becuz it is IMPOSSIBLE to make a good movie out of such a book, where the principals do not link up at all.
I would have made two films, with half of the middle book in each.
spoilers below.

Cool:

Helm's Deep
More Balrog is always good!
Gollum: best CGI character ever.
ENT ON FIRE!!!!

Not cool:

Discombobulated, slow, talky plot, unclear action in places (in the book, Merry and Pippin escape due to a conflict between Uruk-hai and the Orcs of Sauron; this is funny and interesting, and is not in the film, to the confusion of the fellow members of my movie-attendance party).

Reading the New York Times, I discover that the rebels have taken the city that Psychologist was trying to defend.

In other news, looks like we will get our rumps roasted in Baghdad. I can't see a single thing to convince me that the U.S. armed forces can do urban warfare yet.

Just another reason why we should *not* invade Iraq.

these musings under the influence of beer!

and some Questions, with apologies given to MisterQueue.

There is some girl draining cerebrospinal fluid out of a small child's head on The Health Network right now.

If you had a grenade with the pin pulled right now, what would you do with it?

When you troll Slashdot, what's your favorite method (inaccuracies, ad hominem, trick arguments, etc..)?

Now that your life is better, who from your old life would you like to give the grand tour of your current life, then kill bloodily?

Would you rather travel to the past or to the future? Why?

What's the oldest link you have saved on your hard drive? Please post below.

What's the name of your computer and why?

Dear Trolls,

It has occured to me that you think that Perdida is me. I have received replies for emails I did not write, and other nonsense.

Thankfully, Perdida (aka Reva Altamira and other nicks according to you) has contacted me to make the situation clear. Let me clear it further for the challenged of us out there:

Perdida's name is not Esther Sassaman. You have hardly any chance of finding her real identity (no, I will not tell you).

I am not Perdida of Adequacy or Slashdot or K5.

The phone numbers you have published are not mine, but they may be of some other Esther Sassaman, a microdot user in Cleveland. The same goes for the email addresses.

In short, you are dumb. Very very dumb. The next time you decide that you can come to the right conclusions based on an incomplete evidence, please remember the above.

Oh, and by the way. I have your IPs. You visited my site, after all, didn't you? Does 207.44.156.141 look familiar? I have more. Think about that if you decide to harass that lady in Cleveland via phone. I will be the first to consult her on how to file a formal complaint with the police (I happen to volunteer in the Civil Guard). The "Jewish country" and US have signed agreements just for such cases.

Best regards,

Esther Sassaman