u/cyrano111

Of course, the movie makes him a one-note character that does not reflect his complexity or the challenge he faced. But I want to note one particular thing about him that is to his credit, but I don't see observed.

Denethor uses the palantir to struggle in thought with Sauron, and of course that largely contributes to his downfall. But we should remember that he uses the palantir at least twice after being aware that Frodo has the ring and is in Mordor and manages not to reveal that fact. Even in his final time using the palantir, when he emerges thinking all is lost and goes to end his own life and that of Faramir - still he did not reveal the ring's location.

Of course, there's no reason to think Sauron specifically tried to get any such information from him, but even so it is a mark of Denethor's strength of character that he managed to keep that secret.

There are so many posts that present a stereotypical issue, and which then conclude with a link to some advice post. They are obviously just camouflaged marketing. Does that not violate some rule? or is it the entire point of this sub?

At the Prancing Pony, when first meeting Frodo and the other hobbits, Aragorn says:

“In any case, I did not intend to tell you all about myself at once. I had to study you first, and make sure of you. The Enemy has set traps for me before now.“

But after having looked in the Stone of Orthanc and wrestled in thought with Sauron, Aragorn says to Legolas and Gimli:

“To know that I lived and walked the earth was a blow to his heart, I deem; for he knew it not till now.”

How - more importantly why - had Sauron set traps for Aragorn, if he did not know of his existence?

Note: I have no connection to either game, I just enjoy them both!

On the face of it these two daily puzzle games look quite different. One is exclusively text based, the other looks like a sudoku, or even more a masyu. But the types of challenges they pose are very similar, and scratch the same puzzling itch.

There is of course lots of "if X then Y" reasoning in each. But also lots of "assuming it's X leads to a contradiction, so it must be Y". Lots of "I don't know whether this is X or Y, but either way that must be Z". Lots of "it must be either A and B or X and Y, but whichever it is leads to the same result about Z". Both puzzles have degrees of difficulty ranging from quite straightforward to very challenging. And both are based in websites but have subreddits devoted to them, moderated by the creator of the puzzle.

If you haven't tried CLuesBySam (r/CluesBySamHelp) start on a Monday or Tuesday, and do the tutorial - puzzles later in the week are more challenging. And if you are trying r/greyisodd for the first time, don't start with the 7x7 level 4 puzzles in the subreddit, but go to the website and try some smaller and simpler ones first to get the hang of things.

Mods, I hope this post isn't seen as inappropriate, but if it is, feel free to remove it. I'm not trying to draw anyone away from either subreddit, just to encourage more people to join both!

I have a lot of boardgames, and in many cases ones from Kickstarter that I’ve never gotten to the table, so they are still shrink-wrapped. I‘ve seen posts about people selling their games, and I’m considering that.

But how? They probably won’t sell locally. Board Game Geek has a section for selling - is that a good route? How do you handle shipping? It feels like that might make sales impractical. Is eBay a plausible option?

I’d welcome any suggestions.

A few years ago I inherited the voting shares in a corporation which just owns stocks and bonds, and is worth a little under a million. It was my parents' retirement fund (not really used) which they intended to be my retirement fund, and then to go to the next generation (as it will).

The income tax owed each year is around $15,000. I could reduce that by paying a dividend: if I paid out $18,000, for example, taxes would be reduced by about $6900 (more precisely by 38.33%, according to my accountant). That would mean I'd reduce the total assets of the corporation by $26,100 rather than $15,000, but some money would be in pockets now.

I'm not going to pay myself a dividend, so it's a question of whether it's worth reducing the total value (and its compounding) for later. The dividend would be divided among a number of people, and after tax that means they'd each get around $2,000. On the one hand nobody would object to an extra $2,000, but none of them are in a "can't meet next month's rent" situation either. I'm not sure its enough of a short-term benefit to any individual, once it's divided up, to be worth diminishing the future value.

Overall my plan for the corporation right now is just growth. Although I'm happy to have it there as backup, I should have decent retirement income without it, so I don't expect to draw on it any time soon - barring some unexpected large expense, of course.

My preference is to decide this myself. Are there other factors I should be thinking about here?