DVDregs: 28 Days

~ lobablanca

So here is where I start off this new feature in which I go through my DVD collection and put to the test all the movies therein that are infrequently/never watched, to determine whether they get to stay or go. My DVDs are in alphabetical order, with numerical titles appearing first. So we start off with the 2000 Sandra Bullock movie 28 Days.

Obvious Loba reason for owning this movie? Sandra Bullock. I don’t own very many movies that could be considered “chick flicks,” but a lot of the ones I do own are more than likely from Bullock’s oeuvre. She’s funny, beautiful, doesn’t seem too wrapped up in herself, gravitates toward characters that have universally recognizable flaws and strengths, she’s kind of a hometown girl (she hails from Arlington, Virginia), and she knows how to drive a bus. Okay, maybe not so much that last one. But she also has two strong links to the Trek universe:

  1. One of her co-stars in 2000’s Miss Congeniality was the ever awesome, the one and only Captain James Tiberius Kirk, William Shatner.
  2. In 1990, she was cast as Tess McGill in the sitcom version of Working Girl, with Nana Visitor, she of “Kira Nerys” fame, playing her boss. See, here they are:

    Look at those outfits. Look at the hair. Look at the dot matrix printer paper. Oy.

Trek links are always bonus points in your favor in the Loba universe.

All that being said, with as wonderful as Bullock can be, she also has quite a few…less than stellar movies under her belt. Two If by Sea, Speed 2: Cruise Control, Hope Floats, Murder by Numbers, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. These are the ones that immediately come to mind. I haven’t seen any of the movies she’s made since 2006’s The Lake House, so I don’t know about the new stuff.

But what about 28 Days? Bullock plays Gwen Cummings, a NYC-based writer by day/drunk by night who is sentenced to, surprise, 28 days of rehab in lieu of jail time after she crashes her sister’s wedding limo into someone’s house (which happens right after she ruins her sister’s wedding by falling ass first into the wedding cake). I remember this movie being marketed as a straight comedy. That decision gets a big “FAIL” since a lot of the plot is quite heavy, emotionally taxing…and predictable. If you’ve seen one Hollywood-cliched movie about drug or alcohol abuse, you’ve seen this movie.

And that’s quite a shame, because this movie had the potential to be wonderful. It had a great cast. In addition to Bullock, there were Elizabeth Perkins, Steve Buscemi, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Viggo Mortensen, Diane Ladd, Alan Tudyk…all amazing actors who have done fine work throughout their careers. And they do fine work here under the direction of Betty Thomas, who used to have cool points in my book for having directed the funny Brady Bunch movie, but has lost all credibility now that I see her latest directorial effort is Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. Screenwriter Susannah Grant seems to be the queen of chick flicks, having also penned Ever After, In Her Shoes, and Catch and Release. She also wrote Erin Brockovich, which I very much enjoy, so I’ll cut her a bit of slack.

Not much though.

It all really comes down to is the fact that this is a story that has been told many times before, and will continue to be told many times again. This telling wasn’t particularly fresh or surprising, and doesn’t ever make you feel the deep connection with any of these characters that I think they were striving to make.

DVD Special Features: There’s a commentary track with Betty Thomas, editor Peter Teschner , composer Randall Poster (I think), and producer Jenno Topping. It’s a relatively solid commentary at first, with ample amounts of technical talk and behind-the-scenes stories. It did seem, however, that they all sort of ran out of things they wanted to say and were still talking simply because they had to fill out the rest of the track. Also included is an HBO “making of” special, which was cute and quick and filled with plenty of sunshine-pumping and smiles; a bunch of “clips” from Santa Cruz, the fake soap opera that played a prominent role in this movie (I have to admit I didn’t watch all of these; I hate soap operas, so this bored/irritated me very quickly); additional “Guitar Guy” songs; deleted patient testimonials; actor biographies; theatrical trailers; isolated music score; and “how to make a gum wrapper chain.”

