Mordor makes me thirsty! The power of Tolkien!

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

I don't have such a terrible bathroom!

...and, is the person on the picture male or female

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

I don't have such a terrible bathroom!

...and, is the person on the picture male or female

Ah, I thought, when I read this reply, here we have the conumdrum of the anonymous internet which masks gender and you are outing yourself with a subtly unstated, "Hey, I'm a guy." Just the other day someone mentioned that Raynor was a girl, to much amazement from a third Downer. So, I was prepared to re-evaluate my thoughts about Legate's hot, steamy read.

It was harder than I thought, I discovered that the combination woman + reading +bath produces far more images than the combination man + reading + bath.

One of my early searches produced:





Yet this did not chime with the image of a warm, steamy, relaxing bath. Back to the google board, as it were, where I found that there was a much more common activity associated with men in tubs than reading.





However, once again, this seems not to fit well the image Legate's description created in my mind. Onward again.




Well, here we have an attractive young man, book in hand, tub-bound and displaying a hobbitish friendly wave. But the clothes don't belong in a restful bath after hard exercise. No, this one isn't quite right either.





Finally, a pose of some merit. Anyone who reads a magazine editted by Dave Eggers has to be cool enough to be a Downer, right?

But wait, Legate has coyly declined to be explicit about his identity. I went back one last time to cover all bases. We have quite a run on cat mascots here at the Downs, and with Hookbill's Serious Cat and the cat theme of my blog, I thought it perhaps wisest to provide one last alternative. If none of these fit, then I humbly beg Legate to provide a bit more explanation of how his bathroom is not "so terrible", so I can google "lovely bathrooms + book" or something like that. And we shall leave which Tolkien book Legate would be reading to someone else's photoshop capabilities.

[The Might]

Correct there Bethberry...
The combinations are woman - bathtub - book and
man - toilet seat - newspaper...or book in this case

But what you say is true...Legate is somewhat mysterious...so to remain in Tolkien-related stuff, I'd rather think of him as a Watcher in the Water
This would also explain why he's good at lore...he was there himself!

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Oh, and I am male... it just happens that I read newspaper only in bus/tram/underground. And, females have shorter tentacles.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Oh, and I am male... it just happens that I read newspaper only in bus/tram/underground. And, females have shorter tentacles.

Oh, indeed quite a lovely (tile) garden, Octopus. But oh my, I do hope you stay around the Downs longer than the usual life span. May I suggest that you, ah, um, err, avoid ...*coughs*... delay... ah, well, ah,... abstain... *ahem*. . . . (voice trails off...) But I must say the reputed intelligence and multiple digits certainly suit you.

Now, before anyone cautions about the topic, let me announce the bit of Tolkien that has a particular physical inspiration on me. Every spring I avidly seek out and read all of Sam's comments about gardening. Moving from winter cocooning to spring activity requires a substantial amount of effort to overcome winter lethargy and the kind of procrastination that readers such as I are prone to and I find Mr. Gamgee's faithful words to be a fount of powerful, positive thinking. In fact, I suspect that the depiction of Sam could well have been instrumental in the writing of a popular treatise on happiness and success.

So there you have it. I use my gardening shears to allow me to eavestrop on neighbours' conversations and I feel absolutely that I am modelling Tolkien.