We also got the loop of 2x the "Yippie-ky-yay." The only thing worse was "Strike this [long, stretched-out "guy" in place of muddafuddah]" for "Major League."

A Very Die Hard Christmas
Last year I took this tradition beyond my family and played it for the English 10 class I had.

Thanks for both of these reviews - I'll have to try to catch up on fiction with Pamuk's work once I'm able.

Considering that it's 2009 and taking 10 years away from this date gives you 1999, I'd argue that "Freaks and Geeks" is in play.

Even re-watching it with zero downtime on the multi-episode arcs, it still just faded away. I'm pretty sure that Peet's pregnancy was to much for Sorkin to adapt to, alas.

The Victorian Lady's schtick is impressive, but the Hulkster has been more consistent.

I'm with PT Anderson
Hell yes on "The Birdcage" - I've owned it on VHS, have it on DVD, and still have stopped for it when it turns up on the tube. Such great fun.

Indeed.

Cool, thanks. (It's Christmas wish list fodder in any case.)

Was "Stop Making Sense" reviewed last week?
I just noticed a review of it with the regional newspaper yesterday; are you going to do it? I don't have a BD player, but want to know if it's worth getting it now if it'll be as uncommon as the DVD was.

Yours must be a popular abode when the plague hits, El Santo. I'd second that one (though I'm reliant on youtube for my fix).

@edked - that reason's why I usually contrive to find a reason to play one of those six episodes to high school humanities classes. It's especially fun to do the dictionary episode, because then you've got Robbie "Hagrid" Coltrane to show as well.

Parts of the book are pretty decent, yeah, but the climax left me flat. The movie is horrendous and finds ways to self-aggrandize the ridiculousness.

"George, the British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganyika. I hardly think we can be entirely absolved from blame on the imperialistic front."

I thought I'd heard that the percentage of the take which goes to the cinema operator starts ludicrously low and then rises the longer it's screening. The take's basically enough to almost cover overhead for the first week, and then you start to make some money. This is why movies open wider and wider and the take…

Eval has part of a point. The Venerable Bede,who helped codify and set calendars as part of his work in early history, did use a year zero so that there could be a "before" and "after" for a marker. That, and only that, kept me from yelling the 2001 is the real blah blah blah from the rooftops in December 1999.

…Ji, bearing the collective power of tv without pity commenters in the style of Buffy and the Scoobies in season four, and

I recall a colleague talking about the excellence of the tactic of writing a monograph that's violently criticized - it needs to be mentioned and refuted by most everyone who is remotely associated with it for several years, and if you've already got tenure you will make out famously. My old school featured a…

Demographic demonization
I don't know where or when, but I find no end of interest in studies of generations and subsections within them. I've been pretty good at not letting my interest pull me fully into them, but the number of times that I've leafed through books by Howe and Strauss or by Michael Adams are easily…

Excellent call on the filk "Mal's Song" - it's one of my favorite "where-did-this-come-from-anyhow" songs that comes up on road trips. It usually needs a few repeats, too.