Not its Platonic form, alas.

Yeah, but they couldn't find their way out of a cave.

Hannibal ad portas.

The Antonine Plague did it.

Everything's Coming Up Roses (This Time, Like Me)

Burn baby burn
DISCO KHAL MORO
Burn that mother down

The man's stand-up act was really good. If you saw Rondell Sheridan on a special, you knew the next seven minutes were worthwhile.

"Turns out your 'rock and roll' was just an elaborate Ponzi scheme. Get in the van, Fergie."

"Yeah, whatever kids — if you never saw Mousercise, you missed out."

"For Winchester Mystery House 3000 . . ."

The second Godfather is more epic than the first, which at many times is just a "base under siege" story. But I still like it, and it was one of the first films to really humanize criminals and gangsters and show they could be compelling individuals.

I had a teacher who said your love of The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager will be equaled by your hatred of it as an parent.

I generally have a problem with Twain's novels, which have good individual moments but never seem to cohere into a sustained story. I've written this elsewhere, but Finn is not quite the offender on this front that A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is.

I've tried to get into The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and never can finish it. It has the barest vestige of a plot and Twain, a fine short story writer, really had a hard time with extended narrative.

Oh, come on. He's not as bad a stylist as, say, Asimov.

Give it a chance. It's like nothing Hollywood was making at the time and it's ferociously entertaining. Best of all time? Maybe but definitely best of its era.

Saw Forrest Gump the first time and was charmed by it. Saw it the second time and wondered what I was thinking the first time. Passive hero pushed around by circumstances meets far more interesting supporting characters who get hustled off the stage way too quickly. (Great soundtrack, though.)

Co-signed on Owen Meany. The titular character is an impossible creature; John Wheelwright is a narrow-minded, buttoned-up prig and the whole narrative is everything that's weeping and groaning about religion and nothing that's inspiring or comforting.

I AIN'T NO PROFESSOR HONEYDEW

The Muppets Take Unemployment