Jeopardy

Tonight's "Tournament of Champions" episode of Jeopardy had the following categories during Single Jeopardy:

• Star Trek, Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings
• Action Figures
• Dinner for One
• In Need of a Date
• Still living with "Mom" and "Dad"
• You Have No Life

Ordinarily, these might have been kind of amusing, but I feel like they probably struck a little close to home for these three contestants.

Week 1

Things that have happened in the first week of law school:

1. I missed my section's library orientation because I was reading for contracts / playing N.
2. During a peer advisor's don't-feel-bad-if-you-lose speech before section elections, I cheerfully pointed out that "four of these [five] people running are going to lose."
3. My bike was stolen the day before I planned to go out and buy a better lock for it.
4. I missed my research group's first meeting in the library because I missed when we planned on having it. On the bright side, I would have been of little use, having missed the orientation.
   
5. I successfully paid so little attention in contracts that I didn't even get the relevant jokes being IMed to me.
6. I had a full 250GB hard drive die with absolutely no warning.
7. I waited a very long time for a sandwich.
   

I also, however, got a card for a free sandwich because that one took so long. So all in all, law school is pretty sweet.

As a side note, Texas finally sent me a survey asking why I chose not to accept admission, the first conclusive proof that they are actually aware that I will not be attending. Now if only they hadn't already sold my contact information to every provider of student services in the greater Austin area.

Cops in a Theater

Sign you're in a pretty safe town: when the manager of the four-screen theater you're watching Snakes on a Plane in calls the police to handle rowdy patrons, they send five or more officers.

That's correct, at the 7:30PM showing this evening at the Regal Seminole, the manager stopped the movie right as Kenan "Good Burger" Thompson took the stick so he could yell at the audience for helping to make a mockery of the movie even Samuel L. Jackson isn't taking seriously. I guess he was worried about a riot, because he brought five cops with him to ask a few people to leave.

So we sat and watched ads for about 10 minutes as the manager and the one guy who felt like speaking up bickered back and forth, then stared each other down until the guy and all his friends got up and left.

At that point the manager reminded the rest of audience that "All you college kids need to remember there are other people in here and they want to see the movie too." Then he left, feeling quite proud of himself and apparently pretending that the six people who were removed had been responsible for a full theater's worth of clapping, cheering, and yelling.

The rest of the movie finished without incident, although there was a marked change in the atmosphere after that. Until, of course, the final scene. No amount of police presence could take away the power of that scene. The Tank Man would have remained in place to witness that scene in all its glory.