Growing up, I had a Usborne picture book entitled "All About Ghosts" which presented itself as an educational book about ghosts for children treating paranormal things as perfectly normal objects of investigation, no different from dinosaurs or whatever. It was rather irresponsible in retrospect, but I remember it…

But that's just an idiom of English, not an objective meaning difference. Other languages have other idioms that likewise don't translate. You might think German "Es ist mir heiß" (it is hot to me) and "Ich bin heiß" (I am hot) mean the same thing as the translations do in English, referring to temperature, but they…

I mean, the show's named after him! Not after any of the humans — I mean, logically it should be the Velma Dinkley show given she is the primary mystery solver.

Also, 5) I saw a bug! For some reason, with all cats I've owned, they make a different sound for a bug (sort of like eh-eh-eh-eh) than for other animals.

I think this is intentional. It was common for film noirs to have plot holes like that. In The Big Sleep Marlowe gets so sidetracked that he (and us) never figure out who killed Owen.

Oh man, Hammond organs! In the late 1970s and early 1980s the music stores in the local malls all seemed to have them. Then in the mid-1980s they all disappeared in favor of electronic keyboards. Which were certainly smaller, cheaper and more flexible. But those old electric organs really had a charm of their own.

I have literally a half dozen mattress stores within walking distance of my apartment. I have to wonder if they are all legit because it's not like buying mattresses is a common occurrence.

Not to mention streaming music (and to a lesser extent video, but it's not as complete). In the 1980s and 1990s learning about a new band took effort (and cash!). Now it just takes time.

Although take a look at Silent Running (1972). The effects were really amazing. Yes, it was more of a philosophical movie about whether protecting nature was more important than people, and it didn't have the commercial or cultural impact of Star Wars (or even Logan's Run for that matter), but it really is an…

Obviously, American Graffiti is a great movie, although it is to blame for things like Happy Days (even though AG was technically nostalgia for the JFK-era rather than the 1950s).

And likewise, it amazes me that millennials are into Star Wars. That's our GenX thing. Go back to your Harry Potter — that's yours.

I really think that's what killed Star Trek (and no, the J.J. Abrams movies don't really count — they really don't get the ethos and are just generic SF movies with a thin veneer of Trek-ness) — at one point we had *multiple* Star Trek series running simultaneously. People just got sick of it after awhile. Make people…

Rogue One's a little *too* made for the old-school fans (which I am, being old enough to have seen Star Wars in 1977), with lots of in-jokes, like the troopers mentioning that the model of landspeeder Luke had been discontinued (to tie in with Luke's whine about not getting a good price for it in ANH).

Sure Henry fit in. He likes boarding schools! Is many great boarding schools in Soviet Union! Suvorov Academy great school in Leningrad. Makes many Army officers!

“It all sounds like a really entertaining but far-fetched TV show,”

He needs to stop making Tim Burton movies and things like the Pirates movies that try to ape that sort of whimsy. He'd actually be good in an upcoming season of Stranger Things, but I know he and Winona may not want to work together.

Ironically, that may actually make those luxuries more desirable. The point of owning something by Rolex, Gucci, etc. isn't that the product is all that great, it is that by owning (and flaunting) them you are demonstrating wealth. The more expensive the better.

Garry Kasparov ran against Putin a few years ago, so there's precedent for a game player to try to run a country. Of course Kasparov lost big time, but it's not like super smart people even *try* to run for office elsewhere.

Oh come on. It's just a mall, albeit open air as per the Southern California style. If anything, we we should be visiting them more while we can. In a decade or so we'll have to explain to our kids/grandkids what malls were.

I knew an Eowyn. But it was before the LOTR movies, so her parents at least were fans of the books.