All in all, there’s a nice selection of special features on this DVD, which is pretty impressive for a movie released in 2000. Sadly, though, the special features ride on the shoulders of a not-so-impressive movie and simply aren’t enough to tip the scales in favor of this one.

Final Verdict: As much as I love Sandra Bullock, and as amused as I always was to see this sitting right next to my copy of 28 Days Later (which I originally thought was a sequel to this movie because, yes, I am that stupid sometimes), I’ve got to release this one. It’s a movie that I might stop to watch for a few minutes if I saw it on television, but there was never a moment in this movie that grabbed me as something I would ever want or need to revisit in its entirety.

Also, one more thing: The poster for this movie is a prime example of what I hate most about a lot of recent designs. What about this poster tells you anything more about this movie than the fact that the designer wanted to showcase Bullock as the star…and they just discovered the lens flare filter in PhotoShop? Boring, boring, boring.

Poster Picks: Coraline

~ lobablanca

This wasn’t the next poster that I was planning on analyzing, but I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by it when I first saw it. I don’t think this was ever an actual movie poster. I think it’s the design created only for the movie tie-in release of Neil Gaiman’s book. It’s the cover on the version that my parents gave me for Christmas.

I love this design so very much.

First and foremost, it’s all about the circular patterns in this poster. I’m already very drawn to designs that focus on curves and circular patterns. I’m fascinated by all the implications of the circle…the concepts of completion, wholeness, fullness. The ouroboros and its representation of eternal return. Or just how cool it looked as a tattoo for Dana Scully. So to see such a skillful repetition of circular themes in this poster makes my heartstrings sing.

It’s also quite provocative, indicative of an artist skilled at weaving the symbols of mythology throughout their design, particularly symbols that evoke the mythologies of feminine power. Most prominent is the fullness of that amazing moon. Anyone familiar with mythology knows there are myriad implications behind the presence of a full moon: lycanthropy, lunacy, increased fertility…some have ascribed this latter to a correlation drawn between the 28-day cycle of the moon’s waxing and waning and the menstrual cycles of fertile women. The power of the moon is also strongly associated with witchcraft, an association that Wiccans have thoroughly embraced through many of their practices and rituals.

The imagery of the moon here definitely invokes that sense of witchcraft, especially when combined with the image of our young heroine, Coraline, with her makeshift divining rod and her “familiar”…the mysterious black cat leading her onward. Everyone knows the superstition about black cats, right? Okay. How about the divining rod? This is a tool utilized in what is known as, among other names, “divining,” “dowsing,” or “water witching.” Whatever is our little water witch going to do with her divining rod?

Another aspect of this moon that I find particularly interesting is the image of it shining through the gnarled, curled branches of the tree, which look very much like wizened fingers reaching down to ensnare Coraline. I love the juxtaposition of the moon in all its fertile fullness with the ancient, withered tree. The tree may somewhat occlude our view of the moon, but the moon also reveals the truth of the tree’s sinister intentions toward Coraline, the strength of its light in no way completely impeded by the leafless, twisted arboreal form.

One more thing about the moon: Notice the image overlay of the button. What on earth could a button have to do with this story? Nice bit of foreshadowing, which is repeated in the more obvious appearance of the button in Coraline’s name at the bottom of the poster.

Finally, notice how the strange slope of the land leaves you feeling askew and off-balance. Look at the precarious position of the house in the background, or how the sharp incline has helped raise the tree to such a high and foreboding level above Coraline. And how the cat glances back, front paw slightly raised, tail curled in a questioning hook. Coraline, however, does not glance backward. She is looking forward, focused on whatever it is that has brought her out on this dark night full of shadow and mystery.

At the very bottom of the poster design, we get the name of the movie, the book, and the heroine. Again, there’s the button as her “O” and the cat’s now exclamatory tail forms her “L.” We also see light shining through a doorway, another clue as to what transpires in this tale.

