One of our most popular posts, not by the comments it drew but by the traffic it has attracted over the years, is this story from September 21, 2006 about a microwave and a turkey. It’s linked from an urban legend page which talks about a pregnant turkey prank, which may or may not have happened despite being believable (but that page has been removed in the ever-changing Internet).
If you haven’t read either story, here’s your chance to catch up.
Movie Problems and Plot Holes
Bird on Thinklings points to a list of 10 plot holes in sci-fi or imaginative movies, commenting on the Star Trek and Star Wars holes. Shrode makes note of two, pretty serious Bourne Identity problems. I haven’t seen those movies, so I don’t know how the red bad error would hit me. About Star Wars though, I love this list of design flaws in Star Wars technology. John Scalzi writes, among other things:
Stormtrooper Uniforms: They stand out like a sore thumb in every environment but snow, the helmets restrict view (“I can’t see a thing in this helmet!” — Luke Skywalker), and the armor is penetrable by single shots from blasters. Add it all up and you have to wonder why stormtroopers don’t just walk around naked, save for blinders and flip-flops.
Scalzi also has a Star Trek critique list: I love it.
But looping back to that plot holes article, writer Matt Blum complains about The Princess Bride, asking “how does Fezzik know Rugen is the six-fingered man?” He says, Fezzik isn’t observant enough to notice Rugen and report on it later, but I suggest the fact that Inigo didn’t know Rugen had six-fingers doesn’t mean that wasn’t a generally known fact. Neither he nor Fezzik dealt with Rugen or his people for their adult lives, I gather, so they didn’t know, but surely everyone around Rugen knew, everyone in the castle, and many in the villages. Some of these people are the type who talk about other people’s details (you know the type), and when Fezzik took up with the Brute Squad, he was in the company of people who knew and talked and I suppose Rugen himself.
This list has spoilers, btw, but you might have figured that out already.
Speaking of plot holes, here’s a gratuitous photo of a gorgeous Rita Hayworth, who is marketing war bonds in 1942.
"Stieg Larsson set out to defy the conventions of the crime novel"
The Wall Street Journal has some emails from Stieg Larsson, author of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and following popular crime novels. The author writes of his intention to work around the usual formalities of crime novels. Main characters are not from typical crime novel stock, and he didn’t want his serial killer offing anonymous people, so he spend time introducing minor characters. In real life, no one is completely anonymous. He also states:
A rule of thumb has been never to romanticize crime and criminals, nor to stereotype victims of crime. I base my serial murderer in book I on a composite of three authentic cases. Everything described in the book can be found in actual police investigations.
The description of the rape of Lisbeth Salander is based on an incident that actually took place in the Östermalm district of Stockholm three years ago. And so on.
Lars reviewed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo here, and the following book, The Girl Who Played With Fire in this post.
An alloyed golden rule
For most of my life, I’ve been aware of a particular conflict (there are many, of course) between liberal and conservative Christians. I’m going to try to shed some light on this particular difference of opinion.
Which means, of course, that I’ll just make people mad. But I persist.
The disagreement, I think, springs from a misunderstanding of the Golden Rule.
Liberal Christians (I believe) tend to think the Golden Rule says something it doesn’t actually say. They think it says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you—and they will treat you the same way.”
But the text doesn’t actually say that. What it says (I’m quoting the NIV here, despite my recent criticism of that translation, because we’re kind of chained to it on this site, through our associated Bible Search app) is, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12) Continue reading An alloyed golden rule
What's My Motive in This Scene?
Nevets has a comparison between real and fictional character motivations.
There Should Be a Book About That
Author Thabiti Anyabwile from the Grand Cayman Islands asks what book have you looked for or wondered about but cannot find. What is the topic that needs a good book on?
National Book Awards for 2010
The National Book Foundation has announced this year’s National Book Award winners.
Friday Fight: The Axeman Cometh
The swordsman here doesn’t appear to be eager enough to fight. He’s playing half-hearted defense. I wonder if he had charged the axeman early, would the whole fight be changed by that burst of passion?
Evening In the Palace of Reason, by James R. Gaines
Evening In the Palace of Reason is a smart, engaging, well-written historical study that ought to be a lot better known than it is.
It centers on a fleeting moment, just a footnote to history. But what happened, and the story that leads up to it, illuminate three epochs of European history, and have relevance in our 21st Century as well.
The facts are easily summarized. On the evening of May 7, 1747, Johan Sebastian Bach and his son Carl presented themselves, by royal command, at the palace of King Frederick the Great of Prussia in Potsdam. Frederick, with his customary lack of courtesy, had required their immediate attendance following the old composer’s arrival by coach, after a three-day journey. He wasn’t given time to wash or change his clothes. Continue reading Evening In the Palace of Reason, by James R. Gaines
Approaching Stranger than Fiction
WASHINGTON TIMES–‘Toughest sheriff’ recruits big names for border ‘posse’
“America’s toughest sheriff,” Phoenix’s Joe Arpaio, is creating an armed “Immigration Posse” to combat illegal immigration, and Hollywood actors Steven Seagal and Lou Ferrigno, along with Dick Tracy and Wyatt Earp, have signed up.
This is real, even those last two names, who are a Chicago cop and the nephew of the real Wyatt Earp. The sheriff says he and his state are the new whipping boys of Washington bureaucrats.
I like this idea. It’s a little scary, but I don’t know how it else the problem can be contained. I want immigrants, whom I assume have the best intentions, to be treated with mercy, but I think the traffickers should be shot. They are no better than the slave traders who dehumanized and profited from unwilling immigrants to the American colonies and the southern states.