Michael Hopcroft

What to make of the controversy in the Red Bull paddock for their Formula One #1 team? There are reports of a massive power struggle going on within the team, provoked by an investigation of a senior manager that was apparently either botched or suppressed of both. What is at stake is the future of the most dominant team in F1 history -- a team so dominant that other teams can barely sniff the podium, much less the race winner spot. There are rumors that their ace Max Verstappen might even walk away from the team and join another if the management struggle doesn't come out as he wants. This would be a seismic shift in the sport of Formula 1. While Lewis Hamilton signing as a free agent with Ferrari for '25 made a lot of headlines, Hamilton is a "Lion in Winter" who has not quite regained his former edge, to the point that he is the #2 at Mercedes. Also, there have already been complaints about the 24-race schedule for this season. Drivers and crews are afraid of the toll it will exact, especially since many of the more difficult tracks are late in the season, when most of what drivers and teams fight for has already been decided. Qatar in particular is cited as a race where it was fortunate no drivers were killed in a race that would have little impact on the outcome of the season.

Q; Why does everyone in the Shinjuku market have that strong, healthy glow? A: She puts the "Fun" into "Fundamentalism"!

"Ah. Yes, my darling, I was just about to call you. I'm on my way. I've got the cheese and the Beaujolais. What? My love. Kiss the children for me. Huh? Hold on." (sets the phone down) "Yes?" "Your wife is on the other line." "Tell her I'm out of town."

I saw Raffles tonight with my mother (on Prime), from 1939. David Niven plays A.J. Raffles, a renowned society gent and famous cricketer who leads a second life as "The Amateur Cracksman", a jewel and art thief. He's fallen back in love with a girl from school days (a stunningly beautiful Olivia De Havilland), and is determined to give up crime -- until her brother confides that he needs to come up with a thousand pounds or go to prison. So Raffles reluctantly takes on one last robbery at a noble estate -- but the Scotland Yard inspector he's been taunting for years shows up just as he is about to perform the job, as has a not-so-gentlemanly thief looking for the same prize. Niven would go on to play a very similar role in Blake Edwards' comedic caper masterpiece The Pink Panther. He was shocked when the sequels featured Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau and not his Phantom as he thought it would be. It didn't help that Sellers was the same screwed-up ass he always was, not getting along with anybody and antagonizing everyone involved.

A 18-year-old English driver named Ollie Bearman has been called up out of motor racing's equivalent of the "minors" do drive Ferrari's second car in the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, He had a decent qualifying run yesterday, ending up in the eleventh spot on the grid (naturally, Max Verstappen is on pole and is a near-prohibitive favorite to win the race). Bearman will be the only rookie in the field. Nobody is signed this y4ear to drive in Formula 1 who was not there in 2023. It's still questionable if there are some drivers in f1 who shouldn't be there at the point, but nobody gave a rookie a shot. I appreciate Ferrari taking the low-risk gamble (he's filling for the #1 driver on the team, Carlos Sainz), and then it will be back to Ferrari's F2 team for Bearman. I will be watching the race with interest and keeping an eye on how Bearman does. There was another substitute driver in 2023who I was hoping would get an F1 ride, but didn't. I'm just hoping (if the world lasts that long) there will be a rookie driver or two in 2025.

I thought this would be an Internet hoax, but evidently it isn't: the creator of the immensely popular Dragonball series of manga and anime, Akira Toriyama, has passed away at the age of 68. Even if the name is not familiar, gamers would have to have been living under very large rocks to be completely ignorant of Dragonball. Starting as a comical riff on the classic novel Journey to the West, it featured a strong but naive boy named Son Goku who is enlisted by a girl scientist to track down seven magical orbs which, when brought together, would summon the godlike dragon Shenron to grant the user one unconditional wish. Along the way, they encounter a string of eccentric characters and powerful adversaries like the totalitarian Red Ribbon Army, as well as a lecherous martial arts instructor who teaches Goku devastating techniques, which had him growing unimaginably powerful. Fats forward thirty years. Goku has grown up, married, and sired a son, all the while remaining a big, lovable oaf. But then he learns the secret of his own past -- not only is he not really human, but he was actually sent to Earth as an infant to destroy the planet on behalf of the might Saiyan Empire. This is something Goku unconditionally rejects, choosing to protect instead of destroy and love instead of hate. This puts him in conflict with many ever-more-powerful adversaries, including the Saiyan general Vegeta who would become his great rival. A riff on a novel about the rise of Buddhism in Eastern Asia switched into a riff on the Superman mythos, spawning some of the most spectacular super-brawls ever drawn and animated. Ironically, Toriyama was asked to write Dragonball because his previous series, the wacky comedy Dr. Slump, had gotten too weird in the eyes of his publisher. But his influence did not stop with manga and anime. He also had a role in the creation of such significant video games as the Dragon Quest franchise, Blue Dragon, and more. But it is Dragonball, and its enormous impact on global popular culture, that was his crowning achievement.

If I may interject, I have a lot of experiences with false positives when I but something from a small publisher. For example, pretty much every sports simulation game I buy I need to give special permission to bypass the obvious false positive and save the files (simply because Microsoft thinks too few people have downloaded the file). I'm not surprised this is happening with TTRPG purchases as well.