Have I read too much into this design? Probably. Too much arcane information floating around in this noodle of mine. Plus, I have the added advantage of having seen the movie twice and having now read the book. So I’m able to bring that to my interpretation of this design. Regardless, however, I have to say this is one of the best poster designs I have seen in a long time. I think it’s utterly brilliant and I wouldn’t mind adding it to my collection at all.

Flashback Friday: Tim the Flying Bird

~ lobablanca

Come fly with me...let's fly away!

Ah, Tim. Timmy. You sexy piece of plastic and rubber. You were my desire, my need, my oasis in the desert, my ambrosia, the sparkle in my eyes, the spring in my step, the key to my heart’s contentedness.

Okay, not really. You were just that cheap hunk of plastic that they used to bribe us stupid kids into participating in all those awful school fundraisers.

There’s a flashback right there. Remember school fundraisers? How craptacular were they? My name’s not Willie Loman and I don’t have a case of Fuller brushes, so why on earth would I need to go banging on people’s doors in the middle of winter, trying to persuade them into buying a sausage log or those horrifyingly chalky chocolate bars from me so my school could repave their parking lot? Plus, I can’t believe that schools would actively encourage us to go up to strangers’ houses like that. Talk about the ultimate in pedophilia delivery service.

Memory shiver.

I guess they don’t really do that anymore, though. I know that schools still have fundraisers, but I can’t ever recall having a kid come to my door, trying to sell me something. No, now they leave it up to their parents to bring their sales brochures and forms to work to guilt unsuspecting coworkers into buying a roll of Sally Foster wrapping paper or a Yankee candle. Or two. Okay, maybe three…but I’m not buying anything else, dammit!

So where does Tim the Flying Bird fit into this scenario? Well, every year, the same representative from the same organization would come to our school. Our teachers would usher us into the church auditorium, where we would file into our respective pews, all grades from 1st through 12th (the wee little kids in nursery and kindergarten were spared the marketing indoctrination). And for the next hour, the representative would go through all variety of insane machinations in an attempt to fire us up about the prospect of yet again freezing our asses off for another fundraiser.

Part of every schlocky spiel was Tim the Flying Bird. The representative would start talking to us about how awesome it would be if we all could meet a certain sales quota…say 50 sausage logs or 100 cheese crocks shaped like cows wearing hats (no, I’m not making these items up; yes, they are as disgusting as they sound). And if we met our quota, we’d get something awesome. Something extraordinary. Something miraculous.

We’d get Tim!

Honestly, I wonder if anyone else out there recognizes this thing. When I did a Google search for pictures, this was the only one I could find that looked like what I remember as Tim the Flying Bird. He came in two color schemes: this blue and white one and a yellow bird body with brown, red, and yellow wings. The wings had little spokes that fit into the bird body in a rather flimsy way. And there was a rubber band on the inside of the body that you’d wind using the crank on Tim’s bum.

The whole time the sales rep would be psyching us up verbally about the quotas, he’d be on the dais, winding away on Tim’s crank. And then he’d release the bird. Away Tim would soar, flapping all around the chapel, carried by his cheap diaphanous wings and the sugar-coated shouts and trills of hundreds of kids in excitement overdrive.

Can you imagine? A chapel full of kids, all worked up into a frothy frenzy over this? Talk about a good sales pitch. We’d march out into our respective neighborhoods, hellbent on meeting our quotas so that we, too, could experience the sheer joy of owning our very own Tim.

I must have owned at least five of these silly things, if I owned one. I remember standing on our back porch, winding Tim’s crank and releasing him into the yard. He’d flap and flutter for however long the rubber band could keep him aloft…and then crash to the ground with a crinkly thunk. After a while, one of two things would happen: The rubber band inside would break, or he’d land on something that would puncture one of his wings. And that would be the end of Tim’s flying days.

