Posted on 03/14/2002 5:07:26 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
This is a continuation of the infamous thread New Zealander Builds Hobbit Hole originally posted on January 26, 2001 by John Farson, who at the time undoubtedly thought he had found a rather obscure article that would elicit a few replies and die out. Without knowing it, he became the founder of the Hobbit Hole. For reasons incomprehensible to some, the thread grew to over 4100 replies. It became the place for hobbits and friends of hobbits to chit chat and share LoTR news and views, hang out, and talk amongst ourselves in the comfort of familiar surroundings.
In keeping with the new posting guidelines, the thread idea is continuing here, as will the Green Dragon Inn, our more structured spin-off thread, as soon as we figure out how to move all the good discussion that has been had there. As for the Hobbit Hole, we will just start fresh, bringing only a few mathoms such as the picture above with us to make it feel like home, and perhaps a walk down memory lane:
Our discussion has been light:
It very well may be that a thread named "New Zealander builds Hobbit hole" will end up being the longest Tolkien thread of them all, with some of the best heartfelt content... Sorry John, but I would have rather it had been one with a more distinguished title!… post 252 - HairOfTheDog
However, I can still celebrate, with quiet dignity, the fact that what started as a laugh about some wacko in New Zealand has mutated and grown into a multifaceted discussion of the art, literature, and philosophy that is Tolkien. And now that I've managed to write the most pompous sentence of my entire life, I agree, Rosie… post 506 - JenB
Hah! I was number 1000!! (Elvish victory dance... wait, no; that would be too flitty) … post 1001 - BibChr
Real men don't have to be afraid of being flitty! Go for it. – post 1011 – HairOfTheDog
Seventeen years to research one mystical object seems a bit excessive… post 1007 - JenB
Okay...who's the wise guy who didn't renew Gandalf's research grant?… post 1024 – Overtaxed
To the very philosophical:
…Judas Iscariot obviously was a good man, or he wouldn't have been chosen to be one of the Apostles. He loved Jesus, like all of the Apostles, but he betrayed him. Yet without his betrayal, the Passion and Crucifixion would never have occurred, and mankind would not have been redeemed. So without his self-destruction infinite good would not have been accomplished. I certainly do not mean this to be irreverant but it seems to me that this describes the character of Gollum, in the scenes so movingly portrayed above… Lucius Cornelius Sulla
To fun but heartfelt debates about the integrity and worth of some of the characters…
…Anyone else notice how Boromir treats the hobbits? He's very fond of them but he seems to think of them as children - ruffling Frodo's hair, calls them all 'little ones'. He likes them, but I don't think he really respects them… post 1536 - JenB
Yes... Tolkien told us not to trust Boromir right off the bat when he began to laugh at Bilbo, until he realized that the Council obviously held this hobbit in high esteem. What a pompous dolt… post 1538 - HairOfTheDog
…I think almost every fault of his can be traced directly back to his blindness to anything spiritual or unseen. He considers the halflings as children, because that is what they look like. He considers the only hope of the ring to be in taking it and using it for a victory in the physical realm. He cannot see what the hobbits are truly made of, he cannot see the unseen hope of what the destruction of the ring might mean--the destruction of Sauron himself, and he cannot see the unseen danger that lies in the use of the ring itself… I just feel sorry for Boromir--he is like a blind but honorable man, trying to take the right path on the road but missing the right path entirely because he simply cannot see it… post 1548 - Penny1
Boromir isn't a jerk, he's a jock… post 2401 – Overtaxed
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Oh, I think by the time Frodo reaches the Cracks, he's not even himself anymore! I think he's not only on the brink of a dangerous place physically, he's on the brink of losing himself completely during the exchange with Gollum. But for some reason, the take-over isn't complete till he actually has to throw the Ring in. The person speaking to Gollum is not Frodo, but the "Wheel of Fire" that Sam sees. After the Ring is destroyed, Frodo not only comes back to himself, but comes back with the unbearable (to him) knowledge of what it's like to be completely without compassion. I think that's why it's so important to him to be compassionate in the Shire… post 2506 - 2Jedismom
…Regarding Frodo's compassion... it's a little too much at the end. Even Merry tells him that he's going to have to quit being so darn nice. But you're right. He's learned a lesson about evil that very few ever learn since it wasn't an external lesson but an internal one. (Those kinds of lessons have the greatest impact) Not only did he totally succumb to it, but he was rather ruthless to my little Smeagol… post 2516 - carton253
Well that Frodo was a big mean bully! (to Smeagol)… post 2519 – Overtaxed
So as you can see, everything JRR Tolkien (and Peter Jackson) is welcome here in our New Row, our soon-to-be familiar New Hobbit Hole…; philosophy, opinion, good talk and frequent silliness.
