The title The Bridges of Madison County has a 41.4% chance of being a bestselling title!

The title The DaVinci Code has a 35.9% chance of being a bestselling title!

Hmmmmm.

Also, I'd wouldn't show high school freshmen an R movie without giving notice to parents. I'd have to think hard before showing them a PG-13 movie without notice. But "emotional kidnaping"???????

You can write a book containing all the ways in which you disagree with me.

No I can't! (See what I did there?)

Hurry up and get famous. Then I'll write a tell-all.

I'd argue that the mental illness on the protagonist's part and the attendant anguish that causes him are sufficiently adult subjects that an R rating is called for, far moreso than a few f-bombs dropped in conversations that kids probably hear in real life fairly regularly.

I think teenagers are probably equally familiar with mental illness & unhappiness. But I don't feel strongly about what the rating should be, I'm just betting that the MPAA gave it an R for language, not subject matter.

It's funny, I have no childhood memory of having any interactions with my parents around school, other than parent-teacher meetings. I know that can't be right.

It could be right. There's been a bigger push on keeping parents in the loop over the past 10 years or so because of all the lawsuits.

As a teacher, I prefer to think of it as keeping parents in the know in order to help their children succeed in school.

I went to a small private Lutheran grade school - my parents were good friends with two of the teachers (one of whom was also the principal). And even when my teacher was not a friend of my parents, my parents would often chat with them after church.

Most of the time I was a good student who didn't get in trouble too much, so it wasn't a big deal.

Then I'll write a tell-all.

Her book IS the tell-all!

We'll have to write a tell-all on ... ita

We'll call it, "The One Woman Pink Gingham Junta: How One Woman Killed Everyone With Her Pinky"

I get dibs on ita's bio! And I have notes for a Tim bio, but will have to wait to publish it after there's only three marbles rolling around in his skull.

I so have nothing to tell.

get dibs on ita's bio! And I have notes for a Tim bio, but will have to wait to publish it after there's only three marbles rolling around in his skull.

You already have book in the works! And...uh...you are too close to the subject. Yeah, That's the ticket. t /Jon Lovitz

I so have nothing to tell.

Oh puh-LEASE. We'll make shit up.

World's smallest handgun: [link]

Smaller than the average thumb, shoots real (tiny) bullets.

More pictures: [link]

I don't think I'd want my kids seeing Donnie Darko as freshmen. But they showed us Franco Zeffirelli's version of Romeo & Juliet which had scads of violence, blood and we even got the shot of Olivia Hussy's bare breast.

Of course, I think this is a much better way to interest teenagers in Shakespeare than with boring, old Julius Ceasar.