The Lazy Journalism Hall of Fame has an entire wing devoted to tired and cliched story hooks. A whole wall covered with "Baseball is Old Fashioned/Boring/Has Too Many Obscure Rules/Is Not as Popular as it Once Was" stories greets you as you enter the sports exhibit.

Q: "I didn't know you could fly a plane!"

"This was never more true than in Maher's infamous comments after 9/11, in which he argued that American troops firing missiles from a distance were far more cowardly than the hijackers." No, he never argued that at all. He said, "We have been cowards," NOT "Our troops have been the cowards." His argument was that the…

High quality commercial illustration really is kind of a lost art these days. You'd see it everywhere 30 or 40 years ago - in print ads, on the covers of paperbacks, and the packaging of various entertainment products that involved some sort of "narrative" (board games are another good example). Then it seems like in…

Two words (or maybe just one) was popular, but it wasn't necessarily scary word + sexy word. For example: "Black Widow" or "Basic Instinct". I chalk it up more to the rise of the high concept pitch in Hollywood ("Think [movie title A] meets [movie title B]").

You're confusing "Fatal Attraction" with "Basic Instinct," also starring Douglas. The latter was about a seductive temptress suspected of murder, with whom the male lead has a fling and becomes increasingly "trapped in her web," as it were. "Body of Evidence" was sort of a "Basic Instinct" ripoff. It had little in…

The logic is fairly straight forward: Having the protagonist be a married man who basically loves and wants to keep his family life intact simply ups the dramatic stakes of the situation. It would be one thing if he were simply dealing with a uber cray-cray, beaucoup obsessive one night stand. But on top of that, we…

Well, that's kind of my point … People are just like, "Oh, that's a show about the creepy serial killer guy in 'Psycho.'" Which, of course is both reductive and misleading.

Definitely in the top ten shows of the decade, and it never seems like it gets any buzz. At least, none of the binge watching, "prestige" show junkies I know ever watched this. Partly, I suppose, because the premise does sound gimmicky. Also, probably, because it's a very "small" show in that it focuses on personal…

"I could have had my ballot mailed to me but I didn't, because that would have required me to fill out a form and return it on time."

Eh, it's just a cut and paste job. Should be ready by end of business today.

Straightforward from here:
1. Go to Google
2. Look up "Where do I register to vote?"
3. Follow instructions
4. Get off your whiny, lazy, apathetic ass and vote in 2018
5. Repeat step 4 in 2020.

Was going to suggest that, but according to IMDB it was shot on film.

"'American Honey' is a gritty, lyrical 160-minute art film…" Can we just back up a minute there? That's more than two and a half effing hours! What happened to the days when "art film" meant "barely as much above the minimum 75 minute feature length as our maxed-out credit card budget, highly abbreviated weekends,…

It would be fun to see somebody try and do a pulp crime fiction era Batman, i.e. a film (or even a series) about a well-heeled guy during the depression fighting crime in a disguise, but using very limited and realistic technology appropriate to the day (i.e., no "Dick Tracy" radio wrist watches or "Shadow" style mind…

But isn't that the American way? You can be a person who works hard to get where you are, who handles yourself with equanimity and poise, who doesn't whine about unfair breaks but instead keeps your chin up and your nose to the grindstone and you STILL end up loosing to a whiny, petulant, vindictive, totally…

I do think there was a certain amount of denial from a lot of people who (it's no exaggeration) had a big emotional investment with the Star Wars movies (the term "universe" wasn't quite in vogue then).

Yes there was. I wasn't that big of a Star Wars guy growing up but I did enjoy them. Phantom Menace was a big letdown, from the first lines of the opening crawl (a trade dispute?) to the tepid final scene.

They were clearly meant to be a compromise between the TOS and TMP looks. Far be it from me to question Capt. Picard's word, but I suspect their replacement had as much to do with the fact that skin tight Spandex is pretty damn unflattering to anyone who's not an Olympic athlete or personal trainer or something…

From those shots of the unis, it looks like they're just doing yet another variation of 19th century naval imagery. Roddenberry didn't care for it when they moved that direction in "Wrath of Khan." Now, I'll admit that the guy who brought us the pajama wear uniforms of "The Motion Picture" and the spandex onesies of…