Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – 1937
Sometimes your fourth grade English teacher will look through the laundry list of acceptable books to be studied and pull out a clunker – and I’ve certainly had that experience – but occasionally the education system will throw you a bone and you’ll be tasked to read one of the all-time classics, like Of Mice and Men. Thankfully, I had that experience too.
I haven’t picked up Of Mice and Men since it became one of the best things I would read as a teenager, and while the moment to moment details of the story have faded somewhat in the last quarter of a century, the brotherly bond between central characters George and Lennie has stood the test of time, along with Lennie’s often repeated request – ‘Tell me about the rabbits, George.’ Of course, that makes no sense if you haven’t read it, but do yourself a favour and pick up a copy.
Of Mice and Men is probably one of the most popular and well respected novellas out there, and because of its continued popularity in the school curriculum it is constantly being read and appreciated by each new generation.
That’s the kind of legacy all writers should aspire to.
I love horror but it’s a genre that I find myself falling out of love with quite often. Many times it seems that even those producing it are aware of how silly it can be, so they forget to scare the audience and try to make the viewers laugh instead, and if even the filmmakers aren’t going to take it seriously, why should I suspend my disbelief for their work?
I went into The Stepford Wives thinking a couple of things: firstly, that it was a straight up horror story (it’s not – it actually has its tongue firmly in its cheek); and secondly, that it would be at least a little longer than it turned out to be. As it is, it’s about as short as it could be and still be called a novel.
Now let me say this from the start – Dynasty is not on this list because I really liked the show; it’s on this list because it was a big part of my childhood. You have to remember that when I was growing up, there were only four channels – in fact, when Dynasty started there were only three – so people were not as fussy about what they watched back then.
There are not many movies – if any – that I have seen more often than Rocky IV. Did I have a bit of a man-crush on Sylvester Stallone when I was a kid? Yeah, probably. I have fond memories of my ten year old self pretending to be Balboa on my bed. I would sing 
Rocky IV is far and away the most extravagant movie in the series. It is pure entertainment with only the faintest whiff of a story holding it together. Ivan Drago is the big, bad Russian, so there’s an east versus west thing going on, but that’s very much of the time and feels very dated now. Besides, it’s not subtle in the slightest. But if you don’t take this as a serious boxing simulator, you’ll have a lot of fun with Rocky IV.
Most of the running time – which at ninety minutes is the briefest of the entire franchise – is a series of montages played out against the (admittedly, rather good) soundtrack, with plot developments happening in between. There are a lot of flashing lights; a lot of glitz and glamour. In fact, it’s a shame that Apollo Creed – one of the series’ most beloved characters – had to lose his life in this superficial entry. Oh yeah, spoiler alert, I guess. But come on folks, you’re thirty years late to the party!
I had expected my experience with The Bourne Identity would somewhat follow my experience with 
Bewitched was at least one generation before my time, but I caught it in syndication in the late eighties, and I often enjoyed it over cereal before I went to school. It played around Elizabeth Montgomery’s earthbound witch, Samantha, who was married to her powerless and constantly befuddled husband, Darrin.
-- Purveyor of Imagination -- 