In (I believe it was) 1990, I took a course in college called Monoliths and Lightsabers. I have reason to remember this course on an almost weekly basis – more when there’s a Star Wars movie in everyone’s attention.

The course was a review of the 2001 movies, and the Star Wars movies, from multiple academic perspectives.

We watched ‘2001: A Space Odyssey‘, and all three Star Wars movies, a number of times during the semester. We also watched some other movies, which may or may not have included ‘Spaceballs‘ and ‘A Clockwork Orange‘ (more about that in a moment).

Each week we had a guest lecturer. A physics lecturer talked about the science of warp drive and lightsabers, as well as transporters, laser guns, and so on. A philosopher and a theologian talked about the Force. A literature professor talked about the development of story and character. Of course, a film professor talked about the magic of film making, and the incredible technology that was invented to make Star Wars, as well as how astonishing 2001 was in 1968, although it seems rather slow to today’s audiences. An artist talked about the use of color in Star Wars, and in 2001, to convey certain themes more subtly than blowing things up. I vaguely remember a physical education teacher (dance, maybe?) talking about the use of martial arts and tai chi in the Star Wars choreography. A history professor talked about the Nazi imagery in Star Wars, and the use of other historical events as part of the plot.

One week, a music professor talked about the use of music in Star Wars. The per-character theme music is something that was common films of an earlier age, but has largely faded from modern cinema. And the use of music in 2001 was powerful, in that the Zarathustra theme evokes discovery, but also darkness.

I asked this professor (remember, this was a small, private, Christian college) what other movies similarly used music in such a powerful way. A Clockwork Orange was suggested, which we then went and rented and watched. It’s quite a shocking movie, particularly to 19 year old me.

Similarly, the art professor recommended ‘The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover‘, which, while using color in the most fascinating way I’ve ever seen in any movie, before or since, was a truly appalling watch. Very, very disturbing movie. I cannot recommend that anyone actually watch it, but the use of color was amazing.

(By the way, another movie that uses color brilliantly is the new ‘Anna Karenina‘, which is beautiful enough that I considered reading that awful book again.)

The professor of this course, Richard Sherry, also did another course that was an overview of Science Fiction, where we read, among other things, The Left Hand of Darkness, which would probably have been quite a controversial choice if the administration had been aware. Dr. Sherry was, in his quiet way, one of my most influential professors in college, although I don’t know if I’ve ever told him that.

I’ve been thinking about this course due to the new popularity of Star Wars, but also because I’ve been asked recently what my favorite, most memorable course was in college. 22 years on from college, this is the one course that I remember most clearly, and which I refer to in my mind the most often, closely followed by the Sci Fi course. I was already a big Sci Fi fan at the time, but the class introduced me to authors that I probably wouldn’t have chosen to read, like Anne McCaffrey, and Ursula Le Guin, The Earthsea books remain some of my favorite of the genre. And, also, filled some of the huge gaps in my reading, such as ‘Stranger in a Strange Land‘.

Today school is closed, again, for no discernible reason. No new snow. None predicted for today until late tonight. Clear roads. Cold, but not dangerously so.

I know it’s a hard call to make. I just wish there was a little more consistency in the criteria.

I received this email this morning:

Notice that ‘Apple’ is misspelled, and the grammar is slightly weird.

This links to the following site:

… where it asks me to input my Apple ID and password. Presumably, at that point, they can use that to make purchases on my credit card. Assuming, of course, that I have an Apple account, which I don’t.

This type of attack is called “Phishing” and is the easiest and most effective Internet “hacking” technique, since it requires almost no talent, and relies on the trust (or gullibility) of the target.

If you receive an email like this, delete it. If you’re not sure, manually type in “apple.com” in your browser and see what information they have on your account.

First fire of the season. By this time last year we had already gone through one load of firewood.

For the last 9 years, we’ve been coming to The Pub, a locally owned restaurant serving British pub-style food. Over the years, what we loved about it was being regulars. For a while, they’d even bring us our order without asking what we wanted.

Then, things started changing. It became part of a larger chain of stores across Ohio and Kentucky. This seemed awesome at first. But management was ever farther away, and the decisions were less about the customers and more about the dollars.

The first big blow was that our personalized mugs went away. Seems a bit silly, perhaps, but it was a decision by management to favor new and single visit customers over regulars. The single visit customers complained that we had a mug and they didn’t.

Gradually, “our” waitresses left, and we’d hear “is this your first time to the Pub?” More often than not.

Then O’Shea left.

Then Mark left.

Then they changed the menu and removed a lot of items less familiar to the the American audience. Which was kind of the point of a British-themed place.

And today is Leigh Ann’s last day.

Time to find a new place.

Reading this article about the death of links has renewed my determination to post more on my own website this year, and not just write on Facebook and Twitter.

Ironically, probably almost all of you are reading this in Facebook.