There's Always a Bigger (tuna)Fish Salad
Back in 1999, I'd never seen a single Star Wars movie, but it seemed the entire nation was freaking out over Episode I: The Phantom Menace coming out, so being the good conformist high school sophomore I was, I bought tickets to the opening night showing and went with all my friends (including and especially the dear soul who would six years later marry me) to see what all the fuss was about. It was a party! People showed up in costume, carrying brightly colored plastic swords (my dad bought me a red one for the event, I'm pretty sure that means he's cool with my Dark Side tendencies?). The high school marching band came into the theatre and performed the Title Crawl and Imperial March live (which was AWESOME). And there was just this ... I don't know, this aura of sheer jubilation suffusing every square inch of breath in the room, a generation of parents who'd raised their children on the orig-trig getting to see a Star Wars movie along with their...