When word came down that the movie version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in J.K. Rowling’s seven-book Harry Potter series, was going to be split into two parts, fans wondered: how? The book itself, conceived as one story, doesn’t really lend itself to any obvious “breaking” points — not if you want any kind of “conclusion” to the first movie.

More curious still was the news that the project was written and filmed as one long screenplay, and that the decision on where to split the film(s) would be made after-the-fact.

Well, it’s now after-the-fact.

Early “test” screenings, which producers use to gauge the audiences’ response to a film, have indicated that the producers have chosen a cut-off point — though, depending on the reaction to these screenings, that could still be changed prior to the movie’s November 19th release date.

In short, we don’t yet know where the story will be split. But here at TheTorchOnline.com, we have an opinion on where it definitely shouldn’t be split.

Here are the top ten worst possibilities:

10. After the opening title credit, but before any of the actors’ names are listed. This would make the first movie about ten seconds long.

9. Right after Harry Potter drops trou at the edge of the forest pool, but before he goes into the water to retrieve Godric Gryffindor’s Sword, leaving us with the image of Daniel Radcliffe’s bare ass for the next six months, until the second half of the movie is released.

8. In the middle of an establishing shot for the village of Godric’s Hollow.

7. At the start of a scene at the house of Bathilda Bagshot where Hermione stops to use the bathroom and ends up snooping in the medicine cabinet.

6. During “The Tale of the Three Brothers,” the tale told by Xenophilius Lovegood, right in the middle of a sentence.

5. An establishing close-up shot on the “King’s Cross Station” sign at the beginning of Harry’s first “dream” encounter with Dumbledore.

4. A pick-up shot of Bellatrix Lestrange casually scratching her ass in the middle of torturing Hermione.

3. Mid-pensieve, right before Harry learns that he has to die in order for Voldemort to die, at the moment when actor Daniel Radcliffe accidentally choked on some of the dry ice fumes.

2. The moment right after Voldemort tries to kill Harry, but before we learn he ends up killing himself. Never read the book? Here’s where you pay.

1. In the epilogue, as Harry, Ron, and Hermione are sending their kids off to Hogwarts, but before Harry can offer Albus any advice, and Ron stops to spit phlegm into a trash can.

• There’s a wild rumor going around that Universal and Disney are thinking about creating a theme park based around Lord of the Rings. But /film asks an important question – who would go? Theme parks are built around families and children, and Mordor is cool, but is it kid-friendly? [Editor's Note: Are they kidding?! Me and 500 million geeks would go -- repeatedly!]

• R.I.P.D. is looking to make the jump to the big screen, and the rumor is they want Ryan Reynolds as the lead character, Nick Cruz. He gets murdered, but gets a chance for justice in exchange for 100 years of service in a form of divine law enforcement. It’s unclear how Reynolds would find time with the two Green Lantern sequels – rumor is he’s being forced to drop out of Deadpool.

• Joe Dempsie, most famous for playing Chris in the first two seasons of Skins, has been cast in HBO’s Game of Thrones as the armorer’s apprentice Gendry.

• We’ve got a new troll-centric trailer available for the Lord of the Rings: War In the North game. The graphics look a little preliminary, but hey, it’s trolls – they aren’t supposed to be pretty!

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has confirmed the splitting point. I’m not going to spoil the story point, but I will say it’s chapter 24 – if you get spoiled at the link, that’s on you.

• Also on the Harry Potter front, Entertainment Weekly has Rupert Grint and Emma Watson on the cover, and promises secrets inside.

• Narnia.com continues to launch new content. Now you can land the Dawn Treader on Magician’s Island, explore, and play games. It sounds like there are tricks to making it work, so head on over for tips.

• Adam McKay says his gritty, hard-R adaptation of The Boys might shoot in 3D, if the story calls for it. But it won’t be a conversion.

• There’s little doubt the superhero genre has contributed mightily to geekdom. Now Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics brings the history of the characters and the men who created them to life. It’s narrated by Ryan Reynolds.

