Yeah, Citibank managed to piss me off long ago when I went in to talk about a mortgage.
My wife and I were renting and looking to buy our first place. We had gone to a couple of townhouse new development places, but weren't sure what we could afford. We were banking at Citibank at the time, so we called over to see if we could set up an appointment to talk to someone.
The guy wasn't from the branch, he drove in from the city to meet with us. We brought bank statements and tax returns and all of the other stuff they said to bring. He asked us where we were looking (as he looked down his nose at us in his $700 pinstripe). We told him where we had looked at townhouses but we weren't sure what we could afford.
He muttered something under his breath, gave us a look and said something to the effect that we were reaching too far and we should probably stick to used properties (before he even looked at any of the papers we had brought).
We said that this is why we were here, to find out what our price range was based on how much we could put down and borrow. He scribbled a number on the back of his card and told us to give them a call. It was HUD.
We pretty much took our banking somewhere else that day. Turns out that with the money both of us had saved and our dual incomes, we could have easily afforded any of those properties we had looked at (guess we just didn't look the part that day).
The lady we ended up with at the new bank did a great job of assessing our finances and pre-qualified us for a mortgage. She put us in touch with a realtor they worked with and we ended up in a nice house that actually worked out better for us than the townhouses we were originally checking out.
I was living in Arlington Hts at the time and picked this one up at an auction. It was an unmarked 'community service' vehicle, but it had the full 'pursuit' package. It even had the little external spotlight on the driver's side.
I loved cruising around in that thing, watching people pass me and then slow down. My buddy suggested that I get a blue shirt and hang it in a dry-cleaning bag from the hook over the rear passenger-side window to give the impression of an off-duty unmarked patrol car. Only problem was with the long hair and beard, I didn't look like a cop (except maybe Serpico).
Great car until it needed tires. The shop didn't have the pursuit tires to match the ones on it. I would need to order them and they weren't cheap. I ended up getting some normal radials. They mounted them with the lettering facing in, but it just didn't look the same after that.
That car was great. I took good care of it, changing the oil religeously every 3,000 miles. I drove that sumbitch until the oil pump drive sheared off at 170K miles.
Yeah, in the end it wasn't even really about price (though I think I got a pretty decent deal).
The salesman I bought from answered my questions, let me take a test drive without more than photocopying my license, and treated me fairly when I sat down to talk price.
"Do you want to negotiate based on payments or price?"
I almost fell over. This guy didn't try to pull out any of the 'how much down, how much a month' tactics -- he asked me straight out how I wanted to buy the car. I told him that I had a price range, and had already secured a loan, but was willing to consider any financing deal he wanted to offer.
He showed me the sticker and invoice, which jibed with the research I had done. He said he could do 1k over the invoice, which was $500 less than I was going to haggle for. I told him I was going to come back with that much from my credit union in a couple days. He didn't pull any 'wait, what can I do to get you to drive home with it today' crap.
I came back Tuesday night with the check and closed the deal. I felt respected and that he had been honest and fair in selling me the car without any typical car salesman bullshit.
I could probably have gotten a similar price at the other dealership, but would have to have gone through all the BS.
Exactly. I'm sure that's the case. He barely acknowledged me when I went in the first time (I don't think he even bothered to ask my name). I'm certain he saw the cop-car beater, the young guy in jeans and t-shirt and didn't see me as a potential customer worth his time.
I showed up a couple nights later wearing a shirt and tie and driving a nice car and he pratically ran out of the dealership to greet me in the lot and introduce himself.
Right after I got out of school and got a job I was in the market for a new car and had narrowed down my price range and picked out 2-3 different models I was interested in. They were in the $30-35k range.
I went out on a Saturday in my jeans and t-shirt in the beater I had been driving through school (a ex-state-cop dodge diplomat). I got luke-warm to cool reception at the first couple dealerships (one wouldn't even let me test drive, wouldn't talk about price, only payments and asked me how much I expected to put down in addition to my worthless trade -- I didn't tell them that I already had financing).
