"Put. The candle. Back!"

I wish it were that easy to get him back. We've lost another great, in Gene Wilder. He was suffering from Alzheimer's, so I suppose it's a mercy....

"Young Frankenstein" remains on my list of the dozen or so funniest movies I've ever seen.

What's Shakin', Man?

Still plowing my way through Lyell. The last section was a discussion of the origin of the energy involved in earthquakes and volcanoes. Lyell presents, and then dismisses, the idea that the interior of the planet is molten, and the heat works its way up from below. (His objection is that temperature ought to equalize throughout the planet, given enough time. I'm not sure what the answer to that is. I have a textbook on physical geology around here somewhere, which I should maybe read after finishing with Lyell.) He seems a bit more receptive to chemical or electrical origins, especially given the then-new discoveries about the relation between magnetism and charges in motion.

The section I'm reading now is on the biosphere; Lyell here tentatively accepts Lamarckian evolution, although he doesn't believe in monogenesis - plants are clearly, he thinks, a separate creation from animals, for example. Evidently this edition predated his acquaintance with Darwin's work. Should be interesting to see what lines of inquiry he follows in this area.