• Nobody from Harry Potter showed up to Comic-Con (and no one was supposed to), and people were upset. Now James and Oliver Phelps are going to bring their Weasley mischief to Dragon-Con.

• Fantasy fans who live in Seattle have lucked out: Harry Potter the Exhibition will finish its tour at the Pacific Science Center October 23 to January 30^th.

• Daniel Radcliffe says he kept three pairs of glasses from the Harry Potter films as souvenirs. Of course he also claims he’s chasing girls, but getting very few responses, so we also know he lies. For all we know, he kept the Hogwarts Express train engine.

• I’m not completely sure of the details of Outcast from the trailer – I know there’s a beast, and there appears to be some symbology-based magic, but the setting is the modern world. It’s got a loose release date of “winter 2010.”

• The latest set of rumors, being fed by the Wall Street Journal, are that Spyglass Entertainment is nearing a deal to run MGM, and the debt will be converted to stock for the creditors. This would get the studio back to making movies, including James Bond and The Hobbit.

• While my movie plans this weekend are for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, people who have dates are probably going to see Eat Pray Love with Julia Roberts. I pity them. It would be more interesting this way though.

That’s it folks, have a great weekend!

• One of my biggest heroes is writer extraordinaire Jane Espenson, who gave us some of the best Buffy episodes and whose blog I cannot live without. io9 has a great interview with her and other TV writers about what goes down in the writers’ room.

• I actually didn’t hate Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls as much as many other geeks out there. (I did hate the title, though.) So I’m willing to shell out more dough if they ever make another one, and according to Harrison Ford, they just may be, this one focusing on the Bermuda Triangle.

• I wouldn’t mind being Michael Fassbender. Studios are fighting over him to play either Magneto in X-Men: First Class or the as-yet-unnamed villain in the new Spider-man flick. Not a bad position to be in, eh?

• Anyone have any info on what this is, exactly? What we’re looking at here is a super-dark reimagining of Mortal Kombat that removes most of the more magical elements … but is it a trailer for a game? A new movie? A TV show? Either way, I’m not sure I like this direction for MK. (Thanks to Dan for the tip-off!)

• One of the best non-spandexy superhero-ish comic series of the 90s was Garth Ennis’ Preacher, which has been bandied about for cinematic adaptation for years. Seems like things are still just as up in the air as ever, but at least there’s some enthusiasm.

• It’s not exactly the rumored American remake, but it seems that Starz will be airing the fourth Torchwood series for American television (and co-financing as well, it seems).

• The always-good-for-a-laugh Cracked gives us a great list about why it would totally suck to live in these popular fictional universes.

• Don’t forget to vote for the Sexiest Woman of Fantasy, right here at TheTorchOnline.com! Our poll will be open until the end of the week. At the time of this writing, Kahlan and Cara of Legend of the Seeker are dead tied!

• And finally, since I would be shot for not posting this …

The website SnitchSeeker.com has published photos reportedly leaked from the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, showing Harry and Ginny in old-age make-up.

See the rest of the photos here.

• The first six pages of the True Blood comic are up for your perusal, and they haven’t toned things down much from the pay cable show. I’m not thrilled with the art – there’s something about how the women are drawn that’s distracting to me.

• In case you didn’t watch Vampire Diaries last night, they ran a promo for True Blood. Being broadcast TV, it’s pretty tame, but we have a few new sneak peeks.

• As long as I’m on the subject, this “Invitation To The Set” for True Blood seemed to hint at a little more violence and angst.

• Kurt Russell is coming back to the movies, this time as a private detective hired by a mysterious Delia, and he finds the case takes him in and out of a literal hell or underworld. It was originally titled Reaper, now they’re going with Undying.

• I don’t know how to describe The Last City, and normally would not even bother showing a promo reel of a film that doesn’t seem to have much more than a concept, but when you’ve got Robert Duvall narrating the promo reel, there’s a decent chance the film will amount to something, even it is a 1940s gangster-esque movie set on post-apocalyptic earth.