I pretty much walked out of each of those without ever talking price. The last place I went that day, the guy was really decent, chatted me up about where I went to school (only one to notice the boilermakers sticker on the dodge) and generally did not seem to judge me based on my appearance. I talked price and financing terms with him but did not buy that day.
I went back a couple nights later, having gotten my check from the credit union for the amount he was talking, and made the deal. I drove home that night in my new car and stopped at one of the dealers that had been particularly crappy to me.
I got out, still wearing the work clothes (dress shirt, slacks and tie) from the day and the same sales jerk from before came walking out with a big smile asked if he could help me.
"You don't remember me, do you?"
"Um... Oh sure, you were here looking the other day. Would you like to take a test drive tonight?"
"No thanks, already did." and turned my back and walked back to my new car. Should have seen the face on this ass-clown as I got in and drove off.
Yeah, my wife says she remembers that 3p0 would probably have known enough to potentially be able to reveal clues that might lead the empire to Luke & Leia. Seems interesting now to realize that R2 was left intact and had knowledge of the backstory all through the original trilogy (but never again used his jets).
As far a Padme in the casket -- yeah, it does take some time for the abdomen to return to normal size after childbirth (my wife went through this twice and it took a couple months). Although, she was carrying more or less full-term twins but it sure didn't look like either before or after she was dead.
Since they wanted to hide the fact that Anakin's offspring had survived, I would have thought they would have a little closed casket in the procession to emphasize the point.
A) Star Wars "special edition" in which the scene in which Han Solo shoots the bounty hunter in the Cantina is altered so that Han does not shoot Greedo first.
B) ET re-release where government agent pursuing Elliot has a shotgun replaced with a walkie talkie.
Minimize jokes and sarcasm around people of diverse cultural backgrounds. Lightness in a relationship is one thing, a joke which is apt to be misunderstood is another. Most humor is specific to the culture that it comes from. Jokes told, for example, by the Japanese are apt to be nonsensical to an American even if he or she does speak the language. Although humor is a universal human trait, the specifics of what makes things funny vary from culture to culture. Because of this, jokes, and sarcasm in particular, might be taken literally or can offend someone who does not "get" the joke.
Honesty. Full disclosure. The only way to talk to someone you care about.
You can always leave out some of the gruesome details, but you are never really served by telling a total lie.
"How did my fater die?"
"He's not dead. You were told he was dead because you were too young to understand until now. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but you are old enough now to know the truth"
"WHAT!! Where is he??!!"
"In the service of the empire. He doesn't know you are alive."
"What kind of crap is this!? First my uncle tells me he was a navigator on a spice freigher and he's dead, now you're telling me he was a Jedi, but he's still alive?!"
"It's a very long story. I'll tell you everything you want to know, but right now is not the best time."
Well, yeah -- that's still a step above people that just start guessing URL's and type them into the address bar in the first place (and then wonder why they get a page full of links, ads or porno).
I know. Bristling with AAA -- whole lot of it doen't make much sense.
Of course, at the time the thing is being designed (by the sepratists), what enemy do they have in mind? The republic? At that time, they don't know about the clone army (let alone it's magically-appearing fleet), so I assume they intend to use it to threaten to blow up planets to force the republic to capitulate.
Lets say then after the fall of the republic and sepratists, they still get the Death Star built but can modify the design to suit the changing climate. Wouldn't they realize that resistance will come in the form of loosely knit insurgent cells likely to attempt asymmetric attacks?
It's not like there is another large fleet of enemy ships out there to worry about. They build the Death Star with the same basic purpose -- to use as a WMD threat against whole populations to keep them in fear so they won't consider rebeling agains the empire
"no star system will dare oppose the emperor now... once we demonstrate the power of this station... on your home planet of Alderaan"
of course the only recourse a planet might have when the Death Star shows up is to throw small ships at it. That's why you have a full compliment of TIE fighters on board -- to repel any kind of attack by small ships.
