Well, if I'm not mistaken, Western society didn't come up with quilted outerwear until decades after Mallory's death.  Until then, wool tweed was the de rigeur material for mountaineering clothing, for lack of a better alternative.  So, if wool-twill slacks and a shooting jacket does it for you, you're in luck.

In a willfully offensive, South Parkian sort of way, I thought that gag was a reverent homage to a man they liked and admired, not mean-spirited grave-pissing.  Okay, so maybe the peewee hockey episode (Hooray!  We offended our own fan base, let's run with it!) shows they weren't capable of reverent homage and they…

In a willfully offensive, South Parkian sort of way, I thought that gag was a reverent homage to a man they liked and admired, not mean-spirited grave-pissing.  Okay, so maybe the peewee hockey episode (Hooray!  We offended our own fan base, let's run with it!) shows they weren't capable of reverent homage and they…

Coffee snobs who think Starbucks is evil are annoying.  Also, Michael Bay films are annoying.  Thus, we must be morally superior to both of them.  "Sheer, ornery contrarianism" isn't a bad assessment.  Also, Trey and Matt deserve all the scorn for suggesting that Starbucks succeeded through good coffee.  Shit, now I'm…

Coffee snobs who think Starbucks is evil are annoying.  Also, Michael Bay films are annoying.  Thus, we must be morally superior to both of them.  "Sheer, ornery contrarianism" isn't a bad assessment.  Also, Trey and Matt deserve all the scorn for suggesting that Starbucks succeeded through good coffee.  Shit, now I'm…

Yeah, if they hear that, they might take it over my screenplay for a Casablanca remake where Laszlo was captured and made into a vampire at a secret Nazi laboratory, and Laszlo and Ilsa (now also a vampire) are trying to join the vampire resistance in Romania, and Sam is secretly a werewolf and also a ninja.

Yeah, if they hear that, they might take it over my screenplay for a Casablanca remake where Laszlo was captured and made into a vampire at a secret Nazi laboratory, and Laszlo and Ilsa (now also a vampire) are trying to join the vampire resistance in Romania, and Sam is secretly a werewolf and also a ninja.

THIS.  Censorship, whether in bleep, pixellation/black-bar, or find-a-stranger-in-the-Alps form, only draws attention to the culturally designated "naughtiness" and makes it naughtier.  If you're after a crude laugh, censorship works— to my ears, a bleep sounds dirtier than whatever was being bleeped.  If you're the…

THIS.  Censorship, whether in bleep, pixellation/black-bar, or find-a-stranger-in-the-Alps form, only draws attention to the culturally designated "naughtiness" and makes it naughtier.  If you're after a crude laugh, censorship works— to my ears, a bleep sounds dirtier than whatever was being bleeped.  If you're the…

Speaking of Apatow, I'll be damned if I ever thought a movie called "The 40 Year Old Virgin" could possibly have anything to redeem it.  I was flabbergasted to hear the expected dick jokes coming out of actual, developed characters.  That said dick jokes were actually funny didn't hurt either.

Speaking of Apatow, I'll be damned if I ever thought a movie called "The 40 Year Old Virgin" could possibly have anything to redeem it.  I was flabbergasted to hear the expected dick jokes coming out of actual, developed characters.  That said dick jokes were actually funny didn't hurt either.

Fair points all around.  I'm probably buying into the backlash more than remembering any actual overboard political correctness, as Dired said.  Still, if I lived in a wheelchair, I'd likely be grateful for all the legally-mandated access ramps that were built in the 90's, but I'd still be uncomfortable seeing…

Fair points all around.  I'm probably buying into the backlash more than remembering any actual overboard political correctness, as Dired said.  Still, if I lived in a wheelchair, I'd likely be grateful for all the legally-mandated access ramps that were built in the 90's, but I'd still be uncomfortable seeing…

…Johnny?  Johnny?  JOHNYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

…Johnny?  Johnny?  JOHNYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, the satirical subtext here isn't exactly obscure.  "Compensatory tolerance" for recently-oppressed minorities can be as obnoxious as the oppression was in the first place.  If you offer a black coworker a ride to the office party and spend the entire drive searching the radio for a hip-hop station, the message…

Yeah, the satirical subtext here isn't exactly obscure.  "Compensatory tolerance" for recently-oppressed minorities can be as obnoxious as the oppression was in the first place.  If you offer a black coworker a ride to the office party and spend the entire drive searching the radio for a hip-hop station, the message…

When I was working as a field lackey on a frog ecology project, I referred to muddy, newly-metamorphosed leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) as "crunchy frog chocolates."  Nobody got it.

When I was working as a field lackey on a frog ecology project, I referred to muddy, newly-metamorphosed leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) as "crunchy frog chocolates."  Nobody got it.

So this anthropologist exhumes Beethoven's casket, opens it, and finds its occupant erasing sheet music.  "What are you doing, Beethoven?" Asks the anthropologist.