I think you are way off base about Yi being a stereotype, or at least any more of a stereotype than any other TV character.  Her low key stubbornness and deadpan delivery are a great addition to the character mix, and she is not the least bit Charlie Chanish.

I end up re-reading 1984 regularly for one of my classes, but Homage To Catalonia is my favorite Orwell. Good call—

I read Lolita for the first time in my college lit class. Having a professor there to point a few things out made a big difference, not so much in my enjoyment of the book, because I would have enjoyed reading it anyway, but in my ability to get more out of it.

On a more positive note, here's my list of books I read every few years. These are the old reliables I always enjoy revisiting:

My wife and I are apparently in the minority here. We both read Confederacy of Dunces and thought it was one of the dumbest books we have ever read. We don't always agree, but total agreement on this one made our marriage stronger. Hated it, and I still feel like a dunce for sticking with it to the end.

Scatology is one of the few things that the boys keep coming back to in South Park, and it is never, ever, funny. Sorry. If it's a show about Mr. Hanky, I know that I can give it a pass.

Leave it to Beaver was no whiter than the AV Club or these discussions. So I'm just going to assume that Mr. Terrorist meant it as a compliment.

Location, location, location
The best thing about this movie is that it gave the Hotel del Coronado something else to talk about besides Some Like it Hot.

I can still sing the song to Branded. And the Rifleman. Actually most of the old westerns, now that I think about it.

Surfer Matt Dillon
The LA Times obit added something I did not know. Arness was a fanatical surfer who got his pilot's license specifically so he could fly to Baja and surf remote breaks. His eldest son was a world-champion surfer in the '70's.

^ This comment does not deserve to be buried at the end of this discussion.

There was a BBC show on PBS last night that took a British family, put them in an isolated house, and re-created the 1970's for them. Livin' la vida '70's. The whole point of the show, as far as I could tell, was that life way back then was so primitive that they might as well have been living in the Dark Ages. Did…

You can toss The Wild, Wild West onto that list, as well.

Five Summer Stories
OK, not as good as Endless Summer, but it has the best soundtrack of any surf movie, a laid-back score by the Laguna Beach band, Honk.

Yes, the word "asylum" is so incredibly offensive. It's not like it means a shelter or a place of peace and protection or anything like that.

Gotta say that I don't understand the conventional wisdom that Buffy Season 1 was somehow less than great. It was fun from beginning to end, and way, way, way better than the generally craptacular last two seasons.

I am pretty sure that the third sentence in The Cage's comment above perfectly describes The Cage.

He absolutely is not saying that you are stupid if you like this show. He is saying that you are a real moron if you like this show. That is obviously completely different.

Well, thank you. From a completely snarky, hilarious point of view, Political Science can't be beat. Catchy tune and sublime lyrics.

The Pina Colada song was one of the reasons I quit listening to AM radio. God what an awful song. It was objectionable on every level— terrible tune, and crappy lyrics about awful people. It makes me cringe just to think about it.