• I wouldn’t normally bring up Transformers 3 here either, but they’ve signed Alan Tudyk to the film, and I know we have a lot of Whedonverse folk around. Nobody knows much about the movie, so I can’t tell you whether Tudyk’s role is vocalizing a Transformer, or if he’s a human. There is speculation that there could be an Autobot transforming into a boat, though.

• Jimmy Kimmel is coming to primetime June 23 for a special with the holy trinity of Twilight, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner. Darn! I planned to do anything else that night.

• Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) should probably never be trusted – with the headmaster’s life, the evil plan, or the secrets to the ending of Deathly Hallows. In this case, he’s spilling about how they intend to age the cast for the final scene, and it’s not going to be all CGI. Prosthetics and body language coaches have been employed to make it as memorable as possible.

• As you all know, I don’t know much about Lost. The more I read about the run-up to the finale, the more justified I feel about my decision not to care. Hurley expresses my feelings perfectly.

• Books about weird old houses are in fashion, and the folks over at io9.com finally got around to reading The Sorcerer’s House. It’s billed as a lightweight, stand-alone urban fantasy novel, with werewolves, magic, haunted houses, and fairies.

• This article uses giant diagrams and pages of analysis to prove that Iron Man is a superhero for the 21^st century/Gen X/Gen Y. But it really comes down to the money quote. If Spider-Man was “with great power comes great responsibility,” Tony Stark means Iron Man is “with great power comes a sh*t-ton of fun.” I kind of agree – I enjoy Tony Stark as much as I enjoy the armored fight scenes.

• For reasons not apparent to me, ABC has renewed V for another season. Did the show bore anyone else? Also, since it’s sort of a genre show, NBC did pick up Chuck for a 13-episode season, no sandwich purchase required.

• In The Secret Mission of the Terminator, I don’t believe for a second that Skynet runs on Windows, because we could overthrow it during a reboot. I think this was all about that cursed music playing in the background. I would have used an RPG too, if I were him.

• IFC Films launched a new genre lable, IFC Midnight, that will specialize in horror, scifi, erotic arthouse, action and other styles. Initially launching primarily via video on demand, eventually media will be distributed as well, with a few films making theaters, like The Human Centipede.

• SyFy has acquired the rights to Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) about a pair of British detectives, where Hopkirk was killed in the line of duty but returns as a ghost visible only to Randall. They’re hoping for a one hour scripted drama series out of it.

• If you’re a Tolkien fan, particularly the Shire, go look at this ridiculously detailed diorama/dollhouse based on Bag End. I can’t even begin to do it justice, just trust me.

• And finally, because we all need a laugh heading into the weekend, take a look at Gritty Superhero Reboot from the folks at CollegeHumor.com

Have a great weekend!

2010 is shaping up to be an exciting year for fantasy fans. There are at least 15 films slated for release this year, and we’ve got a full preview!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Lightning Thief
Release date: Feb. 12
Based on the best-selling series by Rick Riordan, Lightning Thief tells the story of Percy Jackson, an American teenager afflicted with ADHD and dyslexia, who discovers on a school field trip that he is the son of Poseidon. (You know, the god of sea and earthquakes. The angriest of the Big Three.) Percy’s mission is to find Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt and prevent a civil war from breaking out among the gods — who, by the way, have moved Olympus from the mythical mountain to the mythical 600th floor of The Empire State Building. Percy also has to rescue his mother from the Underworld, and — presumably — wrestle with the tourists that swarm The Empire State building every Valentine’s Day.

The Wolfman
Release date: Feb. 12
The Wolfman has a long, proud history of scarring the crap out of anyone willing to leave home on the night when the wolfbane blooms. The film has been remade five times since its 1924 debut, and each time it falls firmly in the “horror” category. In this incarnation, Oscar winners Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins team up as Lawrence Talbot and Sir John Talbot, a haunted father and son team searching for their missing brother/son. Lawrence finds himself falling in love with his brother’s fiance, and then falling under the spell of the full moon. We’re holding out hope for a special guest appearance by Michael J. Fox, surfing by the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor on top of a van.