What I don't get is why they did such a shit job of fighting off the few X and Y-wing craft that came out. Seems like you would have fighters on alert doing CAP at all times and engage them out at your defensive perimeter long before they get close enough to start shooting up your base, even if you don't think they can do any real damage.
>Why not just walk down 10 feet, shove your lightsaber into his brainpan and wiggle it around a little?
because then there are no episodes IV-VII;-) -- Obi-Wan obviously thought he was left for dead... an agonizing and potentially prolonged death. If I had to suggest a better ending of that scene, it would be for Darth to end up back on the lava barge floating away where Obi-Wan couldn't finish him.
>The reason C3PO's memory was wiped is because he knew the identity of Luke & Leia, and where they were headed
He did? I honestly can't remember if he was present during any of that after seeing it twice this weekend. I guess that makes sense, if he fell into the wrong hands he could give them up, I suppose.
--My wife asked another good question last night: When they buried Padme, did she still appear pregnant? Seems more likely you would have a separate little casket for her (supposedly) dead infant(s).
That almost makes sense except for Yoda. He just died of being old (unless you count his entire life as a "selfless act")?... and no other Jedi has ever died of a selfless act? We never see any other "ghosts" floating around the Jedi temple.
At the end of ROTS, Yoda reveals that Qui-Gon has attained this power and that he will teach Obi-Wan to do this during his exile.
During the scene in ATotC where Anakin is slaughtering the sand people, we hear a Qui-GOn's voice saying "Anakin, NO!!!"
This all falls apart, IMO, with the stupid metachlorians explanation of the force. If the force were truly a mystical energy field surrounding all living things in the universe, I could buy a force-based life-after-death ability. Once your body is cremated, and the little force-critters with it, you cash out and there is not afterlife that can be explained by some force training.
*Disclaimer -- it is just a movie, but that doesn't mean I don't get to enjoy debating this stuff endlessly.;-)
This is a really good point. I have to go back and watch ANH again now with the benefit of ROTS. The scene in Ben's hutt where he fills Luke in on his version of events should be particularly interesting now.
Yeah, "I don't remember owning a 'droid" -- partially truthful. Jedi don't have any real posessions, and R2 was Anakin's 'droid anyway.
"Vader was seduced by the dark side. He betrayed and murdered your father." -- Hoo boy, that's taking some liberties with symantics!
yeah, really -- does anyone still open www.google.com and then commence to typing in search terms? Hell, I've been typing terms into the address and clicking 'search' in Mozilla for I don't know how long.
(and using the google bar in IE and Firefox's toolbar search, etc)
Though, I may start to use Google's new page as my homepage since gmail inbox, slashdot and bbc headlines all seem to be customizable options.
When Obi-Wan and Yoda die they vanish and can appear and speak to people after their death. Other Jedi don't seem to have this ability. Yoda says that Qui-Gon figured out how to do this and he is going to have to teach Obi-Wan how to do this.
I had a hard time buying that one. How is it then that when Vader dies at the end of ep VI, he is also able to do this (appear as Anakin)? Are Yoda and Obi-Wan able to lend him this ability after death?
"There. Plug in. He should be able to interpret the entire imperial network!"
On the Death Star, in a control room overlooking a hangar bay where you berth captured freighters -- no, you reply completely on physical security. The assumption is that untrusted clients will never physically be able to access the network port.
This is the understandable hubris of the empire. It is inconceivable that enemy forces will be able to board your small-moon-sized space station and start poking around looking for the location of defense controls or which prisoner is where.
This is the same kind of thinking that leads to fatal-flaw design like a physical defense that assumes large-scale assault where smaller ships can easily slip through. What? A thermal exhaust port leading directly to the main reactor? Oh, don't worry -- the concept that enemies would attack with small fighters is so far-fetched that we don't have to worry about it.
