a demand to see a film of that magnitude on the big screen. Your at-home setup might be good, but there’s nothing quite like experiencing a movie like that with a crowd.
Finally, Damon and Affleck discuss budgeting and how a movie needs to recoup a specific amount to be considered a success. Not only do you need to get people to show up, but you also need them to show up on opening weekend. You need these people to talk about your movie and inspire people to follow their lead. If audiences don’t buzz about a film during opening weekend, it’s now locked in a battle for attention with everything else. If a movie costs $25 million to produce, it needs to make at least $125 million to matter, in the grand scheme. The industry is an ourobouros, and it’s forever hungry.
Meanwhile, I'm still trying to finish things myself ...
Today's writing
I wrote a little this afternoon (new, much better beginning for one of the fics), then had a vertigo attack and had to take a break. (Seriously, what's wrong with this week?! I would like a refund!) Planning to write a little more later today, and tomorrow hopefully I'll actually finish something ...
Ok everything is positioned and velcro'd down and cameras placed and fuck is it dusty under there. I had a coughing fit like I haven't had in ages. But it is all done. Biggie is happy. Julio is going in and out - not willing to commit.
A lot of people don’t believe such a thing as overnight stardom exists, but sometimes—just sometimes—it does. Perhaps the most famous such example is Eddie Murphy, who became a global superstar off of just one movie, 48 Hrs, a rough-and-tumble action programmer no one had a ton of faith in when it came out around Christmas time in 1982, but which became a runaway smash, upgrading its co-star, Eddie Murphy, to superstar status.
He’s one of the only major Hollywood stars who never really played a supporting role. His first movie was 48 Hrs, and once it came out, there was never again a time when he wasn’t a star.
But how did a run-of-the-mill action movie wind up giving a virtual unknown a star role? Let’s take a look at how 48 Hrsbecame one of the defining movies of the decade.
Was Eddie Murphy Unknown Before 48 Hrs?
Now, anyone who knows movie or TV history knows that Eddie Murphy wasn’t just plucked out of nowhere when he starred in 48 Hrs. His casting was highly unconventional, but he’d been rising in prominence at the time he was cast.
He gained national attention when, as a very young stand-up (he was only 18 years old), Murphy was cast as a featured player on Saturday Night Live. He was part of the disastrous 1980–81 cast under the supervision of Jean Doumanian, who took over for Lorne Michaels and attempted to build a new ensemble.
Simply put—the cast stank.
Murphy, as a background player, had to fight for airtime, but he scored in a few isolated bits. When Doumanian was fired and Dick Ebersol was brought in, only Murphy and co-star Joe Piscopo—who was also beginning to make a name for himself—were kept.
Under Ebersol, the two would anchor the next season, and Murphy’s talent quickly became impossible to ignore.
How Did Eddie Murphy Break Out on Saturday Night Live?
Murphy created many recurring characters that have since become classics, including his take on Gumby, Buckwheat from The Little Rascals (“Otay!”), Velvet Jones, Mr. Robinson, and his spot-on impressions of James Brown and Stevie Wonder.
The latter was so impressed that he would actually appear on SNL to riff with Murphy.
Eddie also became a favorite on the talk-show circuit, regularly dazzling hosts like Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett with his razor-sharp wit.
How Was 48 Hrs Originally Cast?
When Murphy was in his second season on SNL, Paramount Pictures was putting together a slate of movies, and one of them—48 Hrs—was being positioned as a potential buddy action flick for Clint Eastwood and Richard Pryor.
The movie tells the story of a burned-out, hard-living San Francisco cop named Jack Cates, who is tracking escaped prisoner Albert Ganz, who—along with his partner Billy Bear—kills a couple of cops and escapes with Cates’s service revolver.
His only lead is an incarcerated thief, Reggie Hammond, who participated in a robbery with Ganz and is the only one who knows where their lost loot is. Hammond agrees to help Cates if he springs him from jail, and Cates manages to secure him a 48-hour pass.
Why Didn’t Clint Eastwood Star in 48 Hrs?
The script was developed by Roger Spottiswoode, a former editor of Sam Peckinpah who wanted to direct. He worked on it with his colleague from Hard Times, Walter Hill, with further overhauls by Tracy Keenan Wynn.
