The View From Lower Down

Concise Oxford Dictionary  THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR WORDLE 273, 19 MARCH 2022 Here's fun: search for Wordle on Google and look at the Google logo. Cool, huh? Guess who's late to the party  again . So Wordle is a worldwide phenomenon, and  you can check it out here . The site explains the rules well, so I won't explain them here. Instead, lets get straight onto those tips: Some sites would have you believe that it's best to find out what vowel(s) are in the word. They're right, but only to a certain extent. Don't do this Why not? Because you want to get to the actual answer as fast as possible, and that's probably the least efficient way to do so. Nearly all Wordle answers contain either one or two vowels, and even if it did contain more, it would probably be a duplicated letter. Therefore, instead, look at words using the most common letters in the English language. You can look this up scientifically: Based on  Concise Oxford Dictionary 2004, from  ...

I mentioned last year about my plans for an awards ceremony . Unfortunately, that was canceled because: The pandemic meant I couldn't book a venue I hardly saw any new movies We couldn't secure any movie people to come No one cared I forgot about it So this year, the ceremony is canceled again; but this time the awards are going to be awarded on the blog. Here are this year's nominees, this time including some conventional awards as well: Best Actor/Actress (I don't discriminate) Helen Mirren - The Duke Jim Broadbent -  The Duke Stephanie Beatriz - Encanto Jude Hill - Belfast Willem Dafoe -  Spiderman: No Way Home Best thing we don't talk about ***** - Encanto That reveal - Spiderman: No Way Home Best CGI Sandman -  Spiderman: No Way Home Alfred Molina's face -  Spiderman: No Way Home Casita -  Encanto Camilo's transformations -  Encanto Worst CGI The Balloons -  Death on the Nile Best Trailer (I haven't necessarily seen these movies) Spiderman: No Way...

DISCLAIMER: This post was written after seeing Spiderman: No Way Home, so I do know more about the multiverse than I am letting on. There are no spoilers for S: NWH that aren't in the trailer in this post. I meant to finish writing the post before seeing it, but that's laziness for you. This post contains spoilers for lots of movies and TV Shows, but some of them are only minor so I have split the warnings into major and minor.  QUIZ QUESTION: What was the first major Spiderman movie to not  be released in the same year as a Bourne movie? Answer at the bottom of the post. MAJOR SPOILERS (mentioning who dies/survives, important plot twists, etc.):  WandaVision (2021);  Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) MINOR SPOILERS (characters who appear in a movie; anything that can be learned from watching the trailer):  The Incredible Hulk, 2008; Deadpool (2016); Deadpool 2 (2018); The entire MCU if not specifically mentioned (2008-) There is a theory that all movies take plac...

This post is part of the Christmas Quiz 2021; Feel free to play along if you want to, but newcomers will not be able to score points A game of Elf on the Shelf! Yes, I know it doesn't rhyme. Simply put, I have hidden an elf on one page of my blog. If you find it, all you have to do is email me and tell me where you found it. The elf looks like this, although the elf emoji may look different depending on  what device you're using: For obvious reasons I have blocked out the post title and date After Day One, the Elf will be moved. This means that on Day Two, The Elf will be available for 60 points on a different post. However, unlike an actual Elf on the Shelf, the previous Elf will still be available, although for fewer points.  For example, if Day One's elf was on my review of Joseph and the Unnecessarily Long Title (It's not), on Day Two the Elf might be available for 60 points on my Monopoly Tips post , and the Joseph Elf would be available for 50 points. These point...

So I used to work in tech support. My brother thinks I still do (no idea why; I haven't worked there for over five years). Anyway, sometimes we would have to spell things out over the phone, so we would use the phonetic alphabet to avoid mishearing. This is the main reason for the phonetic alphabet. For example, if I was spelling a word with the letter M in it, you might mishear that as N (this is the simplest mishearing, and most other letters it's not so much of a problem). For this reason, NATO developed the Phonetic Alphabet during World War I. The full list is: A - Alpha/Alfa B - Bravo C - Charlie D - Delta E - Echo F - Foxtrot G - Golf H - Hotel I - India J - Juliet K - Kilo L - Lima M - Mike N - November O - Oscar P - Papa Q - Quebec R - Romeo S - Sierra T - Tango U - Uniform V - Victor W - Whiskey X - X-ray Y - Yankee Z - Zulu Now I already knew this because of unrelated circumstances (I can't remember what; I was probably just bored one day). On the other hand, my ...

 This is a playlist of all my most Christmassy posts: Plagiarism of The Muppets?  (Honorary mention) Home Alone is Stupid Notes Home Alone is Stupid Monopoly Tips Funny Christmas Stories

So after a while of waiting to see if my brother would rejoin me in watching WandaVision (he stopped after Ep. 4 because it was "too Marvel"), I started watching again on my own. By this time Disney+ had forgotten that I exist, so it had lost my place and started playing episode 1 again (this is an oversimplification; it remembered which episodes I had watched but still started again on Ep. 1, possibly because when I watched it the first time I couldn't be bothered to sit through the FIFTEEN MINUTES of credits). Anyway, I went back to the select episode screen, so the screen went black. However, the credits music kept playing and I noticed something... ©  "A Newlywed Couple",  ©  Lopez, Lopez, 2020 Do you hear it? No? Listen again to those first two notes... Still nothing? Watch this next clip (from 0:21 to skip the dialogue and intro): © "Summer (Where do we Begin)" - Povenmire, Marsh, Olson, Barry, Hughes, 2011 Now listen again to the first two notes...

