I remember in later seasons of E/R, any review or discussion of it would inevitably have "is this still on?" comments, like "how dare a show continue after I, personally, stopped caring about it?"

I've seen so many comments places that were, "I'm not gonna watch/haven't ever watched, but [OPINIONS NONETHELESS]."

It's very, "Look, *I* was done with this back in 2016, so why do I still have to hear about it?"

Which is not to say it can't be done badly, or in a way that distracts from the story, because OF COURSE IT CAN. But if just a mention of "today is the 5th of Oscani" is enough to throw you out, I don't know how you got in to begin with.

I mean, the Gregorian/Julian calendar is some WEIRD WORLDBUILDING in its own right, where the ninth month of the year translates to "seventh month", and if you can't embrace a fantasy world that has its own weird stuff, why are you reading fantasy?

Like, why would you WANT a fantasy novel to "just use the normal calendar" when it's a different world with different cycles, and, not to mention the whole "what do YOU mean by normal?", because, buddy, THIS world has a whole lot of different calendars.

This discourse has missed me so far and I wonder if I should wade in and fight or let them live their life wrong.

Authors make choices, and sometimes that choice is about how much you’re willing to ask of the reader. We talk about it a lot on @worldbuildcast.bsky.social and did a full episode on it earlier this year: worldbuildingformasochists.podbean.com/e/episode-16...

Water skiing was one of several things from my childhood where, yes, technically I did get to try it, but because the opportunity was very limited (i.e., "that was your turn"), the fact that I wasn't good at it instantly meant I didn't REALLY get much of a chance to actually do it.

I'm honestly surprised, I thought I'd get more. But I guess...

Gen Zer watching The Matrix for the first time: Man, this stole directly from Shrek.

Is this like that riddle where you go to the barber with the bad haircut? “He’s so focused on editing for you, he can’t be bothered with editing for himself.”