By this point, Hill—riding high after the success of The Warriors—was signed to direct.
The studio wanted Clint Eastwood to play Jack Cates and Richard Pryor to play Reggie Hammond (then called Willie Biggs). However, Eastwood didn’t want to play the cop—correctly sensing that the convict was the better role—and tried to have the script rewritten so he could play the crook.
Hill couldn’t make it work, so Eastwood passed, and the role went to Nick Nolte, who had previously scored a solid hit for Paramount with North Dallas Forty.
How Did Eddie Murphy Get Cast in 48 Hrs?
As for Reggie, when Pryor didn’t pan out, Gregory Hines was briefly considered but was unavailable.
Wanting to preserve the Black guy/white guy dynamic—which they rightly knew would be potent—Hill’s girlfriend, agent Hildy Gottlieb, suggested he look at Murphy’s SNL work.
And just like that, a legend was born.
Once Murphy was cast, the script was overhauled by Steven E. de Souza and tailored to his talents, with another writer, Larry Gross, meshing particularly well with Hill as the movie evolved from a straight action thriller into something closer to an action-comedy hybrid.
Why Does 48 Hrs Change When Eddie Murphy Appears?
Watching 48 Hrs now, it’s remarkable how much energy the film gains once Murphy enters the picture.
The first act is tight but grim, with Nolte’s Jack Cates presented as a hard-ass hero in a violent, largely humorless movie.
Once Eddie shows up, the film gets a jolt of electricity, with Murphy’s megawatt charisma on full display from the moment he’s introduced singing along to The Police’s “Roxanne” in his jail cell.
What Is the Most Famous Scene in 48 Hrs?
The dynamic between Murphy and Nolte is compelling, with the two initially despising each other, and Nolte’s Cates even baiting him with racial epithets.
The movie truly hits its stride when Reggie convinces Jack to let him take the lead during their investigation of a cowboy bar.
The entire sequence is a masterclass, as Murphy completely takes over the movie, aggressively confronting the racist cowboys and bossing everyone around. Even Nolte’s Jack starts to come around, clearly impressed by how effortlessly cool Reggie is.
That scene likely planted the seed for the idea of Murphy one day playing a cop.
How Influential Was 48 Hrs on the Buddy-Cop Genre?
Nolte and Murphy have a strong, antagonistic chemistry that proved hugely influential.
The Black guy/white guy buddy-action dynamic became the gold standard for the genre throughout the decade, most famously echoed on Miami Vice and in the Lethal Weapon series, though those films adjusted the formula by making both characters cops instead of a cop and a crook.
Does 48 Hrs Still Hold Up?
Hill’s film still holds up as a tough, well-paced action movie, bolstered by surprisingly effective action sequences and an early score by James Horner.
Rather than functioning as comic relief, Murphy’s Reggie is treated as a full partner in the carnage, making 48 Hrs a legitimate two-hander despite Murphy being virtually unknown at the time.
By the midpoint of production, it was obvious Murphy was a star.
Was Eddie Murphy Almost Replaced?
When studio executives—misreading the film’s vibe—briefly suggested replacing him, both Nolte and Hill flatly refused.
Paramount was lucky they did.
How Successful Was 48 Hrs at the Box Office?
Released on December 8, 1982, 48 Hrs became a juggernaut.
It outgrossed every film it competed against, including Richard Pryor’s The Toy and Paramount’s own Airplane II: The Sequel. It finished as the seventh highest-grossing movie of the year with $78 million and became a massive hit on cable and in the early days of home video.
What Did 48 Hrs Launch for Eddie Murphy?
Its impact was immediate and lasting.
When Nolte was scheduled to host SNL but fell ill and had to bow out, Murphy stepped in—becoming the only cast member in the show’s history to host while still officially part of the ensemble.
Under contract, Murphy remained on SNL for another season and a half before becoming Paramount’s biggest star of the 1980s, launching a historic run that included Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop I & II, The Golden Child, Coming to America, and the concert films Delirious and Raw.
Why Didn’t Another 48 Hrs. Work?
When Paramount attempted to sequel 48 Hrs in 1990, the magic wasn’t quite there.
