So I had my friends M and J over tonight to take it for a spin. Among other things, we watched an episode of Beauty and the Beast. Yes, that show, with the romantic lead who was burdened with that terribly common and tragic birth defect of looking like a lion.

I hadn’t seen it since it originally aired, 20 (!) years ago. I was prepared for hilarity, but it turns out that the show (or at least the first episode) holds up. (Unlike the hairstyles and gigantic shoulder pads, which “hold up” in only the most literal sense of the term.) I will totally be watching more of this over winter break.

In other television history from 1987, that is the year that Iceland introduced television on Thursdays.

Who would win in a fight, Capt. Picard or Darth Vader?

I showed my 8th graders the tree octopus page today, by way of teaching website evaluation in a way that didn’t make them start snoring and drooling on their computers. “Why would anyone make a page like that?” they asked in bemused contempt. “He has way too much time on his hands.”

I thought this was supposed to be the Net Generation! Don’t they understand that people with too much time on their hands are the entire point of the internet??

In other news, who wants to watch a whole lot of ST:TNG with me this weekend?

Please, please stop hyping Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother. You’re making it sound like you’ve never read YA science fiction before, which seems unlikely since some of you write it. It’s the most inspiring book ever written! I get it! I’ll read it already! But shut up about it before the mere mention of the book makes me want to roll my eyes.

Oh wait. Too late.

Love n’ kisses,
Sam

P.S. The attendant discussion of YA sections in bookstores, and the fabbity fabness of YA lit in general, is of course well worth having, and gets a big thumbs up here at Parenthetical Headquarters. I’m just contrary enough to decide to dislike something in direct proportion to how much people tell me it’s the best thing ever. (Fans of The Wire, take note.)