Yeah. It hurts my head to say this, but I'm kind of on the airline's side on this one.

OK, I haven't read the book, and I'm not trying to be spoiled, but, from the end credits…

Is you is, or is you ain't, my constitchency?

Ip Man: Yes.

I think Chow, too. He's not as good as either of the ladies, but it was a commanding performance by him. Understated but excellent. (Though I understand his Mandarin is pretty bad)

Mine: During the sweet scene where Jen and the bandit are talking about the stars, he has a romantic line, something about having found a star on Earth or something.

This movie should have won Best Picture. It's so much better than Gladiator.

Any opportunity to quote "Justified" cheers me up, thanks!

Who?

I know. I tried to quote a great exchange of Kima and McNulty from the Wire a while back. Only comment of mine that you peole haven't read.

—whatever.

Can be combattive!

I don't think so. Presidents swear an oath to safeguard the Union. I don't think even our most ineffectual POTUSes like Harding would have just let the South go. And we should be glad for that. Would it be nice, not having to support the poor states like Alabama with my tax dollars? Sure, especially as a rather…

Your point is well taken, but those other states did also send a lot more than a single regiment to fight for secession. Sure there were Southern Unionists, but there were a whole lot more Southerners who were willing to fight for the cause of secession and slavery.

The Civil War was probably ingrained in our country's DNA and (more or less) inevitable since the Constitution left the issue up to the individual states. The proximate effect was that states reliant on cash crops that benefitted from unskilled labor kept slavery, and those states that didn't, got hip to the…

You think you've got it bad? I teach 19th century US History. I am actually right in the middle of the lessons of how the US started fraying and breaking apart before the Civil War. This reductionist crap makes me want to vomit.

"Tell me, Ned. When you killed your mother, did you really feel so bad because killing her felt so good?"

I would have loved to see Ned show up on the other show. How much fun could Hannibal Lecter have had with someone with the Pie Maker's powers?

In the plus column though, Bryan Fuller, with his free time, went on to do "Hannibal," another one of the greatest TV shows ever made. Who knows if he'd still have done so if he was making a show about the Pie Maker?

Ah, I love the smell of a low, low bar in the morning.