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Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

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The frogs are rarely mistaken.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

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Good lord, these people are nuts.

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… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

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It’s the corruption, stupid.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / Late Night Movies Open Thread

Late Night Movies Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  May 25, 20154:16 am| 127 Comments

This post is in: Because of wow., Movies, Open Threads

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Jurassic World — as with any film involving animals eating people — is absolutely in our wheelhouse, so the Spousal Unit & I will no doubt make an effort to see it opening weekend, IMAX upgrades & all. I personally have a soft spot for a well-meaning knucklehead who knows his limitations, so I was also kind of charmed by the Chris Pratt tongue-in-check “pre-apology” that is now outraging a certain sliver of outrage junkies across the interwebs. As quoted in EW…

I want to make a heartfelt apology for whatever it is I end up accidentally saying during the forthcoming ‪#‎JurassicWorld‬ press tour. I hope you understand it was never my intention to offend anyone and I am truly sorry. I swear. I’m the nicest guy in the world. And I fully regret what I (accidentally will have) said in (the upcoming foreign and domestic) interview(s).

I am not in the business of making excuses. I am just dumb. Plain and simple. I try. I REALLY try! When I do (potentially) commit the offensive act for which I am now (pre) apologizing you must understand I (will likely have been) tired and exhausted when I (potentially) said that thing I (will have had) said that (will have had) crossed the line.[…] Trust me. I know you can’t say that anymore. In fact in my opinion it was never right to say the thing I definitely don’t want to but probably will have said.[…] To those I (will likely have had) offended rest assured I will do everything in my power to make sure this doesn’t happen (again).

As R.A. Lafferty would say: Tongue so firmly in cheek as to protrude from the vulgar bodily orifice.

***********
What movie releases are you looking forward to — or dreading — this summer?

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Reader Interactions

127Comments

  1. 1.

    Debbie(aussie)

    May 25, 2015 at 4:46 am

    Chris Pratt is very cute. Not a fan of the Jurassic movies. Will probably wait for Netflix(whatever) release.

  2. 2.

    Frankensteinbeck

    May 25, 2015 at 4:48 am

    I’m sorry, I just… can’t deal with the lack of feathers on their theropods. The coolest scientific discovery in my lifetime, and Hollywood is too chickenshit to take advantage of it.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 25, 2015 at 5:37 am

    Movies? What movies? And who’s IMAX?

  4. 4.

    raven

    May 25, 2015 at 5:54 am

    We watched Mr Turner last night. You can’t get and further from these silly ass monster movies than that.

  5. 5.

    Mustang Bobby

    May 25, 2015 at 5:58 am

    I am trying to think of the last time I drove to a shopping mall, wedged my car in between a GMC Gigavan and a Ford Exxon Valdez, paid $8 (senior citizen discount), got a barrel of cold popcorn covered with butter-flavored cancer-causing initials, found a seat that wasn’t broken, covered with gum, or near people nattering on their cell phones, sat through 20 minutes of previews “In A World…” that told me the whole movie and convinced me not to see it, three commercials, including one for more lobby junk food, before the actual film began. Oh, and 3-D is useless for the rather sizable population who for some reason or another (strabismus in my case) where 3-D doesn’t work but they didn’t bother to put the film out in regular format. It’s been a while.

    Starz and HBO here.

    Oh, and get off my lawn you pesky whippersnappers.

  6. 6.

    John M. Burt

    May 25, 2015 at 5:59 am

    My wife and I almost never go to movies, and we had our cable disconnected years ago. We do, though, watch movies and TV series on DVD from our local library (that’s our public library, Republicans!), and I’m looking forward to seeing Guardians of the Galaxy some time this summer.
    We’ll probably see Age of Ultron before Christmas, but not before we finish the second season of Orphan Black.

  7. 7.

    PurpleGirl

    May 25, 2015 at 6:05 am

    @Mustang Bobby:

    GMC Gigavan and a Ford Exxon Valdez,

    LOL. Very good, Mustang Bobby, very good.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 25, 2015 at 6:07 am

    Global warming is a hoax. These repeated extreme rain events are just figments of your imagination.

    The widespread heavy rains are being caused by a prolonged warming of Pacific ocean sea surface temperatures that generally results in cooler air, coupled with an active southern jet stream and plentiful moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, said meteorologist Forrest Mitchell at National Weather Service (NWS) office in Norman, Oklahoma.

    So far this year, Oklahoma City has recorded 27.37in of rain. Last year at this time, only 4.29in had been recorded.

    I don’t know what OKC normal yearly rainfall is, but ours up here in Washington Co MO is 40-45 inches. No way OKC is more. We had a nice gentle rain last night, first gentle rain we’ve had in about 2 months. The rest have been 1″ in a half hour torrents. I get happier all the time about our little ridge top homestead.

  9. 9.

    Valdivia

    May 25, 2015 at 6:08 am

    @raven:

    I have been wanting to see that. Love his paintings.

  10. 10.

    PurpleGirl

    May 25, 2015 at 6:09 am

    Haven’t kept up with coming attractions, so I don’t know what’s out there beyond what I see commercials for. Nothing has really excited me for months.

  11. 11.

    raven

    May 25, 2015 at 6:15 am

    @Valdivia: It is a long and perplexing film. The acting and cinematography are wonderful.

  12. 12.

    Valdivia

    May 25, 2015 at 6:20 am

    @raven: I will make sure to watch it. He and his art have always fascinated me.

  13. 13.

    raven

    May 25, 2015 at 6:31 am

    @Valdivia: If you have BluRay player I suggest you get that version.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 25, 2015 at 6:47 am

    @raven: Here’s something for you to go watch on a lazy summer afternoon:

    US navy divers on mission to recover Confederate warship from Georgia river

    The ironclad CSS Georgia was scuttled by its crew in 1864. Now the civil war wreck is to be raised and preserved to improve access to the port of Savannah
    ….
    Potts said the weapons systems would be removed first, then divers would focus on the propeller and main shaft, portions of its steam machinery and large portions of the ship’s armoured encasement. The armor for the ship, which was anchored off Fort Jackson as a floating gun battery, was made out of railroad iron.

