In Summary

Imagine this scenario: You're browsing through the TV listings, scanning for a movie to watch, occasionally pausing to read the brief synopsis of the movie (the one or two-liner that describes the show, maybe on-screen, maybe in your news paper or TV Guide).

If you're watching TBS pretty much any given Saturday afternoon, you'll find:

The Breakfast Club: "A wrestler, a rebel, a brain, a beauty and a shy girl share Saturday detention in a Chicago high school."

More specifically, on a sci-fi type channel you might find the following:

Back to the Future: "A teen takes a crackpot's DeLorean time machine to 1955 and sees his parents in high school."

Or,

E.T. The Extra-terrestrial: "A boy's close encounter with an alien stranded on Earth leads to a unique friendship."

The summaries are jam-packed with keywords, often stacked 3 and 4 in a row, maximizing the description in a short space. So, they might seem a bit odd to read, but when you know the context, they are effective in describing, in this case, a couple of mainstream 80s movies.

Imagine how my curiosity was piqued upon reading the following synopsis (which was from the 80s, but NOT a mainstream film):

Solarbabies: "Orphan roller skaters follow a magical sphere to freedom from fascist police of the future."


Roller Skaters, you say? Yes, but ORPHAN roller skaters.


Follow a sphere? Wait - where? No, a MAGICAL sphere. To FREEDOM.


Freedom from the police? Even worse. FASCIST police.

OF THE FUTURE.

I'm not sure I've ever seen 15 words say so much.

As a sci-fi fan I had to watch this movie. No surprise, it was terrible.

Heroes, Gyros, & Beer-os

It's been happening every week during the TV season since last fall...

The break out phenomenon that took the nation by surprise...

It's called Heroes, Gyros, and Beer-os.

Monday nights Lee and I get together to watch Heroes, eat gyros from Gyropolis, and drink Grain Belt Premium beer-os.

You, too can help make Monday everybody's new favorite night of the week: watch some good TV, support your local gyro shop and tip back a local brew.

And let me know if you have food and drink ideas that rhyme with Lost and 24.

24, or 12: the halfway point

Season 6, 5:00-6:00 pm

Worst episode ever. Here's my take, in the words of some of the characters who were actually there, but didn't have a chance to say what they really thought:

Secret Service in White House Bunker:
First Agent: Dude, a bomb! Almost blowed-up the Prez!
Second Agent: Well, that's what happens when we bring a known terrorist in to meet with the president in the most secure and super-secret place we could possibly imagine.
First Agent: You really think he did it?
Second Agent: Nah, but I got a wife, kids, and a pension to think about. I mean it's MY ASS.
First Agent: Somebody else must have smuggled it in, I guess. We gotta talk to somebody at the metal detector. I mean it's EVERY TIME with those guys!

Conspiracy in EVEN MORE super secret pipe room:
Bad Guy: You think he'll talk?
Ex-Mrs. Hillary Swank: Nahhhh.

Russian Embassy, exterior:
Jack: Funny, but my Russian is still fluent. I may have lost that slight Ukraininan accent I worked on, but hey, it's been 18 months since I even spoke ENGLISH! Don't make me choke you!

Russian Embassy, interior:
Markov: You know, it's really great to be here in the US of A, in this sunny state of California, where I don't have to work too hard or wait in the bread lines or ration my fuel... But I think we should destroy these filthy capitalist pigs and teach them a lesson!
Soon-to-be-deceased Russian guy: A lesson in what? Why should we make trouble?
Markov: I don't know I guess... Just to shake things up, maybe? I mean, wouldn't it be nice to just go back to the motherland and poison some MF's for the KGB now and again?
Soon-to-be-deceased Russian guy: Da.

Russian Embassy, interior, later on:
Soon-to-be-deceased Russian guy: Jack Bauer just told me something werry, werry important. Now I'm the ONLY ONE who can stop Marko. I have a funny feeling about this...

CTU Los Angeles:
Morris: There's no way ever that we could ever monitor anything coming or going from that embassy. Oh, wait...

Washington, DC airport:
Karen Hayes-Buchanan: Hi Bill, I'm in the Worldperks lounge at the airport. Yeah, another Northwest delay. What do you mean "should have called 5 hours ago"?!

Back in the White House Bunker:
President Palmer: Ouch. How could you let this happen? Are you the head of my Secret Service or NOT??
Secret Service Agent: No, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night!