Zixar

laleo: No, we haven't seen 21 Grams. Sounds like a real downer, though, so we'll probably wait for video. I'd recommend waiting for video with Cold Mountain, too. It's not a bad movie, per se, but the repetitive intercutting of "Nicole Kidman has new trouble on farm" with "Jude Law has new trouble on the road back" over and over gets boring, and then the climax seems a contrived coincidence. I kept checking my watch every few minutes after the first hour and a half. Calendar Girls is worth a matinee at least. Seems like every woman over 40 in our audience got all the jokes the men didn't even know were there... ;)--> The scenery makes me want to see Yorkshire once before I die, too. It's no blockbuster, just a well-crafted little film that sets its marks, then hits every one of them. That's rare in the morass of pretentiousness that chokes Hollywood today.

Saw both of these this weekend at Zixette's request. Cold Mountain just dragged for some reason. Renee Zellweger was funny, but I just didn't buy the rest of the cast. Calendar Girls on the other hand, was quite charming. It's a very warm, human tale of ordinary women doing the extraordinary, or rather committing a great decency through committing a little indecency... Both afternoon showings were sold out at our theater (we purchased advanced tix) and the audience had a good time, evidenced by the reactions. Worth seeing. The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

Hmmm...never had a "clutch job". :)--> The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

Boy, has THIS thread jumped the track. Oh well, I wonder what all my old comic books are worth today... I think I still have the whole Claremont/Byrne run of the X-Men. 94-150 or so. The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

bowtwi: Should I make a joke about a lube-job, or just ask if you ever got your car fixed? :)--> The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

WordWolf: Hate to out-geek you there, WW, but GSX#1, while the true first appearance of the new X-Men, was written by Len Wein, and not Chris Claremont. IMHO, it was Claremont (as well as John Byrne and Terry Austin, the art team) who was responsible for the direction the book went in from #94 (well, #108 for John Byrne, but...) ...Okay, didn't know this before, but Chris Claremont actually helped a little bit with the plotline for Giant-Size X-Men #1, so bang goes my geek point for the day... [even later] Cripes, guess I should have gone back and re-read the masthead for X-Men #94... Len Wein wrote the plot for 94, Claremont just did the script. In other words, you're right, I'm wrong. (Claremont soloed with issue 97, the Cyclops vs. Havok fight.) [This message was edited by Zixar on January 16, 2004 at 22:17.]

rascal: It appears I'm the one who should be apologizing for disappointing you. It was I who misread, not you. Extremely sorry, Zix The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

Ooh! Ooh! Teacher! Pick me! What is nine times seventy-four? I'll take Famous Finnish War Heroes for $400, Alex... The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

Funny, but too true. That makes a good question: Have you ever traded something for sex, or sex for something, even from your spouse? Do you think that's prostitution? The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

Pirate: Yes, Angel was an interesting concept. Warren Worthington III was young, fantastically rich, and good-looking. Yet, he had to hide two six-foot wings to go out in public. I think that's why the X-Men have such a broad appeal, because everyone of them is a misfit but became a hero anyway. For every weakness, there's a strength. Courage in the face of prejudice, that sort of thing. I think X-Men #94 was the real turning point in comics, moving the genre away from stupid kid stuff to thought-provoking science fiction (which is really just thinly-veiled social commentary and morality plays anyway.) The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

(((Rascal))) I can't think of a single time where you haven't utterly failed at disappointing me. :D-->The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

