Sunday, October 31, 2004

WISH IT WAS TUESDAY: And while I am encouraged by the polls, I'm sure the other side is too, which means there's no telling at this point which way it's going to go. So--again--I wish it was Tuesday. Or Wednesday morning and we're all waiting for Hawaii to report to tip it to one side....

So. Alternating between depression and calm confidence. So just like every other day but now I have a good reason.

Saturday, October 30, 2004

VOTE KERRY: It's what Osama bin Laden doesn't want you to do. That's my slightly partisan take on the cave-dweller sticking his head into our election. Just because of the My Pet Goat mention and assuming that he's smart enough to know that's going to tie him with our American left and end up being a net for Bush. Why assume he's smart? Well, we haven't caught him yet. Well, maybe we're dumb. I hope not.

I actually hope this has no effect whatsoever, but there's no way to be sure about that anymore. In a rational way I hope it would be a net gain for Kerry, because people would think to themselves, "Say--why isn't that bin Laden fella dead yet?" and then vote for a guy who hasn't failed at that little endeavor, or much else yet. But I'm thinking any undecided (however many are left) who's voting in a terror-first way is going to swing toward Bush on Tuesday, and that me no like.

One good thing for Kerry: He played this as well as he could, issuing a strong statement right afterwards that mentioned Bush not at all and was just a general neutral term of our national policy to capture and kill terrorists. (Bush wouldn't have used the word "capture", though.) I guess Bush played it the right way too, actually, doing the same thing. So maybe this halfassed attempt to influence our election won't be worth shit. Which is--again--my preferred outcome. And lightyears better than any other Madrid-like attempt to influence our election.

So--yeah. Inititally I agreed with Yglesias that bin Laden prefers Bush because he's a good foil for him in his (Bush's) blundering and his use of religious rhetoric, which plays into bin Laden's propaganda efforts but maybe that's giving him too much credit. Look--let's just pretend we never saw that crappy tape tonight, all right, America?

Thursday, October 28, 2004

THE OTHER PLAN: Graduate school in the biological sciences. Because:

1. I might not actually like doctor work.
2. I may be more of a "knowledge for knowledge's sake" type than an "applied knowledge" type.
3. This is related to 2.: I may find the biological literature more interesting than the medical literature.
4. Grad school itself is really hard, and you have to show some creativity in there too in the process of finding an idea and researching it and making some kind of contribution to science. In medicine you can do this too, but not for a while, and before you do you have to learn a whole lot of rules of practicing medicine because it is really really important that you not screw up. Whereas you can screw up in the higher levels of the sciences and not kill anybody. I guess that's all one point.
5. There's a whole wide range of things to study within the biological sciences. You are more restricted within medicine for obvious reasons. And it's not like medicine is a subset of biology; it's this art & practice thing, not a science.
6. My ancientness. I could be a Ph.D. faster than I could be an M.D., though it probably takes you longer to get established as a Ph.D.
7. Related to 1: Lifestyle issues. Doctors tend to look pretty miserable.

Arguing against it: I have no idea how people decide on what to specialize in within the sciences. My friend at school says it's all random, it's just a matter of what kind of program you get into, and in any case you're going to have to spend some time working on something that isn't really "yours." Whereas I can see how med students find something that appeals to them: the options (the specialties and subspecialties) are a lot more clear.

Just thinking out loud here. I need....options. And it would be a bad idea to commit myself to medical school if I wasn't completely sure about it. And--hey!--I could actually not get into medical school. So making more plans is a good idea.

Anyway. Josh Marshall thinks he has killed the "explosives were moved before the war" story. It looks pretty conclusive to me, but I await the Bush Apologists' rebuttals.
THE RED SOX WIN THE WORLD SERIES: And the Great Pumpkin shines down on America. Coincidence? I think not. Now we only need one last idiot from Massachusetts to win on Tuesday.

Okay--that's the glib obvious part of the post. The World Series felt anticlimatic to me, and maybe it felt that way to the Cardinals too, knowing what the Red Sox had just done. But they were in a seven-game series themselves so thet couldn't have been too concerned. No, the Red Sox just won. They hit better and they pitched better. How's that for analysis?

