Defenestrator

I'd suggest that Luongo turning into a puck sieve in net was far more of a factor than anything the refs did.

Also...Campbell recused himself from his position for this series. You really shouldn't put too much stock into what a bunch of sour grapes Vancouver sports writers write. (The Boston press is even worse, though -- they actively try to sabotage their own teams before big games.)

Bettman gets booed EVERY year he comes out to present the Stanley Cup because he's Bettman. The crowd immediately cheered the announcement of Tim Thomas being awarded the Con Smythe.

Bettman is a joke of a commissioner and deserves to be booed.

The acting, all around, has been top-notch, and that includes the kid playing Joffrey Bieber (just want to smack that little punk around). Usually child actors are the weak links, but Sansa, Arya and Joffrey have all been well-played parts. But, yeah, Sean Bean nailed that moment.

I've not read the books, but I was pretty sure Ned was not making it out of this season. A friend of mine did tell me not to get too attached to anybody.

Still...it was shocking to see it unfold the way it did. We're seeing HBO do something very different and I'm excited by it.

Despite the money HBO laid out for season one, they're apparently making some serious bank off the foreign buys for this series due to the international interest. Having not read the books, I think we'll be okay.

And I was okay with skipping over the big battle scene. Such things are cool, but we've seen it before in countless movies...I like how they handled it, especially since THAT battle wasn't really the main focus of the story.

NOTE: I love how the credits sequence changes when new locations are being featured in the story. It's a really nice touch.

According to a friend of mine who has read the books...yes.

I spit beer through my nose the other night when Milbury referred to them as "Thelma & Louise."

Anansi Boys was fantastic. Loved the whole feel of the book. I know Gaiman co-wrote Good Omens, but I've never considered him a "comedy" author. Anansi Boys proved me wrong on this.

And I just read my first Christopher Moore book, "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Jesus' Childhood Pal." Absolutely hilarious, poignant and well-written. I'm looking forward reading more of his work.

It's cheaper to go through Amazon, generally. Also, I really don't have a comic book store that is convenient for me to get to, so I get a lot of my specialty/graphic novels from Amazon. (When I was looking at the prospect of losing my job, my plan B was going to be "open a comic and gaming store" in this part of town. I might still do it if I can find the financing.)

If it's something I need RIGHT NOW, I do still buy at brick & mortar stores.

My reading pile is generally pretty large, so I wasn't planning on starting "A Game of Thrones" until the current season ends on HBO, and I need to finish my current project (Guillermo del Toro's "The Strain," -- which has absolutely no sparkly vampires in it).

It's why I've been raising a stink with them about this. I've actually talked to a few people on the phone at this point, and I'm just trying to get one non-mangled copy of the book. I'm one of those fools who signed up for Amazon Prime shipping and get more than my money's worth out of it, but I won't renew if it means my books are going to be mangled.

For the practice of saving a few pieces of cardboard, they've now destroyed 3 books. I'm not sure how that's Earth-friendly.

The episode where Chris and his fiance bring both of their totally reprobate and dysfunctional families together for a "normal" Thanksgiving dinner (which winds up with everyone at the emergency room and a few arrests) is absolutely classic. I was amazed at how much comedy got packed into 22 minutes in that episode.

Yes, it was actually from Amazon and not an authorized dealer. They've just switched to a more "environmentally conscious" method of packaging, which means using a single cardboard wrap and a shipping label. The cardboard wrap gets tightened, which is causing softcover books to get mangled. The last several books I ordered from Amazon all came in this new wrapping, but they were hardcovers so they arrived safely (the Thor Omnibus by Walt Simonson and the last volume of Y: The Last Man).

Amazon used to shrinkwrap books to an oversized piece of cardboard and then put them into a bigger box. I never had a problem with any damaged books when they were packed like this.

I'm in the club of finding "Arrested Development" to be hilarious.

Here's the thing.

1) You're either going to get it or you won't. If you do get it, it's the greatest show ever.
2) It really takes more than a few episodes to really get it, because there's a ton of repetitive gags and call backs to previous episodes.
3) Once you get it, you've got it.

Other shows (most already mentioned):

Curb Your Enthusiasm -- I can usually only watch an episode or two at a time, but they are painfully funny.

NewsRadio -- as someone mentioned, stop at the end of Season 4. They tried to continue the show on after Hartman was gone, but the spirit of the show died with him.

Titus -- it was on Fox for about 3 seasons and was 5 or 6 years ahead of it's time. Very dark humor (when you can build comedy around your real life mother being in an insane asylum, you're treading through some dark waters). Stacey Keach is BRILLIANT in this series. On top of that, Fox completely ripped off the format of this show with "The War At Home" a few years later.

Archer -- great show. The weird thing is I didn't really care for his previous efforts (Frisky Dingo and Sealab).

The Venture Brothers -- what started as a spoof of the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons (notably, Johnny Quest) has evolved into something much deeper and greater than that. And it's still really funny.

So, in the past few weeks we have:

Way I Don't Want to Die #351 -- having molten gold poured over my head.

Way I Don't Want to Die #352 -- being dragged naked behind a horse until I'm nothing but a leash and a pelvis.

Way I Don't Want to Die #353 -- having my throat ripped out...BY HAND.

Amazon has now sent me 3 mangled copies of the first book.

"Is the product we sent you readable/usable?"

Yes, technically, it is, but if I wanted something that looked like a 2-year-old had been at it for a few hours I'd have bought a copy at a garage sale. (And this time it's not the UPS cretins using the package to get out of a mudhole -- it's Amazon's own packaging methods that are damaging the books.)

The first book arrived from Amazon yesterday, but they decided to pack it in a box that was too small and it got kind of mangled. Waiting for a new copy to show up.

The series has been amazing.

When they took moments from the Lansdale-penned comics, the movie showed flashes. The problem was, they didn't go far enough with that.

There's a running gag that Lansdale uses where people ask Hex about his scar, and he has a different answer for them each time ("Bit my cheek eatin'", "Cut myself shavin,'" etc.) There was a moment of that in the movie, but nothing more.

Here's what I would have done:

1) Open the movie at Gettysburg and mess with Hex's origin a bit. You can even put Turnbull in this scene and show how Hex got his scars. This would probably be the most expensive part of the movie (big battle scene -- Pickett's Charge).

2) Flash forward 5 years later and adapt "Two Gun Mojo" and fleshing things out a bit for run time. Basically, the story would pick up with Hex, now a bounty hunter, being dragged to his own hanging behind some horses. It's a great story that gets weird once he encounters Doc Cross.

Ways I Don't Want To Die: #351