Harry Patzer and the Stupid Product Marketing Department

I wondered into the Barnes and Noble in Nashua today, primarily to cross paths with somebody for document exchange. While I was there, I picked up a couple books - and looked at the newly released, multi-lingo Harry Potter Wizard's Chess set. I was appalled. Not shocked, I suppose; I knew to look for what I was looking for, but it was there!

http://a1204.g.akamai.net/7/1204/1401/04110210011/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/8450000/8458871.jpg

For those of you who do not play chess, let me tell you that the right hand square losest to either player is supposed to be white. They set the board up wrong in the advertisement and on the box over, itself. (In case you think HP Magic Chess is different, check this: http://yacht.zamok.net/DV/Potter/chessboard.jpg

So, it is just incompetence. *sigh*

Gift Ideas?

While I was over at www.bn.com, I looked at their summer sale - and spotted a couple of hard to resist bargains!

http://video.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?userid=bc61X7uB4g&wrk=8485716

50 bad Science Fiction movies for under $20. Not per movie - total price for the set of DVDs!!

A couple of snippets from reviews:
Teenagers from Outer Space
An instant classic!
I've been a fan of wretched fifties sci-fi films for years, and I'd somehow never seen this title. Despite the insanely low budget (the ray guns used in the film actually have the Buck Rogers logo visible on them!), the fact that most of the 'teenagers' look like they're in their thirties, and the stilted acting of the entire cast (especially leading lady Dawn Anderson!), this movie is very watchable and entertaining. It plays out as sort of a cross between REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and THE TERMINATOR, done with no talent or budget. Leading man David Love is a terrible actor; but he is pretty sexy in his alien jumpsuit.

The Amazing Transparent Man
This appallingly bad sci-fi film about an invisible bank-robber (Douglas Kennedy) was shot back-to-back with Beyond the Time Barrier on the grounds of the Texas State Fair in Dallas. The usual cackling and crime is included, most of which was done better in The Invisible Man. Marguerite Chapman is the film's one bright spot as Kennedy's lowlife girlfriend, but the rest of the characters are annoying and unsympathetic. Unpleasant, downbeat, and badly produced, it is hard to see the appeal of this one, even for genre completists.
*****
There are also:
• Action Classics: 50 Movie Pack
• Family Classics: 50 Movie Pack
• Comedy Classics: 50 Movie Pack

And some of the Family and Comedy ones are actually GOOD!