W.W.W. again. The amounts of ethanol produced by normal digestion are minuscule. It's nowhere near the amount contained in even one shot of grain alcohol. The snow thing is a special case, where iron that is rapidly oxidized by a quick snowfall releases a lot of heat. It might be enough to ignite a flammable vapor, but that's an extreme rarity. The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

rascal: You know you have my utmost admiration and respect, and always will. I think, perhaps, you might be going a bit overboard on Oldiesman on this thread. You've certainly suffered at TWI's hands and there's no disputing that. I'm truly sorry it ever happened to you, and I pray God that it never happens again, not to any woman. (or man, for that matter) Oldiesman had a different experience in TWI, as did I. At the time, I was greatly saddened when TWI-1 fell apart because of the good times I had with our little Twig of believers. I thought the whole thing was that dumb jock Martindale's fault and were it not for him, all would be happyTwigland again. Between the time I went to my last Twig and the time I stumbled across Waydale, I was quite happy all alone in my little PFAL-world, and did the best I could to please God, orange-book style. I just held on to the memories, but longed for the fellowship lost. After discovering that Martindale was just a worm in a big rotten apple, I found it a lot easier to get over the "loss" of TWI. In that regard, I'm doing what Oldiesman/JAL said--don't let myself be a victim forever. It's an apples and oranges thing, though. One eventually forgets a skinned knee (me); it's a colossal task to forget an amputated leg (you). [shrug] That's all I got out of what he was saying. Oldiesman: While your viewpoint shouldn't be censored, it might be more prudent to express it a bit more circumspectly on threads such as these. Unless I have totally misread you and you ARE saying what rascal thinks you are, that is. The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

Pirate: Funny, but I can still remember the first issue I saw, too, although not the exact month or year. It had a strikingly beautiful picture of a red-headed Scottish girl wearing a frilly white blouse...and nothing else. She was a true redhead too... :)--> Memories. For all the flap over it, you really have to hand it to Playboy. At least it at least tried to be artistic with the photos. Nowadays, some of the magazines should be re-titled "Gynecological Review"... The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

mstar: Beast (Hank McCoy) was one of the starting X-Men, originally designed to be the team strongman, or "brick" in superhero game terms. He was incredibly dextrous if not Hulk-level strong. He started out talking like a dockworker, but Stan Lee changed him to being the brains of the team to further cast against type. When the original X-Men split up (i.e., when their sales dropped in the early 70s and the book was nothing but reprints) Hank supposedly went into bio-research, and a lab accident turned him blue and fuzzy. (More to look like a Beast, one supposes, because he never did in the X-Men) He then joined up with the Avengers for several years, making a couple of cameo returns when Wolverine and the other new X-Men shot sales through the roof. (like issues #111-114 of Uncanny X-Men) If you have the DVD for the second X-Men movie, Dr. Hank McCoy is briefly seen in a background television screen. (Okay, I think I just burned my geek quota for the day...) Excelsior! Zix The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe... [This message was edited by Zixar on January 15, 2004 at 15:42.]

CKnapp: How about the occasional naughty woman? ;)--> The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

Well, I ain't Perfesser X fer nuthin', y'know? :D--> And his powers come closer to Rogue's too. I've seen him suck the life out of the entire Big Top audience at the Rock--on many occasions! ;)--> The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

You might try Shakespeare--LCM loved playing at being a pseudo-intellectual. ;)--> Zix The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

All except for Muhammad Ali--remember he was supposed to be a seed-boy... ;)--> The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

I got Professor X: You are Professor X! You are a very effective teacher, and you are very committed to those who learn from you. You put your all into everything you do, to some extent because you fear failure more than anything else. You are always seeking self-improvement, even in areas where there is nothing you can do to improve. Which X-Men character are you most like? brought to you by Quizilla The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

I guess that leaves Martindale as The Intolerable Bulk, then. --Crackpot theories got him in trouble. --The madder he gets, the stupider he gets. --Only solution is to bash everything in sight. "Bulk smash!" The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

JT: Ooh, good points... :)--> Although you used "4" twice... ;)--> The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

Rottie: Be careful what you wish for... ;)--> Send me an email. The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

He wouldn't even have made a good gadgeteer (a la Batman) because apparently he couldn't keep his utility belt on for more than ten minutes at a time... ;)--> The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...

Long Gone: Not meaning to bust your chops, but he really did say that about the blood coming from the father in the video class. Perhaps Galen could watch that segment again and corroborate it for us, but I'm positive he said that. The Secret Signature of the Day has been cancelled by the HTML Police. Or so the Germans would have us believe...