It's the end of the year as we know it, and I have links

1. The state of Missouri's handing of teen offenders is fascinating.

2. Lots of folks have commented on the fact that Tilda Swinton appears to be living in a polyamorous situation. It would be much more intriguing, imho, if the John Byrne with whom she lived were this one.

3. Last year, I had the privilege of moderating the Remembering Dave Cockrum panel at Arisia. He was a damned fine artist and person. His widow is currently selling thousands of comics from his collection. Some great stuff there.

4. Image comics will be publishing an anthology of stories inspired by Tori Amos songs, with some damned nifty talents associated with the book. I'm assuming that, this being Image, there will be a special limited edition with a seed packet.

5. Polite Dissent is a medical blog I started reading for the great House recaps. But it also deals with comics, and you can read about the Worst Comic Book Medicine of 2007 (Hank McCoy has a lot to answer for; so does JMS, but that extends to his entire career post-B5*). The Best Comic Book Medicine of 2007 is also worth reading. Hell, if you're a fan of either comics or medical TV shows, just add the blog to your RSS feed, already.

6. How complex is Google's ad algorithm? Even someone who worked on it doesn't understand how a particular ad ended up on her gmail page.

7. The Buffalo Beast names their annual 50 Most Loathesome People in America. My favorite line comes from #46 (Judith Regan): "Contentious working relationship with OJ Simpson ended with her throat disappointingly uncut."

8. Juiced 2 comes out next year.

9. Um, Tyler Perry in the next Star Trek movie? Has he ever appeared in anything he didn't direct or write before? WARNING: That link contains mild spoilers for the Trek movie.

10. Finally, as we get ready to usher in 2008, let's think about the state of privacy in the world.

10.5. Want a less depressing link to end the year? Here's a guide to verse forms. Pick one and write something nifty. Go for something unusual, like a pleiadic.

*By "post-B5" of course, I'm referring to anything after season four of Babylon 5. Including season 5.

Final Amazon Deals of 2007

Reminder: All six mega-DVD sales are still active, with sports, tv, movies, and anime deals galore. As are most of the DVD sales in this post (the HD sale, the TV Faves Sale, and the deals on shows like Lost; the Gift Card Sale is dead, alas).

Three new DVD Deals:

The Special Edition of Resident Evil - Extinction (which comes out tomorrow) is $16.99 (41% off).

And Stardust is back down to $14.99 (50% off).

And yes, I'm one of those odd people who wants both of these movies. :-)

There's yet another Blu-Ray sale, with up to 50% off a bunch of good titles.

In computer games, Sega's Worldwide Soccer Manager 2008 (for Mac and PC) is $19.99 (33% off).

For the Wii, EA's Smarty Pants: Trivia For Everyone is $29.99 (40% off).

A few kitchen deals to close out the year:

The Kitchenaid KSB5 5-Speed Blender is going for $55 (58% off) (but only in two shades of black; other colors are sold out).

The Kaiser La Forme 7 Inch Square Springform Pan is going for $9.99 (74% off). I've never had a huge need for square springform pans, but Kaiser does make good stuff.

The Bistro Double Wall 34-Ounce Pour-Over Coffee Maker with Gold Filter is $29.99 (75% off). I'm not quite enough of a coffee snob to justify getting this, alas (or, more accurately, my coffee snobbery runs headfirst into my laziness, and finds this too much effort), but the price itself is nice (and the Bodum machine a co-worker has in the office if quite nifty).

The Pinzon Wireless Probe Thermometer with Remote is $14.99.

The Oster 5712 2-tier 6.1 quart Food Steamer (for all the folks making New Year's Resolutions to eat healthier) is $29.97 (40% off).

Finally, the last decent Lightning Deal of the year will be on the Pinzon Santoku Knives and Bamboo Cutting Board Set. At 5PM EST (2PM West Coast Time), head to the Gold Box, and it'll be going for $14.99 (50% off the current price, about 70% off the list price).

TCM

I have to say, as I do every few months, just how much I love TCM. I want to be Robert Osborne when I grow up. Of the dozens of movie-centric channels we receive, it's the one I consider most essential on any cable lineup.

Just watched the classic Buster Keaton movie The Scarecrow (TCM+Tivo for late-night recording is made of win). It's filled with tons of silly gadgets and ideas (including a crank-powered cart that can deliver bread to either end of the table, salt and pepper shakers hung from above the table on pulleys, a piano that converts to a bed, a bookcase that converts to a fridge, and the best dishwashing idea ever). Moreso than most Keaton films (other than Paleface, which simply isn't as funny), it owes a huge debt to Joe Roberts, who gets as many laughs as Buster does in the first half, not counting the one extended sequence in which Buster is chased by a dog. It ends with a motorcycle-mounted wedding, which is something more films need.

At the same time that this and Harold Lloyd's Number Please (next on my Tivo) were airing on TCM, AMC was airing the classic Seagal flicks Marked for Death and Above the Law (in fairness, AMC is airing The French Connection this afternoon, and has The Searchers in rotation).

TCM will be showing the not-quite-classic Skidoo, which I've never seen, but have heard wonderfully awful things about. It's one of those rare times when I'm perfectly okay with TCM showing something that subpar, if only to catch the final performance of Groucho Marx (as God) alongside three of the four core Batman TV villains (Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin, and fellow Collegiate alum Cesar Romero), all directed by Mr. Freeze himself, Otto Preminger. And with Jackie Gleason in the lead. As clusterfucks go, I'm really looking forward to this one. Skidoo airs Saturday at 2AM, so set your Tivo.

Heh

The Vulture's predictions for 2008.

My favorite line: "Still bitter that most of his anti-religious sentiment was edited out of the film, Pullman adds a scene to the new book in which God says your mom sucks."

Although Jay-Z's predicted comeback cracked me up as well. As did the running Zac Efron jokes.