To me the bigger issue is that it just clangs on the ear—it doesn't sound like an American slang term from the early 20th century. It's the kind of dumb slang we came up with in the '90s & 20-aughts. I'm fine with a different word from muggles—it seems likely that we would have had our own lingo this side of the…

There's also the scene where Craig T. Nelson confronts the developer & says, "You just moved the headstones—but you left the bodies!" or something like that. Ancient Indian burial grounds wouldn't have headstones.

I was driving through NYC once, I guess it was '98 or '99, & I caught a bit of a local talk radio show with a delightful host, just witty & warm & fun. I listened for a while, enjoying it tremendously, & eventually found out it was Al Lewis. I had no idea he had a radio show, but I'm glad I lucked into it, even if…

So, do interviewers just let him get away with that? I'm not sure what qualifies as the first horror-comedy—one could argue that the Abbott & Costello Meet… pictures aren't horror-y enough—but is Murphy actually unaware of An American Werewolf in London & Fright Night, to name just two really well-known, classic…

"Because they suck." — people

1 Timothy 6:10
Radix omnium malorum est cupiditas.
Literally, "Desire [i.e., greed] is the root of all evils."
In this case, cupiditas indicates an excessive or inappropriate desire for something (greed)—that's where the problems come from. The phrase recognizes that money is nothing more or less than a tool to get a…

Yeah, I feel like I was reading about this movie quite a while ago. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

This is my favorite knock-knock joke. Thank you all for executing it so perfectly.

Did anybody else see Fire in the Sky? That movie was also supposedly based on true events, though iirc it was a different abduction, not the one mentioned here. Anyways, I don't remember much about it—I saw it on home video maybe a year after it came out, so, what, 20 years ago?—but I do remember thinking it…

During the Second Punic War (218-210 BC), there were a bunch of omens reported, supposedly portending disaster. After Hannibal clobbered the Romans at the Trebia River (December 218 BC), the following omens were recorded, mostly in & around Rome (mentioned, e.g., by Livy & Plutarch):

Having thoroughly enjoyed Elijah Wood's appearance on a recent Nerdist podcast, & finding him generally a likeable fellow, I was really hoping this would be great, for his sake. Oh well—not a home run, but at least a solid base hit, eh?

Naval tradition? Naval tradition? Monstrous. Nothing but rum, sodomy, prayers and the lash.

Yeah, it's not a stretch to assume the finished product will look better.

I would definitely recommend people read the book before seeing the movie—if it's worth bothering with the movie at all. I thought the trailer looked OK, but I wouldn't call this a must-see. The book, though. THAT is a must.

Not even The Untouchables?

Yeah, I was gonna say. That was a pretty fascinating episode—she's…interesting.

We're going Monday, but we have kids, so I'll only be drinking till noon or so.

The Dothraki, maybe.

The Twin Cities are increasingly diverse, but outstate is still REALLY white.

A couple years ago, I saw some Michelle Bachmann crop art at the MN State Fair. Made with nuts, of course.