Does no one realize any more that this is scripted television? Badly scripted, badly acted, yes, but still just television. It's not real, people. This is like getting overheated because George Jetson isn't a good father to Judy and Elroy.

They stole the time of people playing with their children on Christmas Day, caused them to spend much off that day trying to fix something unfixable. You don't get those days back. Not ever. Empathy matters.

Wow. Sometimes Karma is really on her game.

Bought a gift book from Amazon a half hour ago, just now read your story, went back, cancelled, re-ordered, saved myself ten dollars. Thanks!!!

Bought a gift book from Amazon a half hour ago, just now read your story, went back, cancelled, re-ordered, saved…

I wonder if he was claustrophobic?

This would make a great series on CW.

If Bullwinkle were on the job, that camera would be on the way to an Upsidaisium mine by now.

Kinda doubt they've really opened that one, either, except in the dark to pant over the "dirty parts."

The grip strength in that woman's left hand is beyond reason. Clearly a mutant, she's strong enough to rise off the ground with nothing more than her palm and fingertips gripping a slick-surfaced laptop. Amazing!

If you must wear a massive huge enormous backpack to carry all your con-gear, please be considerate of those about you. A quick turn, and that thing can slam into someone beside you with more force than you'd expect. Helping your unintentional victims off the floor is not a good way to "meet cute."

A mite OT, but I've always loved the movie trope that a cut brake line doesn't take effect — and presumably the driver doesn't even give his/her brakes the merest touch — until the car is doing about a hundred on a curvy, no-guardrails road in the steep, scary mountains. Cutting a brake line: definitely an art, not a…

The real question is, who will play Alex Rodriguez next? He's got twelve regenerations, and this one is only William Hartnell. Can't wait to see him in checked pants, playing his penny pipe.

Actually, it's about intellectual property rights — and your disdain for plagiarism means that you're coming out against your lords and masters at the corporations of the world. Ask Disney, and they'll tell you: plagiarism isn't about "creative artists." It's about money.

Nonsense. There were no kids in the 1970s. I remember. There were no restaurants in the 1970s. I remember. And there were no 1970s in the 1970s. I remember.

The only time I ever stiffed a server was when he utter vanished after taking our order, let his manager deliver our food & drinks, and then dumped the entire remains of my meal into my lap — silverware and all — when clearing the table. When I looked down to check the damage to my clothing, he breezily said, "Oh…

Sorry, no. Doc's sidekicks used the supermachine pistols with the mercy bullets. Doc didn't carry a gun, only used one on extremely rare occasions, and never with intent to kill. Note: I speak of the true Doc Savage, from the Street & Smith pulp magazine (1933-1949), not of the comic book versions or the George Pal…

Just 'round the corner from Melmac.

Neither is half so bad as a "chosen one."

Doc Savage. Saved the world occasionally, but saved bits and pieces of the world monthly — which is harder and rather more important — without superpowers, but with an amazing amount of study, hard work, and regular exercise. Doctorates in a dozen or more fields, one of the world's richest men, fears no man (while…

I don't recall whether it was in a book of essays or his monthly F&SF column, but Isaac Asimov made this same argument some 30 years back.