Alice in Wonderland
Release date: Mar. 5
In Tim Burton’s vividly re-imagined Alice in Wonderland, Alice falls down the rabbit hole at the age of 19. She doesn’t remember ever having been to Wonderland before, but you can bet your shrinking potion that Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen remembers her. Alice reunites with the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. (Played by Michael Sheen, Matt Lucas, Barbara Windsor, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry and Johnny Depp, respectively.) The teaser trailer promised stunning visuals and the second trailer actually hinted at an engaging plot. Disney will be offering the film in their patented Digital 3D, just in case you missed out on attending a rave when you were in college.

Season of the Witch
Release Date: Mar. 19
Nicholas Cage plays a battle-worn and weary Crusader who returns to Europe for supplies, only to find himself recruited by a dying Cardinal. His mission is to escort a young woman to a remote abbey where she will stand trial for being a witch. Only this peasant is not your run of the mill Salem sorcerer; no, this witch is responsible for The Black Plague. Can Cage decode the map on the back of the Magna Carta in time to discover the secret message on the inside of King Arthur’s chalice in time to unlock the sacred chisel with which he must carve the answers to the world’s toughest Sudoku? And can he do it in time to save the entire continent from death? Oh, these are the Dark Ages indeed!

Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
Release date: Mar. 25
As the star, screenwriter and producer of this sequel, Emma Thompson has made Nanny McPhee her pet project. The film’s official description reads “A group of children are evacuated from the city to a farm during wartime, where they encounter Nanny McPhee, the magic-wielding governess.” So, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe meets Mary Poppins. Unfortunately, Thompson was so preoccupied with the role, that she couldn’t find time to return as Professor Trelawney in the final installment of Harry Potter. It’s a hard pill to swallow considering that Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort himself) is headlining Thompson’s Big Bang.

Clash of the Titans
Release date: Mar. 26
Another remake of a beloved fantasy classic, Clash of the Titans follows Perseus (born of a god, raised by a man) as he risks his life for the right to marry Princess Andromeda. He must battle Medusa and the Kraken monster as he follows his quest to forbidden worlds to defeat Hades (Ralph Fiennes) before the King of the Underworld can unseat Zeus (Liam Neeson). We don’t mind the remakes, as long as Clash of the Titans doesn’t fall victim to Hollywood’s latest fantasy craze: refusing to properly conclude a story, just in case the studio decides to fund a sequel. The only respectable exception would be the appearance of Kinopio Toad: “We’re sorry Perseus, but your Princess is in another castle.”

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Release date: May 7
Poor Peter and Susan Pevensie, kicked out of Narnia for learning to shave and discovering makeup. But Edward and Lucy, played by Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley (arguably the more talented of the four child stars who relaunched The Chronicles of Narnia) are back, and they’re bringing Prince Caspian with them. Unfortunately, they’re also bringing Narnia’s own Cousin Oliver, Eustace Clarence Scrubb. (We’re counting on Reepicheep to drown him out. Or just drown him.) Dawn Treader will follow the plot of C.S. Lewis’ original story: The younger Pevensies join forces with Caspian as he sails to the edge of the world, battling dufflepuds, slave traders, dragons, merfolk, and plenty of Christian symbolism along the way.

Iron Man 2
Release date: May 7
Robert Downey Jr’s celebrated Tony Stark is back in the second part of the Iron Man trilogy. This time, the whole world knows that the industrialist inventor is the man in the armored suit. The military, the American government and the media are all pushing him to share his technology with the world, but Stark knows enough about humanity to realize it’s a terrible idea. Don Cheadle will be taking over for Terrance Howard as James “Rhodey” Rhodes. And Gwyneth Paltrow will return as Pepper Potts. Unfortunately Pepper drives Stark to the brink of alcoholism when she gets a new boyfriend. Apparently even bazillionaires need a reminder that you shouldn’t operate heavy machinery while under the influence.