But even if they had lost, they're still the only team to utterly humiliate the Yankees in unprecedented fashion. That was the big thing. The World Series is great for the team and the city of Boston. The Yankee-killing--that's great for everybody, and it was so great to watch it live. That's what I'm not getting from the actual World Series win, the sense of "Is this really happening?" I got during Games 4, 5, and 6 of the ALCS. Which proves that I'm not a Red Sox fan really, nor even a baseball fan, but a fan of the drama called sports. Tonight is for the real Sox fans and good for them.

Titan is a badass planet.

Monday, October 25, 2004

NO OCTOBER SURPRISE QUITE YET: I mean, I don't think the idea that Kerry may not have, in fact, met with the whole entire Security Council is a real Kerry-killer. I don't think that's the best Team Bush can do--I'm sure they have something else up their sleeve--but if it is, it wasn't much.

The worst possible "October Surprise" is some kind of attack on us, of course. The Madrid bombings took place three days before the Spanish national election, so we're not out of the woods yet. At least there isn't an obvious "11" date in there for the obsessive terrorist-numerologist types to latch on to. Although November is the 11th month. I have yet to read something that explains the relvance of the numer 11 to the jihadists, so I oculd be making the connection up. My comics-reading brain wants them to be completely insane yet rigorously compulsive, so we can simple figure out their attacks in advance like when Batman always stops the Riddler.

I would've thought if somebody was going to drag Osama out they would've done it by now, so I guess that one isn't happening.

Anything else? Crude "Kerry supports deviant lifestyles" flyers won't work at this point. The long-rumored Bush abortion story? Maybe--people actually do think the "Bush drunk driving" story had an impact in 2000. But I sort of think all the skeletons are out at there at this point. Maybe Theresa will do a drunken rant on live television, but that's about it.

So the only potential election-changing event is a real terrorist attack. Now, logically, this would certainly be in Kerry's favor, since it would pretty well prove we are not being well-protected under the current administration. Illogically--and equally likely--would be a "he's a moron, but he's our moron" rally-around-the-flag reaction which would benefit Bush. But an attack is not a political trick, so it wouldn't be an actual October Surprise, which was the subject of this post.

Sunday, October 24, 2004

SNIPPETS: Because it's late and I'm tired.

--Liberal media bias in action. The EM-ESS-EM refuses to report on all the good stories coming out of Boston.

--Related to that--and no longer making a cheap point--the death of Victoria Snelgrove was completely senseless. I mean, I think it's all part of the militarization of our police forces, a relationship turning more towards police viewing the citizenry like an occupying force and not like fellow citizens. Then again, her death was a total fluke. The "beanbag" gas-pellet whatsis that killed her hit her in the only place it could kill her, the eye. Then again, every report I've read suggests that 1. the weapon was fired wrong (at her head, not her chest; not that she was doing anything) and 2. the weapon didn't need to be fired in the first place.

Was it a classy move by Fox and the Red Sox to mention her before the game tonight? I don't know. They did it tastefully, and they probably had to mention it. So I guess--on balance--they did it with class. It's just--it's awful that the greatest comeback ever is now linked with the Red Sox and somebody's completely senseless death.

--Red Sox take game one in a good, back-and-forth game. If I possessed any deep baseball knowledge I could provide a better analysis.

--Boise State remains undefeated, as does Utah. The BCS dies this year--I predict it! Well, actually, Wilbon thinks it's the growing parity of college football that's going to kill the BCS, something I hadn't really noticed. But it probably is there, in signs like Penn State and Nebraska and Notre Dame being sort of average, and Rutgers having a good year, and Norther Illinois and Bowling Green and Miami of Ohio almost breaking out last year and Boise State and Utah this year.

--Diana takes shrillness to new levels.*

*"Shrillness" used with irony. As you could probably guess.

--Never mind about Rutgers--they got whooped by Pittsburgh today.

--They opened a Hooters in China and made all this noise about how weird it was to open a Hooters in the allegedly conservative culture there, but this is a culture that has no problem with prostitution at all, as long as it is kept underground and sleazy. So it's more of the Western/American forms of open sexual display that is the problem. Note that the Chinese Hooters girls were described as students looking to brush up on their English converation skills. This is a completely obvious point, of course.

--That is all. Full day of football 'n' baseball tomorrow.

