In the Lord of the Rings fandom there’s a persistent debate whether balrogs, or Durin’s Bane specifically, have wings. The text in Fellowship is ambiguous whether what it is describing are literal wings or something else wing-like.
In the Lord of the Rings fandom there’s a persistent debate whether balrogs, or Durin’s Bane specifically, have wings. The text in Fellowship is ambiguous whether what it is describing are literal wings or something else wing-like.
I collect coins, and there’s always debates about what a coin is.
For those who don’t know, a coin is usually defined as an object with legal tender status somewhere; as opposed to a token that has a face value but is issued by a non-state actor; and a medal, which is anything that looks like a coin but doesn’t have any face value.
Now, aside from the expected debate over what is and isn’t a state, there’s also the issue of NIFC (not intended for circulation) coins. Many mints sell coins that are legal tender, but are never put into circulation, some people (often those that could be characterised as “old school”) take the position that as these aren’t intended to be used as legal tender, they aren’t really coins.
It doesn’t help that there are tiny island nations like Niue and Samoa that will basically let companies make anything legal tender if they pay them. This leads to the rather silly situation where a batarang, and a literal statue of hogwarts, are technically “coins”. (I’ve been told this is done as a import tariff dodge as the USA doesn’t charge import taxes on coins)
Imagine being a Samoan shopkeeper and some tourist showing up and trying to pay with a friggin statue of Hogwarts.
It’s 5ozt of pure silver, so I wouldn’t say no…
id accept it as payment, record a video of myself melting it down and making it into a small blahaj figurine, and make the video public to spite and annoy jk rowling and the harry potter fanbase
Ladies and gentlemen, a coin:
What the fuck is wrong with Samoa? Like, I can speculate but my speculations are unkind. I don’t want to go there.
It has the same size population as Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Weird stuff happens on islands.
my dude, that’s a thought stopping phrase. weird shit happens everywhere. there’s this toilet in boston
Ok, it’s probably your racist thing then. Happy?
racist thing?
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say “racist,” but I can see how someone might think you sound xenophobic. If I didn’t enjoy interacting with your posts so often, I could see how someone would see your tone as trying to “other” and shame an entire culture. But I know that’s usually not where you’re coming from.
What were the “unkind speculations” you wanted to hint at but not articulate?
you’re doing the antisemite thing again starik.
Ok, sorry. Now what were your “unkind speculations” about Samoa?