"BAH," then "Hmm," of the day

One of my newspaper's numerous sports-section columns about the ongoing Stanley Cup finals led off by mentioning that Chicago Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane had recently watched all six Star Wars movies. The columnist, though, immediately went from that to an annoyingly familiar two-sentence exaltation of the old three and absolute dismissal of the new three, pointedly not bothering to name them. It's bad enough the entertainment and movie section of my newspaper recycles negative opinions about Star Wars so often (opinions that can leave me wondering what's actually supposed to be so amazing about the old movies beyond that they were implied to use old special-effects technology); for a moment, I wanted to tear the front page loose from the rest of the section or find a black marker and scribble over the text, or something else equally petty. I pass my newspaper on to other people at work, though, so I managed to hold the urge back.

Then, though, it really hit me that Kane had said he'd liked the new three better. (The column mentioned him "shrugging"; I can somehow imagine the columnist venting at him beforehand to provoke such a response.) "They don't speak for everyone" is a familiar comment in the environs of the "Prequel Appreciation Society," but it is sort of nice to have a tiny additional bit of evidence that way. Before handing the newspaper over, I also happened to notice that Kane had watched the movies while sidelined with a broken collarbone; I had been wondering if he'd managed to cram the viewings in between playoff games.