Saturday, October 23, 2004

MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR HERE IN PHILLYVILLE, MUSICALLY SPEAKING: The WKDU Electronic Music Marathon. 78 hours of electronica, and--just like when I listen to the jazz station--I never know quite what I'm listening to, but I know I like it. Have a listen. It's just a shame I'm stuck at work all weekend, and the office computer police have banned all streaming audio and the four-block broadcasting radius of WKDU cannot penetrate the multiple layers of glass and concrete of my office tower so I can't listen. But I can fall asleep to the sweet beats this evening. And the car on the way in. Maybe I should drag in my giant 70s-era Magnavox radio/turntable in with me, a relic from the last days when a radio could also be a piece of furniture. Well, I can't do that.

But--yeah. I wish I knew a bit more about electronic music to know what I'm listening to, but I get the feeling that's the kind of music you'd have to join an actual "scene" to really appreciate, and probably at a young age as well. So I remain an electronica philistine.

Good night, oh Internet.

Friday, October 22, 2004

SO. CARDS VERSUS SOX: With St. Louis getting to Roger Clemens in the 5th--or 6th? around then--and pulling away from Houston in an okay game that I watched but was never really into, having missed most of it for the much more readily accessible drama of the Sox-Yankees series. It's easier for non-baseball fans like me to get into Sox-Yankees, or Sox-Anybody, or (like last year) Cubs-Anybody, or Yankees-Anybody, because there's all this inherent drama to these older teams with reputations for pure evil or pure poor lovable patheticity. Sox-Cardinals has quite bit of inherent drama to it (and I remember Bob Ryan saying something recently about St. Louis and Boston being the last two true baseball cities, so the fans will be amped. Did you notice somebody beating a drum in the background at Fenway? It was like a soccer crowd) though not as much as the Sox-Cubs series that never happened last year would have had. And one wonders if the idiots will suffer a letdown against the Cardinals, just because totally crushing and humiliating the Yankees happens once in a lifetime, and is in that sense a much greater achievement than a World Series that happens every year. I dunno. Certainly the Yankees had nothing left after last year's ALCS. There may be more of a viewing audience letdown--again, the same as last year--as no series could compare to this ALCS and that ALCS. No other series could have that history, except--again--Cubs-Sox. It's a drama two years in the making that finally ended in the most improbable way possible and I'm thinking an at least partially anticlimatic World Series is inevitable. But at least it's not the Sox vs. a McFranchise.

Anyway. The Curse has not been lifted yet, but maybe the Sox came up with something better than the Curse: a three loss in a row, four win in a row ALCS that had never ever happened before, and happened against baseball's most storied franchise at the hands of one of its more pathetic ones. Not that that will make up for another Bill Buckner moment if it happens, but this has to feel so good to Boston fans right now.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

"NO": That's what I was thinking of during those extra inning games, that scene in the Matrix where Keanu realizes he doesn't have to take the agents' shit anymore and then he prevents Agent Smith from even landing a punch. THAT'S what I was thinking of; there was this sense that no matter how long those games dragged on and no matter what the Yankees threw at the Red Sox, it didn't matter. Not after the comeback in game four, which I guess was the "No" moment. I was thinking of it then and this whole week, but I didn't want to mention it for fear of unleashing the jinx.

Things that made me think the baseball gods were smiling on the Red Sox:

--The wind in game six. The way it kept out at least one home run--I forget whose.

--That ground rule double that held somebody at second in a key moment.

--Most of all, those reversed calls, the kind of thing that would've gone for the Yankees in previous years. The near-homerun was completely reminescent of the Jeff Maier incident. And every other year Alex Rodriguez gets away with slapping the ball away. There's no replay in the MLB but these ump pow-wows appear to be working.

I mean--I had no opinion of Alex Rodriguez before that moment, other than knowing he was the poster child for being completely overplayed when he was with the Rangers. But apparently he's a bit of a punk as well.

So. We have a sports victory for all time, even if game seven was a bit of an anticlimax. I think game six killed the Yankees, the combination of the Schilling performance and the reversed calls took all the life out of them. But I know I didn't believe it was going to happen until the final out.

Monday, October 18, 2004

WELL. I WAS GOING TO WRITE SOMETHING CHIDING NEW ENGLANDERS FOR THEIR RED SOX MANIA: Which seems ridiculous when they have the friggin' Patriots, owners of almost every important NFL winning streak as of today (except the undefeated season one, but I think what they've done is actually more impressive, given the parityliciousness of the contemporary NFL. And they could still pull that one off.) But then the Red Sox pulled it off, doing it in the extremely difficult beating-Mariano-Rivera-in-the-playoffs way. Now to win they have to win three in a row and a game seven in the Bronx. Hey, good luck, but if the baseball gods really are favoring the Sox this year like everybody thought they were, they (the gods) certainly have a highly developed sense of drama. Being gods, that is to be expected.

