Long ago — after baseball but before MMA — there were the halcyon days of professional football (known in other countries as “do what now?”) This grand game, which rarely involves a foot or anything traditionally shaped like a ball, is played between two separate but equal units. The flashy, money-grubbing Offense and the flashy, [...]

I have no problem celebrating Birthdays, Holidays, Anniversaries, Graduations, Engagements, Weddings, and Births.  And with the sheer volume of cake we’re consuming at each party, we should probably throw Funerals into the mix as well.  But I really must insist that we do away with the tradition of greeting cards. It is very thoughtful of [...]

Extraordinary Adventure 60 The desert island: Perhaps the quintessential adventure setting. Used to it’s most famous effect in Daniel Dafoe’s Robinson Crusoe, which we discussed earlier, but only slightly less well known is William Shakespeare’s Magnum Opus The Tempest, featuring the evil Caliban, The mysterious Prospero and many more of the bard’s most inscrutable names. [...]

Sometimes comic book movies don’t take the hint.  Superman should have stopped after two.  The original Batman movies should have stopped after one.  The Fantastic Four should have stopped the minute Jessica Alba was cast.  But leave it to X-Men to finally get it right after 5 tries. Not that the first four movies were [...]

The Academy loves boxing movies. I recently saw THE FIGHTER, which was one of last year’s Best Picture nominees. The rest of the world has moved on to fast-paced contests like the NFL, competitive skateboard suicide, and LeBron-hating, but the Oscars are stuck on the most popular sport of 1929. You know, for all the [...]