"Puppet wrangler? There weren't any puppets in this movie!" – Crow T. Robot
The AV Club on cult comedies (including the dire Yellowbeard):
A movie like Atonement veritably fucks audiences up the ass with class…
Cherie M. Priest on her plumbing woes:
When all was said and done, the plumber removed a 2+ foot segment of pipe that was so rusted and holey that it was doing all the good of a condom full of thumbtacks.
Hmm. Is science fiction the enemy of real science? Buzz Aldrin seems to think so:
Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. told SCI FI Wire that fantastic space science fiction shows and movies are, in part, responsible for the lack of interest in real-life space exploration among young people.“I blame the fantastic and unbelievable shows about space flight and rocket ships that are on today,” Aldrin said in an interview during an ice cream party held by the National Geographic Channel at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., this week. “All the shows where they beam people around and things like that have made young people think that that is what the space program should be doing. It’s not realistic.”
“….if you start dealing with fantasy and beaming people up and down and traveling seven times the speed of light, you are doing damage. You’re not helping. You have young people who have got expectations that are far unrealistic, and you can’t possibly live up to the expectations you have created in young people. Why do they get bored with the space program? That’s why.”
All due respect to Mr. Aldrin — a great American and beloved Monty Python character — but this is an incredibly dumb thing to say, and it betrays a deep ignorance of what science fiction is and, more importantly, what its fans take away from it.
With rare exception — and legions of costumed, Klingon batleth-wielding Star Trek fans notwithstanding — most people approach science fiction with the understanding that it is, well, fictional. At best, it is a glimpse of what the future might some day be. It’s ridiculous to think that children are turned off from real science and spaceflight because the current incarnations of these don’t match up with that vision. If anything, it’s the opposite that often holds true: the sense of wonder and possibility that science fiction can engender often leads children to become scientists, astronauts, builders of tomorrow. If they’re disappointed to learn that beaming and light-speed technologies don’t exist, they’re more likely to puzzle out why — to try to figure out how they can be made to exist — than to throw up their hands and walk away from present-day science altogether. Those who do walk probably weren’t all that interested anyway.
The American space program, after all, was arguably at the height of its popularity when shows like the original Star Trek, Lost in Space, and their like were on the air. It seems like that wouldn’t be the case if Aldrin’s argument held any water.
There are lots of problems with our current space program — most of them relating to lack of funding — but science fiction isn’t one of them.
Dear Democratic Party,
Seriously, why did I even bother voting for you?
It’s inexcusable not to hold a President to the rule of law, but even more so to then turn around and make his unlawful actions legal.
Plain disgusted,
A concerned citizen
Updated to add: I’m glad to see that New York’s senators, Chuck Schumer and Hilary Clinton, voted against the bill, but it would not have passed in the Senate without support from key Democrats. And while I do realize that Barrack Obama isn’t a golden god who can do no wrong, his turnaround on this is extremely disheartening.
The message says, “Help protect your home against unpredictable breakdowns!”
I hate it when houses break down and just won’t stop crying, don’t you? You need some serious therapeutic feng shui when that happens, let me tell you.
Oh my. Do I actually now like beets? I may have to seriously re-evaluate my dining options.
This past Sunday, I discovered that Tom Colicchio, the head judge on Top Chef (to which I was ridiculously addicted this past season) owns a chain of take-out sandwich shops, including some in New York. Including one just around the corner from where I work near Bryant Park.
My first thought was, how can I have never seen this place? Turns out I have. It’s actually a handful of small kiosks inside the park; one serves soup and sandwiches, a couple others on the other side of park serve desserts. (They maybe blend in a little too well.)
So I decided to try it for lunch today. And, inspired in part by two recent New York Times articles — the 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating and Putting Meat Back in Its Place — as well as my desire to lose weight and maybe ease a little of my back pain, I decided to go vegetarian.
This actually didn’t leave me with a lot of options — I’m still fairly secure in my distaste for chickpeas and olives — so I went with the roast beet salad. (Not as uber-healthy or vegan as it might sound; it was topped with goat cheese and candied walnuts, and I also bought a cream soda on the side.) But it’s worth noting that I don’t like beets, never have. And yet it was a really good salad. I genuinely liked the beets. It was akin to the moment, maybe fifteen years ago, when I realized that, oh hey, I actually did like mushrooms. Not exactly an epiphany or anything — the clouds didn’t part — but it does open some more eating possibilities.