The word itself is not a slur, no, but I've encountered it in the slur form a few times this year from my students. In both cases, they claimed that they had no clue that the way that they used it was a slur - but would they have gotten away with any other slur for another group? The shocking part of the whole thing…

I'll second Miller - I'm a serial book-giver, so I hope it's a gesture. Even if people give me books I haven't read or films I haven't watched, I usually think of them as kind gestures so long as they don't harangue about "what I thought."

@Ricky Dorner - Although I'll concede that there were some laggy years for Captain America in the 90s, it doesn't diminish the high points that he had in there - particularly the interrupted run that Mark Waid and Ron Garney had in the middle of the decade. Pick up the "Operation Rebirth" set if you don't believe.

There were a few issues in the late 1990s (around UXMen 340?) where they tried to provide pertinent backstory for whatever was going on in the title at that time. That stuff wasn't quite why I quit, but it was pretty close.

Ah, but it's the effort that makes it worthwhile, isn't it? I always think of the "hypocrisy" discussion by the neo-Victorians in "The Diamond Age" when these issues come up - it doesn't ruin Jeeves, just makes the ever-present effort for perfection more winning.

Thank goodness for the teaching load. Nice gig, AJR - I wish I didn't have to get on some marking later this week…

That's a beauty of a gift - I've only got "What Ho!", the fans' choice anthology. My wife was good enough to gift me with the complete "Jeeves and Wooster" DVD set on Christmas Day - as well as the complete "Blackadder." That's a whole lot of Fry and Laurie to enjoy right there, saying nothing of the Atkinson.

I've always been partial to the Moose Factory Ruffryders, thanks.

Football Commercial
This is practically heartwarming when compared to the football commercial by the same company. You know your centre's really into the game - and the quarterback's really just there for the centre - when the latter's close enough to find the former's left behind paper shards.

Thirded for the UK "Office" Christmas special. Not only a good holiday show, but the perfect cap for the series.

@mbs - Yeah, that was a fun moment. I'd earlier quipped that we'd have a spelling test on the new words, so that one was gone. I noted that in the TV edit it was usually "Yippie-ki-yay, yippie-ki-yay!" instead, which drew a quick laugh and then they returned to the film. They preferred it to the class-related…

I was somewhat tempted to play "Batman Returns" as the Christmas film for my English class… but realized that I didn't want to deal with kids freaked out by the Penguin. "Die Hard" worked perfectly well, and few of them had seen it (always helpful to make things quiet…)

Quadruple with P.T. Anderson's "Mary Worth."

^ So tempted to trade in my name for "Canada - Indeed Splendid" as a play on your name, but I'm set in my ways.

JVS wins again and again. Well done.

Mona Lisa, obviously.

Do they still call them all Disney Masterpieces?
I remember that was the shtick back in the heyday of 90s (when I still was prey to family viewing events) but they had most everything out on VHS for the big animated films.

Hyam's Obit
Wow - that's a new level of buzzkilledness. Not only is it a reverential tribute to a guy I wish I'd heard of, but it also makes me vaguely sad that I rely on this site for most of my pop-culture news. (Well, not really - better this than… wait, what else offers this?)

Ooops, meant to say DAD (for "Die Another Day" - wow, no wonder that acronym's not used like TWINE for "The World Is Not Enough.")

Amen to the first two on the list. I've not seen TND, and I'm wondering if it's worth the effort. (I've heard it has an invisible car and some dude with diamond shards in him that make him superpowered or something asinine. Really?)