Murphy had become a far bigger star than Nolte, and the film was reshaped into more of a Murphy-centric star vehicle. Matters were made worse when Walter Hill was forced to cut nearly an hour from the film at the last minute to emphasize comedy.
While it wasn’t the disaster many remember—it grossed around $80 million—it was expensive, poorly reviewed, and marked the beginning of a fallow period for Murphy.
Still, Murphy has always been the king of comebacks.
Why 48 Hrs Still Matters
48 Hrs was the start of one of the most influential film careers of all time—and a crucial chapter in our shared cinematic history.
After David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer failed to perform at the box office, I’m more than a little surprised that Universal is willing to return to the horror franchise so soon after disaster. Then again, the studio does have some aces up its sleeve with The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck filmmaker Mike Flanagan leading the charge for the latest installment of the possession-centric film series. Interestingly, after getting removed from Universal’s schedule, Flanagan’s “radical redo” of The Exorcistwill open in theaters on March 12, 2027.
Who stars in Mike Flanagan’s Exorcist movie?
Mike Flanagan’s Exorcist movie stars Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, Black Widow, Jurassic World: Dominion) and Jacobi Jupe (Hamnet, Peter Pan & Wendy, Britannia). Details on the story Flanagan has crafted for the new Exorcist film are under wraps, as are details on the characters Johansson and Jupe will be playing. The assumption is that Jupe will be playing the son of Johansson’s character.
The Exorcist visits the Hollywood water cooler
Since we don’t know anything for sure, would you like to hear some Hollywood whispers? Let’s get into it. According to industry scooper Jeff Sneider of The InSneider, “after Flanagan was instructed to attach a movie star as the lead of the new Exorcist movie, he reached out to Angelina Jolie, who has been looking for a big comeback vehicle. Meanwhile, Universal gauged the interest of fellow Oscar winner Charlize Theron, who is part of the studio’s Fast and Furious franchise as well as the starry ensemble of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which the studio will release next summer. Ultimately, Flanagan and Universal decided to cast Johansson, the star of the studio’s Jurassic World franchise and its hit Sing franchise.”
Meanwhile, World of Reel reported that the title may be The Exorcist: Martyrs, and that Johansson might be playing “a small-town rookie detective who takes on a case involving inconceivable darkness.” That’s an entirely unsubstantiated rumor at this time – and if all of the actresses considered for the lead role were in their 40s and 50s, this rookie detective got a much later start than the average green-gilled detective. We’ll have to wait and see what picture the official information paints.
What do you think about Universal going back to the well for its Exorcist franchise? Truth be told, The Exorcist has never been my thing. I don’t care for possession stories in general, and the franchise feels a bit played out. However, in Mike Flanagan we trust. I like Flanagan a whole lot, and am willing to give anything he’s attached to a shot. Johansson is an interesting addition, too, though it’s Flanagan that will get me through the door.
fandomtrees has revealed and I was gifted some great fic and art: Kevin Can F**k Himself moodboards from pattrose, a Hudson & Rex drabble from lomelinde_laurea, and a really fun Murder, She Wrote/Midsomer Murders crossover from cornerofmadness!!
Check them out at my tree and please tell them how wonderful they are!
It's time for another snowflake_challenge, and this one is geared more toward those of us who like to talk about the building blocks, the character types, and the storytelling pathways that link and underlie any given specific story being told.
Challenge #9
Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
Earlier this week, we predicted that 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple would finally be the movie to knock Avatar: Fire and Ash out of the top box office spot. That part didn’t happen—and worse, the opening itself fell well short of even modest expectations. While no one thought it would match the previous film’s $30 million debut, industry tracking had it pegged around $20 million. Instead, Deadline reports the film is looking at a disappointing $13 million, barely half of what its predecessor opened with.
Why Did the Sequel Stall?
The reason is pretty straightforward: audiences didn’t respond to Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, and that reaction carried over hard into the sequel. That’s especially frustrating given that The Bone Temple is, by most critical measures, the better movie. It’s sitting at an impressive 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and earned a rare A-minus CinemaScore—almost unheard of for a horror release (read our rave review HERE).