    Archaeologists will still make sure there are no other remnants remaining after the navy divers leave at the end of July. Work to preserve and catalogue all of the individual artefacts is expected to take another year or more.

  15. 15.

    Zinsky

    May 25, 2015 at 6:48 am

    Anything involving Tom Cruise will be solidly on my “Do Not View” list. Beyond that, I am pretty open-minded. I refuse to fund a cult where that diminutive twit is the primary spokesperson.

  16. 16.

    satby

    May 25, 2015 at 6:56 am

    It’s dorky, but I’m waiting for Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel to be available on Amazon Prime in July. I’m right there with Mustang Bobby on the going to a mall theatre, and I’m a fan of classic and off-beat movies anyway, not loud explosions and mayhem.

  17. 17.

    sm*t cl*de

    May 25, 2015 at 7:11 am

    As R.A. Lafferty would say:

    I would watch the hell out of a good movie version of “Fourth Mansions”.

  18. 18.

    JPL

    May 25, 2015 at 7:13 am

    @Zinsky: He was shooting a film last week, not far from me. Although, I’m not a fan of his, I heard he was very friendly. Cruise spent 45 minutes posing for pics, signing autographs and visiting with neighbors.

  19. 19.

    MattF

    May 25, 2015 at 7:40 am

    The quote reminds me of the comments on time-travel grammar in Douglas Adams’ books.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    May 25, 2015 at 8:02 am

    H/T Reddit

    An Arizona woman was sentenced to three and half years in prison on Thursday for running over her husband with the family car because he failed to vote in the 2012 presidential election, court officials said.

    Holly Nicole Solomon, 31, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of aggravated assault under a plea agreement with prosecutors over the incident at a parking lot in Gilbert, a south-eastern suburb of Phoenix.

    Police said Solomon was upset with her husband, Daniel Solomon, in the days following the 6 November re-election of President Barack Obama and believed the family would face hardship from his winning another term in office.

  21. 21.

    raven

    May 25, 2015 at 8:03 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: cool

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    May 25, 2015 at 8:04 am

    Haven’t set so much as set a toe inside a movie theater this century. And plan to keep it that way.

    Megaplexes as sterile and interchangeable as spark plugs and rude, inconsiderate audiences have sucked all the joy out of the experience.

  23. 23.

    Mike J

    May 25, 2015 at 8:14 am

    @NotMax: It doesn’t bother me at all that theaters all look alike. Why shouldn’t they? They all do the same job, All cement factories look pretty much alike too.

    What I object to is paying to watch commercials. The trade off is supposed to be that if I’m willing to sit through a commercial, I get the entertainment for free. Why should I pay twice?

    Frankly, most movies aren’t worth paying for once. Every few years they might release a movie that’s not about a pervert that flies around in his underwear. I’m sometimes tempted to go see one, but then I sit down and relax and the feeling passes.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 25, 2015 at 8:14 am

    @Baud: She’s just a RINO. A Real Conservative ™ would have shot him.

  25. 25.

    Patricia Kayden

    May 25, 2015 at 8:19 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: TX and OK are not hating on the gays enough. Their god is not pleased.

  26. 26.

    debbie

    May 25, 2015 at 8:27 am

    @John M. Burt:

    I too see my movies thanks to my local library. Currently, I’m re-watching Wolf Hall (even better the second time around) and will then get to work on the movies that have come out since January.

  27. 27.

    Another Holocene Human

    May 25, 2015 at 8:27 am

    @Zinsky: actually lots of actors are really tiny, and those 80s muscle men, der Oesterreicher chief among them, were an aberration

  28. 28.

    Another Holocene Human

    May 25, 2015 at 8:32 am

    @Mike J: The theaters were spun off from the studios long ago. Now the theaters are like retailers, trying not to get screwed by the studios. Unlike most retailers, theaters get a special all the risk none of the profit deal. They only make money when a massive hit comes out that, crucially, stays in theatres for weeks. A one weekend splash is not profitable.

    So they make money on concessions and local advertising. And they hire as few staff as possible and pay ad little as possible. Ask the studios and their VC bankers why theaters are so dirty.

  29. 29.

    WereBear

    May 25, 2015 at 8:37 am

    @Another Holocene Human: Movie actors, in particular, look good with a small body and a big head. It compensates for the lens distortion.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 25, 2015 at 8:41 am

    @Another Holocene Human:

    So they make money on concessions

    The last time my wife and I went to a movie theater (7 yrs ago, waiting for my granddaughter to be born) she wanted a soda for the movie.

    “That’ll be $6 ma’am.”
    “WHAT?!?!?!?!!??? Does it come with a straw????”

    A half hour later I was still laughing so hard I almost had to leave the theater.

  31. 31.

    Schlemazel

    May 25, 2015 at 8:45 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Those are Gawd’s punishment for homos and lettin’ the coloreds inta our schools – ain’t now warming an I ken prove it. IT SNOWED LAST WINTER!

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    May 25, 2015 at 8:48 am

    @Mik J

    Because a part of the experience is the ambience and personality of the venue. One doesn’t expect (and would likely be disappointed if it were so) that every live theater should be indistinguishable from another. Ditto for non-fast food dining establishments.

    Cement factories don’t cater to nor invite the public to share their space. They exist solely to crank out a product. Sadly, that’s what movie theaters have sunk to as the be all and end all as well.

  33. 33.

    donnah

    May 25, 2015 at 8:50 am

    Mustang Bobby, you’re a genius.

    We quit going to movie theaters for the same reasons as most everyone else. Expensive tickets, expensive concessions, and the horrible behavior of the general public.

    I’m a “you kids get off my lawn” kinda gal anymore. I always end up seated next to or just in front of the kick-my-seat kid, the cell phone junkie, the perfume-bather, or the talky moron who doesn’t internalize incoming information without saying it out loud. “He has a gun! He’s going to shoot somebody!”

