Recent Comments

1. about 17 hours ago on Crankshaft

   Exploring the space between each others’ ears.

2. about 17 hours ago on Crankshaft

   Best line in “Fellowship of the Ring” was when one of the hobbits returns from the bar (in the first tavern they’d ever visited outside the Shire), carrying an enormous-looking mug of ale. “This, me lads, is a pint!” he proclaims proudly. The others look for a moment before saying “It comes in pints?” Yes it does, Frodo, yes it does…

3. about 17 hours ago on Crankshaft

   Skippy’s a con artist. The “Sentinel” is just a cover story, not a real paper. Skippy’s sole means of supporting himself is pretending to research stories about local people, “interviewing” them in restaurants and letting them pick up the check.

4. about 17 hours ago on Crankshaft

   Or a job.

5. about 17 hours ago on Crankshaft

   In Batty’s world, you must prove yourself worthy before being allowed to purchase the Sacred Texts.

6. about 17 hours ago on Crankshaft

   You can’t fool me—the Seal of Approval was a marine mammal living on Approval Island, somewhere in the middle of the Pacific.

7. about 17 hours ago on Crankshaft

   Well, the variable-age twins have to do something on the days when they’re not appearing in “Crankshaft.”

8. about 17 hours ago on Crankshaft

   But how can Batton top Jff’s gut-wrenching story of having his mom plunge a kitchen knife through the heart of The Precious?

   I get the feeling I’m gonna regret asking that question…

9. about 17 hours ago on Crankshaft

   I was never much of a komik-book kid myself, despite growing up in the middle of Tom’s precious Silver Age. Somehow, growing up in a time where people in the real world were going into space and eventually walking on the moon, super-heroes didn’t really excite me all that much. When I did buy comic books, they were “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” and of course Mad magazine (does that qualify as a comic?).

10. about 17 hours ago on Crankshaft

    Speaking of Heinlein… I was on the MST3K YouTube stream the other day and they ran a movie called “Project Moon Base.” It was supposed to be a pilot for a TV show that didn’t get picked up, and Heinlein apparently wrote a big part of the screenplay.

    The “uniforms” of the US Space Force (yep, they got that one right) were hot pants and tight t-shirts for both sexes, and it was obviously a bit chilly on the set when they filmed some scenes. The flick gave us a female president and mission commander (something the real space program wouldn’t have until 33 years after the movie supposedly took place), but a society so uptight that when the commander and a male astronaut are stranded on the moon for a month, they’re ordered to get married to avoid any appearance of impropriety!

    No wonder Heinlein would later disavow the script!