I'm just butting into your convo. For Beorn, Podkayne of Mars , might be a recommend, it's not usually classified with the Heinlein juveniles and many Heinlein fans detest, despise and abbhor the book. However, IIRC, I was most likely a little younger than Beorn is and it was the first book I ever p...

I don't think this belongs in ThinkTank, because it's not really political. Consider the fictional characters than most personify and typify Rand's ideals: Henry Roark, John Gault, Tony Soprano and maybe Michael Corelone (should Henry Hill, a real person but his life has been fictionalized, be inclu...

Red boat in GFII, are you talking about Fredo's boat in the going fishing scene? Well, I've liked the episodes we've seen so far. Speculations and spoilers: the Christopher Multisanti situation in the wrecked SUV, OMfG (the definition of a Man of Will in the Keyser Swozie sense). Episode two starts ...

Das Boot was a German film, not American. IIRC, when I first was the movie in a theater there were subtitles. Wasn't the movie nominated and won an Oscar for best foreign film?

OK, so on Friday's, April 20, Bill Maher's HBO show, there's this British, not living in Britain, fellow who is associated with National Review (not Andrew Sullivan if you're asking), he and an African American lady, given name Amy, were the conservatives on his talking panel. His point about this r...

In summer 2004 I went to see Prisoner of Azkaban and really impressed by what a good movie it was (Star Trek IV good). Then winter 2005 went to see Goblet of Fire and it was not so good. Can anyone explain this anomaly? Doubting this is relevant, I've not read the books, and PoA was the first movie ...

If one is watching this on HBO, and your cable system has an "On Demand" feature one can see several (maybe about 4-6)featurettes on the making of the series, they're about 5 - 10 minutes long each. FWIW, I think the series obvious ending is the Battle of Attia (28 or 26 or 24 BC), a great...

The late Shelby Foote (novelist and historian) Slavery was not the reason there was a Civil War, but without Slavery there would be no Civil War Sort of an off topic comment. Did anyone here that during the American Revolutionary War the British army offered manumission to American slaves that would...

1)Regarding intent. Using the initial descpriptions, and yes they do not explicitly state the intent of the persons involved; IMO, a reasonable person could reasonably conclude the intent in each case. (regarding #4 and #5, Ming is declared as a spy and the other is stated to be an operative of a te...

Intent is the primary issue, and why is not intent fair issue for consideration. Consider in 2003 I was involved in a parking lot fender bender, and my car ended up being totaled; however, since the lady that I had the accident with did not have a malicious intent towards me or my vehicle, I receive...

BTW, if one has problems with bad accents as spoken by actors, avoid (as in run away in terror) The Illusionist, and its absolutely horridly horrible accents.

The following message is about a Midnigt Movie sing-alon in January for the BtVS episode Once More With Feeling at the MusicBox Theater in Chicago. IIRC, the theater sold out all its seats both nights of the midnight sing-along, and the specific night I went in January was January 12. Music Box Sing...

written a few days ago

The Prestige coming in a few days...which do y'all like better?

The Prestige is better, everyones warming up their flamethrowers.

Duchess and all,
Regarding our discussion of Beta Colony, a few weeks ago. I heard Lois make the comment, "Think of Beta Colony as a spaceship". When I heard that I translated it to mean a generational spaceship, and considering it really such an environment.

If you thought the plot twists were lame, you obviously have issues to resolve with Christopher Priest, since according to someone who read the book the book has the same plot twists. BTW, I saw the movie with a friend who'd read the book.

OK, for anyones who watching season 2, take the scene where Lucius Vorenus takes the leaders of the other Collegium and strikes a deal with them , the recent historical parallel is when Charlie Luciano gathers the country's crime bosses and establishes The Comission , after Luciano and his buds (Lan...

This attempt to illustrate a point that is one of the foundational ones of religious based marriages (FWIW, here one can equate religious with Christian). There are Christian pastors (Catholic and Protestant) who will refuse to perform marriages on the grounds of the infertility of one of the partic...

Miles, Mischief and Mayhem. This is an omnibus edition of Cetaganda and Ethan of Athos, and all are by Lois McMaster Bujold. Just started it yesterday evening.

IMO, over hyping this is hard to do, since it's really that good! Saw it and liked it lots. IMO, del Toro is an awesome director and writer. What I liked were the film's showcasing del Toro's directorial and writing influences; for example, Cronneberg, the Scott's, Peter Jackson, his own dicrectoria...

Pliss wrote before now The underlying ideas that allow for this disparity in judgement is about as sexist as it is possible to be: "That poor woman was obviously under the inflence of an Evil Man, and therefore is not as culpable..." 'And based on the evidence we've seen here, none of us h...