Response to Sarah

Sluggy Freelance is indeed one severe wack job of a comic. Accept no imitations. I have yet to see A.I., but I intend to this weekend (as well as Cats and Dogs, which looks to me to be very promising indeed), so no spoilers please. I confess, I'm expecting E.T. with androids (Spielberg plucks heartstrings and spins illusions well IMO, but he doesn't handle science very well; I'm worried his only hope for success is Kubrick's groundwork).

Back at the Helm

Spent yesterday at my good friends the Websters' house, playing Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition as my newish alter-ego Lothar Eisenkopf, the Dwarf who Carries Sharp Things and Hits Monsters with Them. Announcing his name at his debut a few months ago was a cause for everyone at the table to sing, "Lothar... of the Hill People!", which apparently owes its Genesis to a "Saturday Night Live" skit. I am not an SNL junkie, and have no great wish to point my TiVos at Comedy Central's SNL schedule (thus deluging myself with several SNL episodes a day) just to catch a single skit. What's the deal here? (FWIW, my choice of Lothar [which I thought was nicely obscure, silly me] came from the delightfully goofy Mouse movie The Rocketeer, wherein Lothar was a semiverbal German giant of a hit man; an intimidating figure who nonetheless had a soft spot for tea in tiny china cups and Mozart on the Gramophone. He gets burned up in a Zeppelin fire. :-) ). D&D was a blast, despite taking place among the four rambunctious bundles of joy (all between the ages of 6 months and 6 years) brought by the two sets of parents present.

I'll probably post again later today. I need to get to work or something. :-D

-Rich