The near side gets pulled away from the middle. (Check.)
Which in turn gets pulled away from the far side? Huh? The middle gets pulled meaning the earth pulls toward the moon but the water doesn't making the water seem higher?
This part of the explanation is not helping me! I can see why the water on the near side would pull more than the earth on the near side, but why would the earth on the far side pull more than the water on the far side? And wouldn't the water at the "top and bottom" also pull? Creating side tides?
This simplification has made me more confused!
As a kid the supermen stood out enough that I actually named an RPG character or two Boromir. (I always found the more imperfect characters more interesting.) Aragorn and the Ents both left a stronger mark on me than Merry and Pippin did. And, of course, the Silmarillion is all about Great Men, people who are greater than men, and epic tales. The hobbits were always trying not to get crushed! Figuratively and literally!
On the other hand, I thought the scenes in ROTK with Frodo and Samwise were infinitely more moving than any depictions of them that Tolkien pulled off.
Either way, as you say, books and movies are two different things. And as long as The Hobbit movies are awesome, it's all right with me.
*Ellipsis may or may not signify many, many years of failure, changes, development, and maturity.
I'm most impressed by the the "C,X,Q" example actually. In the sense that it completely captures the reality and basis of text/twitter/email writing.
Either way, now it's out there. All over the place, people saying that DONDA is that acronym. So congratulations on spreading the n-word. Well done.