Robin Hood
Release date: May 14
When Russell Crowe’s Robin Hood hits theaters, it will be the tenth time the story has been adapted for the big screen. This incarnation follows the more traditional version of the story: Robin of Loxley, Earl of Huntington, returns to London after fighting in the Crusades to find that his village has been plundered at the hands of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Matthew Macfadyen). So, Robin forms a group of rough and tumble Merry Men to steal back their money and their land, and win the heart of Maid Marian (Cate Blanchett). Of course, the real question is whether or not the soundtrack can hope to compete with Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do (I Do It For You)” from 1991’s Prince of Thieves. We’re guessing probably not.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Release date: May 28
A movie based on a video game? Why not; it worked for Angelina Jolie! In Prince of Persia, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Dastan, an Aladdin-like street-urchin in Medieval Persia. After showing unique valor in battle, the King adopts Dastan and sends him off to reclaim the Sands of Time (a gift from the gods that, um, controls the sands of time). Prince of Persia is the fourth Disney/Bruckheimer collaboration, and if the team’s other films (all three Pirates of the Caribbean) are any indication, it should enjoy plenty of mainstream success. And cross-promotion with Happy Meals. And Legos. And graphic novels. And, of course, another video game.

Jonah Hex
Release date: June 18
D.C. is auctioning off its lesser-known heroes right and left these days. Jonah Hex is a caustic, curmudgeonly, former Confederate States Army soldier whose face is scarred almost beyond recognition. He’s got all of the swagger of Clint Eastwood, without any of the charm. Josh Brolin stars as Hex in the movie adaptation, along with John Malkovich as Quentin Turnbull (the bad guy), and Megan Fox as a trigger-happy prostitute. Er, trigger-happy with the guns. Actual guns. Revolvers. Turnbull’s plan is a Civil War do-over, and Hex has been hired as the bounty hunter who must shut him down. The plot sounds almost as plausible as Malkovich with a southern accent. We totally buy Megan Fox’s role, though.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Release date: June 30
We haven’t really heard much about this movie. It’s apparently some kind of adaptation of a vampire romance novel. There may have been some movies before this one, but they must have flopped at the box office. From what we’ve heard, there’s a vampire with some wicked crazy hair, and a werewolf who refuses to wear a shirt, and a helpless girl who sits in her room listening to emo music and writing fan fiction about herself. We also heard something about sparkles and middle-aged women wearing t-shirts to support either the wicked hair or the abs. If any other information becomes available, we’ll let you know. This thing will probably go straight to DVD, though.

The Last Airbender
Release date: July 2
M. Night Shyamalan directing a Nickelodeon movie? Who’d have guessed it? (Us, actually. M. Night Shyamalan sees dollar signs.) The Last Airbender is a live-action adaptation of the super popular Nick cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The premise of the cartoon is that Earth, Fire, Water and Air can be controlled by “benders.”  Aang is the Avatar, and the last surviving member of Air Nomads. His purpose is to restore balance and overthrow the Fire Nation’s Admiral Zhao, but first he must learn to focus and bend all of the elements. Fortunately, the creators of the series left out the fifth element, Heart. That poor kid with the Heart ring on Captain Planet had the lamest superpower ever.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Release date: July 16
Nicholas Cage is back with more fantasy, this time in a live-action adaptation of the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” scene from Disney’s Fantasia. (You remember? Mickey and those crazy mops!) Cage plays Balthazar Blake, a master sorcerer who sets out to protect his city from an evil wizard. He recruits a young apprentice, Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel) to help him. After a crash-course in magic (and what could possibly go wrong when you put those two words together?), Stutler joins Blake’s quest in a Disney-esque battle of Good versus Evil. The film looks to be a lot less trippy than the actual “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” from Fantasia. So if you’re looking for a mind-bend, you’ll have to watch Burton’s Alice in Wonderland on DVD.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
Release date: Nov 17
If you thought Dumbledore’s death was tragic, wait until the first five minutes of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Harry’s beloved and loyal companion, Hedwig, gets (spoiler alert) blasted out of the sky. As promised, Harry, Ron and Hermione don’t return for their seventh year at Hogwarts. Instead they must decode Dumbledore’s mission for them from beyond the grave while trying to find and destroy the fragments of Voldemort’s soul that he’s hidden in horcruxes around the country. The path toward victory is strewn with casualties and heartbreak. Even the unshakable trio will find themselves turning against one another. Director David Yates is sticking with the films until the final expelliarmus.

