Heston Addendum

A few people have left comments here and written to me personally about my comment about Heston being racist. Okay, you caught me – I don't really know if Charlie was racist. True, he did march with MLK back in the day, but I despised his right wing politics of recent decades and thought his comments in "Bowling For Columbine" seemed fairly racist. Perhaps he was just an elitist and distrusted anyone "beneath" him, no matter their race.

Someone pointed out that Michael Moore is known for stretching the truth and I'm sure that's true. But no matter how you edit it, Heston's own words in that film are pretty damning, and he made some very callous remarks immediately after the Columbine tragedy. He was obviously much more concerned with protecting his gun ownership than the plight of the victims and their families.

Others have said they enjoyed his films. I did, too. He was one of the great over-actors of his day and I always found him entertaining to watch. In recent years, when he got all riled up at NRA rallies, raised a rifle over his head and said in his best Moses voice, "From my cold, dead, fingers!" he seemed very much as though he believed he was currently living on the planet of the apes.

And, in fact, he was.

PHD #1000

Piled Higher & Deeper, Jorge Cham's fantastically fun Webcomic strip about life in grad school, has reached its milestone 1000th strip, featuring a milestone (of sorts) for long-running character Mike Slackenerny.

Congratulations to Jorge, and here's hoping for at least 1000 more!