@avclub-e9fa7473252deddc33483ef8b6dbf48c:disqus : I believe that expression is "Put some work into designing your book cover so it doesn't look like a hacky self-released pamphlet."

Does the book give any sense of what kind of support, if any, Fingal had from his higher-ups. I can't imagine back in my intern days having to fight a real published author like this.

That is a really terrible cover. It says to me "We put no effort into this at all," which makes me wonder about whether any more thought went into the contents. Even just a line from that excerpt would be so much more compelling.

I was pretty dubious about letting someone review a 120-page email exchange, but then I read some of it here:

We heard you snoring and were hurt. We wondered "Is it us?" So thank you.

My main problem is that apart from the ending — which was powerful and pointed — he isn't taking on the Rick Santorums of the world, the powerful people trying to turn personal prejudice into public policy. He's taking on a handful of wingnuts, like the guy trying to get around Sabbath bans with mechanical devices, or…

Geek obsession: JAWS

DVDs will fall
Like cherry blossoms, gone soon
But are best for now.

I do hear you on this one. I would love to get rid of every book, CD, DVD, etc. in the house that I don't think I'll ever want to read/hear/watch again, or at least that I wouldn't recommend to other people. As a media writer, though, it becomes hard to let go of stuff, because who knows whether I'm going to want to…

Now this is an interesting take. And it sounds like we should be checking with you for FTTF recommendations. Netflix Instant has at intervals had some great ones, though I have rather frustratingly noticed in the past that if I bookmark five of them for later writeups, four of those will no longer be available when I…

I wondered how long it would take for someone to take me to task on that! I enjoyed both series, and I like HIMYM an awful lot too. The point there is less "The good stuff isn't available, so give me some crap" and more "Eh, here's something else that's also a comedy, close enough."

Beautifully done, @avclub-0f0d67e214f9fef69b278e3d08114da9:disqus .

It's a stock photo, from iStock. Wouldn't be surprised if it's just the DVD collection of whatever photographer took it.

There are so many US services offering different kinds of streaming and downloads right now that just addressing that as much as possible was a bear in terms of research; covering the whole world is beyond my capacity. I'd love to hear where you live, and what your current experience is like as far as media…

Uh-oh. I was looking on Amazon, which didn't list a basic Blu-ray package. It doesn't come up on the "other formats" menu, possibly because if you're looking at the 3D version, they don't want you to know there's a cheaper option. You have to search for it separately. My facts are off — sorry, and thanks for the…

Speaking of the advantages of discs, the extras on that Game Of Thrones set are amaaaaaazing.

But the lower the bar of admission is, the more entertainment choices you have. Your money becomes less valuable if you can get a hundred thousand hours of entertainment a month for an $8 a month Netflix streaming subscription, but time takes the place of money as the valuable commodity. You can't watch everything, so…

Well, that CNET article linked above is one of the best arguments I've heard so far as to why the split, and specifically why the split well before streaming caught up to DVD. It's fascinating reading.

I left out "on my dirigible over the Antarctic, as I plotted world domination while scouting locales for my evil base." The evil base will have wi-fi, though.

Well, follow the link. Todd wrote a whole essay about it, which I think is well-argued. It's more a long-term process than a short-term one, though — it's not "People are buying Game Of Thrones on DVD so we'll make season two." That decision has already been made. It's more like "We eventually made our money back on…