For awhile during my adolescence I tried to encourage people to use "Xerox" the same way, but it didn't catch on because none of my friends were in the habit of saying "ditto".

So glad somebody else has already written this comment. Myself, I find a great deal of comfort in rereading the first couple of Lewis Barnavelt books from time to time. I see your point about the heavy Catholic influence—that sort of thing is a hard sell these days and you can't really cut it out of Bellairs' work. …

Very nice! And hello from BTA, by the way.

Does anybody remember R.L. Stine's pre-Goosebumps work? The Absurdly Funny Encyclopedia & Flyswatter? The Pigs' Book of World Records? How to Be Funny? The novelization of Spaceballs? I was just slightly too old for the Goosebumps series, but I was obsessed with Stine's books when I was kid.

after that it goes a little insane.

Look, I don't care what happens next as long as they use "Hey, Hey, We're the Monkees" as a theme song.

Whoa. That's like, art.

I mean, it's not art, but it's like art.

Y'know. Helpful suggestions.

Certainly that's true of mass-produced hot dogs. I've known enough butchers and DIYers to have had my share of "natural" hot dogs, which can be made without those things. You miss out on the uniform flavor and color, but it's still the same delicious lips, tips and anuses. Maybe fewer floor sweepings.

tl;dr: They're lips, tips, and anuses, and they're delicious.

Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.

Mr. Bojangles! I made lots of badly animated shorts featuring that guy. I wish I still had the cassettes those programs were stored on, but it's probably better for my ego that I don't...

I also cut my tech teeth on the TI... Did a lot of programming on it, too. As I recall, it had a lot of pretty good games: Parsec, Hunt the Wumpus, Tunnels of Doom...

Is there no love for The Wizard of Speed and Time?

Probably my favorite scene from my favorite '80s screwball comedy.

My vote goes to the actor Ron Silver as the assassin Ron Silver playing the actor Ron Silver in Heat Vision and Jack.

Technically it's time travel, not immortality.

Reverend Spooner focused the reath day.

I love that House is just sitting unassumingly at the top of the Movies & TV list with no commentary or warning that it's the most incomprehensible film ever made.