Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.

"Hey, lady! You call him Dr. Jones!"

Indy may be getting older, but I still wouldn't screw around with him. Thanks to Comic by Comic for the image.

And speaking of Dr. Jones: "The story is told in the Kebra Negast (Glory of the Kings), Ethiopia's chronicle of its royal line: the Queen of Sheba, one of its first rulers, traveled to Jerusalem to partake of King Solomon's wisdom; on her way home, she bore Solomon's son, Menelik. Later Menelik went to visit his father, and on his return journey was accompanied by the firstborn sons of some Israelite nobles—who, unbeknown to Menelik, stole the ark and carried it with them to Ethiopia. When Menelik learned of the theft, he reasoned that since the ark's frightful powers hadn't destroyed his retinue, it must be God's will that it remain with him."

True story? Smithsonian Magazine's Paul Raffaele tries to find out. It's true, as one commenter to the article put it, that Raffaele is "no Indiana Jones," but it's still a cool story full of mystic locales and secretive guardians. And this one definitely is true.

Never mind.

Yesterday, when I teased about the book questioning Jesse James' DNA test, the reason I didn't write about it then was that I was in a rush and didn't have time to read the whole press release I'd saved. Now that I have, I recognize the book's author as being one of a couple of folks claiming to be descendants of Jesse James. Everything you need to know about her and her case is in the link, but I've heard her story on one of those Jesse specials I mentioned yesterday and I'm skeptical. In spite of the fantasy we pose in Jesse James vs. Machine Gun Kelly, there's no real evidence that leads me to believe that Jesse survived his encounter with Bob Ford's gun.

Solomon Kane Poster

As much as I love Robert E. Howard's Conan stories (and I so do), I've never tracked down his Solomon Kane stories because deep in my heart I don't believe that anyone, not even Howard, could write stories cool enough to do justice to the idea of a wandering, Puritan monster-hunter.

I have to say though that the poster for the movie adaptation looks pretty damn cool. Sort of makes me want to read some Howard stories. (Thanks to Christopher Mills for the link).

Chuck picked up.

I'm pretty sure I watched the pilot episodes of every new show this season. Some shows never got a second viewing; others I dropped after checking out a few additional episodes. Without question, the best new show of the Fall has been NBC's Chuck. It's like they took Jim from The Office, turned him into a reluctant spy, and had the hottest, most butt-kickingest secret agent ever and Jayne from Firefly protect him. It's funny, it's action-packed, and it's got a ton of heart. It's also been picked up for a full season, which -- assuming the WGA strike is resolved and they can actually create new episodes -- is the best news I've heard all week.