    Flatscreen and Netflix, thanks.

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    May 25, 2015 at 8:50 am

    @Mik J

    (Repost to try to alleviate FYWP.)

    Because a part of the experience is the amb1ence and personality of the venue. One doesn’t expect (and would likely be disappointed if it were so) that every live theater should be indistinguishable from another. Ditto for non-fast food dining establishments.

    Cement factories don’t cater to nor invite the public to share their space. They exist solely to crank out a product. Sadly, that’s what movie theaters have sunk to as the be all and end all as well.

  35. 35.

    Schlemazel

    May 25, 2015 at 8:52 am

    Because we can’t agree on many movies we both want to see we rarely go at all & often go to the same movie bin but see different films at the same time. She thinks “Tomorrowland” looks good while my default on any movie based on a ride will stink (Pirates being the only exception so far) and that the trailer looks empty. I don’t pay much attention to what will be coming out so there you go – as has been said many times, many ways Merry get off my lawn!

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    May 25, 2015 at 8:55 am

    @OzaekHillbilly

    Each time, when I pay a bill in person, the cashier asks “Would you like the receipt stapled to the bill?” I respond “Is there a charge for the staple?”

    One of these days there will be.

  37. 37.

    Poopyman

    May 25, 2015 at 8:59 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICK PERRY, Governor of Texas, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas, do hereby proclaim the three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas. I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal and robust way of life.

    Don’t blame Obama.

  38. 38.

    gene108

    May 25, 2015 at 9:03 am

    One of the local theaters has put in Lay-z-Boy-esque reclining seats. I LOVE going to that theater. No sharing an arm rest with the person next you. Put your feet up, relax and watch the movie.

    Another local theater renovated recently. They have some very big screens that make watching movies very nice, but they went with stadium seating – so 1990’s – and now are re-renovating to put in recliners.

    In other words, I still like going to see movies on the big screen and I especially like the new theaters with the modern upgrades.

  39. 39.

    ThresherK

    May 25, 2015 at 9:05 am

    Just once in a while we hit the Googleplex. One of the longest-running “little theater re-opened for movie geeks” is in our city and it’s our preferred place because of the decent prices, great sightlines from every seat, \big screen, and a staff which really cares about movies.

    That I don’t see anything until everyone else has bothers me not. Of course, I didn’t have HBO during the Sopranos, and I don’t Netflix. Yet.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 25, 2015 at 9:07 am

    @NotMax: Heh… I blame Obama.

    @Poopyman: I blame Obama anyway.

  41. 41.

    gene108

    May 25, 2015 at 9:08 am

    As far as movies I want to see, Spy looks interesting. Hopefully it will be as good as the Johny English movies.

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    May 25, 2015 at 9:15 am

    @ThresherK

    Granted my experience is limited, but the few big screens I’ve seen in multiplexes are nowhere near as big as in the movie emporia of yesteryear.

    Have had friends tell me how much they dislike digital projection, as the colors are either washed out or overly garish and the depth of focus erratic and inconsistent.

  43. 43.

    Glidwrith

    May 25, 2015 at 9:16 am

    @gene108: We have one or two theatres that also offer nice dinners and serve alcoholic beverages; sort of a dinner- and-a-movie all-in-one. No kids allowed.

  44. 44.

    catclub

    May 25, 2015 at 9:17 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    our little ridge top homestead.

    Mudsliiiiiide!

  45. 45.

    Amir Khalid

    May 25, 2015 at 9:18 am

    @Mustang Bobby:
    Ah, but you should also mention the people in the row behind you who do play-by-play and colour commentary on the movie as it plays. And the people who seem to go to the movies specifically to do all their texting, and indeed don’t take out their phones to do so until they see the PSA that says “turn off your phone — the movie’s starting.”

  46. 46.

    NotMax

    May 25, 2015 at 9:22 am

    This goes back quite some years:

    Was in a store once, in line to checkout.

    Next to the register was a box of A Nightmare on Elm Street trading cards.

    The couple in front of me were carrying a very young child. Said kid pointed to the picture on the wrapper of the cards and haltingly announced “Fred- dy Krue- ger!”

    Who the hell brings a toddler to that type of flick?

  47. 47.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 9:25 am

    Something I noticed about ten years ago. Every time we’d go to a mall movie theater the movie would be real DARK. Even scenes in bright sunlight or white backgrounds were a washed-out sepia. Scenes in shadowy or night settings would be almost black.

    Then I read that theaters were saving money on projection bulbs. I think it was Ebert that pointed this out. After that, I went to a small, locally-owned theater, saw the same film (cheap matinee) and it was twice as bright.

    Never went to a mall theater again.

  48. 48.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 9:26 am

    When my son was six or seven years old we went to see a movie. After paying for the tickets, we walked past the concession stand. A guy working the concession remarked loudly that he was amazed I wasn’t buying snacks. A lady co-worker said loudly “probably can’t afford it after the price of the tickets.”

    This was a mall.

    Never again.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 25, 2015 at 9:27 am

    @catclub: Are all below the ridge top.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    May 25, 2015 at 9:31 am

    @Germy Shoemangler

    I worked in a movie theater for several years while in high school. Had any of the staff made such comments within patron (or management) earshot, they would have been out on their butts before the lion roared.

  51. 51.

    ThresherK

    May 25, 2015 at 9:31 am

    @NotMax: The one college-snob cinema I refer to is now digital, and they’ve made it work. I don’t know if the ordinary places I go infrequently are digital or not, and don’t go often enough to know the difference without a bit of training.

    [ETA: @Germy Shoemangler: Beat me to it! But note that this didn’t even save their precious bulb resources.]

    Do you remember Roger Ebert’s tsk-tsking in the old days? He said that movie chains would have the projector bulbs turned down to supposedly make the bulb last longer. That, he said, was bunk, and it resulted in a crummier experience for you and I, got in the way of what the movie was supposed to look like, and didn’t save the theater money because it didn’t extend the life of that not-cheap bulb.

