I have a lot of affection for the BBC Shakespeares, mostly because the vast majority were the first time I'd seen any production of Shakespeare, and it was fun to check them out of the library (which had all of them, on vhs, back in mid 90s) one by one as I developed my own independent interest in Shakespeare. No, I…

Did not guess that so many hobos had hammers.

Funny because it's true.

I think you answered your own question.

You know, I thought I detected the warm smell of colitis rising up through the air.

She's gone too.

Interesting. Thanks!

So is there any corroborating evidence for the statements about Bowie disliking the movie? Not saying he didn't dislike it, but my memory is that he didn't give the rights to the music because he was involved in an effort to make some other movie about glam rock etc.

I'll be rooting for the Chiefs (Colts fan here), but if an offense has been sleepwalking for a month, it's not sleepwalking. It's just not that good.

(Takes envelope down from turbaned head, opens env, blows into it, takes out card)

Drive, for example, was remarkably overrated by the people who liked it. Which doesn't improve the Academy's own judgement, God knows, but does kinda reveal the fallacy in thinking there's any particular group of people whose tastes would result in improved nominations. Awards are fundamentally silly, the shows in…

Wasn't Fonzie Fonzie in his 40s?

Look, it's the quickest route to being taken seriously.

Allow me to disagree. The desire to make Coen references (and to try and bask in their reflected profundity) was a common mistake in this season. And that was a good example. Like the UFO stuff, it was a case of Hawley having the Coens give him a a few more ideas than he really knew what to do with.

I guess I'm wondering whether Lou cutting her off with a "common sense" statement was meant to put her in her place or was The Male not really listening. Sort of like the bedside discussion of Camus: he's right and Betsy is the one who's full of shit. Does the show know that, though?

Did he? I kinda assumed his comment about the champagne of corporate praise, or some such, indicated that he already maintained a certain skeptical intelligence about his position in the world.

Thought it might be ripe for a reference to that scene with Dan Hedaya from Blood Simple, but I guess we already got that with the waitress in the first episode.

Well, let's not go crazy. Orwell, writing in the 1940s, is probably still our most eloquent analyst of the ways officialdom comes up with terms and circumlocutions to obscure real meanings and intentions.

And I'm pretty sure a 401k either didn't exist, or at least would've been a completely obscure concept to the typical office drone in 1979. It might've been a deliberate anachronism, to underscore the coming shift from actual pensions to iffy good-luck-to-ya retirement vehicles (the Reagan references are clearly meant…

I guess I was just thrown by "fake." Thought there was some forgotten twist where it turns out it's not New Years Eve or something. But I remember now, it was Christmas Eve, right? So the fakeness is that they're playing Auld Lang Syne.