How about it. I grew up in Chicago watching the PSB station (WTTW) and "At the Movies" was their show (before it was "Siskel and Ebert" show).
IIRC, they were both film critics for the local papers (Trib & Sun-Times). These guys were very candid and didn't pull any punches, esp when reacting to the other's review: "Gene, I don't know what movie you went to see, but..."
You could always count on getting the straight shit from them, and I always found it very helpful to get such differing perspectives on the same flick. I found that the ones Siskel thumbed down I almost always ended up disliking for the same reason, tho.
Yeah, these were a couple old coots well past their prime.
Obi-Wan probably hadn't lit his lightsabre for anything more than a dismemberment in a long while.
Since Darth killed off all the Jedi a generation ago, I imagine he doesn't get into the gym to spar very often.
But yeah -- I had the same reaction watching the duel between Maul and Obi-Wan, that was the real deal. The poking and prodding between Vader and Obi-Wan happened what, some 30-40 years after that?
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Yeah, Citibank managed to piss me off long ago when I went in to talk about a mortgage.
My wife and I were renting and looking to buy our first place. We had gone to a couple of townhouse new development places, but weren't sure what we could afford. We were banking at Citibank at the time, so we called over to see if we could set up an appointment to talk to someone.
The guy wasn't from the branch, he drove in from the city to meet with us. We brought bank statements and tax returns and all of the other stuff they said to bring. He asked us where we were looking (as he looked down his nose at us in his $700 pinstripe). We told him where we had looked at townhouses but we weren't sure what we could afford.
He muttered something under his breath, gave us a look and said something to the effect that we were reaching too far and we should probably stick to used properties (before he even looked at any of the papers we had brought).
We said that this is why we were here, to find out what our price range was based on how much we could put down and borrow. He scribbled a number on the back of his card and told us to give them a call. It was HUD.
We pretty much took our banking somewhere else that day. Turns out that with the money both of us had saved and our dual incomes, we could have easily afforded any of those properties we had looked at (guess we just didn't look the part that day).
The lady we ended up with at the new bank did a great job of assessing our finances and pre-qualified us for a mortgage. She put us in touch with a realtor they worked with and we ended up in a nice house that actually worked out better for us than the townhouses we were originally checking out.
Heh, it was even a Mt. Prospect car.
I was living in Arlington Hts at the time and picked this one up at an auction. It was an unmarked 'community service' vehicle, but it had the full 'pursuit' package. It even had the little external spotlight on the driver's side.
I loved cruising around in that thing, watching people pass me and then slow down. My buddy suggested that I get a blue shirt and hang it in a dry-cleaning bag from the hook over the rear passenger-side window to give the impression of an off-duty unmarked patrol car. Only problem was with the long hair and beard, I didn't look like a cop (except maybe Serpico).
Great car until it needed tires. The shop didn't have the pursuit tires to match the ones on it. I would need to order them and they weren't cheap. I ended up getting some normal radials. They mounted them with the lettering facing in, but it just didn't look the same after that.
That car was great. I took good care of it, changing the oil religeously every 3,000 miles. I drove that sumbitch until the oil pump drive sheared off at 170K miles.
Yeah, in the end it wasn't even really about price (though I think I got a pretty decent deal).
The salesman I bought from answered my questions, let me take a test drive without more than photocopying my license, and treated me fairly when I sat down to talk price.
"Do you want to negotiate based on payments or price?"
I almost fell over. This guy didn't try to pull out any of the 'how much down, how much a month' tactics -- he asked me straight out how I wanted to buy the car. I told him that I had a price range, and had already secured a loan, but was willing to consider any financing deal he wanted to offer.
He showed me the sticker and invoice, which jibed with the research I had done. He said he could do 1k over the invoice, which was $500 less than I was going to haggle for. I told him I was going to come back with that much from my credit union in a couple days. He didn't pull any 'wait, what can I do to get you to drive home with it today' crap.