By comparison, the previous film only managed a B CinemaScore and collapsed with a brutal 70% drop in its second weekend. The hope now is that strong word of mouth helps The Bone Temple stabilize in the weeks ahead. Still, given the weak start, it wouldn’t be shocking if Sony rethinks its already-announced third film—or possibly reroutes it straight to Netflix, now that the studio has a direct pipeline there.
A Creative Win Despite the Numbers
The box office stumble is a real shame, because director Nia DaCosta absolutely delivered. She draws a haunting, late-career standout performance from Ralph Fiennes, and Jack O’Connell continues his streak as Hollywood’s go-to menace, chewing up every scene he’s in. Creatively, this one deserved better.
Avatar: Fire and Ash Just Keeps Winning
If The Bone Temple is struggling, Avatar is thriving. Fire and Ash is looking at a massive $17.6 million fourth weekend, an extraordinary hold that underlines just how strong the franchise’s legs remain.
The MLK holiday weekend is also boosting other holdovers. Zootopia 2 is marching toward $400 million domestic, while The Housemaid should cross $100 million thanks to a projected four-day total of $10.4 million.
Meanwhile, A24 has a reason to celebrate: Marty Supreme is on track to become the mini-major’s highest-grossing domestic release ever, nearing $81 million so far. At this rate, a $100 million finish suddenly doesn’t seem out of reach.
My daughter and the girls have gone to visit a friend who lives an hour or so away, west of us and therefore closer to NYC. Just as they were leaving it started to snow lightly and as time passes the snow is getting heavier. Presumably the snow ploughs will be out and they won't have any trouble getting home again.
Yesterday I actually sat down and started getting the edge pieces of the puzzle in place, and I'm going to work on the puzzle some more this afternoon while it's quiet. My motivation for getting started was that my youngest daughter gave me this puzzle for Christmas and I don't want her thinking I'm not going to do it.
I am reminded of a statement by the former mayor of Bogotá, Antanas Mockus, a politician who employed artistic strategies in his office: "When an artist goes to prison, they take a piece of chalk and draw a line some centimetres from the wall to define their space, so they can have a bit more restrictions (sic). But by making those restrictions they in fact liberate themselves." A line can be a border and simultaneously an assertion of freedom. Being able to decide on your own limits, your strengths and weaknesses, is always empowering, offering a certain degree of sovereignty even in the direst situation.
Joanna Warsza, "Open Mic: Joanna Warsza on the Art of Open Group," *Artforum," October 2025, p. 110.
I've been thinking about this since I read it an hour or so ago. I think the quote from Mockus helped Warsza to set up for presenting her idea, but I don't think Mockus (at least as presented in this quote or — as I think is likely — in this translation of his quote) appears to quite understand what was going on in those prison cells. I don't think the artists wanted to "have a bit more restrictions (sic)," but instead, as Warsza put it, to "decide on [their] own limits."
When I was younger and studying poetry in school[^1], I never really understood why someone would choose to write poetry once prose had been invented, which seemed to me to be a superior method for conveying ideas. It's only later, as I learned more and started producing art of my own, that I learned the potential value of working within a set of restrictions, whether self-imposed or those of a traditional form. And looking back, I wonder if this value of restriction is something that my teachers could have explained to me, or if it's something that I had to figure out on my own in order to understand it.
[^1] Confession: I never really liked or (apparently) understood poetry.
Filmmaker Joe Carnahan is having a big week. In addition to releasing his new Netflix film, The Rip (read our review), starring the dynamic Hollywood duo Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, his recent spot on The Playlist‘sDiscourse podcast finds him spilling the beans concerning projects that could have been. According to Carhahan, he nearly took a trip to the dark alleys of Hell’s Kitchen for a punk rock adaptation of Marvel’s Daredevil.
Carnahan’s Daredevil project came and went years ago, before 20th Century Fox lost the rights to the character and sold them back to Marvel, who then partnered with Netflix for the original series starring Charlie Cox as the Man Without Fear. Carnahan says he wanted to make a period-set Daredevil trilogy, which would have tracked the character through distinct musical and cultural eras.
Carnahan’s Daredevil would have spanned musical eras
“It was going to be ‘Daredevil’ in 1973, which was classic rock, then ‘Daredevil’ in ’79, which was punk rock, and then ‘Daredevil’ in ’85, which was new wave,” he explained. “It was very street-level, very Hell’s Kitchen. That’s the version that always spoke to me.”