    That was then. If there’s a way, in the digital, “nobody needs any skill” age, to cheap-ass projection of digital cinema to chase a few pennies, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find it being done.

  52. 52.

    Doug R

    May 25, 2015 at 9:34 am

    @Mustang Bobby: Most decent theaters have a flat showing or two or may have one of their screens with flat showings all day

  53. 53.

    MattF

    May 25, 2015 at 9:35 am

    @gene108: A Landmark theater opened in my neighborhood several years ago. It’s great– ‘reserved’ seating, good independent movies, edible food. There’s even a movie club you can join for screenings on weekend mornings.

    Also, a couple of blocks away, there’s your basic multi-screen chain theater, so if you want to see Mad Max, you can do that too.

  54. 54.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 9:37 am

    @ThresherK: I haven’t noticed any dark screens lately. It probably still goes on in the mall theaters.

    The commercials infuriate me. When I was a kid, a trip to the movies in 1965 meant cartoons before the movie.

    Pink Panther cartoons mostly. They were fun to see on a big screen.

    Now? Nissan commercials.

  55. 55.

    ThresherK

    May 25, 2015 at 9:37 am

    Ugh. Edit ran out. Here’s an aritcle pointing out if you ran a Xenon projector bulb at3000W bulb at 2000W, you’d extend its life by all of 2.3 percent.

    And it gets worse.

  56. 56.

    Amir Khalid

    May 25, 2015 at 9:38 am

    @Germy Shoemangler:
    Them kids need to get their facts straight. Overpriced junk food is not what you and I go to the cinema for; and it’s the studios, not us moviegoers, who are screwing the cinema business.

  57. 57.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 9:39 am

    @MattF: I don’t know if I like the Reserved Seating concept. How does it work?

    If I walk in and want to take a seat, there’s a big Reserved sign on it? And I have to find a chair in the front row, directly under the screen?

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    May 25, 2015 at 9:41 am

    uh huh

    uh huh

    ……………………..

    Palo Alto to Enforce the Largest Mass Displacement of People in History of the City

    Aram James • May 18, 2015

    Palo Alto is about to embark on the single largest mass deportation and dislocation of a people in the City’s history. The residents of Buena Vista Mobile Park, totaling around 400 people, may soon be forced off of the grounds which has been many of their homes for generations. The park sits on an approximately 4.5 acre site very near to El Camino Real, in the exclusive Barron Park neighborhood of Palo Alto, where the medium sales price of a home in April, 2015 was listed at $2,650,000. Contrast this with the mobile homes at Buena Vista that are mostly extremely small, some very old (some dating back as far as the 1950’s) densely packed on the property. In recent decades the park’s residences have been mostly low income Latino families, who own their mobile homes and pay rent for their spaces.

    Yet despite being the only remaining mobile home park in Palo Alto, the city council on Tuesday April 14, 2015, with some minor changes to the relocation package, ruled to allow the closure of the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park.

    Say what you want, some may prefer to sugar coat it, but the reality is that the practical impact of closing of the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park is in fact the ethnic cleansing of a large portion of Palo Alto’s Latino population, and the further re-segregation of Palo Alto schools.

    The dropout rate for Latino students both in Santa Clara County and statewide is about 30 percent, contrasted with an almost zero percent dropout rate for low income Latino residences of Buena Vista. Many residence of BV have gone on to graduate from universities including Stanford University. Recent college graduates have come back to BV to start families of their own. Stories abound of families working several low paying jobs to support their children, many, if not most, of whom have defied the odds and gone on to great personal and academic achievements. Access to nationally rated Palo Alto schools has played a big part in this story.

    ……………………………

    Would this same all white citizen council have allowed this to happen had Buena Vista been occupied primarily by my dad and grandfather’s people: Russian and Ukrainian Jews? Not a chance! “Tell the truth and shame the devil,” is an applicable idiom for the current situation.

    And the last minute face saving efforts by the council, to sweeten the relocation package, to include factoring in the value of a Palo Alto education, and the safe neighborhood feel of Buena Vista, doesn’t alter the bottom line: The closure of the mobile home park has been approved, the die is cast.The residences of Buena Vista have been thrown to the wolves, another causality of the war on the poor.

    And make no mistake, this wealthy white city council could have stopped this vicious attack.

    http://www.siliconvalleydebug.org/articles/2015/05/18/palo-alto-enforce-largest-mass-displacement-people-history-city

  59. 59.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 9:42 am

    @ThresherK: I would love the movie’s director to come sit and watch how they’re dim-bulb showing his creation. He’d probably throw a loud tantrum.

    Even the meekest, most mild-mannered director (if there is such a thing) would throw an absolute shit fit if presented with the dim bulb experience.

  60. 60.

    MattF

    May 25, 2015 at 9:44 am

    @ThresherK: Wikipedia has some, ah, illumination on the subject. Incandescent bulbs do last longer at a lower wattage, but– 1) Xenon bulbs are not conventional incandescents, and 2) the lifetime of an incandescent bulb depends mostly on how often it’s turned off and on.

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    May 25, 2015 at 9:44 am

    @ThresherK

    Professionalism and pride in presentation still exist, but much less so.

    Quoted from a movie studio exec: “we have a robust system and we can pay any idiot $5 an hour to run it.” Source

  62. 62.

    MattF

    May 25, 2015 at 9:45 am

    @Germy Shoemangler: When you buy a ticket, you choose a seat. So, in fact, all seats are reserved.

  63. 63.

    NotMax

    May 25, 2015 at 9:45 am

    @ThresherK

    Fixed for link fail.

    Professionalism and pride in presentation still exist, but much less so.

    Quoted from a movie studio exec: “we have a robust system and we can pay any idiot $5 an hour to run it.” Source

  64. 64.

    MomSense

    May 25, 2015 at 9:45 am

    I’m going to make an independent film called My Life With a Canine Stalker. Right now she is crouching along the ground, stopping when I look at her, inching ever closer to my plate of smoked salmon.

