Forrest Gump isn't free of troubling subtext … but at least it was SUBtext.

Also kind of odd:  the higher the notes, the closer to a traditionally female vocal range, the more desirable the singer by & large.  (Speaking of pre-death metal, "cookie monster" days, of course)

Let's all hold him down and airbrush a Vikings vs. zombies battlescape on his forehead.

I can actually imagine a few cogent arguments Ebert might have made to show they aren't art, but that was one case where he didn't argue so much as attitudinize.  Not his finest hour.

Going by what I've heard from people who've read the books, that might not be a parody.

I just thought about people who were my current age back when I was a kid; I tried to do the math and figure out what kind of TV they grew up on.

Ken, of course.  Tell me there's not a Rush van in that man's future.

He might well be jackin' it, though.

[spits out mouthful of catsup and chewed-up Moon Pie]

Yeah, this season may end up being a meditation on how the same or similar events/people can be utterly different, depending on how well the man and his world are matched.  Don Draper and the year 1960 were all but made for each other … but now the time is out of joint, and it's only going to get more so.

Damned jackanapeses, and those greasy crooners with their squirrel coats and megaphones.  Yesterday, I encountered a young soda jerk who stared blankly at me when I demanded my customary Laurel Canyon Phosphate.

They say grace, and they say "ma'am."  If you ain't into that, I'm not 100% positive that your contrary stance is germane to their priorities.

As I've said elsewhere, the bile is actually a pretty boastworthy tribute. God knows, if the sort of people loudly cheering Thatcher's death were even a hundredth as stoked upon the news of my death, I'd know that I had lived a good and useful life, aimed straight, fought well, and made all the right choices. The…

In retrospect, I've gotta give Griffin credit: there really is no way anyone can pin that career on Jesus.

They'd be wiser to get a AAA team and prove their marketworthiness over a few seasons.  It was the Montréal Royals' long-term success that persuaded the NL to award the city the Expos.

Squeeze Play!  What, weren't any of you highschoolers with cable in the '80s?

Well, at least JEJ's well-chosen use of insecticide kept the movie from being a write-off.

Depressing sign of impending mortality #4526: Watching an episode of Mad Men that, by your calculations, is set WITHIN YOUR OWN LIFETIME.  [Primal scream]

R.I.P.  Even when a review of Ebert's ticked me off, or seemed beneath him, it was a function of how damned great he was as a rule, and how much he gave to readers and film lovers over the years.  I hope Heaven greets him with a steak dinner, and the master reels of London After Midnight.

His Mad Dog Time takedown isn't my all-time favorite, but it does contain my all-time favorite single line:  as R.E. puts it, it's "the first movie I have seen that does not improve on the sight of a blank screen viewed for the same length of time."