Boba Fett S1E4: The Story Comes Together. More Space Millennials!

Last night I watched S1E4 of The Book of Boba Fett. The series has developed nicely since its uneven start in S1E1. My concern back then was, "It's not clear why I care about these characters" — the main characters Boba Fett and Fennec Shand. If the previous episode started to make their challenges interesting, more than just a series of fight scenes between evil people, this episode is the one where I started to see them as truly sympathetic protagonists. It's also the episode where the story really comes together.

The flashback storyline reaches the point where Fett and Shand meet. That connects it with the storyline of The Mandalorian, which this series spun off from. The flashbacks also reach nearly the present day, or at least where the "present day" storyline started in S1E1.

One sign of how well the story gels in S1E4 is how I was surprised when it was over. "Wait, that's all?" I asked. "That wasn't even 30 minutes!' It was actually 47 minutes. Clearly I care about these characters, and the plot, now.

Space Millennials, Again!

This episode has another scene with what I dubbed Space Millennials in the previous episode. They're the young people who have stylish body modifications— the space version of tattoos and piercings— and own brightly colored hover mopeds— the galaxy far, far away version of expensive iPhones in conspicuous cases— all despite being apparently unemployed idlers. There's a slight spoiler in how Fett meets this gaggle so I won't go into detail on it except to note that they all seemed to be different people from the pod of Space Millennials Fett hired in S1E3. So it's just more amusing stereotyping on the part of the writers.

What to Light Candles from 1996 With? Matches from 1994!

A few weeks ago I posted about how we still have a few dozen tea lights from a sack of 200 we bought 25 years ago. You might wonder what one uses to light candles that have been around that long and have survived multiple house moves. Well, the answer is... matches that are even older and have followed me through even more house moves!



Last night I tore the last match out of this packet and used it to light one of the candles. Today I went into my drawer for a box of matches and thought about how they date back to 1995. I remember the occasion for which I bought them; it was a camping trip. Then I thought about how the Mick's matchbook is even older. I've had it since September 1994. I know that because I remember picking up this matchbook from the restaurant Hawk and I visited on our first date together. That's over 27 years ago now!

Biden "Missteps" Speaking about Russia and Ukraine

President Biden today is catching a lot of heat for, basically, speaking plainly about the situation with Russia massing troops on Ukraine's border.

He made apparently two missteps in public comments. One, that he thinks it likely Russia will invade Ukraine. Two, that the US and EU will respond strongly to a "major" incursion— implying, by omission, that a minor incursion would be tolerated.

(1) is a statement that I think anybody who's paying attention to the situation would have to agree is true. Putin has been building toward this for years with actions out in the open— including, not least of all, actually invading Ukraine in 2014 and annexing Crimea, which Russia still holds. In recent months he's set up all the same conditions all over again, plus has apparently attacked Ukraine's civilian infrastructure via information warfare. Sadly this is a situation where plain talk freaks people out because only vapid happy talk, like "We're going to stop Putin," is deemed palatable.

(2) is an accurate statement of realpolitik. Again, not the vapid happy talk people have become conditioned to expect, but a sober assessment of what likely what will happen if/when (1) comes to pass. I mean, again, Russia annexing Crimea already happened 7 years ago. We've got experience to draw from, here. Western democracies deplored the military attack and enacted a bunch of sanctions, initially. In the ensuring months and years most removed those sanctions and resumed doing business with Russia whenever there was a nontrivial benefit to them in doing so. Plus, outside North America and the EU few nations if any cared enough even to impose ineffectual sanctions. People need to understand that currently there's no meaningful deterrent to Russian aggression.