I came back Tuesday night with the check and closed the deal. I felt respected and that he had been honest and fair in selling me the car without any typical car salesman bullshit.
I could probably have gotten a similar price at the other dealership, but would have to have gone through all the BS.
Exactly. I'm sure that's the case. He barely acknowledged me when I went in the first time (I don't think he even bothered to ask my name). I'm certain he saw the cop-car beater, the young guy in jeans and t-shirt and didn't see me as a potential customer worth his time.
I showed up a couple nights later wearing a shirt and tie and driving a nice car and he pratically ran out of the dealership to greet me in the lot and introduce himself.
I had a somewhat similar experience.
Right after I got out of school and got a job I was in the market for a new car and had narrowed down my price range and picked out 2-3 different models I was interested in. They were in the $30-35k range.
I went out on a Saturday in my jeans and t-shirt in the beater I had been driving through school (a ex-state-cop dodge diplomat). I got luke-warm to cool reception at the first couple dealerships (one wouldn't even let me test drive, wouldn't talk about price, only payments and asked me how much I expected to put down in addition to my worthless trade -- I didn't tell them that I already had financing).
I pretty much walked out of each of those without ever talking price. The last place I went that day, the guy was really decent, chatted me up about where I went to school (only one to notice the boilermakers sticker on the dodge) and generally did not seem to judge me based on my appearance. I talked price and financing terms with him but did not buy that day.
I went back a couple nights later, having gotten my check from the credit union for the amount he was talking, and made the deal. I drove home that night in my new car and stopped at one of the dealers that had been particularly crappy to me.
I got out, still wearing the work clothes (dress shirt, slacks and tie) from the day and the same sales jerk from before came walking out with a big smile asked if he could help me.
"You don't remember me, do you?"
"Um... Oh sure, you were here looking the other day. Would you like to take a test drive tonight?"
"No thanks, already did." and turned my back and walked back to my new car. Should have seen the face on this ass-clown as I got in and drove off.
Yeah, my wife says she remembers that 3p0 would probably have known enough to potentially be able to reveal clues that might lead the empire to Luke & Leia. Seems interesting now to realize that R2 was left intact and had knowledge of the backstory all through the original trilogy (but never again used his jets).
As far a Padme in the casket -- yeah, it does take some time for the abdomen to return to normal size after childbirth (my wife went through this twice and it took a couple months). Although, she was carrying more or less full-term twins but it sure didn't look like either before or after she was dead.
Since they wanted to hide the fact that Anakin's offspring had survived, I would have thought they would have a little closed casket in the procession to emphasize the point.
A) Star Wars "special edition" in which the scene in which Han Solo shoots the bounty hunter in the Cantina is altered so that Han does not shoot Greedo first.
B) ET re-release where government agent pursuing Elliot has a shotgun replaced with a walkie talkie.
Yeah, but they got far too close before being engaged, is my point.
I thought it was Indian workers (or just any workers from "diverse cultural backgrounds")?
7 2
http://www.thiederman.com/articles_detail.php?id=
Minimize jokes and sarcasm around people of diverse cultural backgrounds.
Lightness in a relationship is one thing, a joke which is apt to be misunderstood is another. Most humor is specific to the culture that it comes from. Jokes told, for example, by the Japanese are apt to be nonsensical to an American even if he or she does speak the language. Although humor is a universal human trait, the specifics of what makes things funny vary from culture to culture. Because of this, jokes, and sarcasm in particular, might be taken literally or can offend someone who does not "get" the joke.
Honesty. Full disclosure. The only way to talk to someone you care about.
You can always leave out some of the gruesome details, but you are never really served by telling a total lie.
"How did my fater die?"
"He's not dead. You were told he was dead because you were too young to understand until now. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but you are old enough now to know the truth"
"WHAT!! Where is he??!!"
"In the service of the empire. He doesn't know you are alive."
