Essays From Mensans

Jigging For Mackerel Wendy and Tom have a most excellent adventure at the Isles of Shoals.

Ronald Allan Charles Essays
Ronald Allan Charles showed up at the Cape Cod Mini RG this year on his way in the Mensamobile to Canada. Somehow he found an internet connection in the wilderness and sent his thoughts on all sorts of subjects.

Letters From Genie
Genie writes to us from around the US. Sometimes she's in Black Rock City and other interesting places.
Letters from Genie in the South Pacific
Genie was in American Samoa where she worked in the local hospital before returning to US mainland .

The Passion of the Kong
An Appreciation By Barry Lamont

When I watch a movie, I generally know what I'm going to see. The film may be better than I had hoped - or worse than I had feared - but at least I know what kind of film it will be.

I sat down to watch the 2005 remake of King Kong, expecting to see a big-budget creature feature with dazzling visual effects. What I got instead was a film with unexpected emotional impact, a film which had completely rethought the classic story and come up with a very different idea about its meaning - in fact, a film which understood that the tale had meaning, and was not just an adventure story. I watched it several more times, and as I began to mention it to friends and colleagues, I felt the need to explain why it was not only better than most films of its genre, but vastly superior to the old 1933 version with which they were familiar. In my enthusiasm, I'm afraid I got a bit carried away, and when I finally wrote it all down, it came to 15 pages (single-spaced!); then I realized that the web could easily accommodate a discussion of this length. Tom Birchmire kindly agreed to put it up on Boston Mensa's website. I hope you enjoy it.  

The Passion of the Kong

Barry M. Lamont