Agreed on Rifftrax, and I can't put my finger on why it's off. Complaint I've heard about the Mike era (vs. Joel) are that Mike tries too hard to be entertaining, and is more vicious towards his movies. I don't think those complaints hold up against Mike's MST3K (tries too hard to be entertaining? on a show…

I love Patton Oswalt and would dearly love to say he's making the new show work as well as the old one did. Something's missing, unfortunately. My opinion is that it's missing Mike Nelson, or it might be that Joel is responsible for most of the quips at this point, they feel very Joel.

Something else that's different: the relationship of the Bots to their human. Under Jonah and Joel, they look up to their human as kind of a trusted big brother. Mike Nelson had almost no control over his robot pals, and chaos ensued.

I think we have to call a spade a spade: Mike Nelson isn't part of the team and his absence hurts. He was a writer on the old series from season two onward, and he was perhaps the magic ingredient. You can't make paprikash without paprika, and you can't make good MST3K without Mike Nelson. You might make some other…

I THOUGHT it might be a Mike Nelson thing but I didn't want to say so, but thanks for confirming what I was feeling! (Or at least having the same thought.) Yeah, I really like it when a quip feels right and you have to say, "why did that make sense? … oh okay, good one!" Another one that gets me: in "Girl in Gold…

The RSN link? I read it. It describes the symptoms but neither the cause nor the cure. I think the cure is in leaders of the Left dialing back the purity tests, and I don't know a way to do that other than to challenge them myself.

Myself, I think the party is the entity least culpable. The Left actively looks for reasons to feel betrayed by the Democrats, and will make up reasons to feel betrayed if reality isn't helping. You can't win over people who actively refuse to even consider the possibility.

Myself, I see the greatest incompetence of the Left manifesting on Election Day. Put good people in office and you get Obamacare. Put bad people in office you get Trumpcare. And with midterm turnout rates like 41% in 2010 and 37% in 2014, it's clear there's plenty of opportunity to make gains just by showing up.

Thanks! There are two Ethiopian restaurants in Cleveland, and way the heck on the other side of town (so not quite "near me"), but maybe is worth a visit.

It just means you're fit, much more fit than you imagined. Those of us who have been ensnared by a sedentary lifestyle couldn't do what you do, so keep it up! Don't let the sedentary life sneak up on you.

Anyone who is looking into vegetarian sources of protein that are cheap and not terrible, I have finally figured out a way to make lentils palatable: you can make lentilburgers by frying patties of lentils and bread crumbs (2.25 cups cooked lentils, 1 cup water, 0.5 cups Italian bread crumbs, makes a zillion patties).…

Teach them some Bob Rivers Christmas songs. My favorite:

The Left could win, if they would quit seeing participation in an imperfect system as a betrayal of their principles.

In my opinion, a good MST3K movie of course needs quality riffing, but the movie itself shouldn't be dull. Usually that means it needs to have some elements of quality to it so that the nonsense stands out. Like "Girl in Gold Boots" was nearly a good movie, and if you disagree, tell me that it wasn't…

ALF is a very bad sign. Have you even looked at the ALF intro in years? I bet you haven't and there's a lot you forgot:

!!! That's DEFINITELY an upvote.

It sounds like you would like some validation and this old crone ("I Moan" is her anony-name backwards) is getting in the way. Find validation, absorb it, get to feeling comfortable with yourself in your new reality.

Most of "Fargo" is situated in the frozen north, and there's something about the setting that informs the series: the world is an inhospitable, unsurvivable place unless we see to one another's survival. And the various iterations of "Fargo" all ask the question: what happens when people turn away from the mutual…

My opinion: Republicans have put themselves between a rock and a hard place, but there is one way out and they know it. On the one hand, half their base demands that they repeal Obamacare. On the other hand, the other half will crucify them if they actually do. So the solution, such as it is, is to periodically…

Allow me to quote from Fred Clark because he nails it (I boldfaced the nail):