I’d recommend a short story by Fritz Leiber, “Midnight by the Morphy Watch,” which follows a similar theme of greatness and madness among chess greats. I won’t spoil it, but it involves an amateur chess player gaining a pocket watch once owned by Paul Morphy, an American acknowledged as unofficial world chess champion…

Well, he was ... but yes, that’s the guy.

For anyone who was confused, as I was, “Bob Harris” is Bob Harras, the former Marvel editor-in-chief who was appointed EIC at DC in 2010. (The typo is in the THR story as well — well, the second reference to Harras is “Harris,” but not the first.)

The Christopher Priest run on Black Panther (late ‘90s, early 21st century) claimed Wakanda had deep-running tensions between Wakanda’s technological urban culture and the traditional rural culture. T’Challa might have been able to make democratic reforms among the urbanites, but those who lived outside city were dead…

If the XFL had existed a quarter century ago, would the Rock exist? Dwayne Johnson played football at the University of Miami, and in 1995, he signed with the Canadian Football League but was cut before the season. If another football league existed at that time, might he have caught on there and never gone into the…

Any mention of “How Do You Talk to an Angel” by the Heights will always make me smile. The song was the theme to a Fox TV show called The Heights, which followed a band called the Heights — what a coincidence! — and “How Do You Talk to an Angel” lasted longer on the charts than The Heights did on the air. (The Heights…

Nixon isn’t dead. He’s just preparing for his really big comeback, and then you won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around any more.

A similar argument (so incompetent he helped save the Union!) can be made for Hood. At the Battle of Franklin, the brash and bold Hood ordered a frontal assaults on Union breastworks; James M. McPherson wrote, “Having proved even to Hood’s satisfaction that they could assault breastworks, the Army of Tennessee had…

McLendon-Covey will play brilliant A.I.M. scientist Monica Rappaccini, Bennet will play tech company executive Austin Van Der Sleet (he’s trying to take over A.I.M. from M.O.D.O.K.), Daly will play the Super Adaptoid (hey, an actual guy from the comics!)

It turns out the final DD count was Brad 10 (four correct, six incorrect), Ken 8 (seven correct, one incorrect), and James 6 (five correct, one correct), but it certainly felt a lot more lopsided for Brad. Probably because he hit four of six on the first day, or maybe because he missed as many as James hit.

Ken was the one who I would have bet against most. He’d never beaten Brad, and James’s style seems designed to kick holes in Ken’s cautious gameplay. But it turned out James’s style pushed Ken into a more daring strategy — one Ken has said in the past is probably better than his caution — and ... well. It took only…

not unlike Debratha, the first time she saw Bradley the Helpful Firefighter limpid and nude in the tumescent light of dawn

That could be a problem. When breaking Senate ties with his vote, Vice President Incitatus would be able to vote “neigh” only, no matter the issue.

It’s about as significant as Wolverine #1000, Deadpool #1000, and Spectacular Spider-Man #1000. Well, slightly more significant, I suppose, but it makes as much sense as those three.

You’re giving them at least twice as much credit as they deserve.

In the original series, Lucky Yates was one of the regulars, filling various roles. Will he be back, and if so, will the show make any references to his subsequent role as Algernop Krieger on Archer?

The comparison between Renko and Gunther is an apt one; I’ve read all the Renko novels, but it didn’t occur to me. Gunther — in March Violets, at least — seems more willing to bend in some ways than Renko. I might be misremembering, though.

+1 horn.

I’m reading the second book in Steph Cha’s Juniper Song series, with the third book of the trilogy to follow. Liking it so far, but I’m wary of the “Hollywood scandal” direction Beware Beware is taking.

I’ve never found Wolfe’s works to be to my liking, unfortunately. What do you think changed between your first reading of the first Long Sun book and now?