“An hour saved is an hour earned.”

My best guess is the Tales to Tremble By scary story collections:

Each story had some creepy art by Gordon Laite:

A lot of this fits with your descriptions from the best of my recollection.

Edit: Removed paragraph about potential third scary story series containing spider egg story, just realized that one was from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 3, so Tales to Tremble By and its sequel is my only guess here.

The Batterfly Effect

Just to clarify, what temperature do you set your freezer at and does it stay that temp of do you notice it fluctuating more than a few degrees throughout the day?

Gubernatorial

I’m not sure if it’s underrated but Mario Tennis Advance for the Game Boy Advance is a gigantic standout for the series.

It’s an action RPG from the same company that made the Golden Sun games for the GBA. The usual fun power hits and tennis mechanics with some of the tightest controls in the series with quality world building and the kind of RPG satisfaction you’d get from a company like Camelot.

I rotate through these for everything from physical training to career goals to reminding myself to do my best to not be a douchebag:

“If I give up now, I’m going to regret it.” -Monkey D. Luffy

“Where’s the future? Right here. Whose life is this? Mine. What are you gonna do with it? Live it by any means necessary.” -Jefferson Pierce

“If you wanna stop this, then stand up! Because I’ve got one thing to say to you! Never forget who you want to become!” -Shoto Todoroki

“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” -Marcus Aurelius

“Giving help that’s not asked for is what makes a true hero.” -Izuku Midoriya

“I’ve set myself to become the King of the Pirates… and if I die trying… then at least I tried.” -Monkey D. Luffy

“If every porkchop were perfect, we wouldn’t have hot dogs.” -Steven Universe

Jian-Yang!

That actually did come out! Mel Brooks produced it, it’s on Hulu.

Extra points for The Simpsons reference in your title, 11/10 post.

Definitely. There was this lucid dream where I was excited that I actually realized I was dreaming and could experience it conciously. There were certain things I couldn’t do and eventually people in the dream revealed I couldn’t control those things because I wasn’t actually dreaming, but was dead.

It was a good twist. Freaked me out and I couldn’t wake up so I figured it was true. Of course the double twist was that I wasn’t actually dead and was just in fact dreaming, but it was a good ride. It’s got kind of a lynchian vibe that I’d be down to just watch it as a movie.

How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?

Fool really does define itself out of a lot of his other works since it is based in Shakespeare’s world. If you like that kind of pre-existing, historical type of setting, I might recommend Sacre Bleu. Moore explores Vincent Van Gogh’s superstitions about using the color blue in his paintings and how it connects to his maddening and unusual death. Even without knowing a ton about art or famous artists, he really did a good job bringing in every major player from Monet to Degas as characters in the book in a way that explained who they are and what role they play, all with an inventive and entertaining supernatural explanation as to why so many 19th century artists were a bit bonkers.

That said, I just found out Moore created a Fool trilogy with Pocket going on to be the main character in the sequels The Serpent of Venice and Shakespeare for Squirrels (I also just found out he did a sequel to A Dirty Job which I’d always longed for)! Needless to say, now that I know they exist, they’re all going on my reading list!

I loved Fool even if it is lower on my list of Christopher Moore favorites! The first time I read a Moore book was when I was still in the Army and deployed with a copy of Fluke and I loved it so much I wrote to him to praise it. He ended up sending me a bunch of his books, all signed, with a note that said “thanks for reading, I hope you don’t die” in his humorous tone.

Fluke, the Bloodsucking Fiends trilogy, A Diety Job, Lamb, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, Lust Lizard, and Sacre Bleu are my top favorites for just being so darn entertaining, humorous, clever and an absolute joy to read.

To anyone wondering about Fool, it is written in a similar vein to Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead (which retells Shakespeare’s Hamlet from the point of view of the two titular minor characters). Fool re-tells the story of King Lear but told from the perspective of the king’s jester, the professional fool. It is hilarious and does a great job at showing the significance of the jester and all the things he’s doing when not shown on stage during King Lear.

I read it with just the faintest recollection of the events of King Lear and still enjoyed it, but for anyone unfamiliar it might be worth watching something like Anthony Hopkins’ King Lear beforehand to see how cleverly Moore put his version together, but it is not a requirement by any means!

You’ve got red on you.

Welp, I’m sold, this is totally going on my list! I’ve kind of been itching for something like Dragonlance and this sounds like what I’ve been looking for.

Bruce Coville is such an incredibly fun read for young Sci-Fi fans. I flipped through some of the Aliens Ate My Homework series recently now that I’m older and it’s still a great time. Coville really did well at writing in a way that makes it understandable and enjoyable for kids without dumbing down ideas that would help spark the imagination and garner understanding for more advanced works.

I should flip back through the My Teacher is an Alien series too at some point. I’m pretty sure I at least still have a copy of My Teacher Flunked the Planet here somewhere.

I can’t believe I never heard about this before. This is fascinating, thank you for sharing. I’m sure some movie producer is trying to get the rights to Ken Ono’s life story if someone hasn’t already!

Once one is discovered, there will be a NASA mission to bake a gigantic loaf of bread and launch it at the butter star.

Does that mean you pulled off being mean to Kim? Of those that have tried, most can’t go through with it, and I myself lack the conviction to ever even attempt it.