1) If you want a good synopsis/explanation of Wagner's Ring Cycle, scare up a copy of one of Anna Russell's CDs (reissued from her Columbia recordings) where she covers all four operas in 20 minutes, with musical examples.

2) For my money, the Star Wars series demonstrated the law of diminishing returns when they couldn't find a way to put Sir Alec Guinness on screen anymore.

3) I'm floodybucking Sick of people whining that there aren't enough female roles in the LOTR movies! If they made a movie about Tenzig and Hillary climbing Everest, would these dolts demand that there be a woman in the expedition?? When I was a kid in the Robin Hood mania stage, I wasn't imagining myself as Maid Marian. Hell no, I was one of the outlaws, trying my skill with archery, hunting deer, sneaking up on the sherrif's men and all. The lasses of equivalent age that I've listened to about LOTR imagine themselves as part of the Fellowship, not Arwen. When they imagine themselves as Eowen, it's as a shield-maiden, not some lovelorn lady stuck with the housekeeping. grumblegrumble$#@%@. Hrmph. Your bloodthirsty librarian, Mary