Funny the flotsam that I retain from my childhood. Some days I can’t even remember the password to my online time sheet, but I can still remember Tim. He was silly, he was cheap, he would be ridiculed and mocked by today’s computer-savvy kinder. But he was fun for a while. I kind of wish I still had a Tim. I bet he’d be really fun at staff meetings.

The Four Faces of Toni

~ lobablanca

I’m so glad that Hollywood is finally leaving behind all those sad, disturbing portrayals of Multiple Personality Disorder. You know, like Sally Field’s Sybil or Joanne Woodward’s Eve White…er Eve Black…Jane? Stop this crazy thing?

Anyway, now we’ve got a far funnier, far lighter take on this disease, now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. You know, because a lot of the classic mental illnesses needed a bit of pizazz to liven them up a bit. It’s not manic depression! It’s bipolar disorder! Now, what can we call schizophrenia? How about “Can You Hear Us Now?” Syndrome?

Am I sounding a bit flippant? I do apologize. I think, however, that anyone who has lived with a severe mental illness in their life, whether their own or that of someone they love, develops a bit of a gallows humor when it comes to discussing such things. It’s been a part of my life since I was 10, and I have a wicked sense of humor about it, as does my family. It’s a coping mechanism, a way to process the fact that sometimes horrible things happen and there’s no real way to “fix” any of it. Just tame it with pills, temper it with therapy, and accept that it is what it is.

Besides, it makes for a great ice breaker when you can tell the story about how you spent part of your 16th birthday in a locked ward, sharing cake with schizophrenics.

Anywho. So this show, United States of Tara, is all about Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID. The titular Tara, played by Toni Collette, houses several distinct personalities within her: Alice, the hyper-happy housewife who’s like Donna Reed on Speed; Buck, the grizzly beer-bonged Vietnam vet; and T, the 16-year-old nympho-minx who gets away with a hella lot just because she happens to “look mature for her age.”

Here’s the happy “family” all together: Buck, Alice, Tara, and T.

Buck is Tara’s protector, the Alter meant to keep her safe from the memories of whatever trauma she survived in her adolescence that left her fractured into all these different personalities. He also keeps safe those Tara loves; he surfaces when there’s trouble in Tara’s life that she is simply ill-equipped to handle. He’s a lefty with a mean right hook, gruff and offensive, but secretly kind and caring. Alice is the Ladies Home Journal ideal of femininity and motherhood. She surfaces whenever Tara is unable to deal with her children or her marriage. She’ll bake you some muffins, mix you a martini, and wash your mouth out with public restroom liquid soap if you’re not careful. T, probably the most obnoxious of the Alters so far, is a foul-mouthed sex-crazed teen, possibly Tara’s exaggerated way of reclaiming her right to express herself freely, unshackled by the chains of whatever repressed trauma left her this way.

Just for the record, Buck is undeniably my favorite of the Alters.

It’s a delicate dance, this show, dealing with unfunny truths in a wickedly funny style. When I first heard about it, I was

Please Don’t Call Them Resolutions

~ lobablanca

Back at work for the first time of the new decade. W00t is in order, I suppose. It’s always so very difficult to get back into the work mindset after the holidays. It seems particularly difficult this year, what with the snow breaks and all. I knew, when we got 2 feet of snow before winter even started, that we were in for it but good this year. Snow flurries are expected tonight, and oh but it’s hella cold. Still in the upper 20s with an expected high of 32. These would be lovely temperatures if I was in England. Being in the States, however, I’m none too keen on them. I’d like to regain feeling in my toes at some point today.

It could be worse, I know. I heard on the news this morning that somewhere at the very tippy-toppy of Minnesota hit -33 degrees. I tried to process that information, but I think I pulled a muscle.

So, what’s the point of this post? I suppose to give a preview of things I’ve been thinking about doing here at the lair. I’m not calling them resolutions. I think those are silly. These are just things that I’d like to tackle this year. I like schedules and deadlines, and the beginning of the year seems like a nice place to start, no?

