I tried re-watching it a couple years ago, and couldn’t even make it an hour. The original miniseries is really, really, really fucking terrible. Tim Curry is exceptional and terrifying, but his performance gets overwhelmed by how awful the rest of it is.

What was the point of re-shooting this one?

Well, sure, but they’re still better than any of the alternatives. I occasionally have to design different types of guides in my freelance work, and, despite the obvious superiority of something like InDesign (or, hell, even Publisher) for that kind of a task, Word is typically what my clients prefer. Google Docs…

In hindsight, not the best picture to use as a header without context.

Some days I think there has to be a requirement to get into tech journalism that you throw out everything you ever knew about how normal people use technology.

I suppose it might come as a surprise to someone who works for a website that barely spellchecks, proofreads or formats their work, but believe it or not, Word does all of those things better than any of the competitors.

How does it compare to Los Angeles? Or Dallas? Or any other major city? Hard pass.

Regardless if the airlines have the right to kick you off, shouldn’t you comply when police ask you to get off a plane?

You know, in hindsight, I suppose this is exactly what we ought to expect when we combine United’s utter, abject contempt for it’s passengers with the Chicago Police’s utter, abject contempt for it’s citizens.

I don’t like being bumped any more than you do. And I have been bumped involuntarily before. But I would never throw such a fit that I would require armed officers to drag me off the plane.

But if you’re idea is that passengers should dig their nails into seats and refuse to leave aircraft when asked, and require police involvement for every dispute with the crew, then that is a really bad idea.

Boycotts don’t work if a minority of customers participate. You need a majority.

Why did United load the plane with passengers, and THEN decide to kick 4 people off? When no one took them up on the money/voucher offer, why not just deny boarding to 4 randos, say “sorry, we overbooked and you’re being booted, I’m so sorry, here’s your ticket & voucher & hotel, again sorry?”

The ejected customer’s prerogative is to demand hefty compensation, verbally complain to the employees and file complaints with management, and even sue the airline if they feel mistreated by being ejected (they will lose, though - contracts of carriage are pretty iron-clad).

Jesus Christ, there are a lot of Americans (including plenty in the comments!) who seem ready and willing to defend virtually any awful thing a company does on the basis of, “Hey, them’s the rules”.

Therefore they feel a measure of corporate ownership over them. I don’t know why, but I find that fascinating.

An old gutterpunk friend of mine refers to this as “spacebag” due to it’s shiny metallic surface.

This is a pretty fantastic insight, Ron Swanson of Westeros, and one I hadn’t considered. You deserve all of my internets for the day.

Based on current evidence, I’d have to say they failed spectacularly.

What are we establishing as our baseline for “op-ed” columnists? I think there are a host of good political writers who write sort of a mix of political coverage jammed together with opinion pieces. Are those op-eds, or something else? I agree with you on straightforward, “traditional” op-ed columnists.