In Virgil's Aeneid (c. 20 BC), the already-old line about fortune favoring the bold is used as a battle cry by Turnus, the noblest if the Italic princes defending their peninsula from the Trojan invaders. The problem is that those invaders have the gods on their side. Turnus shouts it as he rides into battle against…

The other venomous mammal is called the short-tailed shrew. "It byeth deepe and poisoneth deadly," according to an old natural history book. But it's only a couple of inches long, and I think its venom is meant to kill very, very small creatures. As it happens, I was attacked by one once, when hiking in the…

Banned from Delta? That's not a punishment — it's a prize.

I thought it was bad, so much so that I only watched two episodes of season one, mocking them ruthlessly. And now ... I'm an addict. Turn back, Dick Whittington!

Actually, somebody did test the inks. Around the same time the UofA did the C-14 dating, an outfit called the McCrone Research Institute determined that the ink was "added at about the same time". How they determined this, or what exactly it means, I have no idea.

Funny thing about that line is that it is absolutely un-sourceable. A guy tried a few years ago, and wrote a journal article about his failure to find any place where Luther actually says it.

@zoanon: No clue. Exploring the bold new world of child-rearing advice?

I like the way the crew members were supposed to have the names of famous explorers — Cook, Drake, Bougaineville. (There's an island named for that last guy, but I only know that because of Google). Would there have been an Eriksen or a Cortes in the second season?

@DaCrusher: "Corrective table etiquette!" Yeah, I'd say that delivers "more than the opposition" all right.

There's another factor — not as deep, but also a factor: those costumes.

@crosis101: Wait, I don't understand. That's a great scene — isn't it the kind anybody would WANT to write (and film), if only the chicken**** producers would let them?

Two things about the signet ring idea. First, "TW" doesn't really look like a bat. If Bruce's father had been Victor or Walter or something, then maybe.

@hwilam: If I remember right, the July 1039 issue has a nice little story by Geoffrey of Monmouth.

If I have learned nothing from the Flash, Green Arrow, Batman and Captain America, I have learned this:

@Gaucho85: Seriously. After watching him help wreck the former Batman franchise, and then keep the Saint from ever developing into a franchise ... well, Kilmer is on the "avoid at all costs"list.

Um, guys? Professor Erskine's super-soldier formula? And the vibranium shield?

@MinervaAlpaca: There, see? You said it so I don't have to.

Yeah, sure. But I'll take the Dick Sprang Batcave over all of it.

@FatherAnonymous: Crusher. I meant Crusher. Typo, not drunk, no matter what it seems like.

Two things in the letter, one silly, one ya-wish-he'd-remembered: