slikmar

Hmm, I might have yielded to the temptation to have that rightmost bin be "Bad Books".

All True Bazza, but in doing almost all of those, his EGO got in the way of common sense. Putting an unknown AI from off world into Ultron, an ultimate weapon. Not listening to Steve's argument and assuming he could control any government interference in the Avengers, then, again, not really investigating Winter Soldier's attack, but following "orders" and attacking Steve and the others. Not following up on what was going on with SHIELD and Project Insight, but instead effectively handing the 3 most technological weapons to a Bureaucracy run organization, despite his earlier run-ins with them, including butting heads with the leader of SHIELD over their secret weapon projects.
So, again, I wasn't saying Tony's reasons for doing things weren't, in some ways, altruistic, but that his own arrogance made him think that it was better for everyone and that he could keep control of it.

All True Bazza, but in doing almost all of those, his EGO got in the way of common sense. Putting an unknown AI from off world into Ultron, an ultimate weapon. Not listening to Steve's argument and assuming he could control any government interference in the Avengers, then, again, not really investigating Winter Soldier's attack, but following "orders" and attacking Steve and the others. Not following up on what was going on with SHIELD and Project Insight, but instead effectively handing the 3 most technological weapons to a Bureaucracy run organization, despite his earlier run-ins with them, including butting heads with the leader of SHIELD over their secret weapon projects.
So, again, I wasn't saying Tony's reasons for doing things weren't, in some ways, altruistic, but that his own arrogance made him think that it was better for everyone and that he could keep control of it.

The problem they have with Strange, and to a slightly lesser degree Stark, was that they need to show their ridiculous level of arrogance in addition to being more intelligent then the people he interacts with. So how do you show this, by making him do something that anyone with a modicum of common sense would know was stupid. It reminds me of a variant of Wolverine is a great fighter - Iron Fist level fighter, but the only way to show his healing factor and adamantium skeleton is for him to constantly get his butt kicked. If you actually showed how good a fighter he was, then his healing factor and toughness wouldn't come into play most of the time as he wouldn't get hit. For Strange and Stark, you have to show their arrogance by having them assuming that they know all the variables and therefore can use their superior intelligence to control the situation.

All True Bazza, but in doing almost all of those, his EGO got in the way of common sense. Putting an unknown AI from off world into Ultron, an ultimate weapon. Not listening to Steve's argument and assuming he could control any government interference in the Avengers, then, again, not really investigating Winter Soldier's attack, but following "orders" and attacking Steve and the others. Not following up on what was going on with SHIELD and Project Insight, but instead effectively handing the 3 most technological weapons to a Bureaucracy run organization, despite his earlier run-ins with them, including butting heads with the leader of SHIELD over their secret weapon projects.
So, again, I wasn't saying Tony's reasons for doing things weren't, in some ways, altruistic, but that his own arrogance made him think that it was better for everyone and that he could keep control of it.

All True Bazza, but in doing almost all of those, his EGO got in the way of common sense. Putting an unknown AI from off world into Ultron, an ultimate weapon. Not listening to Steve's argument and assuming he could control any government interference in the Avengers, then, again, not really investigating Winter Soldier's attack, but following "orders" and attacking Steve and the others. Not following up on what was going on with SHIELD and Project Insight, but instead effectively handing the 3 most technological weapons to a Bureaucracy run organization, despite his earlier run-ins with them, including butting heads with the leader of SHIELD over their secret weapon projects.
So, again, I wasn't saying Tony's reasons for doing things weren't, in some ways, altruistic, but that his own arrogance made him think that it was better for everyone and that he could keep control of it.

Pro tip: Don't try to catch snowflakes on your tongue until all the birds have flown south for the winter.

I still love the fact that none of them mailed in their performances. NWH was a very fun movie.

Not MLB, strictly speaking. But look at that setting. What a beautiful place to play baseball. 
 
Brand new Roberto Clemente stadium in Masaya, Nicaragua, to be inaugurated for U-23 Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier in November
 

Watched Disney's Haunted Mansion remake today on Disney Plus. It was better than I expected. It had a solid cast and was pretty fun overall. Definitely aimed at a younger/family audience.

/semi-rant on
 
You may have heard about the hockey accident last week last weekend where Adam Johnson died after a skate slit his throat.  Horrible on many levels...but particularly because it was 100% preventable.
 
In response, today, the English Ice Hockey Association mandated the use of neck guards in its leagues, altho oddly, that doesn't include the league Johnson's team  plays in.  It's not immediate, the association said, due to supply issues...ok, I get that.  It's effective 1 Jan 2024.
 
But why, why, WHY do so many sports require a senseless TRAGEDY to move forward with *common sense* precautions???  OK, slashed throats are VERY rare;  there's 2 well known ones in the NHL, but who knows how many across the other leagues?  The only time we'd hear about them is...well...when someone dies.  AND, this was a former NHL player, making it "more newsworthy."  #GAG.  There's another case where a puck hit a throat, crushing the windpipe.  The player was forced to retire;  his breathing capacity was reduced permanently, and obviously, that's a problem.
 
It took *forever* to bring in batting helmets and require them...and a long time to require them for the 1st and 3rd base coaches.  (Until, IIRC, a first base coach took a foul ball hard in the head.)  The goalie mask in hockey goes back to the 60's...but good GOSH, the goalie faces how many slap shots a game, traveling HOW fast?  Hockey helmets were required in 1979.  We still don't have a requirement for pitchers to wear helmets...despite a few cases every season of line drives smashing off pitchers' heads.  There's issues with the catcher's mask...that got required very early, but its shape doesn't deflect the energy very well.  The hockey-style masks are generally considered better at that...but few catchers use them.
 
It's generally the macho, tough aspect...which just irritates me beyond words.  SO stupid, at least in most cases.  Some things are harder to protect;  pitchers getting hit in the face, which is a substantial fraction of these, get nothing from any proposed headgear.  But others, like neck guards, or throat guards for catchers...take forever, and something hideous, to change the obstinate, macho mentalities.
 
OK, I needed that...
 

The fact of the matter is Bob Iger stepped down and he was the head of everything. He was replaced with Bob Choprak. Choprak didn't want multiple movie contracts, pay for the productions, and only cared about how much money the studio was making on the streaming end of things. He is the guy who lost the law suit from Scarlet Johannson (which I can't ever remember happening before this), and pissed off the people at Pixar. Chopak was the guy who gave the Inhumans to Perlmutter and Buck and watched them crash. Chopak installed a guy to basically tell the movie division they couldn't make movies. This joker lost almost two billion dollars on the streaming service in two years. Employees found out they might be laid off through the news.  
 
You want to know what happened? They hired a guy from their park division to run the company during a pandemic and he screwed up, picking guys that had no idea what they were doing. And all of them were forced out.
CES         

I thought Jif was a brand of peanut butter.

Who would win: Stan Lee the scriptwriter or The Fans? 

And, my first thought was that even these "serious" scenes, they couldn't resist adding stupid silly too it. Zeus behind curtain with ice cream eavesdropping, Mjolnir tapping on window. God this could have been such a better movie. It had so many good elements and people.

They took it on faith, obviously.