THE DA VINCI DRONE.

I hope I'm not the only one who finds all this Da Vinci Code controversy ridiculous. I mean, this is a mystery book. It's fiction, folks. I really don't have to point that out, do I? Well, yeah, apparently somebody needs to. This reminds me of Dan Quayle attacking Murphy Brown for causing the downfall of American values. Some comedian had to say, "Um, Dan ... she's not real. She's a fictional TV character." I mean, we have Christians tearing their hair and wringing their rosaries about "re-considering their faith". WHAT?!?!? That's like converting to Anglicanism after reading an Agatha Christie novel. I guess we never have been very good about getting things in perspective. What, we got tired of gasping over the "betrayal" of "Million Little Pieces" so now we have "The Da Vinci Code" movie to wail over? Isn't there a war going on? Aren't there better things to worry about than a second-rate (according to early reviews) thriller movie based on a poorly-written novel (which itself was lifted piecemeal from a 1982 non-fiction speculative book called "Holy Blood Holy Grail")? No one seemed to get that excited about that book (which has been in print for 25 years and is actually shelved in the non-fiction section; unlike Da Vinci Code). I am just so sick of listening to people agonize over insignificant pap when the real, important issues are blindly ignored. These are the same people who ran out and bought Nostradamus books after 9/11. This is the reason why more people vote for the new American Idol than for a new President. People are coming home in bodybags, folks. Why don't you get up in arms about the new X-Men movie coming out; that has as much basis in reality as The Da Vinci Code. Wait a minute! Isn't that Ian McKellen in that X-Men movie as well as The Da Vinci Code. Hey, maybe there IS a conspiracy after all!!! Now, sadly, I have actually read The Da Vinci Code. But, before you berate me ... I read it long before it became what it's now become. In fact, since I work in a book store, I actually read it before it was even published (in an advance copy of an uncorrected proof). I picked it up because, having read "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" two decades before, I thought, "Oh, isn't that cute. Somebody's using stuff from that book to write their little mystery. Maybe this'll be interesting. I'll read it. Hell, why not, it's free." Well, the writing was pretty bad and I had a hell of a slog through it but it was a nice enough little mystery which could be diverting and then immediately forgotten. The same goes for this movie that's coming out. But that's all it is, folks. It's just a movie. Get over yourselves, stop taking yourself and this dumb movie so seriously and worry about something that really matters for a change. Sheesh! I mean, really!!! Can we please just grow up?!?