You Can't Spell 'Fifth Element' Without 'Meh' When Luc Besson re-released “The Fifth Element” (1997), I decided to go see it…for the first time. Yes, revoke my geek credentials, for I am guilty: I had never seen it before. I announced my intentions to my friends, who either raved about the movie, or sneered in disgust. It seems that ‘5E’ (as I’m trying to rename it) is one of those films that allow no one to remain neutral. Either they love it, or they hate it. Well, you’re l

Here's something you should know about me: I don't walk out of movies. Even during the Radagast the Gross scenes in The Hobbit, I didn't walk out. I just went to the bathroom, and then I came back, and if ever a movie deserved walking out of, that was it. Something else about me: I love spoofs, satire, and parody. Blazing Saddles? Awesome sendup of the western genre. Airplane? Classic! Shaun of the Dead? That got me over my fear of zombie movies! So when I tell you that I

The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Sultan Paul Porfirov, late 1800s In the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum This is my second-favorite piece of art of all time. Even before I learned the story behind it, I loved it, and in the five years since moving to Cincinnati, I viewed it every time I visited the museum. It is so expressive and evocative that I made up my own stories about it, which turned out to be close to the truth. You can read about it in detail h

The Blockbuster Fantasy Hit of 1989! The Deed of Paksenarrion, by Elizabeth Moon. Published by Baen Books. During my adolescence, I read and re-read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy multiple times until I could recite dialogue, knew the history and geography of Middle-Earth like it was my own neighborhood, and even learned to write dwarfish and elfish runes. One thing I never did? I never wondered about the citizens and subjects of the kingdoms that the heroes were defe