On plus sized maternity clothes

None of the participants wear plus size maternity clothes, at least while on video, but it's interesting that there's a war -- or at least a controversy -- on Youtube between polyglots over what is the best way to learn other languages. Steve Kaufman calls himself a linguist because he knows about ten different languages, and says you need lots of input. Bennie the Irish polyglot says you need to start talking right away, especially with native speakers. My own reaction is, gee, couldn't it be both? As Kaufman points out, before you can speak a word of another language, you must know that word, and so he attacks language learning "hacking," which is a term Benny likes. They both sell books that are probably interesting but which I haven't read yet.

On PSP

Maybe I didn't like The Black Dahlia as much as some others, despite the intensity of how he portrays LA and Mexico of the time, because his main character is not Philip Marlowe. He's sympathetic sometimes, but other times just seems emotionally and mentally screwed up, as Kay agrees. For a long time he stays away from Kay, to stay loyal to his partner, shades of Dashiell Hammett and Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon. But Spade at least turns in his partner's killer. OK, so does Bucky, but not the Dahlia's killer. And the portrait of Mexico brutalized by its police force instead of drug gangs is quite vivid, though I'm not at all sure I really believe they had bars where sailor jacked off in the open while eating pussy. Still, with or without psp, it's impossible to go back in time now and figure out how places as that really were 60 or so years ago. Rough, I'm sure, though.