I do recall some historian pointing out that great art "has a bias towards timelessness." If you really want to understand what living in an era was like, he said, you could do worse than diving into its ephemeral crap (cinematic, small-screen, or literary), which tends to be much more of its period.

Sidehackers was made in '69, but the movie's radioactive with impending Seventies-ness. Spiritually, I'm grandfathering it in.

Maybe. At the same time, part of me wants to counter that fighting exclusion with exclusion is kind of a mug's game, whether or not it really hurts anyone. In however small a way, its logic tends to undermine the principles of inclusion that got those groups as far as they have.

I'm a little torn, and can't decide whether I'm stupid for feeling torn. These screenings are no skin off my nose, and the sort of nimrods loudly complaining about it are a very bad sign indeed (if that dude who mailed the mayor of Austin said that 2+2=4, I'd feel moved to double-check my math). On the other hand,…

Sure, and I used the word "right" kind of loosely and imprecisely—my bad, there. I meant that it's a comic's professional prerogative to skirt the line of good taste … but if he comes to grief through doing so, he doesn't really have standing to gripe about it or act ill-used (cf. Kathy Griffin).

I support a comic's right to push envelopes and handle combustible material (along with sundry other mixed metaphors). But if he miscalculates, and some particularly thumbless attempt at trangression blows up in his face … well, you knew the risks, chief.

Right now, I'm trying to picture Thomas Aquinas' face as he listens to that hot take.

"[O]ne wonders what these ripped Amazon ass-kickers do when not challenging each other to training skirmishes."

Well, she's not wrong.

Good for her.

I have a great joke about this, which I shall attach as a .wav file.

P-K4? Obvious stuff, Windom. Leading with your chin, old man. Now P-Q4 … that'd be a proper Season 2 villain.

I'll never forget first seeing it at a tiny theater; Smokey and the Bandit was playing on the other screen. I was 9½ years old (the "half" seemed important in those days), and even the earliest TV ads seemed to flip a collective switch among us schoolkids: it felt like a herd of animals catching something in the air,…

Maybe this is the Sterno squeezings talking, but I'd be on board with a Wally West Flash for most of Season 3.

I watched only the first movie, and not a single review of any PotC sequel has caused me to question my judgment. The streak continues.

Good Christ. I can't blame the man in the slightest. Hope he & his family bear up … well, as well as anyone ever does or can in such a situation.

I'm currently re-watching the Gold Box—never did watch any episodes after the Laura Palmer arc ended (not even the second-season finale). I don't have Showtime, so figure there'll be time enough to catch up before this season becomes available to me.

Call it a tad overcomposed if you like, but Larry Carlton's mid-song solo on "Kid Charlemagne" is still one of the most brilliant things ever recorded. I shall also go to the mat for Robert Fripp on "Satori in Tangier."

Evan Dando wants to go into Witness Protection, but they're pretty sure that'll just make him LESS forgotten.

"Some day, honey, I will! But I gotta get goin'!"