From Around the Nation in today's Washington Times:

RHODE ISLAND
Boy investigated for violent essay

WEST WARWICK -- The Secret Service is investigating a seventh-grader who wrote a school essay that authorities say advocated violence against President Bush, talk show host Oprah Winfrey and others.

The boy's homework assignment for English class was to write what he would do on a perfect day. In addition to the president and Miss Winfrey, the boy wrote that violence should be directed at executives of Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart, police and school officials said.

"His perfect day would be to see the destruction of these people," Superintendent David Raiche said.

Authorities would not identify the boy or his teacher or release a copy of the essay.

The boy has been temporarily barred from school.

Seriously, what's suspending the kid supposed to do? He's obviously smarter than everyone at the school as it is! Admit him to Harvard Yale already. 😛

No, seriously. Their lips are almost as wide as their waists!

And they criticized Barbie for giving young girls an unrealistic body image?

I really like this show.

Less ambitious than the Tammy and the T-Rex project that came later, but this simple menu gets the job done. Nukie is one of the worst films ever made, by the way -- but in the good way. Not in the Flightplan way. Nukie's not offensive or insulting; it's just bloody awful.

I spent the better part of the last 48 hours mucking around with a multitude of programs in an attempt to figure out how to burn DVDs and encode various video and audio files.

I am frustrated and exhausted.

So now I shall sleep.

The final episode of "Teen Titans" aired on Monday. After five seasons, my favorite show is over.

And as if that fact weren't sad enough, why did the last episode have to be so damned depressing? It made my heart hurt, even though it contained the revelation that Terra is, in fact, alive.

The relationship between Terra and Beast Boy, though limited to the first two seasons, was one of my favorite things about the show. Terra was cool yet vulnerable; Beast Boy was goofy yet strong and loyal. They fit. And then Terra betrayed the team to Slade, the most vicious of villains, and gave her life to correct her mistake (or so it seemed). At the end, only Beast Boy believed in her, and she hugged him and told him that he was the best friend she'd ever had. I cried.

And now we learn, in the final episode, that Terra is alive. Joy! Joy! But wait. She wants nothing to do with the Titans. She wants nothing to do with Beast Boy. She doesn't even remember him, or so she claims. Slade, apparently still watching over the Titans and his former apprentice, returns to suggest that she doesn't remember because she doesn't want to. Terra returns and doesn't want to remember her best friend. In the final episode. What?

I enjoyed "Teen Titans" because it was a fun, oftentimes wacky show. The character development and interaction was both amusing and touching. The show had its misses -- particularly in this final season -- but its heart was always undeniable. The Titans were a team: they laughed together, cried together, fought together, won together, and held each other up when they fell. Beast Boy spent the majority of the final episode away from the team, trying to get Terra to remember things that she had apparently intentionally blocked from her mind. Things like him. Why was this the last episode? Why was the final shot of Beast Boy, alone in a hallway in the school that Terra now attends, resignedly returning to help the team -- and only because he couldn't get Terra to come with him? What is the meaning of this? Does Terra represent the network executives, who supported the show, then turned against it, then supported it again -- and then, after being quiet for a while, returned only to reject it openly? Are we Terra, who have apparently outgrown and abandoned the Titans -- or at least lack the will to join them in more of their zany adventures? I don't know, but this was a deeply depressing final episode.

Sayonara, Teen Titans. You will be missed.