It’s finally here. After ten years, eighteen movies, hundreds upon hundreds of hours of television; on Thursday we will finally get to witness the culmination of the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And in honor of the release of Avengers: Infinity War, I thought I would take a look at the titular team in this edition of The Franchise. Core Concept: “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” Its a bit cliche, but nothing sums up the Avengers better than this tag-line. And it may not seem like that separates them from other superhero teams, but this is when the genius…
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World Building 101- Races and Cultures
Ogres. Ogres who need ogres. Are the luckiest Ogres in the world. At least I’m fairly sure that’s how the song goes. Hello there and welcome back to another edition of World Building 101. This week we’re going to be talking about Races and Cultures. Before we get started this is my cursory reminder that differing levels of melatonin do not a completely different race make. On this blog when we talk about race we’re talking about Elves, Ogres, Trolls, Orcs, Dwarfs, Martians, Vulcans, so on and so forth. I think the biggest mistake made by authors of genre fiction…
Wily Wordplay- On War
With the specter of war hanging over the Korean Penninsula, it seemed appropriate to share some quotes that are pertinent to the decisions that will need to be made in the months to come. I do not agree with every sentiment expressed here but found these all worthy of discussion. 1.”The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” -Sun Tzu 2. “War does not determine who is right – only who is left.” -Bertrand Russell 3. “All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.” ― John Steinbeck 4. “I am tired and…
Worth It?-John Wick
Let me start by telling you that John Wick is a testosterone-infused masturbatory male fantasy on cocaine and that its plot makes very little sense. Let me also tell you that it is an hour and forty minutes of unadulterated fun and I will not apologize for enjoying it. I know, I know I’m getting ahead of myself. This is Worth It? after all. I’m supposed to hem and haw and give you things that I liked and didn’t like before stunning you with a recommendation to see or not see a film. But that would require me to craft…
Character Study-Harry Callahan
Every once and awhile a film will come along that will so embed itself in pop culture that a person need never have seen a film to quote it. Dirty Harry is one of these films. It and its subsequent sequels proved to be so impactful that we use phrases such as “Do you feel lucky?” and “Make my day” as part of our everyday conversation. Even Dirty Harry itself has become a slang term in our lexicon. All of that is due to Clint Eastwood’s portrayal of the titular Dirty Harry, and in this edition of Character Study, we’re…
Science! For Parties- Literary Tension
We here at the Eclectic Eccentric are big fans of interdisciplinary learning. The more areas of interest you can combine into one happening the better as far as we’re concerned. Which is why we are delighted to present this little crossover trick to you now. In this edition of Science! For Parties, you are going to learn how to create literary tension using Science! This trick is very easy to do and sure to fascinate your friends at any party. All you need are two books of similar size. Take the books and merge their pages together like you were…
The Silver Bullet – Curriculum 5-6
Fifth Grade: Fifth grade is a very important year for students to achieve big steps forward in their education. It is a year without significant upheaval and is the last year before students hormones enter the mix. It is important for educators to take advantage of the lull between big life events to push for fuller, more comprehensive responses, thoughts, and reports. Much like kindergarten planted the seeds for grades 1-4, so does fifth grade lay the groundwork for grades 6-8. Math: Topics at this level include: Ratios and rates; multiplying and dividing decimals; percentages; areas of compound and complex…
A Writer’s Tale-Jonathon Swift
With it being April Fool’s Day today, I thought I would take this edition of A Writer’s Tale to feature one of the greatest April Fool’s pranks of all time. Our featured author today is that most famous English-Irish satirist Jonathon Swift, most known for his work Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships or as it is more commonly called Gulliver’s Travels. But Swift was no one-hit wonder. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest English language satirists who ever…
Reference Humor: Looney Tunes “Bugs Bunny’s Easter Special”
Hey everybody. This Easter season I decided that we should kick it old school and see how folks did pop culture references back before 21st century got all meta on us. So I went to the vault, aka the VHS collection, and dug out this classic Looney Tunes adventure (or rather I should say adventures as this is actually a collection of classic Looney Tunes shorts strung together with an Easter themed framing device.) So let’s get our cartoon on and see what kind of references Bug’s Bunny is apt to make. As always bold numbers represent the time at…
Meanwhile in Countries Not Called America-Venezuela’s Economic Crisis
It’s no secret that Venezuela has been a mess for a while now. The country’s particular brand of Strongman Socialism has discouraged foreign investment and resulted in an economy that is almost entirely reliant on the nation’s oil production. This would be a precarious economic model under even the most ideal circumstances, but under the corrupt regimes of President’s Chavez and Maduro, it has proven to be downright disastrous. Back in 2003, Chavez replaced the executives of Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA with his own corrupt cronies. Their ineptitude and graft have resulted in a steady decline in Venezuela’s oil…