As I already mentioned, I’m not going to be doing the 50 Book Challenge again this year. I’m still going to be reading constantly, but at whatever pace I find most comfortable at the time. My main goal this year is to read only, or mostly, books that I own but have never read. I went through my shelves this weekend and collected about 40 books that fit this description. There are still others on the shelves like this, but the ones I chose are the oldest of the bunch. Some I don’t even remember buying.

Sigh.

Anyway, I went through last year’s list and discovered that of the 51 books I read, I own 30 of them. Of those 30, I’ve tagged 4 to be donated to the local thrift store: Resistance, One on One, The Road, and Before Dishonor. That might not sound like a lot to some, but for this book geek, that’s a huge milestone. If I can do the same thing this year, I’ll feel extremely accomplished.

I’m also going to do something similar with my DVD collection. I’ve got a disgusting number of DVDs. If I count all my special editions and television series, I think I’m well over 500 at the moment. I love movies almost as much as I love books. But I must admit that there are several DVDs in my collection right now that scream WTF. I haven’t watched them since I bought them…or I haven’t watched them at all. It’s time for a little culling of the DVD herd, so to speak. Time to target all those impulse buys from the used CD store or the various bargain bin buys I failed to resist. It will be a thorough review, not just of the movie itself but also of all the special features included on the DVD. It’s only fair to give the movie as fair a chance as possible to stay, right?

I plan on continuing Flashback Friday on a weekly basis. I know I missed last Friday and my Christmas post, while dealing with a favorite movie from my childhood, wasn’t tagged as a flashback…so I missed two in a row. I promise to fix that this week. I also plan on reviving my Poster Picks and Gaming Glory series. I don’t have a schedule for either, but I do have a few entries for each that I hope to tackle very soon.

The only other things you should expect here at the lair is a continuation of my geekery (life without Star Trek is not really life, IMHO), more PhotoShop phun, more silliness, more surliness, and more things that make absolutely no sense. I hope you’ll continue to visit. I do enjoy watching you all come and go through my tracking software.

Real world “things to come”? I suppose there are a few. More fun writing, of course. I’ve already started working on outlines for two short story ideas. Not sure if I’ll use either, but it’s nice to be thinking about them, to be thinking about writing again.

Also, I need to get back into my workout routine, which was completely derailed since Thanksgiving. I haven’t worked out for a solid week in a ridiculously long time, and I feel rather like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man because of this. It also didn’t help that the holidays bring with them all variety of culinary sins. So less sugar, more fruit. Even less rum and more water. EEK.

And more walking during the day. I’m already walking more anyway thanks to a parking garage shift, but I also think I’m going to start walking up the 11 flights of stairs to my office again. Not every day like I used to. Maybe every other day. Or at the very least, once a week. Definitely on any day that I’m not wearing my Janeway heels.

Yes, I own these shoes. I know, they look ridiculous and nothing like the comfortable Docs I prefer. But…well, I like how Amazonian I feel when I wear them. I easily graze the 6-foot mark when I wear these puppies. Yes, it’s silly. I’m already taller than most women in my office. But I like giving some of the guys a run for their money as well 😉

[Trek Tangent: As ridiculous as these shoes are, at least they aren’t as completely out-of-place in my working world as they were in Major Kira’s and Captain Janeway’s worlds. I never understood the logic behind putting Nana Visitor or Kate Mulgrew in the heels they wore with their uniforms. Even more ridiculous? Jeri Ryan’s heels. I’m surprised she never broke something when bouncing through the corridors or planetside. No wonder she’s in her fuzzy slippies here!]

YaY for TrekCore and their rare photos section!

Okay, I’ve prattled on enough for now. Time to get back to work. I’ve got miles to go before I sleep leave. Hope you all are off to a wonderful start to your 2010!

