I agree. I couldn't get through the first book. I tried.

The cure is easy in the first world, unfortunately too expensive for many in the developing world. I don't think the treatment does much to repair the damage done by an advanced case of the disease.

Cardboard terrorists as villains. It was old before 9/11, and it's old after 9/11.

Also the terrorists being Middle Eastern. Yes, Middle Eastern terrorists are more likely, but people from there are certainly not the only people who engage in terrorism.

Rings coming off of explosions in space. It was cool the first time I saw it in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country.

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits

How about plot-specific parking? I was watching Mazes and Monsters this afternoon, and these people could park in front of whatever building they wanted--in Manhattan. I'm fairly sure they got a parking spot in front of the World Trade Center. (Tom Hanks was going to throw himself off the top for reasons that don't actually make sense.)

Not only that, but you get the obligatory "walking through New York looking very alone" shot.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

That's a mind-blowing movie to watch. College age Tom Hanks as a game addict. It'd be such a forgettable little film if but for the fact that it must have been one of his first. Plus, you get to see the World Trade Towers inside and out.

Believe it or not, it's post-Bosom Buddies. But definitely mind-blowing. (Not necessarily in a good way, naturally!)

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

In a lot of ways, I far prefer them to LotR, although one of them is mind-bendingingly dull (it spends about 94 chapters describing Covenant walking through a forest. My memory may have exaggerated that perhaps, but that's how I recall it!)

Covenant was such an unusual character - deeply unlikable on many levels, yet he was so painfully alone that you had to feel compassion for him as he strove to understand. Trivia alert: it was because of these books that I wear a white-gold wedding band. I prefer silver to gold, so white-gold (which I was not previously aware of) was appealing when we tied the knot.

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

I hate ridiculous promises and demands in movies. Promising to save someone who is next to death's door is bad. So is the command, "Promise me you'll be all right" said to someone going on a suicide mission, only made worse by the response "I promise."

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Aye, you know what would be fun though? if in a movie that were asked and the reply was, "Honey, better take a good last look, because I'm probably going to die."

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits

Nah, the best example was:

TED STRIKER: We'll be attacking at dawn tomorrow. We'll be coming in low from the south, underneath their radar.

ELAINE: When will you be coming back?

TED STRIKER: I can't tell you, it's classified.

Witness: Striker was the squadron leader. He brought us in real low. But he couldn't handle it.
Prosecutor: Buddy couldn't handle it? Was Buddy one of your crew?
Witness: Right. Buddy was the bombardier. But it was Striker who couldn't handle it, and he went to pieces.
Prosecutor: Andy went to pieces?
Witness: No. Andy was the navigator. He was all right. Buddy went to pieces. It was awful how he came unglued.
Prosecutor: Howie came unglued?
Witness: Oh, no. Howie was a rock, the best tailgunner in the outfit. Buddy came unglued.
Prosecutor: And he bailed out?
Witness: No. Andy hung tough. Buddy bailed out. How he survived, it was a miracle.
Prosecutor: Then Howie survived?
Witness: No, 'fraid not. We lost Howie the next day.

Prosecutor: Over Macho Grande?
Witness: No. I don't think I'll ever get over Macho Grande.


What a great movie!

(Oh oh - forgot my favourite lines):

Prosecutor: Dr. Stone, would you give the court your impression of Mr. Striker?
Dr. Stone: I'm sorry, I don't do impressions... my training is in psychiatry.

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

Where do I get one of those "life signs" detectors?

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"All natural, huh? So is lightning." - Mike Rowe

From the Ancients, apparently

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Carl Matherly

Offical Battlestar Galactica Apologist

Named Time Magazine's 2006 "Person of the Year"

The Universal Translator. It makes things convenient, but oh how it grates.

(Get yerself a protocol droid! Six million forms of communication all wrapped up in a nonthreatening and self-mobile package!)

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Why do funny lines sound funnier in British, but British speakers are often perceived as more intelligent by Americans?

I'm telling you, there are forces at work that we do not understand.

This was cleverly sent up on the cancelled TV show Arrested Development. Oversexed guy was hitting on oversexed secretary with glasses and hair in a bun. They retreat to a empty office to make out:

Guy: Wait! Take off your glasses.

She does, and her eyes go cross-eyed.

Guy: No, put them back on.

She does.

Guy: Now put your hair down.

She does, shaking out her hair, and now she looks like Albert Einstein.

Guy: No, hair back up, glasses off . . . Wait, glasses on, hair down . . . Um, have we done hair down, glasses off?

Yep. A lot of people's negative opinions on D&D or even role-playing games in general stemmed from that movie alone.

Safety critical systems and their backups always seem to be the first thing to fail.

Like in red Dwarf.

No damage Report because the damage Report machine was damaged.

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

True. Telling a loved one "Don't worry; I'll be fine," is equivalent to saying, "Take a good look now, hon, because you'll never see me again alive."