How to Travel with a Salmon  (1992) is a wonderful book, although many people may be surprised to hear it unless they know the author - Umberto Eco. Books subtitled ‘and Other Essays’ such as this one have a more challenging task of attracting readers than, say, a novel. This is because the word ‘essay’ sends shivers down spines and sends grown adults into Vietnam-style flashbacks about their school days. And that’s a shame, because frankly there’s a much wider and more exciting world hidden behind that word. Beyond the banality of the mandatory 1000-word essay on the causes of World War I, there is a universe of stirring ideas and vibrant personality. As Aldous Huxley once wrote in the preface to his own  Collected Essays  (1958), “The essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything.” The late Umberto Eco was one of those people who clearly took this notion to heart. Where some would leave nothing but dry dullness, he was clea...

You know those games you always heard were ground-breaking and era-defining but you never got round to playing? The ones you know, as a devout gamer, you must experience at some point in your life?  Have you piled up 50 or so of these games over the years and need an excuse to play through them?  ...No?  Well I do! Welcome to Green Ornstein’s Bucket List of Games! Where we go through the classics, the gems, and the hyped to which we all went “Wow, I should play that...if I have time and it goes on sale”.  Will these games ring true to their reputations or will all those recommendations have been for nothing? Either way, let’s have some fun. Let's brush off that laser-sight pistol those and hunt us some Spaniards. Although I’d not played Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 (2005) until this year, the game gives me a strong sense of nostalgia. I even remember, when I was young, seeing it advertised for the Nintendo GameCube in a magazine, ba...

Words by The Curmudgeon . Title image compliments of Green Ornstein . [WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Alan Moore's 1986 graphic novel, Watchmen . If you haven't read Watchmen,  I SERIOUSLY RECOMMEND IT. If you have, or you don't mind the odd spoiler, read on!] Special thanks to Green Ornstein for providing the title image! I can’t help but feel a trifle trepidatious over the recent absorption of Alan Moore’s Watchmen (1986) into the rest of the DC Universe. Of course, Moore’s original text was always a property of DC comics, seeing publication under their banner in 1986-87. But it was never a part of the universe which DC had established. This could be taken as implicit , given that none of the flagship franchise heroes of DC’s monopoly make so much as a cameo in Moore’s world. Those familiar with Watchmen will know that there are even major historical events which unfold in its timeline – a major law , for example, which mandates the conscr...