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    May 25, 2015 at 9:49 am

    @ThresherK

    Fixed for link fail. Again.

    Professionalism and pride in presentation still exist, but much less so.

    Quoted from a movie studio exec: “we have a robust system and we can pay any idiot $5 an hour to run it.” Source

  66. 66.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 9:50 am

    @rikyrah: Thank you for that link.

    Have you seen this? It’s from Australia, but it’s relevant here as well.

  67. 67.

    Svensker

    May 25, 2015 at 9:51 am

    @rikyrah:

    That is awful. But you gotta feel for the rich folks, having to live so close to all those brown poor folks, oh my stars.

    Changing the subject completely, anyone heard anything from Soonergrunt? Been wondering/worrying about him lately and with the crazy weather in OK, am worrying more.

  68. 68.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 9:52 am

    @MomSense: Our cat gets very alert and attentive whenever my wife eats popcorn. Cat lurks around her chair, hoping for a stray kernel to fall.

  69. 69.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 9:53 am

    @MomSense: You should film it from her perspective. Call it “My Life Among The Smoked Salmon”

  70. 70.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 9:55 am

    @MattF: I don’t know if I like that. I have to look at a seating chart when buying a ticket?

    And then remember the seat when I enter the dark theater?

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    May 25, 2015 at 9:55 am

    @Germy Shoemangler

    Cheapest cat treats ever are those biodegradable packing peanuts made of cornstarch.

  72. 72.

    Glidwrith

    May 25, 2015 at 9:55 am

    @Germy Shoemangler: Your cats like popcorn!?

  73. 73.

    Glidwrith

    May 25, 2015 at 9:58 am

    @NotMax: Have you ever tasted one of those? I did out of curiosity: pure chemical soup. Is there anything to show those are safe for an animal to eat?

  74. 74.

    Iowa Old Lady

    May 25, 2015 at 9:58 am

    Obviously not a new movie, but this weekend I saw “Kingsmen” on pay for view. I figured Colin Firth, good deal. So you know how we talk about making someone’s head explode? Here it is.

  75. 75.

    MattF

    May 25, 2015 at 9:59 am

    @Germy Shoemangler: Yup. Something of a nuisance when you buy a ticket at the theater entrance. But if you buy online or with one of the half-dozen ticket-selling machines in the theater lobby, it’s like buying any other kind of ticket.

  76. 76.

    Kay

    May 25, 2015 at 10:03 am

    Great piece on how going after public sector unions (and privatizing public sector jobs) hits African Americans and women hardest:

    “Roughly one in five black adults works for the government, teaching school, delivering mail, driving buses, processing criminal justice and managing large staffs. They are about 30 percent more likely to have a public sector job than non-Hispanic whites, and twice as likely as Hispanics.
    “Compared to the private sector, the public sector has offered black and female workers better pay, job stability and more professional and managerial opportunities,” said Jennifer Laird, a sociologist at the University of Washington who has been researching the subject.”

    In Ohio (historically) these two groups were able to get these jobs because public sector jobs relied on objective measures to qualify for employment- things like civil service exams- rather than more subjective measures where bias comes in, and labor and employment laws were actually followed in the public sector.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/business/public-sector-jobs-vanish-and-blacks-take-blow.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

  77. 77.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 10:04 am

    @Glidwrith: One cat. And yes, she has an unhealthy fascination with the few popcorn kernels that have fallen to the floor. I don’t encourage it. I think she likes the salty taste.

  78. 78.

    Woodrowfan

    May 25, 2015 at 10:05 am

    I don;t enjoy watching people get eaten, so I’m eagerly awaiting the Minions movie.

  79. 79.

    Woodrowfan

    May 25, 2015 at 10:07 am

    @Kay: Great piece on how going after public sector unions (and privatizing public sector jobs) hits African Americans and women hardest:

    and that is no accident. to the republican base government jobs are “n****r work” and so don;t deserve good pay or any benefits….

  80. 80.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    May 25, 2015 at 10:07 am

    @Poopyman:

    God, that still pisses me off. Water conservation? Restrict capture? Build new reservoirs? Invest in desalination technologies for coastal communities?

    Fuck that, it costs money and pisses off big donors, we’re going to pray for rain instead.

    I love my state. I despise the people who run it.

  81. 81.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 10:11 am

    @MattF: Here’s an article about reserved seating:

    https://thedissolve.com/news/4540-lets-stop-reserved-movie-theater-seating/

    When I walk into a theater, I decide where to sit. If I see noisy teenagers, I won’t sit in front of them. I only buy tickets at the box office, I don’t do it online or with an app.

    I think this may be the last straw.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    May 25, 2015 at 10:17 am

    @Woodrowfan:

    I watched a coordinated (and very sophisticated) smear campaign against public sector workers in my state in 2010 and it had two parts. One part was directed at “job creators- “lazy public sector should be privatized”, what we’re all familiar with.

    But the other part was even more disturbing, because it was directed at lowest-level private sector working people- it was based on setting them against middle class public sector workers. “THEY have what you don’t have” and in Ohio anyway, there was definitely a race element.

    It works both ways, and they run both simultaneously. The second is more dangerous, I think, because sometimes “liberals” sign onto it in what is in my view a misguided attempt to advocate for poor people.

  83. 83.

    ruemara

    May 25, 2015 at 10:29 am

    Lord, some a you complain. I like reserved seating, because I can pick my seat in advance. And I like going to the movies, when I can spare it. Why? Because why not? Some things deserve to be seen in theatres. Like Mad Max or Age of Ultron. I’m looking forward to hate watching Jurassic World with my friends and I may even see Spy. It depends on the budget. I won’t know what will strike my fancy until it does.

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 25, 2015 at 10:30 am

    @Kay: Yes, the old ‘those people have it too good” argument has been used for eons to bring everyone*** down to the lowest level as opposed to bringing everyone up to the higher level.

    *** everyone = the 99%

  85. 85.