The thing that I was going to write about was how sick we are hearing about the Sox and the Patirots are right there and blah blah blah. Then I was going to add something about how if the Celtics couldn't remove the myopic focus on the Sox during the Celtics' heyday, nothing ever could. And something about how I was souring on them anyway, through no fault of their own; more through of being sick of the constant Sox-Yankees talk during this time of year. But they looked so happy out there when Ortiz jumped into the crowd at home plate, celebrating one measly victory and being up against the wall in the worst possible way, that I am back on the Sox bandwagon. It would take a monumental victory for them to win at this point, but the Pistons beat the Lakers. Anything's possible.

One random football note: it must be great to be a successful NFL coach and wear the official NFL gear coaches' shirts and not have to worry about one's developing manboobs in the least. It takes a Bill Belichick to really pull off gynecomastia, I guess.

Sunday, October 17, 2004

YOUR PRE-ELECTION BUSHOPHOBIC LINK OF THE DAY: Suskind makes you afraid of four more years of Bush if you're at all the kind of person disposed to mistrust the organized religious right. Or deeply mistrustful of the whole "words speak louder than actions" style of this administration. Via Yglesias. I mean--the fact that this is coming out right now suggests that Suskind is trying to stir us up against the President, those of us who aren't stirred up yet (though I can't imagine there are too many of those left.) But we should be stirred up against him. His whole presidency has been downright weird. Or absurd, as John Stewart called it yesterday when he was reaming Begala and Tucker Carlson. (By the way, did you notice that Andrew Sullivan thought Stewart's beef was just with Crossfire, and not the "serious" news media in general? I think he missed Stewart's point.) Let's just get this apparently competent Kerry fellow in there, and not deal with Bush's religious issues and family issues (meaning his relationship with George H.W.) for another four years. You know what I mean? Let's go with the serious person who probably always wanted the job, and not the guy who just sort of drifted into it.

Saturday, October 16, 2004

MARY CHENEY THOUGHTS, TWO DAYS POST-DEBATE: I was thinking it was a tactically good move by Kerry, since no matter what the Bush team does to defend themselves, they look either homophobic or they cheese off their own bases. If you say "How dare you say Mary is gay"--then you're saying there's something wrong with being gay. If you bring it up at all, you're letting the base know that Mary is, indeed, gay, which can't help with the "drum up the base" strategy.

But the talking heads when I got home tonight were saying the mention the polls showed a slight uptick for Bush and attributed it to the Mary comment. So maybe the undecideds are going with the idea that you should not bring a person's daughter into this no matter what, and are not being turned off by the Bush base's homophobia. Which would mean the Mary mention had backfired. And I'm pretty sure it was an intentional, tactical mention that Kerry was dying to stick in there somewhere; John Edwards certainly brought her up often enough.

Well, whatever. I doubt the race will turn on this, and there are still a few weeks to go.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

ALMOST BATTING A THOUSAND: Let me tell you the final results of the "four major tests in a week" week.

Histology: This is one of those classes where your grade is always a work in progress, measured on a curve against your fellow classmates across the course of a semester. Plus my professor is a data-collectin' fool so he's comparing our results against classes over the past twenty years or so. I got a 79 percent on my test. In this class--in this context--it was an A.

Biochemistry: This one I was really fearing, because our professor (it's his first time teaching this course, remember) gave us an amazingly difficult quiz before the test that we all did pretty lousy on. Then he wrote us all an e-mail letting us know how awful we did. So we had no idea what to expect going in. What we got was half multiple choice and three essayish questions and just with that I had a B+ and then he tacked on extra points because people weren't finishing on time and this nets me the big A. I think he was almost overcompensating this time for a perceived harshness of grading the initial quiz. Well, hey--it's still an A.

Microbiology: Did I mention this class? With the quizzes that allow us to build up extra credit points before the test because our professor doesn't believe in curving? I had a 21 point cushion going in. End score: 98.

