Readers send reporter to Mordor

You write the stories, you shovel them into the newspaper like coal into a furnace, you keep the engine stoked. Yesterday's stories are so much dissipated smoke.

Even so, people's buttons get pushed, as by my analysis of "The Lord of the Rings," which suggested the roles of Saruman and Sauron were combined. A flurry of responses questioned my increasingly febrile abilities -- "They're different characters, you idiot!"

But this notion was based on information from the film company. According to fans breathlessly awaiting the movie, not so. So, everybody got that? There will be a quiz later.

A "Saturday Night Live" sketch once featured an exasperated William Shatner, confronted with rabid Trekkies, blurting "For God's sake, get a life! It's just ... a TV show!"

Not that I'm saying there's any parallel.

Burlbo Burlingame

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