"What kind of crap is this!? First my uncle tells me he was a navigator on a spice freigher and he's dead, now you're telling me he was a Jedi, but he's still alive?!"
"It's a very long story. I'll tell you everything you want to know, but right now is not the best time."
Well, yeah -- that's still a step above people that just start guessing URL's and type them into the address bar in the first place (and then wonder why they get a page full of links, ads or porno).
I know. Bristling with AAA -- whole lot of it doen't make much sense.
... once we demonstrate the power of this station ... on your home planet of Alderaan"
Of course, at the time the thing is being designed (by the sepratists), what enemy do they have in mind? The republic? At that time, they don't know about the clone army (let alone it's magically-appearing fleet), so I assume they intend to use it to threaten to blow up planets to force the republic to capitulate.
Lets say then after the fall of the republic and sepratists, they still get the Death Star built but can modify the design to suit the changing climate. Wouldn't they realize that resistance will come in the form of loosely knit insurgent cells likely to attempt asymmetric attacks?
It's not like there is another large fleet of enemy ships out there to worry about. They build the Death Star with the same basic purpose -- to use as a WMD threat against whole populations to keep them in fear so they won't consider rebeling agains the empire
"no star system will dare oppose the emperor now
of course the only recourse a planet might have when the Death Star shows up is to throw small ships at it. That's why you have a full compliment of TIE fighters on board -- to repel any kind of attack by small ships.
What I don't get is why they did such a shit job of fighting off the few X and Y-wing craft that came out. Seems like you would have fighters on alert doing CAP at all times and engage them out at your defensive perimeter long before they get close enough to start shooting up your base, even if you don't think they can do any real damage.
>Why not just walk down 10 feet, shove your lightsaber into his brainpan and wiggle it around a little?
;-) -- Obi-Wan obviously thought he was left for dead... an agonizing and potentially prolonged death. If I had to suggest a better ending of that scene, it would be for Darth to end up back on the lava barge floating away where Obi-Wan couldn't finish him.
because then there are no episodes IV-VII
>The reason C3PO's memory was wiped is because he knew the identity of Luke & Leia, and where they were headed
He did? I honestly can't remember if he was present during any of that after seeing it twice this weekend. I guess that makes sense, if he fell into the wrong hands he could give them up, I suppose.
--My wife asked another good question last night: When they buried Padme, did she still appear pregnant? Seems more likely you would have a separate little casket for her (supposedly) dead infant(s).
That almost makes sense except for Yoda. He just died of being old (unless you count his entire life as a "selfless act")? ... and no other Jedi has ever died of a selfless act? We never see any other "ghosts" floating around the Jedi temple.
;-)
At the end of ROTS, Yoda reveals that Qui-Gon has attained this power and that he will teach Obi-Wan to do this during his exile.
During the scene in ATotC where Anakin is slaughtering the sand people, we hear a Qui-GOn's voice saying "Anakin, NO!!!"
This all falls apart, IMO, with the stupid metachlorians explanation of the force. If the force were truly a mystical energy field surrounding all living things in the universe, I could buy a force-based life-after-death ability. Once your body is cremated, and the little force-critters with it, you cash out and there is not afterlife that can be explained by some force training.
*Disclaimer -- it is just a movie, but that doesn't mean I don't get to enjoy debating this stuff endlessly.
This is a really good point. I have to go back and watch ANH again now with the benefit of ROTS. The scene in Ben's hutt where he fills Luke in on his version of events should be particularly interesting now.
Yeah, "I don't remember owning a 'droid" -- partially truthful. Jedi don't have any real posessions, and R2 was Anakin's 'droid anyway.
"Vader was seduced by the dark side. He betrayed and murdered your father." -- Hoo boy, that's taking some liberties with symantics!
ahh, I _did_ forget about that!
yeah, really -- does anyone still open www.google.com and then commence to typing in search terms? Hell, I've been typing terms into the address and clicking 'search' in Mozilla for I don't know how long.
