The Pool of Vicious Sharks in Rupert Murdoch's Office Actually Does Make Sense: In the Harry Potter books, at the center of the Ministry of Magic stands a stone arch that envelops a shimmering barrier. The barrier is the veil between life and death -- if you pass through, you die. Needless to say, there's a fight scene in front of the arch and someone tumbles through. My question: Why would you have an archway that kills you if you go through? The arch in the Ministry of Magic does not appear to serve any function: People on the opposite side can't come back to life. It's just something characters fall through in fight scenes. In one of the James Bond movies, the supervillain has a pool of hungry sharks in his office, and inevitably there's a fight scene on the edge. In the third (that is, sixth) Star Wars movie, the emperor has a bottomless pit in his office leading to a fusion generator, and inevitably there's a fight scene at the edge. If you were a galactic emperor, would you want something in your office that would kill you if you stumbled in? My favorite scene of this nature is the opening sequence of "Goldfinger." Bond destroys a drug baron's headquarters by attaching a detonator to a giant vat of nitroglycerin, said vat helpfully labeled "NITRO GLYCERIN." Where is the giant vat? In the drug baron's bedroom. If you were a criminal mastermind, wouldn't you want a large supply of deadly explosives in your bedroom?
I also enjoy Bill Simmons' "the sports guy" and his take on life and sports.
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