That sounds suspiciously like goodbye....

This.

We have a subscription to Highlights High Five, the little kids version, and my son LOVES it. He'll be getting regular Highlights when he can read well enough, as well as Cricket. No National Geographic Kids though, the ads are simply too obnoxious and the content is dumbed down way below what it was when it was National Geographic World when I was a kid. Dear National Geographic: I would gladly pay more for a subscription to your kids' magazine in order to get rid of the obnoxious ads for video games, bad movies, and whatever other crap is in there. Also, you'll have to step up your content just a bit.

Cricket totally ruled. What a great way to introduce kids to really cool fiction writing. Can't wait until my kids can read and I can get a subscription to Cricket. That and National Geographic World were my two subscriptions as a kid.

This is awesome. One of the reasons I kind of stopped playing D&D was that I was afraid of playing with new people. My gaming group used a players handbook, a DM's guide, a monster manual, a few dice, and some xeroxed character sheets. There was never a module, any body else's story, or any figurines. The rules were more what you might call "guidelines", and the DM could do whatever he wanted to and we could customize rules to suit us. All the published D&D stuff was just a framework on which we built our games. And I got to play an elf with a split personality who was a chaotic neutral thief, a chaotic evil assassin, and a lawful good monk, depending on certain environmental triggers.

I don't think you really have to catch up. I'd like to catch up myself, but I've only seen a few episodes and I can easily just sit down and watch and enjoy it. Actually, it may be better for me than for someone who's followed the show because it's so mysterious. It's fun to watch not knowing what any of the characters are going to do or what the rules of the universe are. And the acting and writing really tell you right away who these people are.

The same way we learned that making Hot Wheels cars go back and forth repeatedly indicates that they are really driving a long distance.

Ha! I knew it was Fringe! I read so many guesses on the comments to the audition post and thought they were all wrong, that it was Fringe. Sorry you didn't get it. I really like that show, even though I don't watch it often.

I've found the cure, thanks to Roger Ebert's twitter feed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFabjc6mFk4

I had "Let it Be" in my head yesterday for some reason, but when I thought about it being in my head it made me think of "Pico and Sepulveda" and it was back. It's the earworm that won't die. It's worse than the Wrath of Khan.

Curse you, Wil Wheaton! It's in my head and I can't get it out. For four straight days now. It just won't stop. Every moment that my brain is not completely occupied all it does is say: "Pico and Sepulveda. Pico and Sepulveda. Pico and Sepulveda." How do I make it stop? "Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a Q-Tip"

I lived in Central Florida, and we went outside to the playgound to watch every shuttle launch. This one was maybe more special because my science teacher was one of the contestants who Christa McAuliffe had beaten out for the opportunity to go up in the shuttle. We had all watched a lot of shuttle launches though, so we were still a bit bored. We watched it on and off as it went higher into the sky, then we began to notice that something was different. Looking up at that ball of smoke, with two pillars of smoke curving off in different directions, with no TV announcers to comment on it, we began making up explanations in the way children do. Someone suggested the shuttle blew up, we all promptly told her she must be wrong. Of course we learned later she was right. We spent the rest of the day watching television in the class room.

It would have to be the other way around, the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory predates the Forbidden Zone by eleven years.

Sarasota police should be ashamed at themselves for cutting years out of the prime of his career. Jerks. What did they think people did in those theaters, read Shakespeare?

Bummer, firewall at work doesn't like 1up.com.

I'm so going to lose geek points for this, but I don't understand your reply! THIS?

Number 5 is a fantastic idea. I went back to college recently and got my master's degree, and I did ok, but I had to do some work on my own to keep up with math. I miss knowing stuff, and sometimes now I actually need it. I thought about going back and really studying math, but I'd need so much remedial catch up, it would take forever. But I'd love a class like this. Call it the Be Ready to Help your Kids with their Homework class.

What Winnie the Pooh says I think applies to all writing: “Poetry and Hums aren't things which you get, they're things which get you. And all you can do is go where they can find you.”

Dude, he's won ALL the internets!

I too have blown pumpkin soup all over the kitchen with a blender. Must be fairly common experience. What the world needs is a "man's blender". Something that can process about a gallon of stuff, with lots of blades. Something that will definitely blend an iPhone. Fortunately my wife loves it when I do things like this. As I stand there, stunned, with my head hung down and a defeated expression, staring at the mess I made, she laughs and says, "I'm so glad I have you to entertain me." "Yes", I say, "I live to entertain you." Now I'm trying to figure out what kind of soup I can make for dinner tonight from what's in the house.

+1 for "jazz hands". I'm such a theatre geek.

No, it was ColecoVision, I'd know those controllers anywhere. In the list there's a game called Super Action Baseball, which is probably the one. Maybe my friend was just obsessed with that one, or no one bought him any new games? We definitely never played Donkey Kong on it.

All I remember from the Coleco was the baseball game. That's all my friend ever wanted to play. I didn't really like it much. The Atari seemed to have a great selection of games, and of course it had Pac-Man. The Odyssey2 had a Pac-Man rip-off and a race car game, don't remember anything else. I wonder if it's still in my dad's attic. Controllers were just joysticks, and didn't fit your hand as well as Atari joysticks. God, how long could I ramble on about archaic gaming consoles?

I think we all envied our friends' consoles. I had friends with Colecovisions, Atari 2600s, and we had our Odyssey2. Though it is hard for me to imagine they were jealous of our Odyssey2. I think mostly we were all jealous of the Atari.

My first (and last, I've only used PCs since) console was an Odyssey2. I think we were the only family that ever owned one. It sucked because they got sued by Atari and stopped making games for it. But KC Munchkin was way better than PacMan, you could edit your own mazes!