Dagger in hand

A man of prodigious fortune, coming to add his opinion to some light discussion that was going on casually at his table, began precisely thus: "It can only be a liar or an ignoramus who will say otherwise than," and so on. Pursue that philosophical point, dagger in hand.

--Michel de Montaigne, Of the art of discussion.



Stab back: cmnewman99-at-yahoo.com


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Thursday, July 29, 2004
 
Dad, what's a UN pussy?

This is exactly what Judge Kozinski and I were addressing in this article.  I don't think the copyright holders should be able to prevent Jibjab from using the song in its video (which is hilarious), but I do think they have a right to some share of any profits Jibjab is making.

And yes, I did have to come up with an answer to the above question.  Lucas knows the whole song by heart.   Speaking of which, today is his birthday.  Tonight the three of us are going to see the Alanis Morisette/BNL show, after he gets out of nerd camp.  (He's taking a course in inductive and deductive reasoning.  And loving it.)




Friday, July 16, 2004
 
Mourning Moore's Movies
No, not that Moore.  The one that matters.  Alan.  Terry Gilliam was going to do Watchmen, but then the Cold War ended.  (Okay, maybe that was a decent trade off.)  The Wachowskis were going to do V for Vendetta, but then 9/11 went and made the idea of someone blowing up Parliament a little too close for comfort.  They made LXG, and turned it into trite Hollywood pabulum.  So why was I so naive as to even get excited when I saw the link to this
 
John Constantine.  One of Moore's best characters, who started out as a bit player in Swamp Thing and went on to have his own series (which was good, though Moore didn't write it).  John Constantine is a Brit.  He's articulate and morbidly witty.  He looks like Sting.  He wears a battered trenchcoat.  And his name rhymes with Valentine, not Ovaltine. 
 
Armed with this information, now go watch the trailer.  And see why I'm still cringing.

P.S.  I forgot about From Hell.  Which I haven't seen, but have heard is pretty good.

Update:  Whoa, looks like Watchmen may well happen after all.  And this preview is enough to make one guardedly hopeful that it will actually be good.



Wednesday, July 14, 2004
 
Go into his parlor
Jim Henley has some great exegetical Spidey Deux posts up. Start here and work up.

He doesn't answer my big question, though: If Doc Ock was actually hoping to get information from PP, why does he hurl a car through the cafe window at him? That should have squashed Parker like a bug, in which case, no info.

I can think of two explanations: 1) He wasn't aiming for PP, just randomly throwing a car like we see him do elsewhere in the film. 2) Just chalk it up to some parasitical-arm-burnt-chip-induced irrationality.


Friday, July 02, 2004
 
A blast from my past.

Actually, several. In rapid succession. Pejman sent me a link to this, probably not realizing that I in fact spent the better part of my junior high career playing D&D.

Even I was never quite that nerdy, though.

What I really want to know is, how the hell did that guy have so freakin' many lightning bolts? I mean, it's a third-level spell, and he's firing them off like an elf shooting arrows. Nobody could cast that many spells per melee round unless he was under a Haste spell, and even then I find it hard to believe he had that many memorized. If he'd been using a Staff of Lightning I could see it, but he was clearly empty-handed.

OK, maybe I was that nerdy.

I did have a girlfriend, though.