Giles stresses that it connects to Glory's hell dimension, among others, and what we see of it is mostly a portal to Hellish stuff. We needed a mini crossover with Pylea, to stress that it was every dimension. I bet Joss would have worked that in if he hadn't been so stressed over the move to UPN.

See, I hear just the opposite from the Giles quote you cite. It opens up the walls between dimensions, and Glory will use that opportunity to get into her own (which, since she's a hellgod, is probably a hell dimension, but not all dimensions are - and this was well laid out in season 5).

GILES: The energy ... would flow into that spot, the walls between the dimensions break down. It stops, the energy's used up, the walls come back up. Glory uses that time to get back into her own dimension, not caring that all manner of hell will be unleashed on earth in the meantime.

eta...

agreed that what we saw when the portal opened in The Gift made it pretty clear there are a lot of hell dimensions. But I figure people aren't trying to escape the nicer other dimensions.

I grew up in Maine, where we had State Liquor stores, although if there is no "official" state liquor store in your town, some other (convenience or grocery) store will act as a state liquor store, with all the same rules. In Maine, you can buy hard liquor 9-5, Mon-Sat (although the ancillary "license stores" - the ones that aren't official state stores - may have different rules), but Beer and Wine you can buy every day until 1 in the morning, except on Sundays where you can't start buying beer and wine until noon.

The first time I heard the term "Package Store" was when I went to college in Boston, although, I've never seen the words "package" on a liquor store. These stores also sell beer and wine, and are open Mon-Sat until 11 pm. Also there are occasional convenience stores that have "beer and wine" licenses, and so can sell beer and wine mon-sat from 9am-11pm. However, if your store is within a certain number of miles of the New Hampshire border, you can buy anything on a Sunday (for hours I'm not sure of except that it has to be after noon), because New Hampshire is an asshole state who undercuts their neighboring states fiscally every chance they get. Also, from the Sunday after Thanksgiving until New Years, ALL MA liquor stores can open on Sunday after noon.

Ahhh - Blue Laws. For those who defend the Puritans - FUCK YOU!!!!!

Upstate NY has liquor stores, which sell everything except beer and are open Monday - Saturday 9 -9. Grocery stores sell beer only, from 8 am - 2 am, and from noon - 2 am on Sunday. For some reason, Liqour stores don't sell anything excet liquor, wine and the occasional corkscrew, so you have to go to the grocery store for mixers.

I hadn't realized how different things were at other places.

In Georgia you can't buy at all on Sunday, and even in a restaurant you can't get liquor until noon (after church time, I guess). A line used to form at the twenty-four hour convenience store on my way home at about a quarter to twelve on Sunday nights, waiting for them to unlock the beer coolers.

even in a restaurant you can't get liquor until noon

Same in MA.

No liquor sales at all on Sunday in Utah County, though that rule primarily means no beer sales in the grocery stores and convenience stores. That rule has been challenged in a few outlying towns in the county, much to the store owners' profit and to the outrage of the "good, upright" citizens, most of whom are Mormon and don't drink anyway, so why the hell should they care? Something about profaning Sunday.

For those who don't know, Utah County believes Salt Lake City is sliding rapidly down the slippery slope to Sodom and Gomorra land, what with its beer available on Sunday and all the rest, like fairly thriving Goth, pagan, and gay communities. Being a persecuted minority does a lot for the vitality of a community.

In AZ, I don't think you can get alcohol before 12 on Sunday either...I don't have a lot of parties...it doesn't come up.

Sadly, the folks who don't drink at all care far too often about the liquor laws affecting the rest of us.

"Willow acted rashly, without thinking things through to her usual Willowy level, in part, because she wanted to exert the power necessary to raise the dead. In part. I know she had altruistic, and selfish (not in the power-sense, but 'selfish' in the sense of scared to death and in mourning) reasons to raise Buffy, too. But she didn't think it all out, because she didn't want to find out anything that might have stopped her. It's exactly why she didn't tell Giles, Spike and Dawn, and why she didn't let Tara and the others know that the spell required the blood of an innocent."

Cindy: I know I'm kind of behind the power curve here with a response, but I'm thinking here that Willow was acting in the benefit of the immediate short-term. The Scoobies traditionally operate in an environment unfriendly to long-term strategizing and consequence management. The demon biker dudes weren't going to wait for anybody to catch up and comprehend things. Somebody at CSIS (Cordesman, I think) wrote a paper about the Buffy dynamics of fighting international terrorism -- temporary alliances, so on and so forth. Willow did what the short-term imperatives called for. She did the same thing with the Slayer power-up. Besides the guilt of telling the gang that the spell required the blood of an innocent, Willow just didn't have the time to argue the ethics. She was willing to make a relatively minimal sacrifice to gain Buffy's return.

Interestingly, one could say that concept was perverted and twisted in Angel S4 when Possessed!Cordelia encouraged Connor to to protect her while she was pregnant.

Sadly, the folks who don't drink at all care far too often about the liquor laws affecting the rest of us

Pretty much seems to be the way smoking laws are going these days too.

I must admit, while in theory I'm against the way the smoking laws are going in MA, in practise I'm perfectly happy to go out to places and not be breathing cigarette smoke anymore. Looks like Cambrigdge and Somerville are due for the chop in Oct., which pretty much means this state is going the way of CA.