Welcome to the Christmas Quiz 2021! (If you are reading this and you have not yet joined the Christmas Quiz 2021, sorry but you can't enter until next year. Watch this blog in early November 2022 for joining instructions). The entrants this year are: Mappa-Mundi Mr A’s Barmy Army  The Hippos It’s a Wonderful Life Crimbo-Crumble Too Yule For School  Dominic&Willow All the teams above will be displayed on a  leaderboard , to be updated daily with your scores. If you do not want your score to be shown on the leaderboard, please email xmasmoviequiz@31steps.co.uk  before Monday December 6th. Please note: your real name or email address will NEVER be broadcast on any leaderboard. The rules are as follows: On every WEEKDAY at 11am (as voted for by you); a clue will be released which is the plot summary of the movie according to IMDb, but with certain words removed and replaced with the type of word it is (e.g. Dorothy Gale would be replaced with [name]). Your job is to ...

 It's that time of year again! It's November, and my ones of fans will know that November is when I launch my Christmas Quiz. Stop recycling jokes! - Ed. No. - Phil Every weekday throughout December (starting Wednesday December 1st), I will send out a clue relating to a Christmas Movie via email, and if you reply with the correct answer you receive points. I don't know the points system yet as it will depend on how many people enter this year. The earlier you send a correct answer, the more points you will get. The theme changes every year. This year's theme is: [Redacted] Some people will say that I'm not telling you deliberately, but that is genuinely the theme, as chosen by Mappa Mundi, winner of last year's quiz.   A word of warning: Some of the questions this year are so hard that even I can't answer all of them. Don't worry though; after week 2 the questions get a lot easier Your name: This should NOT be your real name If you are part of a team, yo...

https://twitter.com/XplodingUnicorn/status/1451903639816187910?t=NK3YnEp-TKT_NYEo3_XImw&s=19 12? McCallisters - ignoring Harry Kevin not being aware of certificates between PG and R (fact check this for 1989) No one picked up voltage adapter (check difference between US and French plugs) Pete doesn't know how to shave with a manual razor No one picked up the micro machines and Aunt Leslie stepped on one 8 year old somehow has access to a glue gun Kevin has to pack his own suitcase (is this normal for an 8 year old?)/why is he discovering this the day before leaving? Six more kids unhelpful to Harry - say their parents are home but not there - who are their parents? Les incompetents (check literal translation) Kevin plans to grow up, get married , then live alone How long can spiders survive without eating? (Buzz says a couple of weeks - fact check) This is the first time Buzz has brought up Old Man Marley Pizza delivery guy can't drive; crashes straight into a statue Pizza ...

 In honour of  The Goes Wrong Show Series 2 being released, I thought I would create a quiz based on Mischief Comedy (formerly Mischief Theatre)'s most popular works. All of the questions have correct answers (from Mischief; I haven't made them up), although you might have to dig pretty deep to find some of the answers. In the answers , I have listed the source used for each answer. The Play That Goes Wrong TPTGW is nearly unique because it is one of very few plays where the understudies play a role in every performance, in this case as stagehands who appear in the preshow. What are the names of the stagehands that they play? (there are two correct answers for this question, but in both cases, there is one male and one female understudy) Sandra had a previous modelling job advertising what company? Chris Bean is credited for lots of backstage jobs, including director and fight choreographer. What Rehearsal Role did he also fill in for? How many steps are there to the dressing ...

 Recently I was asked the following question: What would you tell your younger self, and at what age? I have two correct answers to this question. Age 16 - Don't do sciences for A-Level. You'll find it boring and you won't use it Age 14 - You can't act. Get into writing. That's something you're actually good at! The story of my doing A-Level science is a good story (but wasn't good at the time), but that's not what this post is about. We're currently on my inability to act. First, a little backstory... I was part of a drama club for 11 years, and in that time we performed many plays and musicals. However, towards the latter end of that time, we stopped being able to afford the rights to proper musicals, so we had to write our own. We'd already experimented with doing variety shows (a selection of songs, dances, monologues and sketches).  Some of these were very good and they were all loads of fun to perform. My personal favourite bit was when I w...

I have already published a post with a transcript of my brother's summary/review of Avengers: Infinity War , which also spilt into Avengers: Endgame . Below is the same transcript, but I have amended some of the innaccuracies. The actual transcript is untouched, but I have added some comments in red, factual but also including my trademark sass: WARNING: SPOILERS (OF VARYING ACCURACY) FOR AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR AND AVENGERS: ENDGAME BELOW I'm going to briefly do the plot, and I say briefly because I can't honestly remember most of it because despite it being a 3 hour film, it's inherently complicated, it doesn't make much sense, and gets quite silly.  With that said, he's going to condense two 3-hour movies into one 10-minute rant. Right. So, the film starts out, we're on some strange planet, possibly the moon, possibly not. And there is the man with no nose, who looks a bit like Voldemort, but isn't and I don't know his name but he seems quite sini...

I said in my previous post that my brother was going to describe Avengers: Endgame . He actually ended up flitting between Infinity War and Endgame with no discernible order. This is the full transcript of that. My interruptions are in italics and I have also included some of the sound effects and noises on the recording in [square brackets]. WARNING: SPOILERS (OF VARYING ACCURACY) FOR AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR AND AVENGERS: ENDGAME BELOW At certain points he describes characters instead of naming them, and I know who he's talking about and have subsequently told him, but I've left that out deliberately. I will, however, clarify that as he hasn't seen The Avengers or Age of Ultron, he sometimes refers to Infinity War and Endgame as the first and second movies. I do the same for the sake of clarity. So begins the transcript. I also left in some dialogue from before the description: Josh's take on The Avengers, Take One. [Long Pause] Go! Oh! So. Hang on. Am I describing th...