My first reaction was to hearken back first sentence of the paragraph, that of training nurse practitioners to perform abortions. I've had a wisdom tooth yanked — by a dental surgeon — and if it happens again, I do not want the dental equivalent of a nurse practitioner performing the procedure. I want someone who has…

I was going to say it belonged in the article on Mork and Mindy porn movie. But not a joke, per se.

The robot, as pointed out below, is Tik Tok from the move Return to Oz. (And the Oz books, for that matter.) I think the one with the misshapen head is Sloth from The Goonies.

Jack Vance started the Demon Princes series, his best sci-fi works, in the '60s. The first three novels — The Star King, The Killing Machine, and The Palace of Love — came out during that decade. These aren't really emblematic of the '60s; as all his works are, these novels suggest Vance and Vance alone. But they're…

Indeed. Evidently being a former movie set is more important than location (or anything else).

Also, some experts think the Iliad is describing PTSD when Homer says Ajax went mad under Athena's spell, slaughtering a herd of sheep that he thought were the enemy, and then killing himself.

Yeah, but that was Bart Sears's fault, surely. That stuff is still seared on my eyeballs, and I read it three years ago. Remember Priest for Black Panther and Quantum and Woody.

I've seen better Ford commercials too. But now I know which car I need to steal if I have to run down and flip a Dodge Charger on the streets of San Francisco.

Ah, but was it as emphasized as much as the fine Ford family of automobiles? I think not.

And I grew up in a dry county in southern Illinois that isn't marked. It's a flawed map, especially since the entirety of Georgia is marked "I dunno."

Bayezid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, sent the lance fragment and a yearly monetary tribute of approximately 4,000 ounces of gold to Pope Innocent II in exchange for indefinitely holding the Sultan's brother and pretender to the Turkish throne, Prince Jem, as a prisoner in Rome.

It might be unwise. But that's also not something a bunch of local-yokel treasure hunters are going to think of on their first real dig.

The diggers struck a solid block. Believing it to be a treasure chest and a sign of success only feet away, the workers stopped for the day.

Interesting that two of the Best Novel nominees are sequels of last year's nominees. Does that happen very often?

I think making cauliflower sculptures of these tragic moments is in poor taste.

Really? High schoolers? I've tutored a lot of high school English students over the last few years, and I haven't seen any questions about Moby Dick. (There's a lot of Great Gatsby and Huck Finn, as you'd expect.) I'd concede that college students are assigned the text, but foisting Moby Dick on high school students…

> But it was no Moby Dick.

Because people have read What's the Matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank and because the State Board of Education keep waffling between creationism and evolution. Is this fair? No, of course not. On the other hand, the four changes to the board's position on evolution in the last 15 years (because of electoral changes…

While at Dinosaur Kingdom, you can visit the actual natural bridge the town was named for ... or you can go to Foamhenge, a full-sized replica of Stonehenge made of styrofoam.

As much as I wish he would, A. Lee Martinez hasn't done any sequels. He makes it a point to mention that on his blog frequently.