Genetics: This--this class is the one I avoid because 1. it's so hard to go back to work at 5 P.M. and get anything done and skipping this lets me get there around three and 2. I loathe the gimmicks our professor uses to spur on class involvement. Let me just sit back and learn, okay? So I was worried about the class where I am attendance-challenged. And I was right to worry, because I missed some stupid questions on that test and got a C+. But then--came the gimmick. Our professor went over the test. It took awhile--it went over our alotted time, in fact. And he said people could go if they wanted to, but he didn't want to use the next class period in going over the test, so you could go or stay if you wanted to. So I stayed because I knew I had the last question right. And I was right. Others stayed for the same reason. We were right. Somebody suggested we who stayed to the end get an extra three points. Our professor agreed, and the way this particular bell curve was constructed, this moved me from a C+ to a B+. But the catch is--we can never mention it to our fellow classmates, else we only get a single point, which helps us little. So. Plus: B+. Minus: I am now involved in a conspiracy of silence against my fellow classmates. I am such a sellout.

Well, okay then. Next thing: two twelve hour days on Friday and Saturday. I should get some rest.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

DEBATE MARK THREE: THE TETE-A-TETE IN TEMPE: Was sort of an even match, I thought. Can you declare Kerry the winner because Bush wasn't really able to do what he wanted to do? Because Bush was going for some kind of knock-out in the beginning there, looking for Kerry to give him an opportunity for some kind of devastating "There you go again" thing which Kerry never gave him. Bush's attempt to tag Kerry with "liberal senator from Massachusetts" weren't successful either. So Bush didn't do what he wanted to do and Kerry didn't screw up. The overall debates, in any case, would have to considered as a Kerry victory, since he has made up the Bush lead within that time.

Other things:

--Did Bush deny being for amnesty? I thought that was his immigration plan.

--The part where Bush was about to make a Dan Rather reference and then cut himself off was really weird.

--Number Three tonight was like a less animated verson of Number Two. They finally gave Bush the just-right porridge--eh? Know what I mean? You know? Eh? You know what I mean.

--One of the big unlanded punches was when Bush drawled out "one of those e-xag-ger-ations" to Kerry's claim that Bush said he didn't care where Osama was. Unlanded because he (Bush) actually did say that, and it was just rhetorically weird, because I think that was the first time they had tried to paint him with an "exaggerator" label. So it came out of nowhere.

--Kerry namedropped Mary Cheney out of nowhere, which got the talking heads and Julian Sanchez all riled up. Julian is right that it was sleazy, but it walks the fine line as far as being completely vile because all he did was mention her name. It's--a legal move. Put it that way.

My bias is showing, of course, forgiving Rovian tactics in the team I support. And so I end this post.
I HAVE RESOLVED: To not discuss politics with my parents until November 2nd is over and done with. I don't want our happy home turning into one of those divided Civil War households. Where brother fought brother. And sad music endlessly played over daguerrotypes as actors read letters from the boys in the front to Ma and Pa back home....

That's right. All that, and more, in Part Twenty-Seven of Ken Burns' Blogistan. The Blog that shaped a nation.

But no more politics between me and the parents. Our positions are intractable. To "debate" our positions is to invite bad feelings. And so I shall avoid it.

Monday, October 11, 2004

CAFFEINE: Caffeine is a vast conspiracy. It doesn't keep you awake when you don't want to be awake. Stopping drinking it at a reasonable hour doesn't let you fall asleep any faster.

It's like when your older relatives would give you grape juice and tell you it was wine and you would feel like you were drunk. Caffeine--it's an empty molecule, and I only act like my conception of what I think I am like when I am awake and not straying into sleep. That, or years of exposure have burnt out my caffeine receptors.

Julian Sanchez analyzing the President is freakin' great.

Sunday, October 10, 2004

FICTIONBLOGGING: I have the urge to turn this site into fictionblogging sometimes, even if I haven't done much of it. But at least then I wouldn't be completely tied to making points about politics or the NBA or what have you when I don't have any to make at the time. The effort to do fictionblogging is more, of course, even if its just stuff that feels like crap. But at least I wouldn't be making one-joke posts every day. Like this:

I love how Instapundit never ever links to Ken Layne anymore.*

See? A one joke post. But easy to make sometimes. Maybe we'll do an alternating series of one-jokes and fictionblogging and sports/politics stuff when the situation warrants. Plus half my fictionblogging impulses involve fanficesque nonsense that I'm sure nobody will appreciate. But at least I'd be putting that $125,000 education to use.

I dunno. Ask me when this crappy genetics test is done.

*Ken Layne link via Diana Moon, spunkiest Bush-hater on the Internets.

Saturday, October 09, 2004

JOHN KERRY IS GOOD FRIENDS WITH SUPERMAN: That's good enough for me. Even if I think he called him "Chris Reeves."

