They'll also correct your spelling of genealogy. (Guilty!)

I agree Affleck was stupid to want to cover it up - his ancestors' actions have no bearing on his character. At the same time, if you've ever watched the show, Gates has a tendency to confront his white guests with their slave-owning ancestors in a manner that comes off as passive-aggressive and squirm-inducing. I…

I think people seriously underestimate how many slave-owners there were in the U.S. They tend to imagine that since their family wasn't in the South in 1860, therefore they had no slave-owning ancestors. But if you had ancestors living in the U.S. before 1800, there's a good chance somebody on your tree owned…

Eh, since I just looked them up, here they are:

If this is where we post our favorite Newswires from years past, consider this mine:

God, now I want full-cast recollections on the production of I, Claudius. How many of those people are still around? Blessed, Jacobi, and John Hurt for sure, though they're getting up there. Patrick Stewart, of course. Is Sian Phillips still around? I don't think I ever saw her in anything other than I, Claudius…

TREASURE BATH!!!

Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea: be subject
To no sight but thine and mine, invisible
To every eyeball else. Go take this shape
And hither come in't: go, hence with diligence!

Picking favorites among Kubrick films is a nearly impossible task for me, but if I have to choose:

No, there were two shots from Killer's Kiss in there; the ballerina dancing, and the guy with the axe in the mannequin factory. I think the writer is mistaken about the 11; the only film from which I didn't see any shots is Fear & Desire.

There were a couple of shots from Killer's Kiss. I didn't notice anything from Fear & Desire, but I only saw that film once, so it's possible I didn't recognize a shot from it. I think all of his other films were referenced.

Gosh I love apocalyptic fiction. My dad gave me "Alas, Babylon" when I was a kid (the cold war was still a thing back then, because I am Old) and it totally blew my little mind. Did you ever read This Is The Way The World Ends, by James Morrow? It's definitely a dated account of the apocalypse (a nuclear war in the…

I think "Ava" is just a variation on "Eve," with straightforward Biblical connotation.

https://www.youtube.com/wat…

Blood Ceremony is so fucking good. Sold!

Mythbusters blew up a 50-gallon drum of it some years ago. Went up a treat.

There's no way we're the first ones to do this, but a couple of years ago some friends and I made White Russians with egg nog at my holiday party, which we dubbed "Red Russians." It's subsequently come to my attention that there is ostensibly a drink called a "Red Russian" that involves mixing vodka with boiled cow's…

If you've been around the AVC for a long enough time, you know about Buckfast Tonic Wine.

Speaking of delightful Kafka references… a friend recently sent me this:

Ha! I have an explanation for that, but I'm not sure you'll believe me. I got my MA in history at CUNY and did a lot of research on 19th-century politics. Irving Hall was one of the Democratic factions opposed to Tammany Hall during the 1880s. So my brain conflated Irving Plaza with Irving Hall.