Michael Hopcroft

Three words: Superhero Reality TV. NT: Unexpected consequences of Tony Stark announcing he is Iron Man after all.

Q: Sorry I can't make it to your funeral. I have a date with your ex. A: I didn't think living in an opera would be so exhausting.

Q: Hey, Foxbat? I hear you've stored yur entire Master Plan on an Apple ][. How will you get it off? A: I thought you wanted to rule the world, but it looks like you're not enjoying it.

Its people are safer, saner, and more intelligent than anyone in the United States. NT: If the JLA were real, how would they deal with modern America?

That looks like something that bears absolutely no resemblance to a gorilla. They could only draw it on National Gorilla Suit Day. And he viewed obviously packing heat as the sign of a rank amateur.

Q: How do we do proper homage to the guy who defeated both Particle Man and Person Man? A: When they meet, it's Happyland!

This poses one of the great ethical quandaries in animal rights. On one hand, living in zoos, away from their natural communities and activities, is considered terrible for animals. It leads to the wild animal equivalences of mental illness and lead to shortened lifespans compared to their wild brethren who have a far more interesting social environment. And wolves are especially social creatures. Even being born and raised in captivity does not help much. On the other, wild animals in captivity need not fear predators or starvation. For a rare or critically endangered species, the care of trained zoologists can be a bulwark against extinction. But if they can't breed in captivity or survive out of it, what is the gain? Which side am I on? If you ask me, prepare for me to say I do not know.

[Why must you take all the fun out of this?] Fly to Vegas, visit the glorious Bally's Sportsbook, and put down their playoff bonuses on real football. (Who knew Tom Brady was a serious Chelsea fan?)

My old favorite -- Captain Has-No Concept-of-the-Vowel. Within a certain radius of his presence, everyone can speak, read, or write only in consonants. Everyone, always.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do I.

I'm listening to "Bat Out of Hell" right now. Incredible.

An interstellar drive powered by American "Chinese" food. NT: Silly reasons to be offended by a video game.

Meatloaf had a voice for Broadway and the heart of a rocker. A voice and taken like Meatloaf doesn't come around very often. And the world is always a little poorer when re lost.

Q: So why aren't you letting the dog and cat watch Yelevision? A: For you believe at heart everyone's a Care Bear.

I heard rumors it was moving to HBO Max (Warner's streaming service) but I'm not certain.)

Q: "You mentioned in your review that our head chef is a rat? How dare you?" A: There was a real Chef Boiardi, you know. And don't dismiss him too easily, or smugly.

Astroboy was one of the first manga to achieve global popularity. Along with the superhero adventure, Tezuka's series dealt with issues of prejudice against "robots" (such as the episode about a robot stage magician who was having a harder time getting bookings). This was daring, because Japan was, and in some ways still is, an astonishingly racist society. Osamu Tezuka was writing Transhumanist fiction before Transhumanism was even a word in the English language. And he did it in an exciting, relatable way, so Astro Boy still has appeal almost seventy years later.

Q: What happens when a farmer neglects to apply for his Rural Electrification grants? A: Where we're going there is no ocean!

Q: We caught you trying to smuggle in that lutefisk. Where on Earth would anyone want that? A: It'll be better not to tell them how we know their company exists.

Q: What is the chief problem with sending Agent OSS-117 on a complicated mission? A: A little piece of Poland, a little piece of France...

I don't think we need to give John Barrowman another opportunity to show off his "tentacle" for a while;

How long has it been since a #1 overall pick has been traded in the NFL? What did the fanbases think?

What it would be like to have a day where nobody dies. Anywhere on Earth. Impossible anywhere but in fiction, of course, and I believe there have been novels on the subject such as Death Takes a Holiday. But is this something out of a horror story? I don't think the aforementioned Death Takes a Holiday was written as horror per se. (Back then, of course, horror writers were the lowest of the low on the literary pecking order.) But it sounds like a genie wish gone horribly wrong.

Guillotine futures have risen sharply on the commodities market. Fortunately they remain only available in France, Algeria, and the Fictional Central Asian Republic of Gatchistan.

And there is a tabletop adaptation of either the games, the novels, or both. It was written pre-Cavill, of course. I think I own a copy. I could list on one sheet of paper the pop culture hero characters that Henry Cavill is not interested in playing. But it will be a very short list. Other actors need work too, you know!