Friday, October 08, 2004

STONEWALLED: The worst sort of rejection is preemptive rejection. The kind where you think to yourself, "Hey--it would be neat to talk to that girl--" and you say something about the mutual test-taking ordeal you just went through and get the blankest of looks and the quickest of monosyllabic responses. Dang it.

So:

Biochem test: I've never had a science test that requires you to answer short-answer questions for the most part, but that's what happened this morning. At least I knew my freakin' amino acids.

Microbiology test: Due to quiz extra credit points that get added onto the test grade I had the fat 21 point cushion entering this one. It was not too bad.

Genetics Tuesday. Then--relax for a bit.

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

ONE TEST DOWN: Three to go.

I didn't watch the debate because of my rooting interests, which would force me to watch it in an emotional way. So I did my usual thing of having Mystery Science Theater 3000 in the background as I went over copies of my notes with a cheap highlighter. The early talking head consensus was that Cheney won, but now Chris Matthews is dragging out footage of Cheney drawing a connection between Saddam and al Qaeda which he denied doing during the debate. The blogging heads do not appear to have reached a consensus yet.

At least the Yankees lost in another high-stakes competition I did not watch.

Monday, October 04, 2004

RANDOM NFL NOTES: Because I sure did have the games on while I was studying today.

--Boy the 49ers stink. It's also interesting how the Rams seem to have a high degree of belief in Mike Martz, even though every non-Ram in the world thinks he's a loon.

--Roethlisberger wins again. Meanwhile Eli continues to ride the pine behind an Arena league veteran.

--Giants 3-1, Jets 4-0. Guess who's getting all the press, and making me remember why I loathe them.

--Today the Chargers crushed the Titans and the Cardinals crushed the Saints, two outcomes I did not expect. It must be so nice to be an NFL fan in Arizona, knowing there's always a zillion seats available and you can just cruise on there whenever if you feel like it.

--Eagles beat Bears and maybe I am just drinking the Philly media flavored sugar-water but it looks like this is their year. To reach the Superbowl anyway.

--The Byron Leftwich team almost beat the Peyton Manning team so I was almost happy with that result. I'll take the MAC guy over the smirking, useless pedigreed fratboy--the NFL's very own George W. Bush--any day of the week.

(Speaking of which, the MAC has really let me down this year, and I will probably have to shift my allegiance to the WAC, home of 5-0 Boise State. The destruction of the BCS is--as always--the most important thing.)

--How about post-concussion Favre calling his own number to get back in the Giants game? Crazy fella. In a good way.

Sunday, October 03, 2004

MEMO TO SELF: When sending pick-me-up moonpie bouquets to bloggers who continue to frighten you with their tales of the horrors of residency, try and make sure your name is one there somewhere, so you don't come off too much like the Mysterious Stranger. Got that, self? We cool? Good.

Friday, October 01, 2004

UNEXPECTED PLEASURE: Is flipping through the cable channels and finding Master of the Flying Guillotine on. I only caught about half of it. There's this tournament, see, with all these martial arts types fighting each other. To the DEATH! Except this blind monk shows up with a swastika on his chest and who is master of a flying guillotine, which does not resemble an actual guillotine but functions like one: it removes people's heads. Plus there's this "Indian" fighter (a Chinese guy in brownface; at least as offensive as Christopher Lee playing Fu Manchu, right?) whose arms stretch out like Dhalsim in Streetfighter, if you were wondering where Capcom got that from. The hero is a one-armed fighter who runs a kung fu school and manages to not let most of his students get killed--unusual for this type of movie in my experience. He has a cunning plan for defeating the blind guy, which sound not too tough but remember this is a kung fu blind guy. He's like Matt Murdock without the radioactivity.

I wish I knew more about Shaw Brothers. So far I've seen this, Five Deadly Venoms, and The Kid With the Golden Arm, all acknowledged classics. But there's a zillion Shaw Brothers movies out there and I get the feeling if I scratch the surface even slightly, I'll find a whole lot of crap. I have not been able to locate any Shaw Brothers must-see list thus far, besides the above, so--so my knowledge remains cursory. At least I've seen the classics.

And I have to say if you're complaining about not seeing subtitled versions of these things, or thinking the classic kung-fu style dubs are an artistic violation, you're barking up the wrong tree. Shaw Brothers movies should always be in the vernacular.