Larry's self-hatred on pot didn't ring true to me.  Is that a common reaction?  I've never had it.

"a kaleidoscope of geometric figures, and they were sharp on the brain."

Hah!  Some work friends and I at a previous job (over a decade ago, now; my how time flies) had a ritual of going to lunch on Friday afternoons and drinking three or four beers, then coming back to work and seeing how long we could manage to sit at our desks and try to look productive (it was an open floor-plan, so we…

That mellowing-out feature of marijuana is the thing that makes me wish they'd not only legalize it, but that doctors would prescribe it for about 75% of the population.

I'll just do like my father did: tell my kids that I drank too much, ran afoul of the Mexican police, and can't go back to Ciudad Acuña.

I had some weird hallucinations on Allegra, which I took for a bad sinus infection.  I popped the pills, went to work, and sat there for an hour perfectly conscious, but seeing sea anemones flowing and waving all over.  Beautiful colors, waving in the tropical watery currents like fields of wheat.  Needless to say,…

I agree that Trainspotting is a great anti-drug movie.  I'd pair it with GoodFellas.  Both of those films convinced me that, having smoked marijuana and found the effects of it satisfied my mind-altering desires, and having tried unsuccessfully many times to break my dependency on nicotine, I was far better off in all…

I love The Adventures of Robin Hood, and it may be the best overall movie Errol Flynn was ever a part of; but, as I mentioned in @avclub-fec1b8d3fbc08f27a84e5a334d45bb5a:disqus 's post earlier, I think The Sea Hawk is my favorite (despite not featuring deHavilland or Rathbone).  As for Robin Hood, though, his entrance…

I remember Rabbit-Proof Fence raising my consciousness about the very similar treatment of American Indians by the US government (boarding schools; forced assimilation; destruction of language, and therefore culture).  I guess I was supposed to learn about the Australian Aboriginal experience, which I did, but it also…

Fall of the Roman Empire sounds interesting.  I'm not very well-versed on my late-Roman history, so I'd like to read up on this.  Coincidentally, this weekend I came across my copy of From the Gracchi to Nero, which I read back in college, and have been meaning to read again for several years.  Seems like it's time to…

I love The Sea Hawk!  It's probably my favorite Errol Flynn movie, for all the reasons you mention.  He was such a great swordsman, and as I remember, this movie starts right off with a great naval battle, complete with pirates boarding the captured ship, guys swinging through the rigging, maybe some with knives…

If so, he should definitely have those neon lights underneath it!

Good for you, taking that chance.  Those signals can be tricky.  I once had a thing for a girl who worked at a coffee shop I went to all the time.  We got a little chatty one day, and she asked to look at the book I brought it.  It was a history of Slovakia, which I was reading in preparation for the trip I was going…

"there are so many opportunities to watch"

This is why I'd like it if we could call the times we've been living through for the last 5 or 6 years as a Depression instead of a Great Recession.  It hasn't just been economic — it's had profound cultural and psychological impacts on most of us.  Some of the least fortunate have lost jobs, houses, and families. …

Except for the impossibility of advertising the name of the show in uncensored form, I could imagine him titling an HBO special, Louis C.K.: Worthless Piece of Shit.

Started watching Veep, Season 1 on DVD.  So far (only 4 episodes in at this point), it's pretty good.  I especially like the "Did the president call?" running gag.  Malinger-Her and I agreed that it is insane that Julia Louis-Dreyfus looks better now than she did 20 years ago on Seinfeld.  How is that possible?  If…

Oh, they've definitely been terrible for long, long stretches (though, as a Cubs fan, no one else gets any sympathy on that score from me).  I had to double-check after your comment to make sure the Indians actually had won that Series in 1948.

"It's just such a cool, perfectly executed, unexpected little moment that it's sort of breathtaking."

@avclub-0f0d67e214f9fef69b278e3d08114da9:disqus , I just watched Bingo Long last night, and I can happily report that it is even better than I remembered it being.  Check it out.  It's really good, and deserves to be better remembered than it is.