[X] "I had to. CowboyNeal ate all the toilet paper, and I didn't have anything smaller than a $20".

But it's weird, the way they've 'upgraded'/'fixed' it!

The desire to say "why me?" is a human constant ...

Actually, when everything has gone to hell in a handbasket and I'm already there and looking back on it all, I have to say, I have to say, that it was either absolutely and totally my own fault - iow, more or less inevitable given my own actions - or, if we posit a creator/intervener, that it made perfect sense to let me experience the whatever, put that burden on my shoulders.

They say God doesn't burden you with more than you can bear; you dead yet? I'm not.

I think you're right in saying that people go over the top in demanding absolute (absolutistic) adherence in adaptations of their favourite oeuvre. Well, if doesn't exactly mimic absolutely everything in the book(s), then it isn't a proper adaptation at all and I shaaaaaaaan't have it!. There seems to be genuine and general difficulty in distinguishing drama from literature: what makes literary sense (or, at least, what doesn't detract from literary qualities of a literary work) is quite different from dramatic qualities. LOTR is actually a really good example (incidentally, I don't particularly like the book(s), but have grown quite fond of the long versions of the filmatizations): I remember some idiot on Australian television complaining that Tom Bombadil wasn't in the films at all - but however interesting a worthwhile from a literary POV, the Bombadil bit doesn't do anything, anything at all, for the dramatic LOTR story.

Considering that I think everybody who voted for Aretha Franklin (et al.) were talking to the gremlins in their heads, it makes perfect sense to have an imaginary singer as #1. It would make the list more honest!

Let's be honest: few people own Aretha Franklin albums, even fewer listen to them; John Lennon is not a singer, he's a tragedy; the best thing about James Brown is the Was Not Was song I Feel Better Than James Brown; and Tina Turner ahead of Freddie Mercury ??? Yeah, that'll be about right. Not.

No, you're right: most Rolling Stone lists seem to make more sense upside down ... only, I'm not sure this one make all that much sense even then: #95 Patti LaBelle. Has anybody who voted for Patti actually heard her sing? I mean c'mon on now, people: the voice in LaBelle was Nona Hendryx!

The only Stones album I like is Tattoo You. And, of course, you're right: neither Mick Jagger nor Dylan belong on the 'best singer' list. It's absurd.

Oh, please: Aretha Franklin is one of those 'tick singers': she's just a box all aspiring R&B songstresses have to tick when asked about role models, favourite singers, inspirations, whatever.

Yes, we all know and love Think and R-E-S-P-E-C-T and possibly that poppy thing she did with George Michael and possibly, possibly her cover of Jumping Jack Flash, but nobody can listen to that nasal screeching for an entire album. It's simply impossible.

Insofar as anybody's actually owning any album of hers at all, they're the ones collecting dust in the corner, together with Leonard Cohen's and Neil Young's oeuvres. Bought in order to tick a box; always passed over for something more easy on the ear.

Sad to see someone whose taste in music is otherwise so decent being so ... utterly and plainly wrong. Really, really wrong. Sad and wrong.

Well, well, well, at least someone still has dreams and aspirations. It's good to see in these difficult times.