New year, new batch of books to choose from! David Foster Wallace finally got his moment last time, but there’s another Wallace-adjacent book in the poll this time around, we’ve got a couple of true-crime-ish …

The Movie: Backdraft
The Crush Object: Kurt Russell
The Story: The Netflix plot summary pretty much covers it: “[Firefighter] brothers Brian and Stephen McCaffrey (William Baldwin and Kurt Russell) are battling each other over past slights while …

The Movie: Virtuosity
The Crush Object: William Fichtner, initially
The Story: LAPD is working with LETAC, a Halliburton-type software company, on developing a virtual-reality program that uses a composite virtual killer named SID 6.7 (Russell Crowe) to …

I hope you will care to enjoy my rich baritone contributions to the Extra Hot Great podcast’s ninth episode, “C’est Magnifique,” in which we discussed a plethora of topics, including but not limited to the …

We covered quite a bit in the live chat last night — enjoy the Ralph Wiggum School of Segues “transitions” between topics! — but if you couldn’t make it, or have come to the comments …

Don’t forget, we start at 9 PM tonight, December 1. Can’t make the chat? Look for a traditional discussion thread shortly thereafter.
Any problems seeing or using the chat software, hit refresh; clear the cache; then …

Starburst made a better showing than I’d anticipated, but the overall candy champ, my friends, is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Congratulations to the PB pucks; it’s a damn fine candy.

Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the non-chocolate bracket is Starburst! Thanks for your votes and comments, and look out for a Starburst-versus-Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups champion face-off poll later in the week.

Is it just me, or do filmmakers have A Thing about 22 Black on the roulette wheel?
On one hand, the likelihood that it’s just me is pretty high; 22 is my lucky number, so it’s …

Updated bracket is here. Confused? Click here. Polls close on Black Friday.
10 Nerds vs. 2 Starburst.
Keckler: In discussing my original prediction of a Peeps final with the Evil Dr. Mathra and how I continue to …