(and using the google bar in IE and Firefox's toolbar search, etc)
Though, I may start to use Google's new page as my homepage since gmail inbox, slashdot and bbc headlines all seem to be customizable options.
Wasn't there a fake advisory about an Alien/OS vulnerability floating around about that?
and one other thing:
When Obi-Wan and Yoda die they vanish and can appear and speak to people after their death. Other Jedi don't seem to have this ability. Yoda says that Qui-Gon figured out how to do this and he is going to have to teach Obi-Wan how to do this.
I had a hard time buying that one. How is it then that when Vader dies at the end of ep VI, he is also able to do this (appear as Anakin)? Are Yoda and Obi-Wan able to lend him this ability after death?
Yeah, I have a similar take.
;-)
*Some may consider my comments to contain spoilers. You have been warned.
It was better than I expected, not as good as I could have hoped for.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I took my son (12) yesterday and we both had a good time and had lots to talk about after.
I saw what I wanted to see:
Anakin turns to the dark side and becomes Vader.
The Jedi are all but wiped out and the Empire rises. Everyone in the senate applauds this.
OWK vs DV over lava -- Skywalker's physical transformation into Vader takes place.
Luke and Leia are born and separated. Leia ends up on Alderaan to be loved and raised in privilege. Luke ends up on Tatooine to be raised a farmer.
Sidious/Palpatine completes Vader's emotional transformation by telling him that he (Vader) killed Padme (debateable).
R2 and 3P0 end up where we find them at the beginning of the series. Continuity issues with 3P0 are "resolved" by a simple, if inexplicable, order.
There were some problems with the film, but nothing that was so distracting that it made me stop enjoying myself.
The dialog was weak, especially the Anakin-Padme scenes.
I thought the "turn to the dark side" scene was forced, and could have been more convincing.
General Greivous was an interesting character, but too little is revealed about him and his role in the story is not well established.
The scenes on the Wookie planet seem unnecessary/don't really advance the plot.
But best of all -- JarJar has not one line!
I've always been bugged by this as well.
"There. Plug in. He should be able to interpret the entire imperial network!"
On the Death Star, in a control room overlooking a hangar bay where you berth captured freighters -- no, you reply completely on physical security. The assumption is that untrusted clients will never physically be able to access the network port.
This is the understandable hubris of the empire. It is inconceivable that enemy forces will be able to board your small-moon-sized space station and start poking around looking for the location of defense controls or which prisoner is where.
This is the same kind of thinking that leads to fatal-flaw design like a physical defense that assumes large-scale assault where smaller ships can easily slip through. What? A thermal exhaust port leading directly to the main reactor? Oh, don't worry -- the concept that enemies would attack with small fighters is so far-fetched that we don't have to worry about it.
well, of course not
cmon, ever heard of the platt amendment, anyone, anyone
Buehler...
(or was that in Fast Times at Ridgemont?)
...plus I hear there is a nice secluded little getaway resort on the far side of the island!
How about it. I grew up in Chicago watching the PSB station (WTTW) and "At the Movies" was their show (before it was "Siskel and Ebert" show).
IIRC, they were both film critics for the local papers (Trib & Sun-Times). These guys were very candid and didn't pull any punches, esp when reacting to the other's review: "Gene, I don't know what movie you went to see, but..."
You could always count on getting the straight shit from them, and I always found it very helpful to get such differing perspectives on the same flick. I found that the ones Siskel thumbed down I almost always ended up disliking for the same reason, tho.
"Your powers are weak, old man"
Yeah, these were a couple old coots well past their prime.
Obi-Wan probably hadn't lit his lightsabre for anything more than a dismemberment in a long while.
Since Darth killed off all the Jedi a generation ago, I imagine he doesn't get into the gym to spar very often.
But yeah -- I had the same reaction watching the duel between Maul and Obi-Wan, that was the real deal. The poking and prodding between Vader and Obi-Wan happened what, some 30-40 years after that?