In retrospect, the only redeeming element of that game is that it would usually do a much better job of disguising how impossible it was to win. I can’t tell you how many games were disrupted long before the cycle stages by the Seven Stages of Battletoads Gaming:

To this day, I kind of mentally ask myself “Okay, the game is hard. But is it Battletoads or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-hard?” Because those games were damn impossible.

Well, I’m hardly the best at reading people. Usually, I can’t do it at all unless I have a lot of data points to work with. But in this case, I do have some help with the cast-and-crew episode commentaries for Community that I have on DVD. And their evaluation of Glover was pretty consistent: he’s a generational…

Yeah, creating stable, long-term societies probably did more than anything else to shift the calculus that the Norse ran about respecting treaties. The main advantage that the Norse had was strategic mobility: because they controlled the sea, they could roam at will, and hit wherever was not defended before slipping…

*pushes glasses up nose*

Well, given that Fadlan is talking about the Volga Bulgars, while the English are talking about Northmen who lived in what is presently Norway, there’s not necessarily any incongruity there. Both because the Volga Bulgars are separated by thousands of miles from the Norse, but also because there’s a world of…

Okay, first of all, props to Robert James for calling Barnhill’s actions out as unacceptable. Just as one of those gremlin attorneys who sits in the back office and churns out paperwork, I have no more experience with criminal prosecution than, more or less, reading my Criminal Procedure textbook. And even I could see…

Aw, geez Emily, you realize you just pushed poor Larry down yet another rung on the Hemsworth family ladder. . .

Got it in one.

Yeah, there’s a hilarious little moment in the Netflix comedy show Big Mouth, where the guys’ heads explode at the realization that women get horny too.

Not to dispute you, but I was under the impression that pretty much everyone noticed. Just, nobody said anything because Thurmond was such an institution in both the Republican Party and South Carolina. But as I’d heard it, the last two terms of Thurmond’s tenure in the Senate was an extended “Weekend at Bernies”…

Between that and the revelation that his uncle had been boning his wife, there might have been some unintentional subtext to Luke’s declaration that this was a “kinder, gentler” Crusader Kings. . .

Er, I would say that, given its incredibly steep learning curve, it’s probably not worth it at this point unless you’re already familiar enough with the format of a Paradox game to muddle through. Even today, I’m still learning little “oh damn, I can do X? I never knew that. . .” kind of things with the game, and I’ve…

Henry Cavill suffers from a severe case of what I like to call the Kate Beckinsale Effect. It’s what happens when an actor has phenomenal charisma, character acting skill, or (as in Kate Beckinsale’s case) impeccable comedic timing. But casting directors never see that skill, because the person is just so…

I realize that was rhetorical, but just going by the list, I’ve never heard anything untoward rumored about Daniel Inouye, Al Gore or Lloyd Bentsen.

Thanks, sir or madam. I really appreciate that.

I can’t remember A.O. Scott’s exact phrasing, but he once described that particular character as something like “ah yes, another 23-year old supermodel nuclear physicist with a knack for marksmanship”, which I think nails the central problem on the head. To paraphrase from one of the best bits of feminist film…

That’s fair, but I think that undermines the central moral lesson of the story: in real life, never make charisma your dump stat.

Mine knows to twist the knob with both paws, having seen us do it. He just doesn’t have enough reach to twist the knob sufficiently to unlatch the door. His paws slip on the metal.