Unfortunately, stakeholders failed to see Carnahan’s vision for the character and pushed back against his ideas. As unique and refreshing as Carnahan’s Daredevil ideas sound, it’s an uphill battle to get a green light for a superhero project that doesn’t follow “the formula,” if you know what I mean.
The problem with making superhero cinema after Nolan’s Batman
Another problem for Carnahan was that, after Christopher Nolan made his Batman trilogy, he didn’t see much point in exploring that territory. Shareholders see Nolan’s Batman, and they want something on par with it, or bigger. The demand is too much, unrealistic. There’s no room for street-level ideas like a pop-punk Daredevil.
“Listen, it’s like when you’ve done it as well as Chris Nolan did it in the ‘Batman’ films, and that’s just done as well as it can be done,” he explained.
Carnahan has a “better” idea for The Raid
Carnahan also discussed his idea for a remake of The Raid: Redemption on the Discourse podcast. According to the director, he and Frank Grillo were toying with the idea of an emotionally-charged version of the concept, a version Carnahan thought was better than the original.
“I wrote on spec with the idea that if we did it— I wanted to make it modular so that if we couldn’t come to an arrangement with the actual ‘The Raid,’ that we could take those elements out and it would be my own script,” he revealed.
Carnahan continues by saying his version of The Raid would be “more fundamentally emotional than the original” and would give him an excuse to work with Grillo again, which he always looks forward to. For better or worse, the project is no longer in the cards, as Carnahan was unable to reach an agreement with the producers.
Better than The Raid, you say? What’s that Steve Martin quote from Three Amigos? “That’ll be the day.” Yeah, that’s it. Look, I like Joe Carnahan quite a bit, but let’s not say things we can’t take back. What do you think about Carnahan’s ideas for a punk rock Daredevil and an emotional take on The Raid? Let us know in the comments section below.
My first thought for the theme was barbed wire, but I didn't see any I could make a decent photo of. Fortunately today on our walk I spotted some gorse bushes which are naturally barbed.
I'll post more photos of the walk tomorrow when I have more time.
Well, the big news today is upcoming mail. My email from USPS says I am getting something in an envelope from my nephew's new girlfriend. ???? She has gotten 5 star reviews from my nephew and my brother (his father - they met at the other nephew's wedding last October). I am dying of curiosity. BUT, often, the email from USPS says I am getting something today and it doesn't come until tomorrow and in this case, tomorrow is Tuesday so I am steeling myself for disappointment. When the mail person finishes filling the boxes here, Timber Ridge sends out a "mail's here!" notice which I always ignore. Except for today!!
Yesterday, I had a knock at the door and it was Jim Across The Hall. Usually he has a question but yesterday he knocked to proudly show off his haircut and shave! He had gone down to the new beauty parlour and gotten himself beautified and was so proud. It was very cute. His caregivers are taking very good care of him and I'm glad.
Here at Timber Ridge we have a great caregiver program. Especially trained people are dispatched for whatever is needed. You can get them by the hour or by the day. Myrna had one that spent the night in her apartment when she needed it. Jim rotate through different ones that come for an hour in the morning and and hour in the afternoon and they are doing such a good job making sure he has clean clothes and knows where they are, gets meals and... gets a much needed haircut and shave. And I love his response to it.
I made another of the funky dolls. The first one (turquoise dress) was made from the top of the head down. The second one was made from the butt up (and I tweaked some stuff). The second one was not as fiddly but still I think these will be the only two. Martha will adopt them.
This time next week, hopefully, I'll be playing volleyball!
This morning I'm going to dash out to Safeway before elbow coffee. The rest of the world will be there stocking up on football watching foods. The local NFL teams plays a playoff game at 5 tonight and the hype is at its hypiest.
I did move the two cat beds from the closet to under the bed. They aren't plugged in but the cats still gave them a whirl. Next I need to Velcro the dog bed down. It's hard to move but they manage. They are adapting well and enjoying their downstairs bedroom. Julio even got one of their toys and left it near the bed for those emergency toy situations.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
haebin
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
Audiobook narrated by Tony Robinson
