memfree

I've never had that happen (U.S.). I've either gone to the pound or accepted someone else's pet when they could no longer care for care for it (due to: illness/death/move requiring dubious 30 day animal quarantine).

Imagine a, say, Star Trek episode that is set on some planet we don't know with some species we don't know, where some characters we don't know occasionally mention Star Fleet and The Federation, but are mostly just doing their jobs and concerned with their own issues. At the end of the episode, they've had a dramatic arc in their relationship and -- oh yeah -- in the middle, they finished that work-thing as an incidental. At the end of the episode, we see the cast we know on the starship we know and final shot closes in to emphasize that the work-thing is on board. We didn't NEED to know the backstory of the people that worked on the thing, and their story doesn't matter at all for using the work-thing, but the audience has a deeper view of the show's universe.

Is that sort of show filler, bridge, or neither?

Edit: Dr. Who's Love and Monsters was a little like what I mean, but that had more Doctor than my hypothetical would allow.

... there are still large hurdles to overcome before tidal energy can be adopted more widely, such as dealing with regulatory issues, potential environmental effects and conflicts with other ocean users.

I was wondering about that. What happens to the weather, animal habitats, and everything if you slow tides and currents with a larger number of these things? Still gotta be better than burning fossil fuels.

It’s very hard to take what is essentially a wind turbine normally found on land and put it under water, said Fraser Johnson, operations and maintenance manager at MeyGen. The record-setting turbine should keep going for at least another year before it needs to come out of the water for maintenance, he added.

With a sample size of ONE (okay, maybe four) that projection seems optimistic, but I'm hoping he's correct.

If any of y'all watch The Last of Us, I'm curious about what you think of S1E3, "Long Long Time" where the main characters are absent for most the episode, which is mostly about Bill and Frank. Where does that fit in the world of 'filler' or 'bridge' or whatever?

I agree that there is too much unnecessary age discrepancies in TV and film, but sometimes that is the point the authors are trying to explore. I may be misremembering, but I think I even Humphrey Bogart thought he was too long to be the love interest of just-back-from-private-school Sabrina in the movie of the same name, so that works as an example of where the ages should have been closer. There was no reason for the disparity.

In contrast the disturbing relationship in L.I.E. between a teen and a pedophile had to have that age disparity (I'm not recommending this movie and I do not think it appropriate for most audiences -- I saw it as part of a film festival and was not ready for it, but I do feel it has a right to exist).

I have not seen the webtoon in question here, but from the title, it sounds like the whole point of the show is the age disparity -- but that is not an appropriate subject for kids. That's something that should only be tackled in an NC-17 style drama because as soon as you make it light entertainment, you normalize a bad behavior.

To me, Léon feels more Don't Stand So Close To Me than My Sharona, which is to say that in the former song, the male character recognizes his attraction is inappropriate and in the latter the guy is proclaiming, " Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind. I always get it up, for the touch of the younger kind. "

More explicitly, Léon has a moral objection to killing woman and kids. He isn't looking to lure in children for exploitation, he just wants to get paid to murder adult men. His morals are not our morals. While he absolutely falls for Mathilda, I see no evidence that Léon has a pattern of sexualizing kids.

I can see your point of view that by teaching Mathilda how to assassinate people Léon was in fact grooming her, but he was not the one coaxing his too-young neighbor to hide in his house and learn his trade to avenge her family. She is making these demands of him and he is initially reluctant. That is not to say his attraction to her is appropriate. He is a villainous 'hero', and like so my of the archetype, must pay for his years of immorality with his life.

TL;DR: I think you stretch the definition of 'Grooming' when the adult is trying to keep distance and the child makes the demands.

You are correct, but I mow kinda high and my lawn has lots of low flowering weeds and flowering shrubs. In the spring, there is patch of ... probably purslane? and daffodils on the border. Then the comfrey has its first bloom, then the clover and dandelions. Right now there's more dandelions and comfrey's second bloom. Next comes the invasive morning glorys and rose of sharon. There are a bunch of other things that flower, like wild strawberries, wild violets, and yarrow that is stanted by getting chopped down every week or two -- but there's more and I don't know all their names.

We also have some type of carpenter/bumble bee trying hard to destroy the edge of the porch overhang. I'm just letting them do their thing and plan on repairing it if/when it becomes a structural issue.

As I grow old, I find my bladder notices the length of a movie regardless of how good it is.

While I tend to agree, I want to point out that it's a very modern view point.

American pet stores these days are pet supply stores. Way back when (1970s and before), they were stocked with all kinds of creatures; some that were probably illegally imported as well as a mix of cats, dogs, rabbits, mice, canaries, and the like that were partially from people whose pets gave birth. You fancy canaries and some of hatch chicks? A nice side hustle was to sell the excess offspring back to the store. Same for mice. Stores were offered enough rabbits, guinea pigs, and kittens that they'd be overstocked if they took them all -- especially kittens.

Spaying/Neutering was not common. Cats and dogs roamed off-leash and got pregnant. When you went to the grocery store, there was a fair chance someone was out front with a box of "Free Puppies!" filled with mongrels that pet stores did not want because they weren't pure. The same was true for "Free Kittens!" but that, again, was because no store wanted as many kittens as the supply. That's also why there were so many kill shelters: supply far exceeded demand.

I like it better now that most pets are NOT allowed to uncontrollably breed, but I do miss the chance to find some adorable mutt that isn't half pit bull.

My lawn isn't totally natural because I mow it, but I don't use any chemicals. Despite some trees and shrubs, my yard doesn't have ticks. We have grubs, mice, shrews, squirrels, birds, and occasional poison ivy that we pull up, but no ticks. They are in the park (with forest) a couple blocks away, but not in the trimmed lawns in my chunk of suburbia.

from Wikipedia:

Ticks like shady, moist leaf litter with an overstory of trees or shrubs and, in the spring, they deposit their eggs into such places allowing larvae to emerge in the fall and crawl into low-lying vegetation. The 3 meter boundary closest to the lawn's edge are a tick migration zone, where 82% of tick nymphs in lawns are found.

I agree wirth you, but since I'm not a hydrologist nor any other type of expert, I included that contrary piece as an opposing view on whether better planning could have helped. Since we now know that there's been a plan to have warning sirens in the works for years, I think it obvious that the area is a known flood risk and at least that much COULD have been done.

Have you seen the TV show Primeval?

Like so many shows, it kinda petered out once they were cancelled, but it is still worth a watch. https://www.cbr.com/forgotten-sci-fi-dinosaur-series-perfect-for-jurassic-park-fans/