Simon: The shot I gave you will help you sleep.
River: I slept for so long…
Simon: Just a little while. Then we’ll find a place. We’ll find a safe place.
River: I didn’t think you’d come for me.
Simon: Well, you’re a dummy.
Firefly – Episode 1 – “Serenity”
‘Bless us all,’ said Jack, ‘I had no notion you were such a man of blood, dear Doctor.’
‘You must be uncommon deadly when you are in practice,’ said Macdonald. ‘A horrid quick murdering lunge. I should not care to go out with you, sir. You may call me pudding, I will bear it meekly. Do you choose to try the pistols?’
Jack, watching from his side of the quarterdeck, was wholly amazed: he had no idea that Stephen could hold a sword, nor yet load a pistol, still less knock the pips out of a playing-card at twenty paces: yet he had known him intimately. He was pleased that his friend was doing so well; he was pleased at the respectful silence; but he was a little sad that he could not join in, that he stood necessarily aloof — the captain could not compete — and he was obscurely heavy. There was something disagreeable, and somehow reptilian, about the cold, contained way Stephen took up his stance, raised his pistol, looked along the barrel with his pale eyes, and shot the head off the king of hearts. Jack’s certainties wavered; he turned to look at his new bentinicks, smoothly filled, drawing to perfection. Finisterre would be under their lee by now, some sixty leagues away; and presently, about midnight, he would alter course eastward — eastward, for Ortegal and the Bay
We all have movies we know by heart, that we’ve seen so many times they become akin to comfort food. Perhaps you pop in the DVD when you don’t know what else to watch, or when you’re doing something else and want it to play in the background. When you’ve watched something enough, the experience of watching turns into one of remembering, tuning out the present and filling the time with your memories of the very thing you could be experiencing. Aladdin was one of those films for me which I’d watched so many times I no longer needed a TV; I could just close my eyes and replay it perfectly in my head. (I distinctly remember watching the VHS three times in a row once when I was home sick from school many years ago.) But I recently got the chance to see it on the big screen for the first time in 23 years and it felt like I was seeing it with a fresh set of eyes. Time and experience can change our perspective or deepen our understanding of a film, but we so rarely take the opportunity to come at things from a new angle and recapture the sense of magic that has been softened by familiarity.
As a way to mark the upcoming Blu-ray release of Aladdin, Disney’s D23 fan club allowed people to vote on which cities would get to host a one-time screening, and luckily for me Phoenix was selected (along with Seattle and Sacremento). Continue reading
Willow: So, we’re looking for a beastie.
Giles: That, uh, eats humans whole… except for the skin.
Buffy: This doesn’t make any sense.
Xander: Yeah. The skin’s the best part.
Buffy: Any demons with high cholesterol? (points at Giles) You’re gonna think about that later, mister, and you’re gonna laugh.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Season 2: Episode 20 – “Go Fish”
“He killed me with your wand.”
“He failed to kill you with my wand,” Dumbledore corrected Harry. “I think we can agree that you are not dead — though, of course,” he added, as if fearing he had been discourteous, “I do not minimize your sufferings, which I am sure were severe.”
“I feel great at the moment, though,” said Harry, looking down at his clean, unblemished hands. “Where are we, exactly?”
“Well, I was going to ask you that,” said Dumbledore, looking around. “Where would you say that we are?”
Until Dumbledore had asked, Harry had not known. Now, however, he found that he had an answer ready to give.
“It looks,” he said slowly, “like King’s Cross station. Except a lot cleaner and empty, and there are no trains as far as I can see.”
“King’s Cross station!” Dumbledore was chuckling immoderately. “Good gracious, really?”
“Well, where do you think we are?” asked Harry, a little defensively.
“My dear boy, I have no idea. This is, as they say, your party.”
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling
Inara:You should really have the young doctor look at this.
Book: It’s not so bad.
Inara: Well, I’m sure you’ll be fine.
Book: I didn’t say that… Is this what life is, out here?
Inara: Sometimes.
Book: I’ve been out of the abbey two days, I’ve beaten a lawman senseless, I’ve fallen in with criminals. I watched the captain shoot the man I swore to protect… And I’m not even sure if I think he was wrong.
Inara: Shepherd…
Book: I believe I just… I think I’m on the wrong ship.
Inara: Maybe. Or maybe you’re exactly where you ought to be.
Firefly – Episode 1 – “Serenity”
‘May I congratulate you upon saving him? The boat would never have come up in time. Such promptitude of mind — such decision! I honour it.’
‘It was pretty good, was it not?’ said Jack. ‘This is capital, upon my word,’ — nodding to the mainmast — ‘and at this rate we shall have the bentincks bent tomorrow. Did you smoke that? I said, the bentincks bent. Ha, ha, ha!’
Was he making light of it out of coxcombery, fanfaronade? From embarassment? No, Stephen decided. It was as genuine as his mirth at his ignoble tiny pun, or adumbration of a pun, the utmost limit of naval wit.
Post Captian – Patrick O’Brian
The Love Pirate 