    MattF

    May 25, 2015 at 10:30 am

    @Germy Shoemangler: I don’t have a strong reaction to it, one way or the other. Since Landmark doesn’t do SF or action pictures, you don’t get hordes of teenagers anyhow. My guess is that it’s regarded as a sort of marketing ploy and an excuse to raise prices a bit.

  86. 86.

    raven

    May 25, 2015 at 10:31 am

    Here’s an article about the Vietnam War from a VC’s perspective.

  87. 87.

    Chris

    May 25, 2015 at 10:34 am

    Jurassic World and Mission: Impossible.

    Not Ant Man, which I kind of expect to be Marvel’s shark jumping moment.

  88. 88.

    Iowa Old Lady

    May 25, 2015 at 10:42 am

    @Germy Shoemangler: Sometimes those theaters have reclining seats with footrests, making it difficult to get in and out of the aisle. I don’t know how fire regulations fit that in.

    I like a movie at the theater though. It feels immersive so sit there in the dark in front of a huge screen.

  89. 89.

    lamh36

    May 25, 2015 at 10:58 am

    @ruemara: thank goodness someone else said this. I was just thinking the same.

    the majority if this thread spends like a bunch of ole foagies :-).

    I’m actually going to movies today to see Pitch Perfect and I love summer movie time. I’ll def be seeing Jurassic World, both cause I like Pratt and cause they filmed some of the movie in NOLA.

    the next opening night movie I’m going to see will probably be San Andreas with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. One, cause I love him, and 2nd, I’m a sucker for a good special effects laden disaster film.

    if I don’t see San Andreas opening weekend, I’ll def be seeing Spy! They had me at Melissa McCarthy and Jason Statham! Also to the director Feig, has directed 2 of my fav female-lead comedies of the last 3 years…Bridesmaids & The Heat.

  90. 90.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 11:12 am

    @lamh36: I’m no old fart! I love the theater experience (ever since I stopped going to the mall theaters with their bulb-saving scheme) I love big action sci-fi 3D movies. Some films need to be seen on a big screen in front of an appreciative audience.

    But I draw the line at reserved seating. I decide where I want to sit when I enter the theater.

    Fuck reserved seating.

  91. 91.

    Chris

    May 25, 2015 at 11:13 am

    @Kay:

    The federal government is one of the few places where black people can get a fair shake. So, naturally, it’s attacked as giving them unfair benefits. “Fair” would be shitting on them just like the private sector does; it’s not right that there be an employer out there that doesn’t screw black people, all the bleating about the value of competition be damned.

    Similarly, the fact that federal employees are among the few whose pensions and compensations haven’t been totally raped in the last thirty five years is something horrifyingly sketchy and totally to their discredit, and we must screw them over as well or it’s just not fair. (And that’s totally not appealing to “envy” or “crab bucket mentalities.”)

  92. 92.

    gene108

    May 25, 2015 at 11:15 am

    @lamh36:

    the next opening night movie I’m going to see will probably be San Andreas with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. One, cause I love him, and 2nd, I’m a sucker for a good special effects laden disaster film.

    The Geologist in me (B.S. Geology, NCSU 1996, though have switched fields since), cringes at the bending of the laws of nature required to make San Andreas.

    I could not sit through it.

    Looking forward to Spy.

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    I don’t know if I like the Reserved Seating concept. How does it work?

    Seats are numbered, with rows being represented by letters, so far example you have a seat D4.

    You can either pick the seat by ordering tickets on-line or just go to the theater and buy them and put in your seat choice, when you get tickets.

    It is different, but the advantage is you do not need to come really early to a movie, in order to make sure you get a good seat.

    Also, unless the theater is sold out – which you can look up on-line – you can move around to different seats that are empty.

  93. 93.

    FortGeek

    May 25, 2015 at 11:17 am

    @Another Holocene Human: My local AMC theaters (formerly RAVE Motion Pictures) don’t even have people staffing the ticket room out front (space for maybe a half dozen of them, if it gets busy enough) or even have ticket-tearing ushers at the door. You have to go stand in line at the big main concession counter for your ticket (and would you like a refreshing Coke ™ for $4.50?).

    Eventually I expect they’ll just put an ATM-style ticket dispenser at the door of each screening room–or even on the armrests of each chair. Anything to cut back on those unnecessary “employee” vermin.

    For “Mad Max” they had 15 minutes of ads on a loop. Ignored several of them twice, ignored the Cute Hollywood Gossip Story Chicks, ignored the concession ads (did turn off my phone, though), and endured the previews (buncha “nope” movies coming out, imagine that). Movie was good–but there should have been some discounts for all the freaking ads. (/grumble)

    (my lawn sucks and has prickly stuff hiding in what little grass there is; we encourage young folks to go barefoot for our entertainment)

  94. 94.

    gene108

    May 25, 2015 at 11:19 am

    @Chris:

    federal employees are among the few whose pensions

    When people bitch about the lack of “competition” in government sector jobs, such as amongst public school teachers, I wish someone would just say, “what the fuck is wrong with job security and a pension, when you retire?”

    It’s as if not being at the whims of the business cycle is somehow a bad thing, unless you are a big time T.V. talking head, where you probably have a pretty solid contract that your employer cannot terminate without cause.

    In other words, I bet the losers on CNBC all have pretty good contracts, which give them some level of job security they want to deny to everyone else.

  95. 95.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 11:19 am

    @gene108:

    Also, unless the theater is sold out – which you can look up on-line – you can move around to different seats that are empty.

    How do you know the seat isn’t reserved?

  96. 96.

    FortGeek

    May 25, 2015 at 11:23 am

    @Poopyman: God only took 4 years to get it done (dude’s busy helping sports teams, y’know ;). It would seem the prayin’ Texans weren’t specific enough to add, “…But don’t let it rain TOO much, mmkay?”

  97. 97.

    gene108

    May 25, 2015 at 11:24 am

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    How do you know the seat isn’t reserved?

