u/NeedleworkerBig3980

How many times does one have to watch POJ before one stops noticing additional tiny details? In my case, four and counting. 🙄 From my latest rewatch, I have some rather silly questions about small things. I would be very grateful to anyone who can answer even one of them.

Turning a Ring

I noticed that, sometimes, the camera will focus in on a character turning a finger ring around so the stone faces their palm. It seems to usually occur just before a character does something a bit brutal.  Does a character turning their ring around symbolise something in particular? 

Pinkie Promises 

I love the occasions when Changning and Bao'er make pinkie promises to one another. This is also a thing in some Western cultures today. Did it originally come from Chinese culture? Or is it an adorable little anachronism.

Clam Ointment 

Was Clam Ointment made from clams, or was it called that because it was sold in clamshells? 

The Flower Headress

In the title sequence, we see a close up of the Flower Adorned General's Headress. The faux flowers look like they have a slightly fluffy texture. What were the faux flowers in this sort of headdress made of? 

Shoe Soles

What was traditionally used to make the soles of women's shoes? (As someone who has had a go at making some replica European shoes from past times, I loved the scene when Gongsun mends the Princess' shoes. He really gives it his awl.)

(Edit to correct autocorrect.)

I spent parts of my childhood up in a small UK village. We had a village pub that had a condom vending machine in the lobby to the toilets. It stocked a variety of flavoured condoms. Aged 18 (honest) I was in a toilet cubicle (doing what one does) when two people entered the sink area.

Person one: Ha ha ha ha! Lemon and lime!

Person two: Te he he he! Who would want an orange flavoured knob?

Person one: Do they count as a "sin" on the diet? Ho ho ho!

Person two: Do you think they make them in cheese and onion flavour? Fnar fnar.

I flushed and exited the cubicle to discover that Person 1 and Person 2 were two of my primary school teachers. The looks on their faces were priceless.

I am the kind of person that finds historical dramas helpful when learning about history. Not because I expect them to be 100% accurate, but because they then help me see events in my mind's eye when I read things written by historians.

I am trying to expand my knowledge of history outside my Western perspective and would be very grateful for recommendations for historical CDramas that recreate the atmosphere of their period really well (costume, manners, mores etc.). Or ones that portray real events with a reasonable degree of accuracy. I am in the UK, and need to be able to access it from there.

My favourite period in Western history is the 15th century (so Ming dynasty), but I am open to suggestions from any era.

Thank you in advance kind folks!

At the pre-op consultation, I handed a reproduction Ancient Egyptian Canopic jar.

"I follow the Ancient Egyptian religion. Can you put the ovary you remove in this jar so that I can be interred with it when I eventually pass away?" I asked.

My surgeon said, "Oh! Are you planning on being buried in a pyramid?"

"Mastaba." I replied.

"Oh. I am afraid we recommend not doing that for at least six weeks after the operation."

I would have loved a Restoration Period Blackadder where much of the plot revolves around Blackadder having to negotiate the minefield of Charles II's mistresses to maintain court favours. Possibly with each episode named after a different mistress. Nell, Hortense, Moll, Louise, Elizabeth and Barbara.

I am curious to hear what weird and wonderful Austen related dreams folks might have had.

Whether you dreamed you were at Netherfield Ball, only you were naked, and you were actually supposed to be in an exam. Or you dreamed you were on holiday in Lyme Regis and met Captain Wentworth, but he had a head like a Moai.

This is promted by my own dream last night which was set in Hartfield, but all the characters were played by Winnie the Pooh and friends. Eyore was Mr Woodhouse.