I am home. I am having soup and bread for supper, and screw the diet, I WILL HAVE THE VANILLA ICE CREAM AND HOT BUTTERSCOTCH.

Oh. And this is TOTALLY the wrong thread.

Oh. And this is TOTALLY the wrong thread.

Not entirely. Those ice-moon thingies were made of ice cream and butterscotch.

Allyson -- sounds like a perfectly balanced meal to me. A balance between hot and cold.

I ate a big lunch and then I ate an early dinner and now I am hungry again. I think this is definitely a "screw the diet" day. Especially because I've got a recording session tomorrow that will almost inevitably involve forgetting to eat all day.

Also, I like how the people on Firefly ate. Like real people. Who liked strawberries with an unholy passion, as all good long-term travelers would.

I liked the meals they ate together. And the cake made out of dinner.

I need food.

I think Gus is right about Zoe growing up in a military family, and probably the daughter of an officer, though not high ranking. I don't see a history of wealth, there. She's too comfortable being Mal's second. I have been biting my tongue on this, because the rest of Beverly's character background speculation was so (to my mind, anyhow) spot on, it was spooky.

Okay, someone really needs to explain "What Fathers Make Boys Into" for ita. Clueless and jocky, it seems.

I am not sure I can differentiate, but to me, it's more a case of what the lack of a father does to a boy, and clueless and jocky doesn't play into it. Can you think of any (way generalized) differences between the boys you know who grew up without a father, and the boys who grew up with one present? I'm thinking about friends, and about my two sets of uncles. My maternal grandfather was not very nice, and then was gone, and did not support the family. By the time the oldest of the four boys was 12, and the youngest was almost 8 (with a 3 year old girl, and one on the way--my mum) he was out of the picture. My mother's brothers were differently self-sufficient than were my dad and his brothers. I suspect some of that difference came from learning to help their mom in ways beyond their years. I don't know how to articulate it, but I would have identified Mal as mom-only or mom-mostly reared, even without the canon.

David, I would like to know how you meant 'invested in a male culture' too?

Can you think of any (way generalized) differences between the boys you know who grew up without a father

No, hence my question. The unifying characteristics are more like a) lack/presence of good male role models (having a father didn't guarantee this) and b) the amount of responsibility placed on the kid after a divorce (but it didn't matter if it was a boy or a girl - the effect was similar).

I'm standing next to ita on the "good male role models", particularly ones with a long-term presence. There's a developmental job to be done there, one that can or not be done by a father, other family member, family friend, or, in Mal's case, probably at least a few long-term farm hands.

The particular nature of the person who is that role model is going to have a huge impact.

(This post brought to you by "I think I see what you're getting at, but I think it's too complicated to comfortably simplify.")