I had a ponytail...wrestling coach made me lose it my senior year...
that was parted in the middle.
My Sgt Instructor told us only dope smokers parted their hair down middle...as he was staring at the part down the middle of my head...the world kinda got blurry after that...
Well that's as high as I can go too. Although I did once shake Joe Gibbs' hand. I came home and told my wife "I can throw, I can throw!"
Actually one of my favorite stories comes from back in 1994 when I was unemployed but working as a "consultant" (which meant I wasn't getting paid) for Jack Kemp's PAC. I got to go to the Super Bowl in Atlanta. That Saturday there was a luncheon. Kemp was there along with Roger Staubach, Joe Namoth and yes, OJ (pre-murders), as well as several others football greats. I didn't get my picture with any of them, but hey, I was there...
My wife was working part time for a photographer friend of ours. That same week, she worked the Reagan/Thatcher dinner in DC.
Here we were surrounded by all this greatness and I think we had $12.00 in the bank...
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Film director Peter Jackson called on fellow New Zealanders to donate their kidneys, livers and hearts to those in need.
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Jackson told New Zealand Woman's Weekly magazine, which hit newsstands Tuesday, he was appalled to discover people were dying because New Zealanders are failing to donate healthy organs.
Organ donation is a lifesaving gift which costs nothing, said the director of "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."
"It's not until you're facing heart disease or liver failure that you realize how bleak the prospects are here for people who are critically ill," he says in the article.
"We have the skills here, the hospitals and the surgeons. What we lack is a population willing to give," he added.
Health Ministry figures show New Zealand has one of the lowest organ donation rates in the developed world. Since 1998, 15 people have died because they did not receive a liver transplant.
His comments were inspired by the plight of 11-month-old Katie Tookey, who suffers from biliary atresia, a rare condition that blocks the liver's ducts, causing permanent deterioration.
Her father, Andy Tookey, said the condition means that at some point in the next five years Katie will need a liver transplant.
"At the current rates you're left wondering if there will be a liver available when the time rolls around ... It's heartbreaking," he said.
Jackson, in Britain working on the second movie in the "Rings" trilogy, could not be immediately contacted.
Health professionals have welcomed the involvement of the high-profile Jackson in the campaign to increase organ donation rates.
I'm older than you. In the 70s we all parted our hair in the middle.
Good for him. It's nice to see someone in the arts actually promoting a worthwhile cause.
BAH! - And that refutes the former theory how? ;~D
Aaarrrggh! Am I the last of the holdouts? Pressure... building... envy... rising... must hold out till November...
I don't believe I said it refutes his theory...just that we all parted our hair in the 70s (although I swear I never smoked pot...)
Here's the way I see it: if I don't get it now, I'm going to rent it at least four or five times before then, or I'll WANT to, in any case. It costs at LEAST $2.75 a rental at most of the local places. So I'd spend close to the cost of buying it by November in any case, and I'd also have moments when I wanted to just check something quickly and wouldn't be able to. So I guess it's worth it.
Plus, it saves me mental pain and anguish, if not much cash...
Aye captain, she's gonna blow...
I was right there with ya...you ain't that much older than me...and I can neither cofirm nor deny the use of any illegal substance...
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