h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"suppose that movie says Napoleon's army knocked the nose off the Sphinx."

When I go to see it, I will find out whether it makes that claim.

Very close... My Google proposed: Did napoleon's army shoot the nose off the sphinx?

I did get the idea that the quote at the top came from Lady Voldemorta (She who must not be named).

Just wondering what the Scots would have had to complain about with Outlander. The English are the bad guys and it couldn't have been the sex (unless they thought there should be more of it). Okay, a lot of them die, but isn't that what happened in real life?

Here is what The Scotsman has to say about Outlander:

'Using the language and music of a people may seem a celebration of it. But Outlander promotes a deeply distorted view of the known nature of the Gaidhealtachd. Presented with lots of raw sex, fantasy and slick Hollywood production values, in Scotland, and around the world, people believe the disinformation.'

The fact that you didn't see why they would be offended is probably a demonstration of what the author means. She's Deborah Dennison, a scholar of these people. She points out the problems in this article.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/national/outlander-promotes-a-deeply-distorted-view-of-gaelic-life-and-culture-and-the-damage-is-done-deborah-dennison-4004237

I read the article and broadly agree. Some of the concerns she states are briefly touched in the series, in my opinion (education of clansmen and strong women for example). Since magic / time travel is involved, I have always considered it as fiction, but I understand the risk of skewed historic 'facts' influencing general knowledge.

I just wonder... If every movie were to be made by advanced scholars on the subject matter, would there be any movies at all?

This reminds me of when I was in Romania for a summer course. Our professors were really, really excited to take us to see the new historical film, called 'Dacii'. It was about the big battle between the Romans and the Dacians. All the big historians had advised on this film, including the archeologist we knew - who had taken our group to visit Sarmizegetusa, the ruins of Decebal's capital. It was a big deal.

The film was historically accurate. However, it was made in conjunction with Cinecitta in Rome. It looked exactly like every gladiator movie I'd seen on Saturday television growing up - only in Romanian rather than Italian. (And yes, somewhere in there are extras in Roman armour with wristwatches.) The professors weren't cinema critics.

I think there's a difference between 'enjoying things as fiction' and what I call 'making up', which depends on how likely it is to cause grief to the real people whose history it is. The Scots Highlanders are tired of being exploited as sex-fantasy stereotypes for cheap romance novels. It adds insult to injury, considering all they've been through. The tourists are damaging things by souvenir hunting. They also hate all the people from Canada and the US showing up and claiming they're '28.55 percent Scots, I got one of those DNA kits.'

Want to see an example of something my people found really offensive? This is the musical adaptation of a (to me) horrible comic strip called 'L'il Abner', drawn by a miserable man from Connecticut. See if you can count the ways this clip is awful. (Start with the idea that Daisy Mae is 'over the hill' at 18.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlyOCf_SOUY

I rather liked "Progress is the root of all evil." "Love in a home" and "It's unnecessary" are nice and lyrical. I never had any use for "Jubilation T Cornpone," which the couples club at my church kept performing in the 1960s.

Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics.