People doing things incredibly slowly to build up tension is an old and dumb horror trope.

Who open a door an inch at a time when they're scared? You either don't open it at all or you slam it open.

Here's some more: going to the scary place at night. Thunderstorm for no reason.

Rowan Atkinson, Kris Kristofferson, Conan O'Brien are very smart. Not sure about the rest.

There seem to be hundreds of tantalizing leads about Alzheimers, all going in different directions.

It's an idea book, not an adventure story.

I don't think it's meant to go together 100%. Like a P. K. Dick novel, it's impossible to make all the pieces fit.

That's not a bad example, though, since Eowyn couldn't have defeated the Witch King on her own and neither knew Merry's little dagger was good enough to actually hurt him.

I mean on Weathertop. Frodo stabs the Nazgul's foot, making him miss Frodo's heart.

In LotR, the two main bits of "Northern Courage" are the charge of Rohirrim. From their vantage, the attack was hopeless and would lead to defeat. But they attacked anyway, and it turned out to be necessary for victory.

Second, and I think the most important, is Frodo stabbing the foot of the Nazgul. Frodo had no chance of defeating the Nazgul, and the Nazgul still delivers a mortal blow, but Frodo's attack throws it off the mark and it doesn't kill Frodo fast enough.

Aragorn's attack on the black gate is something like that, but he had a plan for victory even if he thought his chances were slim. He knew the ring at least hadn't been found.

Tolkien expressed the idea of "Northern Courage", which is a bit chauvinist, but the idea is good: it's the courage to keep struggling even if you don't see any hope.

The basis for such courage is our own ignorance. We simply can't know for sure it's as bad as we think it is, or if it is that bad, that someone somewhere in the future won't turn things around in a way we can't imagine, and your own seemingly ineffectual behavior might in some small way help them.

You might be right, but you can't know for sure that you're right.

My grief counselor died today. She's so good I jumped straight to acceptance.

comment was meant for his dad.

To Republicans, "The Border" is short hand for scary Mexicans. They aren't even thinking about the border they actually live next to.

It's been a while since I've seen the movie, but my impression was the thing was good, but not perfect at social manipulation.

I always assumed the thing infected the ship and (indirectly) caused the crash.

I didn't watch the whole thing. What turned me off was adding Americans to it. Seemed like an obvious sop to the US market and not something the movie really needed.

I always thought the implication was the thing caused the crash. Didn't they find a body in the wreck? I suspect that's not the thing's true form.

I agree about the whiskey, but the thing does not handle social situations totally perfectly. It would obviously know what the noose is but might underestimate its effect on real people.

Seriously. People do stupid stuff in these situations but usually the picture looks far more dangerous than reality. They are having a memorable moment and aren't hurting anyone else.

When did Washingtonians get all salty about this stuff? Didn't use to be that way.

You guys don't clamber up the rocks above water falls?

He's just being realistic. It's like a king ordering the sun to rise at the correct time.