I think "marginally" is the key word there. Besides, I'm sure that plenty of half-assed, conservative Democrats  either don't care about or wish the abortion issue would go away; moreover, I don't doubt that many Republicans feel the same way.

I think "marginally" is the key word there. Besides, I'm sure that plenty of half-assed, conservative Democrats  either don't care about or wish the abortion issue would go away; moreover, I don't doubt that many Republicans feel the same way.

"The seventies *obviously* suck."

Yeah, John Wesley Harding is his best—and somehow this article manages to ignore it so it can make a crack on Nashville Skyline. Classy. That kind of shit wouldn't be accepted in the academy, children.

Departure? How long have you been waiting to squeeze that into a conversation?

Oh for chrissakes, children. pfranks, I admit to a misspelling, and apologize. LloydBraun, you should also admit to a misspelling, and I apologize to you for not saying "full-circle" or something similarly plebeian. Glad we all had an interesting conversation about this show.

I re-watched the entire series earlier in the summer, and I can safely say that my veneration for the first two seasons as "the classic years" was mythological hindsight. They're both great, don't get me wrong, but the first season especially lacks any connective thread through the episodes, and the plot mechanics…

Both Mandy and Sam had out-arcs. Sam with the whatever election, Mandy with the whatever Bartlett Sucks Memo Thing. I find Mandy's exit  palatable because she was annoying and did not gel with the rest of a great ensemble. I find Sam's exit annoying because he was awesome and as essential a part of the ensemble as…

"The Bridge I Burned" is hardly dispensable, although it's a better fit on the All This Useless Beauty bonus disk on the Rhino reissue than it on this, it's first (ho ho ho) appearance.

True Story:
A close friend and I met two girls named Megan at a bar (later dubbed "Happy Megan" and "Mean Megan"). When Mean Megan said that she worked at a bank, my friend and I absentmindedly said "He always wanted to be a banker" in unison. Neither of us ended up fucking either Megan, but the moment was worth the…

Abraham Lincoln's treasure is in the hearts of all Americans.

@ Batmandu: Yeah, the one-two punch of "Duet" and "In the Hands of the Prophets" pretty much sealed DS9 as the classic it evolved into. There were still some pretty shitty episodes in each season, but they (the "creators," as the irritating Phil Farrand puts it) certainly managed to achieve a higher level of quality…

I was in a Starbucks a couple of years ago (I know…), and overheard an hour's worth of conversation between two young women who were bonding over having had the same abusive boyfriend. It was harrowing stuff, but amusing because they were talking literally inches from a complete stranger just trying to get his work…

Christ, that should be "recuse."

I felt that Reiser was insufferable. He just has the tone, as though he's doing little Marcie Maron the drug addict a big favor by sitting in his garage. And his delusion that his latest ill-fated (and, according to this publication and Allan Sepinwall, awful) TV series would have reached ten million views are beyond…

I can't fucking believe that they privileged a by-the-numbers live WTF over what was almost certainly the most harrowing and beautiful hour Marc has yet produced. What the fuck, indeed.

Yeah, but then what would we learn?

Drunkish myself, I can't wait to spot an allusion to RAN in the film. My guess is that Tasha might be gettin' above her raisin'. Although there *was* one moment in the Half-Blood Prince film that did reference Kurosawa, so maybe I'm wrong…

Bix: My god that would have been horrible. The miscarriage in the first episode was bad enough! Also, it would have been insufferably repetitive (on a related note, while I AM a fan of "That's My Dog," I think David's PTSD arc in Season Five to be well overdone).

Ruth's arc always seemed hampered by her utter bitchiness towards Claire in Season 5. Granted, Claire spent the vast majority of Season Four in an art-school induced narcissism cloud, but even when Claire succumbs to getting a temp-job, Ruth continues to scream at her and treat her like shit. Of course, she's probably…