Daily Archives: March 13, 2012

‘Justified’ begins gathering ‘Loose Ends’

If we learned nothing else from “Justified” tonight, it was: Kentucky women are badass.

“Loose Ends,” tonight’s episode of the third season of “Justified” on FX, was in some ways another “moving pieces into place” episode. U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens and Detroit-mobster-comes-to-Harlan-County Quarles look to be headed for a major conflict. The preview for next week had the two of them facing off.

But tonight Quarles was off stage to a great extent and Raylan was doing what he does best: Dealing with Kentucky lowlifes.

Tonight that meant Tanner, the hood who previously ran an illegal medical clinic, trying to shake down a bomb maker. Tanner isn’t — wasn’t — very smart, but how smart do you have to be to know you shouldn’t threaten a bomb maker?

The meat of the episode was left for Boyd Crowder and his moll, Ava, who acted to protect their own interests tonight.

Boyd gave a bravura VFW hall campaign speech for his preferred candidate for Harlan County sheriff in an effort to unseat Quarles’ bought-and-paid-for lawman.

And Ava let her shotgun do the talking once again as she blew away a lowlife (another one) who formerly pimped out some local girls, set them up as bank robbers and then began killing them to eliminate witnesses.

It was one of the highlights of this very strong season so far when Ava (Joelle Carter) suggested to Boyd that she take over as madam. Watching Walton Goggins’ Boyd try to cover his smile was priceless.

End of an era: Encyclopedia Britannica stops printing

A belated moment of silence for home phones, videocasette recorders and now, the Encyclopedia Britannica.

After 244 years, the print version of Encyclopedia Britannica is no more.

The company has decided that the 32-volume set for 2012 will be the last to be published on paper.

The decision was an easy one for the company, CNN reported today. Sales of the printed and bound encyclopedia account for only about a percent of the company’s revenue. Even the online version, available since 1994, accounts for only about 15 percent. The company makes most of its money from teaching tools.

Still, for many of us from a certain era of students, the end of the encyclopedia is a nostalgic thing.

Decades before Wikipedia and even sketchier online information sources, encyclopedia sets were the end-all-and-be-all of do-it-yourself learning.

I can’t count the number of times I went to the library and looked up a subject — Egypt, for example, or agriculture — and found the materials I needed for a report. I sometimes — I’m not afraid to admit this — even read encyclopedia volumes when I didn’t have to.

The encyclopedia had what I consider one of the best features of a modern-day print newspaper or magazine: A strong editor’s hand exercised on authoritative material.

Sure there’s a ton of information out there online, much of it valuable. But neither Wikipedia nor most online sources, unless they’re backed by a university, a news publication or Snopes, can be trusted almost without fail.

The Britannica, and most encyclopedias, could.

I’m sure some mistakes crept in. No one could list every export of Brazil in order of importance without making some mistakes.

So it’s a sad day that Encyclopedia Britannica is soon to be gone, at least from between hardcovers.

But I don’t have a current — even a not-so-current — set of Encyclopedia Britannica in my home, so what do I know?

Not enough, apparently.

New ‘Avengers’ posters are out

It seems like there’s some new bit of marketing stuff related to “The Avengers” almost every day. A while back it was a new one sheet and the new, longer trailer. You know, the one with that flying snake thing — or is it Fin Fang Foom? — at the end.

By the way, I saw that preview on TV last night for the first time. Awesome.

Anyway, today a new set of character posters featuring the members of Marvel’s Mightiest Heroes debuted. The poster featuring Hulk and Hawkeye is above.

You can find all the others here.