    Nobody is sitting in it :-)

  98. 98.

    mattH

    May 25, 2015 at 11:25 am

    Went and saw Mad max yesterday, so worth seeing in a theater. Such a spectacle, I don’t think seeing it at home would quite have done it justice, and the feminist tones are nice.

    The Geologist in me (B.S. Geology, NCSU 1996, though have switched fields since), cringes at the bending of the laws of nature required to make San Andreas.

    Is there a single disaster movie that has held any semblance of scientific accuracy? Towering Inferno maybe? Not making any excuses mind you, suspension of disbelief is nearly impossible with any disaster movie for me, unlike sci-fi, fantasy, and distopianism done right.

  99. 99.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 25, 2015 at 11:30 am

    @gene108: Until they show up ten minutes into the film and tell you to scram.

    Lovely movie-going experience.

  100. 100.

    Valdivia

    May 25, 2015 at 11:34 am

    @raven:

    thanks for the tip and reminding me that the movie is now on dvd.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    May 25, 2015 at 11:34 am

    I’m watching my son’s Corgo while he and his wife attend a wedding in Ohio and this dog is defined by the word “bossy”.

    He stayed ahead of me all day yesterday while I gardened and I felt herded.

    He’s cute and he seems smart but God, are they all like this? It’s like having a supervisor who won’t delegate. I think I can get from the front flower bed to the garage without oversight, buddy. No wandering off to the mailbox allowed!

  102. 102.

    mattH

    May 25, 2015 at 11:38 am

    Another thing, there’s new tech coming down the line from Dolby called Dolby Vision, increases the contrast ratio in a theater from the current washed out levels to much higher contrast levels, making for a more eye-popping experience. One of the few things I’ve seen tech-wise that makes me thing it may be just as good a reason to see a movie in the theater as at home where new TV’s can potentially do the same.

    Ignore the numbers though for comparison. Contrast ratio, while being the most important thing a TV does, is pretty much unquantifiable. Testing isn’t standardized, nor does the number represent anything concrete.

  103. 103.

    FortGeek

    May 25, 2015 at 11:40 am

    @Glidwrith: I wish there were a theater with the attitude of Alamo Drafthouse where I live. They’ve got a not-safe-for-work ad up on YouTube mocking some young woman who got kicked out for texting. She called them and left an angry voicemail…and they use it in their ad, complete with mocking subtitles.

    Epic. My kind of place.

  104. 104.

    gene108

    May 25, 2015 at 11:42 am

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Until they show up ten minutes into the film and tell you to scram.

    What’s the difference between that and pick out your seat, having a group show and say, “hey, can you move, we are trying to sit together,” or “you know I ‘reserved’ that seat for my friend”.

    Like I said, unless the movie’s sold out, it isn’t a big deal to find an empty seat and if the movie is sold out, you can pick a good seat or go to another screening, if there are no good seats left.

  105. 105.

    FortGeek

    May 25, 2015 at 11:48 am

    @NotMax: When the “Grindhouse” double feature premiered a few years ago, there was at least one couple who brought a toddler with them. I don’t know what the kid made of the first flick (“Planet Terror”, with gory zombies).

    Did get a laugh, though, when the couple left after that movie–apparently unaware that there was a second movie about to start.

  106. 106.

    gene108

    May 25, 2015 at 11:50 am

    @mattH:

    Is there a single disaster movie that has held any semblance of scientific accuracy?

    Earthquake movies are just over-the-top for me, unless it is on the SyFy channel and they are deliberately being over-the-top cheesy.

    I mean really, getting several feet of vertical and hoirzontal displacement from an earthquake? That’s just too much for me to take.

    There was that movie, a few years back, where the Earth was flash frozen – forget the name, something like “Day After Tomorrow” – which I can deal with, because it’s just over-the-top and not something that actually happens in the real world, unlike Earthquakes.

  107. 107.

    MattF

    May 25, 2015 at 12:02 pm

    @gene108: Well, as a matter of fact, the great Alaska earthquake of 1964 had vertical displacements of up to 40 feet, so… it can happen.

  108. 108.

    ArchTeryx

    May 25, 2015 at 12:10 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: There’s a very easy handwave for that, which they gleefully use. These aren’t dinosaurs. They’re amphibian chimeras pretending to be dinosaurs.

    That’s even before we get into the “let’s cook up a fully sentient apex predator, lock ’em up and see what happens!” bit.

    I’m going just to root for the faux dinosaur. Maybe if it eats enough stupid people, we can all have nice things again.

  109. 109.

    shell

    May 25, 2015 at 12:10 pm

    Somebody wanna explain the logic of remaking ‘Poltergeist’ ? One of the most perfect horror movies.

  110. 110.

    Gravenstone

    May 25, 2015 at 12:11 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: Our theater recently implemented this (along with retrofitting to install the recliner seats). My first encounter was for Age of Ultron/ Basically there is a touchscreen at the point of sale that shows which seats remain available. You select where you’d like to sit as you purchase your tickets. Then simply go to your selected seats.

  111. 111.

    ArchTeryx

    May 25, 2015 at 12:18 pm

    @shell: Like with most remakes, Because They Could.

    At least the Mad Max remake/reboot was done by the same director that did all the original movies. Not to mention, he took all the stuff good in the original movies and turned it up to eleven. That is how you do it.

    Poltergeist: The Remake did none of those things. It deserves to die the same sort of ignominious death as the Poseidon Adventure remake did.

  112. 112.

    Elie

    May 25, 2015 at 12:22 pm

    Count me as being conned, but I am lining up to see this Jurassic Park movie like I did all the others. I love the rollercoaster and it is one of my guilty pleasures that I sit in the movie and squee next to my husband while peeking though my fingers.. I don’t go for all the horror movies out these days, but the Jurassic Park series are fun to me…

  113. 113.

    Chris

    May 25, 2015 at 12:45 pm

    @gene108:

    I think at least part of my cynicism towards “support our troops!” rhetoric is because it’s matched by such complete, open contempt and hatred for every other kind of public servant (with the possible exception of cops).

