I never said they had to sing opera. But if the vocal stylings rip you out of the song, then that's a problem, IMO. Maybe it's just my problem, but I suspect that a band's appeal could be broadened by avoiding such affectations. But I gotta grant a band should do whatever their muse suggests, and if it suggests CM…

I'll take Collings' back here. I'm so far out of the metal scene now I can't even see it from here, but even back in the day the ability to be loud for about the length of a show seemed to be the most important requirement for way too many metal singers. Which was weird as hell to me, because the bands almost always…

@Poor Poor Bob

Yeah, I have some trouble with that rape business too. Ted clearly doesn't remember a thing about the night before, which strongly suggests that he was also wasted if in fact anything happened, which IMO certainly blurs things.

Steve Martin
It's been ages since I saw the flick, but I do not recall Steve Martin's character really needing a reminder of how cool family is. Part of what makes him sympathetic is his desperation to get home and be with his family at Thanksgiving.

…and I'll have the vox popui, medium-rare.

Yes, the character was named Sharpay (Sharpe`?). Anyway, that was part of the joke.

Mostly harmless
Dragged to see this movie by a desperate to see it 11 year old boy yesterday, I found it surprisingly painless. Non-working cell phones are dealt with, grown-ups are less clueless than usual (the kids actually act to protect them), and several bits are actually funny (a gag with a rotary dial phone is…

Ouch. Self-pwned. We regret the error.

Men in Black?
I realize it wasn't completely new idea even then, but surely MiB is an obvious antecedent here? Deserving of, perhaps, a brief acknowledgment? Anyway, this sounds like a show I would have liked a lot.

They are, but as I said, presumably Dumbledore lifted that restriction for the Cup, allowing it to become a portkey on the grounds. In HP5(?) he lifted restrictions enough for them to begin practice apparating in the Great Hall (I think it was), indicating he has the power to do that on a selective basis. He also…

As Hermione notes many times, one cannot teleport onto the Hogwarts grounds. Presumably, the Headmaster can lift those rules (the Apparation lessons), and the rule may well apply to portkeys as well as other means of popping in and out. So there you go.

The Prime Directive got a wee bit more confusing in TNG, where it seemed sometimes that even fully up-to-speed societies were supposed to be not interfered with. This usually meant our heroes had to angst over some awful custom of said society before either 1) Deux ex machina or 2) letting it happen so as to be grim…

If it makes you feel any better, I think the guy wasn't supposed to be a real Andorian. I'd swear there was a line in the episode about how the security guard didn't know the antenna were that fragile and Kirk replies "They're not". I'm confused because I just saw "Babel" with my 11-year old and that line was…