Michael Hopcroft

I used the "Sad" emoji, but I really wanted to use one expressing fury. Only the worst of racists would have a problem with Jackie Robinson. The Color Bar failed for a reason. I am utterly disgusted by this act. One of the players involved was the Philadelphia Flyers' ace goalie Carter Hart. The team might have had an inkling of what was about to go down, as they were trying to trade him just before this all came down. Now they will probably have to release Hart and get nothing in exchange -- which is a very bad thing for a pro team. If Hart and the did what they are accused of, they deserve prison.

Q: OK, whose bright idea was it to give C-3PO Mark II a sex drive? A: Notice I did not specify my preferences on how you should make my butterscotch latte.

Q: What if they gave a Republican National Convention and nobody came? A: Your ballot is no match for my pullet.

Q: How did you figure out hamsters make terrible Pole Vaulters? A: I've seen some pretty lame high-fashion designs in my time, but this takes the cake.

Q: The other candidates collapsed and died from excessive laughter, and there's a strange aroma in the air. It smells funny, doesn't it? A: No, we don't sell Rancid Yak Fat here either.

Q: I'm hankering for some KGB Chicken action. This place have it? A: Look at me in my nice yellow jacket! The color was a special order, it was hard to find!

True, but do you want to be the coach called in for an interview to satisfy the requirements of the Rooney Rule, knowing you are not seriously being considered for the job and the owner already knows who he wants to hire? It must get old very quickly.

Q: How do you know your social studies teacher has completely misunderstood the rules of Chess? A: This is the boy who burns the books. This is the way he always looks.

Q: Why would you want Nuka-Cola 2, "with the Great Taste of Hemlock"? A: To show you how ruthless I am in pursuit of my aims, I will now kill -- and now I've completely forgotten what I was going on about.

Transcripts will be barred from school libraries across the Bible Belt. NT: Subtle signs the newly elected School Board of your child's district is out of their collective minds (besides them being on a Public School Board in the first place).

Q: Why isn't the car running? A: That's it! I'm taking the housekeys tonight!

My mother gave me the equivalent of a one-star review for my most recent novel Celia the Angel. She didn't like the genre, hated the title character, and really, really hated that it was written in first-person. Then again, Mom also had great difficulty following the story of The Boy and the Heron, which made perfect sense to me, and was offended when I lent her a copy of Kiyohiko Azuma's popular comedy manga Yotsuba&!, and still hasn't told me why after nearly two decades. Then again, I don't know that I'm particularly keen on her poetry. Right now, I am stuck on my third book, including even deciding which of the three projects in mind it will be. My main concern, of course, now being whether I will benefit from my full-time job if I'm too tired to focus when I come home at night.

Q: Don't you want to see my one-hit wonder record collection? A: I don't think I want to know why you painted your face and chest that hideous color.

Thor resolves to be nicer to his brother and not reflexively reach for his hammer at the mention of his name. NT: Subtle signs that we'll be missing 2023 by January 15.

Looks like you've mailed him to Abu Dhabi one too many times, Garfield. Now you must pay...

Q: What are yougoing to do about this chronic "underpopulation problem" we've got? A: How dare you come in here to steal the stuff we didn't want anyway!

Is there a format to export Hero Designer characters into Roll20? That would save an unbelievable amount of time.

Q: Why have racists turned against Doctor Who? A: Something happened on the day he died.

Q: You're not really an Australian, are you? A: What a beautiful, sunny, hot Christmas!

Q: My, the annual run was a lot faster than usual today. What did you give your husband to drink, Mrs. Claus? A: And please watch your language here. He is a Saint, after all.

Q: Why on Earth would you, or anyone else, pour caramel sauce over this poor guy's head? A: The Penguins are to blame for all the sins of the world.

Invaders from the Hollow Earth. Fortunately for us, the Hollow Earth is still mired in the Stone Age adn all they will get for their trouble in a bunch of dead warriors and a counter-invasion that annihilates all resistance. NT: Subtle signs King Kong no longer finds your antics amusing.

I spent the half hour after seeing The Boy and the Heron trying (unsuccessfully) to explain it to my mother. The fact that I was in open-mouthed awe throughout and was completely enraptured with the movie did not make sense to Mom, who couldn't understand it. It was the same condition I was in when we saw The Green Knight. To my mind, the complexity of the ideas and emotions Miyazaki was exploring through the actions of his protagonist is a large part of the appeal. There is a great deal of religion and philosophy involved in what is basically the story of a deeply traumatized youth in 1944 Tokyo, who hears his dead mother might actually be alive and unwisely goes into a crumbling tower to find her, reluctantly aided by a nature spirit in the form of a heron. The young hero's trauma is realistic, vivid, and even includes a dramatic incident of self-harm, which earned my immediate sympathy. Once in the tower he finds it leading to a strange fantasy world, filled with marvels and terrors, in which he is forced to confront his trauma, his true nature, and the cycles of his life that he must struggle to escape (a very Buddhist idea, as the central idea of Buddhism is about finding a way to escape the endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth). My mother will not want to see it again, I fear, but I do. I feel there is a great deal more to this film than even I was able to grasp on first viewing. (As a side note, my attempt to explain the appeal of Godzilla Minus One was equally unsuccessful. Her thought that Japan needed to "get over" the war struck me as both odd and unrealistic, because as we are seeing now some pretty terrible cycles repeat if the cost of following them is forgotten).

They went off to Rohan to go hunt Orcs. NT: Festive holidays for orcs, goblins, and other creatures supposedly linked to evil.

Foxbat. Come on, this is a Hero Games forum! Who else would it be?