Your Strength and Honor Quizo Update

I hope everyone has enjoyed their two-week vacation from the rigors of the competitive trivia world. For my part I have tried to take little mini-vacations the last two weekends and been thwarted at every turn. Ordinarily this would bother me, but since getting a new boss maybe 2 months back work has become such an untenable nightmare that I'm pretty much okay with being anyplace on earth so long as it isn't my office.

This past weekend my vacation lasted almost 12 hours, and I spent about 3 of them watching a late-night showing of Gladiator, a film which bears a number of important characteristics:

1) I have seen Gladiator, and I am not exaggerating for comic effect here, about 20 times. It has some kind of hypnotic effect on me. I distinctly remember seeing it three times in the theatre upon its original release, a record surpassed by only one film* and shared by only two**. If it is on television I cannot turn it off, nor can I stop watching television once I have discovered it is on. Add to this the four - FOUR! - separate times I've purchased it on DVD (once when it came out, once to replace that disc when it mysteriously vanished, once to replace the replacement that I loaned to a friend*** and never saw again, and finally the three-disc Super Tiger Dragon Edition that came out last year) and the fact that I watch said DVDs on the order of about twice a year at least and it becomes fairly clear that I am, suffice it to say, a fan.

2) Gladiator is one of only two films at the end of which I am absolutely guaranteed to weep like a little girl. ****

3) It is also near (if not at) the top of my list of Movies Which If You Do Not Think Are Great You Are Clearly Have Some Kind of Mental Disability, Or Possibly Have A Large Knife Sticking Out Of The Side Of Your Head. A while back Dan (of Das Boot, who we will get to in a moment) was asking around for people's lists of their Favorite/Best Movies in an admirable attempt to gain himself some culture to go along with all that medical book-learnin' of his, and he seemed surprised when I proclaimed Gladiator one of my all-time Top 5 favorite films.***** He should not have been. It is clearly a modern classic, and if you don't think so I suggest you keep such thoughts to yourself lest I find your handwriting has become inexplicably illegible and thus have to mark all of your answers wrong for the next five weeks.

In other news, after Das Boot's historic third win in a row two weeks ago, they have picked a speed round topic which I find perfectly acceptable. However, it will not actually be played until next week, as tonight's speed round will be our (slightly-delayed) classic Memorial Day topic "Dead or Alive." Everyone's favorite.

JLK


















* The Matrix
** Goldeneye and X-Men
*** his name is Jason, and if you're reading this, keep it, you thieving bastard
**** the other being The Return of the King
***** in no particular order: Gladiator, The Empire Strikes Back, The Lord of the Rings (which counts as one movie), The Big Lebowski, and Casablanca