Happy 2010!

~ lobablanca

On behalf of Lwaxana, Jean-Luc, and all the crews from all the ships, starbases, space stations, outposts, inposts, brigs, cargo bays, and all other reaches of the galaxy, I wish you all a very happy new year. Here’s to the surprises that are still to come.

50BC09: Book Number 51

~ lobablanca

I kind of forgot to post this one. I think it’s because I spent the better part of the year slowly making my way through it. When I finally finished it, I just placed it back on my shelf, not really registering the fact that, yes, this does count…even if it did take me almost a year to finish it.

This by no means should be taken as indication that it’s not a good book. Quite the opposite, really. Written by Desliu honcho Herb Solow and producer Robert Justman, Inside Star Trek: The Real Story is quite literally the only book you will ever need to read if you want to know the story of how the greatest franchise in television history began. Solow and Justman were involved from Day One, observing and participating and, most importantly, documenting. This is the most thorough history of the original Star Trek series that you can hope to find. It’s also one of the most honest, divulging in healthy portions the truth of what went on when everyone stopped being nice and started being real.

Wait. That’s MTV’s Real World. Never mind.

Seriously, though, this is a wonderful book, even if it will more than likely tarnish the mythology surrounding some of Trek’s stars, Gene Roddenberry included. However, it doesn’t change the fact that this was Roddenberry’s brightest gift to all us Trekkies worldwide. It simply shines light on all the others who had a hand in helping Roddenberry’s dream take root and grow.

I would make one recommendation, however, in reading this book: read Yvonne Fern’s Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation first. These two books belong together, dove-tailing in high serendipitous style. Fern captures an essence of Roddenberry that is at turns tender, irascible, irreverent, honest, obfuscating, and ultimately a wonderful and touching final look into the life of the Great Bird of the Galaxy. From there, Solow and Justman’s book will take you right back to the beginning of it all, allowing a completely different view of Roddenberry that at times seems almost antithetical to the man revealed in Fern’s book.

Does this make either book any less true than the other? Not at all. No one person can ever truly be captured in print. And no one person has only one facet or one persona (hell, I’m clocking about five of those at this point). It simply means that these authors all knew Roddenberry at different points in his evolution. I think both these books together provide readers with perhaps the most holistically satisfying take on Roddenberry you can find.

Final score: 5/5. I’d also like to amend my final score for Fern’s book. I guess I was suffering from a case of “I can’t give any book a perfect score” early in this challenge, so I docked her half a point. I can’t think of why I would do that, though, so I’m going to give it back to her. Call it Loba’s Prerogative.

And there you go: 51 books in a year. I’m actually amazed that I pulled this off. I know that I typically read a lot throughout the year…I’ve always got a book or two (or four) on the nightstand with a bookmark in it somewhere, but I never imagined that I could actually read 50 in 52 weeks. Maybe back when I was still in college and reading was not only what I did for fun but what I did for school as well. But not now that I have to contend with big girl things like work.

Will I be doing this challenge again in 2010? I don’t think so. As much as I enjoyed meeting the challenge, as the year wore on I found I was so focused on reading the full 50 that I was choosing books based on their length rather than how interested I was in reading them. I will be keeping track again next year, but this time I think I’m going to be focused more on reading all the books that I own but have never read. So, fewer trips to the library, more trips to my bookshelves. And instead of a 5-point rating system, the final score will be whether I keep the book or donate it to the local thrift store. And there you go…a preview of one of the things to come here at the lair in 2010. You’re welcome 😀

And finally, here is the list of all the books that I read this year. There are quite a few craptacular reads on this list. Luckily, however, there’s far more WIN than FAIL.