"I always wanted a tail...."

"Now that's a katana!" "Ruby is that my book..." "This is filth! FILTH!" (whacks friend in the head with the "borrowed book") "Can I have my book back?" "LATER!"

"NO KILL I"

I wonder if F1 needs its own thread for 2024 -- or maybe one on motorsports in general to accommodate the NASCAR fans.

Q: Surely you can play Lady Macbeth, Miss Maclaine? A: It looks like one more way to obtain parenthood has been wiped out of existence.

Q: Why is everybody in the dining hall raising toast after toast to Nobody? A: Justice will be swift! It will be painful! It will be Delicious!

Q: What led you to us? Hiow could have possibly discovered the Secret Hideout of the League of Evil Trigonmetrists? A: Your nights of trying to take over the world have come to an end!

I know who he is. I just don't remember anything he did that was especially funny.... Given what's happening in Northern Virginia with the Capitals' new arena plans being stymied by local opposition, it could be that Vegas decided they know a scam when they see one (which they probably do at least thirty times an hour, because Vegas). And while the NHL's Golden Knights have been a resounding success on and off the ice, I'm not quite sure what to make of the Vegas Raiders or the Vegas Super Bowl.

Reminds me to ask what the pianos of Mozart's day looked and sounded like compared to a modern Grand or Upright.

But they may not be for much longer. Justin Hebert is growing into the role of an NFL starting quarterback -- maybe not Patrick Mahomes, but he is good enough to give the Chargers a shot every week. Mind you, playing second fiddle in the LA market isn't fun (just ask the Clippers and Angels) but all three of these sides always have the chance to be really good if management doesn't do something stupid like alienating Shohei Ohtani or just about every word and action of former Clips owner Donald Sterling. And it's especially disheartening to share an arena with another, more popular team. (There's talk of the Clippers finally getting their one arena, as opposed to asking to rent out the Honda Center where the NHL's Anaheim "Mighty" Ducks play.

Q: How do you look so young, Mr. Gilgamesh? A: In Mesopotamia, the Kingdom where we secretly reign.

Q: Why won't you let me change the formula for 7-Up? A: I put the Lime in the Coconut and drank it all up!

They felt we needed an excuse to watch puppies play around on a artificial-turf carpet. NT: Subtle signs your next-door neighbor hates your dog for no reason.

Q: How is the guy in the white hat and robes so amazingly good at pool? A: If you can solve quantum mechanics puzzles in your head, this game is easy.

F1 legend Lewis Hamilton will be changing teams at the end of the upcoming season. The long-time Mercedes driver has signed a prospective deal with archrival Ferrari, in hopes that with their support he can resume his on-track rivalry with Max Verstappen -- who had the strongest point-production season of anyone in F1. As far as I heard, Red Bull is standing pat with Verstappen and Sergio Perez as their drivers.

My opinion of LALD would not be suitable for this forum. On the other hand, I love Golden Gun -- as a comedy as opposed to the action/adventure film they wanted their audience to think that was what they were getting. I especially like Bernard Lee's slow-burn take on M in the middle of all this insanity. The first Bond movie I saw on its first run was The Spy Who Loved Me. The last was Casino Royale.

For the first time in decades, I got to see the classic Outer Limits episode "Demon with a Glass Hand", in which a man from the future must find a way to stop enemies of the Human species from traveling in time back to the 20th century, guided by the computer that has been grafted to him in place of one of his hands. It was not as good as I remembered it -- it was better. People forget that before he became a legendary curmudgeon, Harlan Ellison was a great television writer, both in science fiction and in other forms. He wrote several episodes of the badly-dated detective series Burke's Law, whose premise of a police detective who also happened to be a multi-millionaire is ludicrous now. He did contribute some well-designed murder puzzles to that series, and at the time producers seemed to enjoy working with him. He only stopped writing TV episodes when he clashed with the producers of Star Trek over his script for "City on the Edge of Forever" -- the changes to the script turned out to be superior to what he had originally written, but you never, ever tried to tell Harlan Ellison he was wrong. Back to the episode, which combines a sense of claustrophobia (it is almost entirely set in a dilapidated office building surrounded by a field that prevents escape) with a cracking adventure. The protagonist constantly tries to ask the hand why he was sent back, where the object of his quest is located, and most importantly who and what he is. Robert Culp, who would go on to fame in series like I Spy and The Greatest American Hero, gives a splendid performance especially since he probably only had about a week to prepare for it. The TV series featured some surprisingly well-written episodes even when the cliffhanger endings don't really fit the "guest villain" in question. Yes, the premise and episodes are full of jokes even at Batman's expense, but Adam West clearly rolled with it -- showing an uncanny ability to keep a straight face in even the most absurd of circumstances.

Like the eternal man of Babylonian legend, like Gilgamesh, 1,000 plus 200 years stretches before Trent. Without love, without friendship, alone, neither man nor machine, waiting... Waiting for the day he will be called to free the humans. Who gave him mobility. Movement, but not life.