Cool, I hadn't noticed there is an HD version coming soon. Most of my New Year's Day was spent starting the original—first time playing it.

I enjoyed Sam's massive stumble and semi-recovery in the dying moments of Double Jeopardy. To drop by more than $8000 by missing both Daily Doubles in DJ and a $2000 clue in between, only to get the next three clues right and pull himself out of the red was pretty impressive—though it was mostly a battle with…

I'm surprised how far I had to scroll to find the 12 Bar Blues fan club. That album was on repeat summer 1998. Much better than the Talk Show album—though Pealing an Orange was a fun song.

On the first watch, Stewart's "I grew-up … evil" line killed me. The second time through I watched Olyphant during that scene and he is working so hard. Initially he panics and starts flipping through his sides when Stew bursts in. Then he tries to keep the scene going in character ("our mother!"). Finally he gives…

It made the show feel like it had come full circle. This could have been one of the greatest finales in TV history.

Don't worry Anthony, you'll always have that minute of screen time from Age of Adeline.

I was expecting a "sweep everything off the table" move with Mitch's corpse, and they one-upped it beautifully.

The problem is, if she was right and didn't ring in, her opponents get the advantage. It's a Catch-23.

I also found the sexism among the dogs off-putting, but I interpreted it as Alexis' take on dogs and their mounting-based hierarchy rather than a reflection on him. He gave off an absent-minded professor vibe when I saw him read at a book festival a couple months ago. Also, I didn't get anything like that from his…

The The Grinder: N.O. ad left me a bit puzzled. Is it supposed to be premiering in December, or on Thanksgiving weekend? They said "this fall," but maybe it should have been "next fall." That way, season two can have the Sandersons watching Timothy's Rake at the start of each episode instead of reruns of Dean's…

Labyrinths and claustrophobic typesetting! I enjoyed showing it to people at the office back when I worked at a publishing company.

He's been on my to-read list for a while. My dad once told me I should skip Asimov and read Stapledon if I want to get into the origins of science fiction.

Agreed. I use Goodreads to keep track of my reading and for notifications about books by authors I like. The rest I avoid completely.

Last weekend, my wife and I did a tour of Benjy's walk [edit: nope, it was Prince] after his vision goes. It helps that she grew up one minute away from the park. But the Toronto stuff felt overwhelming for someone who knew almost all the street names without using the map—was it weird for you, assuming you don't…

I listened to that song for two minutes and The Royle Family didn't start. Furious!

Recently there was Final Jeopardy about an election with no former presidents or veeps, and your advice was to work backward through the range of dates to find the answer. I should have applied that here, as I went forward from Hall and got hung up on Hamilton. (Or just thought about DoI signers.)

Bing!

I listened to the first two months' worth over a couple days at work, so that got me into the podcast. The first seven episodes are a bit hazy, then the over-arching story gets clearer once they meet the survivors in ep 8. They do recaps along the way and there are new "chapters" every 10-20 episodes, but because…

Ah, Elzid Falconcrow said something about this unto the listeners of Nerd Poker. (Brendon Small is researching D&D by playing on Brian Posehn's podcast.)

Accidentally coinciding with Force Friday, I finally started Zahn's Heir to the Empire. This book has been on my bedside table for almost a year, but I've always had something else to read instead.