I just read Vampires in the Lemon Grove over the weekend and was a little underwhelmed. I loved Russell's ideas and she can write, but at least to me, it never felt like she quite followed through on the promise of most of her stories. That last little oomph was missing.

The 13th Warrior is awesomeness personified. Among many other things, the prayer Banderas's character offers up before the final confrontation is simple and beautiful. I never hear anyone talk about it, but it should be quoted more often (and I'm not even religious):

Nice. I'm glad to hear that. It's still in my to-read pile.

Isn't Pratchett's Alzheimer's a rare variation, though? My impression was that it affects his motor skills but not his mind. His Discworld novels are certainly weaker than they used to be (though I'll continue reading them and enjoying them), but that's arguably a result more of having written a ton of them over a…

I love The 13th Warrior.

Hey, Jay. I didn't say it IS a game show or even exactly like a game show. I said it's exactly like WATCHING one. That's the manner in which I enjoy it, though I know I'm probably by far in the minority feeling that way.

Both my secret shame and my secret joy lie in watching this franchise. It's such heartless, pandering, manipulated, shlocky shit. But even though every episode—ever—deserves a C or lower, it's too much fun to watch. It's exactly like watching a game show. Everyone goes on thinking they can manipulate the process and…

No, seriously, where do you get such bitching gold shirts?

Still, I hadn't even thought of Huston and I should have. I've only seen four of the films on that list. I need to rectify that. As for the piece/peace question, when in doubt, turn to Merriam-Webster . . .

Huston is an impeccable choice. I probably should have qualified my question with "living" and "currently active."

I'll stand up with Chris P. Cream above. This is a pretty damn good movie. I was let down when I saw it in the theater, but it's gotten much better on repeated viewings over the years. And is there anyone better at literary adaptations than Cuaron? A Little Princess, Great Expectations, Harry Potter, Children of Men .…

Is there a greater intersection of parody and "god, I wish that existed"?

How does A Perfect World hold up? I remember seeing it in the theater and digging it (if only for the whole bit about the difference between a threat and a warning). I haven't seen it since, though. That's—oh crap—20 years ago.

I can think of a couple in Fort Worth.

I'm interested based on Vanya on 42nd Street alone.

But we did get a phone call to Wes Craven . . .

Yeah, we sort of need to get a thread going about that two-parter because . . . whew. It's bad enough when they do serious episodes about Beckett, but now we get to do them about Castle, too? Yeesh.

That might have been my favorite episode of Castle in . . . ever? Mainly b/c (1) it was one of the light-hearted ones, (2) the pop culture reference of the week was relatively well-handled (for Castle), and (3) it actually worked to its advantage to split Castle and Beckett up into handling two separate cases . . .…

I'm not sure I'm following the logic. So Phil Collins releases Face Value, then Abacab comes out from Genesis later that year. There's another solo album and then he returns to Genesis to record their self-titled album, which had a couple of big hits. He puts out another solo album but goes back to Genesis to record…

Your friend's dad was a lucky, lucky man.