URLs du Jour (10/1/2005)

  • Your Google Search du Jour is insinuendo; try to guess the number of hits before you click. Inspired by this post from the Man Without Qualities, dissecting a Times Select column by "Herr Doktorprofessor Paul Von Krugman."
  • Protein Wisdon provides all you need to know with respect to Bill Bennett and the manufactured controversy over his radio show comments about hypothetical selective abortion and the crime rate. Most interesting is the claim that Bennett should have known better than to use a formulation that could be yanked out of context and kerfufflized. Saith Mr. Wisdom: "such an argument effectively gives the interpreter power over the grounds of interpretation and relativizes language." And of course, he's right. But for the folks who engage in that sort of thing, that's exactly what they want.

Last Modified 2012-10-26 6:28 AM EDT

Serenity

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)
[4.0 stars] [IMDb Link]

One of the things I did with the Blockbuster online rental program is to rent the DVDs of the TV series Firefly. Both Mrs. Salad and I were extremely impressed and eagerly awaited this movie.

I liked the movie, but didn't absolutely love it. The things I liked were the same things I liked about the series: witty dialog, interesting characters, twisty and quick plotting. But what I didn't like is spoiler-laden, and will, I hope, be hidden below in most browsers. Highlight with your mouse to reveal.

I didn't like: (a) the arbitrary and pointless deaths of two characters from the series, Book and Wash; (b) the deus ex machina of turning River into a (literally) unbelievable indestructible killing machine; (c) at the end, our hero "wins" by the convenient expedient of the primary bad guy essentially giving up, for reasons that don't make a lot of sense.

But overall: recommended.


Last Modified 2024-02-04 4:49 AM EDT