(no subject)

calimac writes on a very old LoTR question- namely, "Why the hell didn't the eagles simply take Frodo and Sam to Mount Doom?" (Personally, I'd be quite surprised if the Nazgul didn't take a rather lively interest in that.)

And, in a similar vein...

Why labrodoodles (despite their silly name) are more likely to be useful than a nazgul.

leighdb, this one's for you

It probably says something about me that I was quite disappointed to learn that "Ring Around the Rosie" doesn't actually refer to the black plague- but do I really want to know what?

Universe

I recently watched the 1960 film Universe, from the National Film Board of Canada. If you’ve not heard of it, it’s a 1960 black and white film that purports to show views of the various planets in the solar system; it was one of the visual inspirations¹ for Kubrick’s 2001, and he even went to the effort of hiring Wally Gentleman, who did Universe’s FX, to handle the same chores on 2001. (Gentleman later had to leave for health reasons; he was replaced by Wally Veevers- a Dr. Strangelove alumnus- Con Pedersen, Tom Howard, and the young Douglas Trumbull, all of whose Oscar- winning work was supervised by Kubrick himself.) While the effects have subsequently been bested by many other movies, it’s a fascinating, charming film.


¹ In particular, there’s one shot in the film that’s directly quoted in 2001: the moon slides out of the way (it slides off to the right, rather than sinking out of frame) to reveal the Earth in the background, with the edge of the sun peeping out beyond. Not quite the same without Strauss’s magisterial “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” in the background, but a wonderful shot, nonetheless.