Tron Legacy
Release date: Dec. 17
Tron Legacy is the nerdgasmic sequel to Disney’s 1982 film. Jeff Bridges return as Kevin Flynn, and and Bruce Boxleitner will reprise his roles as Alan Bradley and Tron. Garrett Hedlund will take over as Kevin’s now-adult son, Sam, who gets sucked into the same world his father disappeared into 25 years earlier. (We knew he was alive!) The father/son team join forces and traverse the treacherous cyber terrain, which has become much more sophisticated since we last saw it.

Obviously, a tie-in video game will be released in time for Christmas.

What 2010 fantasy film are you most looking forward to?

Was Harry Potter really the hero of the Harry Potter series?

On the surface, this sounds like a stupid question. Potter was the main character, and he did do heroic things. Most importantly, Voldemort was defeated because of Potter.

Or was he?

When I recently reread Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I concluded that Potter was, at best, a weak hero. Too much of Potter’s success with defeating Voldemort hinges on Albus Dumbledore.

Dumbledore was dead, of course. But in the final book in the series, it becomes clear that he set many plans in motion before he died. These plans set things up so that Potter could defeat Voldemort. They clearly went well past merely explaining a Horcrux or showing Harry memories about Voldemort in the Pensieve.

Some plans were small, like arranging for the safekeeping of Gryffindor’s sword (which was useful for destroying Horcruxes).

Some things were bigger, like his handling of Severus Snape. At the start of the book, it appeared that Dumbledore’s trust of Snape had been the biggest mistake of his life. By the end of the book, it’s clear he knew exactly what he was doing. As a result, Snape ended up being an unexpected asset, not liability.

Then, throughout the book, Potter regularly thinks of Dumbledore and what he’d wanted. This influences Potter’s decisions. On page 692 of the 2007 US hard cover edition, it even says: “Dumbledore’s betrayal was almost nothing. Of course there had been a bigger plan; Harry had simply been too foolish to see it; he realized that now.”

All in all, it seems clear to me that Dumbledore had everything planned. All Harry Potter really did was act as Dumbledore’s pawn in helping carry out part of the plan. Harry was critical, of course, since there were certain things that only he could do. (However, he needed to do these things because of events outside of his control. For example, Voldmort’s attempt to murder him when he was a small child.)

I have mixed feelings about my realization. In one way, it’s nice to see “brain” rather than “brawn” win. And Dumbledore does represent “brain” far more than any other character.

Yet, overall, I’m disappointed. All along, I’d been viewing Harry Potter as the hero. Even early on in the series, long before Voldemort made his return, I was betting on two things: Voldemort would return, and Harry would forever beat him.

This would be a classic David and Goliath type story — a classic theme of the ordinary person who is called upon to fight evil, and who wins, despite the odds.

This happened in the earliest books. Dumbledore then appeared to be little more than a source of wizard knowledge. He’d sometimes help, but usually in small ways. Early on, Harry Potter would have to fight mostly his own fight.

Some fights were impressive. For example, take Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The Chamber’s reopening caused a real problem. It even stumped the best wizards, up to and apparently including Dumbledore. It was Harry Potter who actually solved the problem. Not bad for a second year Hogwart’s student!

As the series went, my view that Harry would vanquish Voldemort was supported more and more. My view met its apex at the end of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, when Dumbledore died. It was a shock, but it made sense for the story line. He needed to go so Harry would be the hero; the young wizard who is forced into greatness.

Except, I was wrong.

While Dumbledore never did return from the dead, he did operate quite effectively from the grave. His plans, made before he died, guaranteed that. Indeed, he worked so effectively, even dead, that I think it feels almost heavy-handed at times. (If nothing else, it’s incredible how infrequently his plan didn’t work as planned!)

In the end, it leaves Dumbledore the real hero of the final book.  And I  think he’s also the real  hero of the series, since the overall series is about vanquishing Voldemort for good.

And I — a loyal reader since 1999 — am left disappointed.