,Effete's awesome. The way its meaning has shifted over the past couple of generations is such a great example of ignorance and laziness as primary drivers of language change, and also of the relative 'stickiness' of negative connotations. Also, it's one of those words that, since its emergence, one can't imagine not…

On the other hand, billion has literally changed meaning within living memory, from something that logically related to its etymology to something that doesn't, and no one seemed to care all that much. It's actually a little bizarre that it's decimate we ended up squabbling over.
My point was not the there's ever any…

It's true that it's a bit absurd to complain about a word's common use not matching up to the magical and unchanging 'correct' meaning, but people like fusillade762 are not rare. I've always thought that decimate is one of a list of words that are such established battlegrounds of performative pedantry that, for the…

Kids these days will never be as punk rock as you were, Gramps.

Miéville's written in all sorts of genres, but his novel Embassytown is so unambiguously science fiction that it seems beyond churlish to deny him his sci-fi bona fides.

With this and the Döblin collection, Vishnevetsky's been killing it with the book reviews recently.

Not that the point's often made with enough nuance, but sex scandals are mostly horrible when the politician in question has a policy built on fighting sexual immorality.

Even including KitH, Slings and Arrows is far and away the best thing McKinney's done, and his character is among the best things about it.

If I remember correctly, the last half-dozen represented a significant uptick in quality, wrapping up the series in an interesting way and without pandering to the audience's expectations.
An Animorphs RPG would be totally metal, esp. a more old school one that focussed on roleplaying rather than miniatures and combat…

The plot does veer off into some ridiculous territory halfway through, but the show's writing never was really the draw to begin with.

I don't think that's not quite what it was. Didn't Stiller just forget his next line, and cue Duchovny with the first line of the scene to try again?

It's the pause after "Yes, Dave?" The timing is perfect.

The final moments of the series, as everyone leaves for New Hampshire and an embittered Dave returns to his desk, might qualify as one of the most incongruously bleak endings in sitcom history.

The Basic Eight was the first published, but if I recall correctly, Watch Your Mouth was written first. Unsurprisingly, Handler found it difficult to get anyone to publish his Jewish incest comedy (structurally-inspired, in sections, by both the opera and twelve-step programs).

The Basic Eight is a pretty fantastically wicked novel, and is more or less exactly what you'd expect Lemony Snicket to write for "grown-ups". Even his ramshackle first novel, Watch Your Mouth, has a sense of sick fun and a weird moral centre to reccommend it. Basically, everything Handler touches is kind of golden…

Nix the milk, or you're making a White Russian.

Hey, that's a line from the show!

I wouldn't have minded it, but the Dean's random scheming was a really artificial way of orchestrating the series of reveals. AD's reveals were all actually supported, and it gives the scene an elegance which CTaID lacks.

So here's a fun fact-type dealie. Scammers of this ilk are intentionally awful, so that they only the most spectacularly gullible will be hooked. Why would you waste time with low-grade fools wising up to your scheme halfway in? It's more efficient to be this awful.

I guess there's not really all that much to say on a book review comment section.