Thanks for the nod, Eric ... Unfortunately, there were photgraphers and the Dallas Observer will be running unauthorized photos of me in my undershorts in this week's edition.

btw ... thanks, too, for "Plan B." Now that I'm done with "Simple Faith of Mister Rogers" I can get into it seriously. Glad you're enjoying "Kite Runner."

Oh, and since you missed Sith, allow me to add that it is without doubt the best Star Wars since Empire Strikes Back. If it hadn't been 25 years since I've watched Empire, I may feel confident enough to say it's better. But I can't remember yesterday, much less 1980.

Oh, and since you missed Sith, allow me to add that it is without doubt the best Star Wars since Empire Strikes Back.

Well, that's not saying much, is it? The last two, anyway, were huge disappointments, so I'm looking forward to seeing a return to former greatness.

"allow me to add that it is without doubt the best Star Wars since Empire Strikes Back. "

He's kidding. Really.

Actually, Jimmy's in a state I like to call "Star Wars Shock," that overwhelmed experience everyone gets after a SW movie. It's the lushness and the effects ('cuz it sure ain't the plot). Every SW movie does it, at least once or twice. I don't like admitting it, but EP 1 did it as well (sort of). It's only when you've seen it a couple times, calm down, and start focusing on the film and start comparing it to the Original Trilogy that the magic wears off. In a fairly short time, its many contradictions and (well...) stupidities show up.

But when EP 1 first came out, everyone insisted it was every bit as good as the OT, better even, and Lucas still had the magic. That went on for about 3-6 months and then, well, it faded out, and by a year later people were beginning to say, "Well, okay, it wasn't THAT great." Now it's pretty widely accepted that EP1 was lousy.

Same thing happened with EP 2. Everyone first said, "WOW! Better than EP 1! Better than the OT." ...and then it happened again. The enthusiasm died out very quickly. Sure, there's a general agreement that it was better than EP1 but that's not saying much. There was a lot wrong with EP 2. "Spiderman" went up against EP 2 and walked all over it in the box office. Spiderman beat a Star Wars Episode.

EP 3 is generating the same pattern in fan responses as the first two. Unless I'm wrong and Jimmy really does like EP 3 that much.