  1. 10 Most Beautiful Experiments, by George Johnson (3.5/5)
  2. The Dumbest Generation, by Mark Bauerlein (3/5)
  3. The Memory of Running, by Ron McLarty (4.5/5)
  4. Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation, by Yvonne Fern (4.5/5) (5/5)
  5. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman (4.5/5)
  6. The Eyes of the Beholders, by A.C. Crispin (3.5/5)
  7. Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (2.5/5)
  8. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories by Richard Matheson (4.5/5)
  9. Comic Wars, by Dan Raviv (3/5)
  10. It Ain’t All About the Cookin’, by Paula Deen (3/5)
  11. Calculating God, by Robert J. Sawyer (4.5/5)
  12. Walking in Circles Before Lying Down, by Merrill Markoe (3.5/5)
  13. The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British, by Sarah Lyall (4/5)
  14. The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold (4/5 for prose; 3/5 for story)
  15. Captivity, by Debbie Lee Wesselmann (2.5/5)
  16. Resistance, by J.M. Dillard (1.5/5)
  17. The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells (4/5)
  18. The Last Lecture, by Dr. Randy Pausch (5/5)
  19. One on One, by Tabitha King (2/5)
  20. Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (4.5/5)
  21. Golf Monster, by Alice Cooper (4.5/5)
  22. The Stars Like Dust, by Isaac Asimov (2.5/5)
  23. Rapture for the Geeks: When AI Outsmarts IQ, by Richard Dooling (2.5/5)
  24. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exup

50BC09: Book Number 50

~ lobablanca

And slipping in on the very last possible day of this challenge, Book Number 50: Nathaniel Lachenmeyer’s 13: The Story of the World’s Most Popular Superstition.

I found this book while wandering about in a used bookstore up in Toronto and, being the macabre little minx that I am, I simply had to have it. I guess I’ve always had a bit of a hot/cold relationship with the number 13. Like most southpaws, I embrace this number that most right-handed people shun (although my personal favorite number has always been 9). However, it wasn’t until reading part of this book that it dawned on me that I grew up in a house that had 13 as part of its number. How that slipped by me all this time actually disturbs me a great deal.

Lachenmeyer does his best to explain the mythology of “unlucky 13.” Truth, though, is that there’s really not a whole lot known about it or its evolution as a superstition throughout the centuries. He spends a lot of time hypothesizing about its pagan roots, its Christian roots, its pop culture roots, even its odd fast food roots. There’s discourse about the presence of 13 at Christ’s Last Supper, and how this may have been the reason behind the original superstition about avoiding 13 guests at a dinner. There’s talk about the Knights Templar and about Wicca and about PT Barnum and Oscar Wilde. There’s a section on how filmmakers forever altered the path of the 13 superstition when they changed the name of their horror flick from Long Night at Camp Blood to…Friday the 13th. And let’s not forget the original 13 colonies here in the States or all the instances of 13 on the back of the one dollar bill.

All very interesting. But if you’re a geek like me, you’ve heard or read about most of these things. I did find it interesting to learn about the Thirteen Club, a social club begun in New York in the late 1800s, its members hell-bent on disproving the 13 dinner guests superstition. I suppose you could say they were successful, since I don’t recall ever hearing someone freak out at such an occurrence in my lifetime. Actually, though, not even Friday the 13th has the same power that I remember it having on people when I was a kid. Guess it’s time for some new superstitions…something like if you look into a mirror and say “Skank” five times fast, Paris Hilton will appear behind you with a night vision camera and a roaring case of chlamydia.

Ick.

Final score: 2.5/5. This was an okay read, and I did learn some things about the 13 superstition that I didn’t already know. However, it was very repetitive at times, I guess because there really isn’t that much out there about this superstition. Plus, I was quite surprised and a bit disappointed that Lachenmeyer never once mentions the relationship between lefties and 13, which is an actual phenomenon that many left-handed people acknowledge either believing or at least knowing about. National Lefthanders’ Day is even celebrated on August 13. Sometimes that’s even a Friday. Ooh. Bonus.

So, there you go…but I’m not finished yet. There’s a bonus book review on its way…