But the guys that investigate drug crimes aren't exactly private — they parade out every time they make a big bust. (I know— I have been to those very press conferences years back). So why isn't the Sinaloa Cartel shooting cops left and right all over the US? (I'm sure they've tried but if they have, they haven't been…

I wondered about this. Say the whole world knows he's the Flash. Everyone says "well someone would go after your loved ones." But cops' identities are quite public and while people worry about that a little, it isn't an all-consuming fear. Going after a family member is just too damned obvious. And if the loved ones…

Liked this episode for for ever-freaking-fuck's sake, what is it with people keeping secrets from Iris? I have never known a real breathing human being to tell people some relative (especially a close one) was dead, because it's too easy to check, even in the pre-Internet age. It's like "oh, my daughter is a reporter,…

Moses was pretty psychotic too. "Hey everybody! I'm a gonna go up that mountain, no cell service so I'll be out of pocket for I don't know how long. But don't get up to any sinful stuff while I am away, right?"

I want to save a baby from a rapacious ruler that sent wild dogs after us. I know! I'll float the baby on some moss in a river that clearly leads to rapids of some kind! That looks safe!

Actually they haven't.

Magnetic field: understand that on Earth and most planets the mag field is generated by the dynamo action in the core, which is in turn driven by the planet's rotation. Venus rotates really slowly — it's day is longer than it's year.

Not true— It's been done twice. They just don't last long :-)
But that said there are all sorts of plans to get landers and rovers on Venus; the atmosphere is so thick that even airplanes of a sort will work.

That's what I was thinking - it was the N/R/Q, which when it's the N/R was "Broadway Local." — but I stand corrected on the sign (I saw the B I guess and got hung up on that). Also you can see when the door opens the old rolling stock — those weirdly 1970s-futuristic-looking cars they used to have.

The sign behind the girl's head says "Broadway Local" in the scene where they meet the prom kids. So yeah.

Oh dude, that's fantastic!

There is in fact a restroom in (almost) every station, certainly the ones underground. You can see the doors some still have the old fancy "Men" and "women" signs. In the movie The Warriors the bathroom they have a fight in (I am not sure if it was an actual subway bathroom, I doubt it as it would have been really…

True enough, I was just thinking the N/Q from Coney to Union Square would take forever on a Saturday night. -) D runs local on weekends, though I don't know what the status was in 1979 or so. But it was ending up at 96/Broadway that threw me off. Also the station they shot it was, I believe, at 72nd street(?) The…

There's also a subway system that existed in Rochester, NY. It was sealed up in places but a lot of the tunnels are still open.

Touché. But there's no other train that has a whole clothing store in the fare zone (42nd/ Port Authority). So if you're a tourist and your luggage gets stolen you can buy a new hoodie without even leaving the station.

OK, other subway stuff: I like taking the A train out to the Rockaways, because for $2.75 you can't get a better ride across the bay and you're right out there on the water. It's a very cool view, and on top of that it's a quick bus connection to the beach.

I'll also throw out a bit of trivia about The Warriors. If you watch the stations they use, there's a real weird continuity there that makes anyone who lives in NYC scratch their heads a bit. The big meeting of gangs is supposed to be in the Bronx. Presumably Van Cortlandt Park. From Coney you'd use the B/D trains up…

There's a bathroom in 59th street? Which one? Not the Columbus Circle station, right? The one over on the East Side?

Well, that's kind of the problem isn't it? I love P. K. Dick, and I get that his novel is allegory. But it's interesting to see how he treats the idea of pre-crime (fundamentally a not-terrible idea) and how Spielberg's movie treats it (a bad one). And given the punishment for pre-crime, it stops making sense. In the…

But that's the problem, isn't it? It's one thing to try and detain a serial killer or rapist, but what about crimes of passion?