u/bkat004

I enjoyed "Man in the High Castle", both the book and the TV show, but I think "Fatherland" is better Nazi victory book, as well as film.

Would you be interested in watching a TV show based on that book?

They say, "You can't teach an Old Dog New Tricks". This may not necessarily be true, but, by God, is it difficult !

And it seems that learning a new language may be the most difficult for an older person to learn - well, at least for me !

Who are some famous people who learnt languages later on life?

I know Wagner Moura was asked to play Pablo Escobar for the Netflix TV show, "Narcos". And as he's Brazillian, took lessons to learn Spanish. Currently, he's not perfect, but is conversational in Spanish.

Albert Einstein learnt the basics of English in his 40s when he had to colloborate with more English language scientists in the European circles he was in, in the 1920s. But he was never truly fluent. By the time he passed away, as an immigrant in America, he still wrote in German, but was still only conversational in English.

Mary Donaldson was an Australian sales director in 2000. Then her life changed when she met Frederick X of Denmark at a bar in Sydney. They married in 2004, however even before the wedding, she soon realized she would have to learn the Danish language in her 30s. And by all accounts, her Danish today ain't too bad.

The Catskills hotels were a great way for previous generations to relax far away from the hustle and bustle from the City. The hotels heyday were mostly from the 1920s to the 1960s. As soon as commercial flights became more popular, New Yorkers wanted to travel to Paris instead and the crest of these hotels soon declined.

But they were also a way for Singles to meet.

Anyone's parents meet up at the Catskills back in the day?

I found it fascinting that London Cab drivers in the latter half of the 20th century had to study for the "knowledge" - an indepth memorisation of every street in the city of London.

It was a great way to ensure Cab drivers knew where they were going, without reverting to a map. New York didn't have that (though New York is more centralized).

Nowadays, I wonder what is the point of having taxi drivers study for the "Knowledge", when a new immigrant retired nurse can hustle a side job as a Taxi driver using Uber Satellite Navigation.

How does the "Knowledge" survive the 21st Century?

Ever since the fire of that building some 15 years ago, I’d always known that that building was left vacant.
But today I drove past and saw some commotion going on.
Anyone know?

Of the New Hollywood directors, it seems Scorsese is the only one left (along with Spielberg and Ridley.)

Obviously, many have passed away.

But of those still around, those directors don't seem to have the continual major success that Marty has had.

Schrader has had fluctuating success but has never truly reached the heights of Scorsese. Milius is basically retired yet never truly enjoyed working in Hollywood. Coppola made some duds in the 90s and basically let go of Hollywood for a long time. Woody and Polanski have been cancelled. Oliver Stone has been cancelled whilst also falling out of love for Hollywood. Boorman and Schatzberg are definitely retired both in their 90s. Malick takes his sweet ass time and when he does, his films aren't as lauded as Scorsese's.

Then there are younger directors that seemed to reached the same level of success that Marty had yet don't seem to have anything that has caught on or have basically retired at a younger age than Marty -

like Ang Lee, who made some great films, but seems to have had a recent slump.

Or even younger, Bennett Miller - who may've just retreated to making commercials.

I haven't been following the A-League too much, but I am proud of the rise of Auckland FC in the Australian League.

Got me thinking as to what is Auckland FC doing correctly, where the former Auckland Club, the Knights, 20 years ago, failed?