"James P. Hogan almost called..."

Well, as long as you overlook the fact that Hogan was talking about historical timeframes vs. geological timeframes and he had the Moon being the satellite of a planet that now no longer exists (our asteroid belt) and wandering through the solar system to neatly fall into a orbit around Earth, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I think "Inherit the Stars" is a fun book. But his theories are a bit off.

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Thursday December 20, 2007 at 7:23 AM

That is, without a doubt, the funniest review of a Bic pen I have ever read.

Posted by raincoaster on Thursday December 20, 2007 at 7:24 AM

Just as all Christmas tales should read like this

Posted by Matt Dovey on Thursday December 20, 2007 at 7:33 AM

Fred: Woah, man...settle down, settle down... I was just talking about *** SPOILER ALERT *** the Moon originally being part of a planet. So, yeah...I guess I was overlooking all that other stuff.

Posted by John on Thursday December 20, 2007 at 9:38 AM

Man, that "Matt B." fellow is pretty lucky. I must've gone thru hundreds of Bic pens, not one had a portal in it!

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday December 20, 2007 at 11:01 AM

Interesting question: The book has been out since the 1970's, at what point can we assume that we no longer need spoiler alerts?

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Thursday December 20, 2007 at 8:59 PM

Great question, Fred! I've generally set the boundary at two years - anything older than that and it's fair game without the warning. Especially in the age of the 'net, anything older than two years has probably been discussed thoroughly and openly to a degree that you'd be likely to stumble on a spoiler or two at some point. Also, to paraphrase Jack Black in High Fidelity, you might have some desire to read a book/story or watch a show/movie, but if you really had wanted to do it, you would have already done so by now, so spoilers can't matter much. Anything within the two year limit though, is still new enough that if you had a big in-box pile you might not reasonably have got around to reading it yet. In that case, it's only polite to give a spoilage advisory.

The question for me then becomes, how do we treat re-cut re-releases of classic movies, like the just-released Blade Runner - The Final Cut? We already know the plot, so it should be fair game without the warning. And yet, because enough tinkering might make enough of an alteration to your experience of the movie...

Posted by bloginhood on Friday December 21, 2007 at 1:14 AM

You mean the sequence in the "new" BR where the androids all start throwing pies at the cops is a spoiler?

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Friday December 21, 2007 at 12:03 PM

Naw, I was thinking about that scene where Roy reveals that he's Deckard's father.

Posted by bloginhood on Sunday December 23, 2007 at 3:53 AM