Yes, the toys exist, but I really don't understand this insistence that the original trilogy is a series of children's serials. Michael Bay's Transformers films are terrible and immature, full of stupid gags and dumb jokes. But they are not 'kids movies'. Claiming that the original Star Wars movies are for kids is the…

"Who was Malkovich? And how did he manage to become a cognac sponsor? "

If I remember correctly, that ends with the girl revealing to Luke that she was the one searching for her own mother and just used him to provide transportation and detective skills. In general those three books seem to take place in an entirely different universe-different planets, different ships, different people.…

I heard back this morning from someone I had asked for a letter of recommendation, saying they were absolutely willing to do so. I'm kind of kicking myself for not asking earlier-I had to be convinced by someone else that I would get a response-but I'm really psyched about it.

I never knew Carly Simon was such a Nixon supporter…

After the attacks in Paris I re-read Larry Wright's The Looming Tower over the weekend. It's fascinating to see the evolution of this movement across Egypt and Saudi Arabia, into Afghanistan, and now in Iraq and Syria. The book also charts the rise of Takfiri ideology, which kind of opened the Pandora's Box of…

I don't know who Dave Begel is, but I already hate him because his name sounds like the way people mis-pronounce bagel.

"Join us in a toast-to the comments!"

Commencement at the Obedience Ceremony — Aesop Rock
Iron Galaxy — Cannibal Ox
Potholderz — MF Doom
Brooklyn Zoo — ODB
Biochemical Equation — RZA
Be This Way — Ghostface
Great Day — Madvillain

Oh, I'm afraid the new page design will be quite operational by the time your friends arrive!

Bitching can be exchanged for not changing an established commenting format.

I'm starting Season 6 of The Sopranos, which I'm really looking forward to. It's the only season I've never seen, so I'll be on the edge of my seat.

I haven't read too much of the EU, but outside of Timothy Zahn, those Tales From the Mos Eisley Cantina/Jabba's Palace, and a few of the Rogue/Wraith Squadron books the ones I did enjoy seem to be universally hated. I really like the two books by Barbara Hambly and the Black Fleet series by Michael P. Kube-McDowell.…

Monsters from the Id?

Thirty years from now, when you're sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you, "What did you do in the great SCDP merger," you won't have to say, "Well, I shoveled shit in Louisiana."

This is so incredibly stupid, but…

I recently spent some time in Canada, and had to listen to the Canadian pronunciation of 'Pah-stah.' I'm not normally one to be a defiant American, but…get it together, Canada.

He just went out to the store to buy cigarettes and bourbon, right? He'll be back, right?

What's the vig here?

So Kit Fisto is that guy at work who seems alright, until you go out for a beer and he casually drops a reference to loving space-Ayn Rand?