Cleaning out some tips from the inbox and a few bits from the web before tomorrow night's discussion of Swords and Dark Magic .

By now I'm certain most folks have heard about the Spider-Man Broadway show with music by U2. I don't know about the rest of it, but the song and the Witchiepoo Green Goblin costume seen here are enough for me to swing clear of this neighborhood, friendly Spider-man or not. While we're discussing show tunes, a Klingon opera has opened in the Netherlands. Scroll down the page for an article on a "tractor beam " of sorts as well. At the moment, it promises to revolutionize the bead-moving industry.

Harking back, or perhaps dating back to the original Dribs and Drabs entry, here's the web famous Cleolinda's thoughts on the delays to George R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. Of course, football season(s) has nothing to do with it. GRRM's New York teams split this weekend (G-Men won, Gang Green not so much, which of course I like 'cuz my Dolphins swim atop the division at the moment). There's a couple of clips related to the HBO series around and a new blog on the making of the series,  http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/

A couple of deleted scenes surfaced, one in script form from Neil Gaiman's Dr. Who script . Continuing with the Doctor for a moment, Seven (Sylvester McCoy) may be in line to play Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit. Ha! Like that's gonna happen. The second deleted scene to be unveiled is the original introduction of Luke in Return of the Jedi. Leaving it out was best. The information's repetitive and it gives away a fun moment later.

A couple of Hobbit notes. Martin Freeman, currently playing Dr. Watson in the BBC's Sherlock may be the next Bilbo Baggins . And I'll be damned if I knew both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings had been adapted as a live-action Finnish mini-series  Guess it's only fair they got first crack at it since the Kalevala was such an influence on Tolkein's work and through him, so many others..

io9's recent Science Fiction 101 was an interesting series of articles. Particularly the one on ideas, an examination of the issues our culture will confront in the future or perhaps today: see Humanoid Rights from this month's The American Prospect magazine.

Lastly, actor Kevin McCarthy recently passed away at 96. A fine actor, he's by far best known for his role in the original The Invasion of the Body Sntachers. Dr. Bennell can sleep at last.