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As you’ve probably heard, Sir Terry Pratchett, best known as a writer of satirical fantasy novels, has died at the age of 66, surrounded by his family, with his cat asleep on his bed. He was diagnosed eight years ago … Continue reading
Gary
Jason Sudeikis (a former Saturday Night Live regular perhaps best remembered for his impression of Joe Biden) is a small-time marijuana dealer with a mostly upscale clientele, no friends or family, and questionable ethics. He does have some standards. He … Continue reading
Frank Morgan, the former ruler of Oz, now owns a luggage and leather goods shop in Budapest. His best employee is Jimmy Stewart, who has an annoying tendency to disagree with him and — worse — usually turns out to … Continue reading
This is an understated, pleasant little film based on the true story of Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, cousins living together in Cottingley England, who shot five photographs of fairies starting in 1917. The girls were 16 and 9 at … Continue reading
Hawking, probably the most famous physicist since Einstein, offers an entertaining non-technical survey of cosmology and related areas of theoretical physics, a lot of it based on his own research. The book is over a decade old, but that’s recent … Continue reading
Stallznow, an Australian living in the U.S., has a linguistics PhD and a background in history and anthropology. She treats odd-sounding beliefs with respect but doesn’t hesitate to condemn — quite rightly, I’d say — groups that exploit or mistreat … Continue reading
I found myself initially a bit confused about who was who in this film, but I liked it enough that I watched it twice and enjoyed it more the second time. It’s based on a lightweight Oscar Wilde play and … Continue reading
The late Elmore Leonard wrote crime novels noted for their realistic dialog and interesting characters. This omnibus edition from The Library of America contains, as the volume’s title says, four novels from the 1970s, all fairly typical of Leonard’s work, … Continue reading
Here’s an excellent video that crams a huge amount of information about life expectancy into less than seven minutes. The speaker is Dr. Aaron Carroll, a pediatrician who also writes extensively about healthcare and related matters (here, and here, for … Continue reading
Some time ago I realized that a major reason people have pets is not so much for companionship and affection as for having something to laugh at. Not long after I noticed that the same applies to women putting up … Continue reading