I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed as hard at anything as I did at “Jonah with money? That’s like if Hitler could fly.”

Plus 1,000 points for the “written in the stars” reference, but minus one for not including this link to my favorite moment from my favorite Busy role, the Red Plains Rider from the Thrilling Adventure Hour stage show/podcast.

Nothing new under the sun. I remember hearing people complain about Chuck Berry ripping off Johnny Rivers. As long as there has been recorded music, there have been young people who hear the covers first and jump to conclusions when they hear the originals, and older people who feel their superior musical awareness…

Here's a general tip for life: when a broad spectrum of smart people like something, and you don't, have the self-awareness to consider that you may be objectively wrong. Or as they say, when you can't tell who the idiot is in the room, it's probably you.

The term itself has a generic origin, and has been used to title enough other things to have its own Wikipedia disambiguation page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_dreadful

Perfect.

She's actually only about 150 feet tall, including the torch, so the artist probably has it right. Which somehow makes it hotter.

Fell-o.

I believe when the two of them appeared before the press for the first time after Lana's transition, her brother declared that they would now be referred to as "Wachowski Starship".

Agreed: she has an . . . intangible quality.

By a funny coincidence, I've just been rereading my tattered paperback copy—with the same cover as above—of The Face in the Frost, and I couldn't agree more with its inclusion on this list. Bellairs' novels for younger readers are lots of fun, too, with genuine chills and lovably flawed characters.