    Granted, the adoration we have for soldiers is highly contingent and mostly for show in any case.

  114. 114.

    Elie

    May 25, 2015 at 1:53 pm

    @Chris:

    I think a lot of things are going on with the excess reverence for the military. For the elite, its a symbol of their dominance and schools such as West Point and the military academies are reserved for the true rich elite and the poor who are smart and do very well in school. For poor people – especially poor and working class whites, with so so education, I think its a way to identify with being elite themselves. Without that, they are just ordinary po folks like the blacks and browns they so hate. The reverence does not carry over to other public servants because poor whites do not go into public service (except for being policemen) . Their need is not for serving the public or community. It is to be elite. They can stand shoulder to shoulder with the elite military leadership and dream of themselves as significant and representing the glories of conquest (which implies being better than others — again, dreams of the elite). Secondarily, the military also offers jobs to those who might have trouble finding them otherwise. Also.

  115. 115.

    Chris

    May 25, 2015 at 4:04 pm

    @Elie:

    Agree with all of this, I think.

    I think it’s notable that the only jobs that command any respect anymore are business leaders and uniformed servicemen (military and police). That would be, to use the old Marxist frame of reference, the bosses and their enforcers. Every other form of work from schoolteachers to mechanized labor to any of a number of jobs that used to be proudly considered salt-of-the-earth, is now devalued as worthless, not real work, jobs that are given as charity to the lazy, unskilled, talentless masses who should be grateful they’re even getting that much.

    I hadn’t thought of it this way but you’re right that in that context, the “enforcer” job comes off as aspirational to a whole load of people who know they’re never going to be bosses. But by God, at least they’ll be somebody.

  116. 116.

    sm*t cl*de

    May 25, 2015 at 4:50 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:
    Have you seen this? It’s from Australia, but it’s relevant here as well.
    SMUT ANGRY. SMUT SMASH NOW.

  117. 117.

    Anne Laurie

    May 25, 2015 at 4:58 pm

    @Kay:

    He’s cute and he seems smart but God, are they all like this?

    Yep, sounds like a Corgi!

    Thing to remember is, they were bred for cattle herding, and cows are meaner than sheep — they kick when a dog nips to move them along. That’s where the short corgi legs are an advantage, the kicks tend to go over the dog’s head. (Lots of corgis also seem to be hardwired, they nudge/nip to move you in the direction you ‘should’ go, and then lean their whole body backwards, as if avoiding a phantom hoof.)

    Other way of thinking about it, the corgi bloodlines come from Viking cattle-thieves (Swedish Valhund) by way of French-Breton cattle drovers. So you’ve got the Viking machismo thing plus the French arrogance…

  118. 118.

    Bonnie

    May 25, 2015 at 5:10 pm

    I stopped paying attention to the trailers when I realized they come out so far in advance that when the movie opens, I have forgotten what the movie is about. However, I don’t like sci-fi; I don’t like too much nudity/sexual intercourse or cussing. And, I don’t like the special effects that look like cartoons. Thus, there is very little the current movies offer an old broad like me who just wants to see a good story with good acting. I wouldn’t walk across the street to see most of these movies, let alone pay $10 to see one. It is disappointing because I think going to see a movie in a theater on a big screen is one of the great experiences that has been ruined. However, I do understand that I am not in the age group that all this stuff is geared for; but, it is sad that it is one more thing that makes growing older even more difficult.

  119. 119.

    MDC

    May 25, 2015 at 5:17 pm

    @NotMax:

    Have had friends tell me how much they dislike digital projection, as the colors are either washed out or overly garish and the depth of focus erratic and inconsistent.

    I really doubt that has anything to do with digital projection. Digital is far, far more consistent than old-school film projection, where prints were often dirty, scratched, spliced, faded, jittery, etc. Digital images are rock-solid and look the same every time.

    What I think your friends may be noticing is not changes in projection, but changes in filmmaking. It’s become common practice now to apply heavy-handed color grading to films in post-production. Some films get a desaturated, washed-out look; some get unnaturally vivid color; some get a strong color tint — greenish, or bluish, or something else. And then there’s the continuing rampage of teal and orange.

  120. 120.

    Tehanu

    May 25, 2015 at 5:24 pm

    @shell:

    Somebody wanna explain the logic of remaking ‘Poltergeist’ ?

    You need an explanation? Never mind, Jake, it’s Hollywood. $$$$$$$$$$$$

    @Chris:
    What you and Elle both said. I never thought I’d see the day when the whole “us vs. them” thing was used against ourselves.

  121. 121.

    VFX Lurker

    May 25, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I’m sorry, I just… can’t deal with the lack of feathers on their theropods. The coolest scientific discovery in my lifetime, and Hollywood is too chickenshit to take advantage of it.

    The “Velociraptors” (*cough* Deinonychus *cough*) in Jurassic Park III had feathers. Do a Google image search for “feathers Jurassic Park 3” to see them.

    That said, Hollywood’s happy to serve whatever audiences will eat, as long as it doesn’t cost too much. It’s hard (and expensive!) to make computer-rendered feathers that look believable on the big screen.

  122. 122.

    Zinsky

    May 25, 2015 at 7:17 pm

    Went to Far From the Madding Crowd today with the wife. Decent acting and beautiful cinematography – but, the storyline was implausible and lots of plot holes or unresolved questions.

  123. 123.

    jl

    May 25, 2015 at 8:44 pm

    Why didn’t they just nuke it?

  124. 124.

    Paul in KY

    May 26, 2015 at 9:41 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: She was burning fossil fuels during the murder attempt. You gotta give her that.

  125. 125.

    Paul in KY

    May 26, 2015 at 9:42 am

    @WereBear: Makes them look skinnier, too.

  126. 126.

    Paul in KY

    May 26, 2015 at 9:43 am

    @Amir Khalid: They do that in KL too? Man, the world just got a little smaller…

  127. 127.

    Paul in KY

    May 26, 2015 at 9:58 am

    @raven: Excellent & interesting article, raven. Thanks for the link.

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