‘Buffy’s’ Giles Gets His Own Movie

Good news for all you Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans out there.  A made-for-TV movie is headed to BBC about our favorite watcher — Rupert “The Ripper” Giles. 

Joss Whedon announced at Comic Com that he is closing  a deal with BBC to make “Ripper,” a 90-minute television movie about Giles in his pre-Buffy days.

It was always alluded to in the Buffy series that Giles had a sordid past.  We know he was quite a hellion in his younger years.  Known then as The Ripper, Giles dabbled in black magic and ran around with the less than desirable crowd than included the troublesome Ethan Rayne among others.

Although Joss didn’t reveal the plot of the BBC special, I bet we can expect to see Giles in his prime as the Ripper.  Maybe the plot will cover his transition from bad boy to watcher.  Who knows?  What’s important is that we are getting a movie from the Buffy-verse.

Joss confirmed that Anthony Stewart Head is on board to reprise his role as Giles.  I’m assuming since this special is suppose to be about Giles’ life before he became Buffy’s watcher that we won’t be seeing any members of the Scooby Gang.  But that doesn’t rule out an appearance of Robin Sachs as Rayne.

Also there’s no word yet on when this new movie will air and if it will make an appearance on BBC America.  Still, I can’t wait.  I’m very excited just to know that this prequel to Buffy in the works.

Should Some Degrees Cost More?

I remember when you could go to college and choose a major because that’s what interested you most.  Apparently, that’s not the case anymore — some majors cost you more.

According to a recent New York Times article, some universities are actually charging students more per credit hour for some majors than for others.  They cite the inability to raise tuition as the need for these “premium” feeds.

These premiums would actually make more sense to me if it were for the same majors across the board.  But different universities are applying the premium to different majors.  The universities are attributing the need for the premiums to higher professor salaries and more expensive equipment.  But wouldn’t those be the same issues for all the universities.  Instead, one college is charging a premium for an engineering degree and another is adding it to journalism majors.

In addition, the premiums aren’t correlated with salaries.  In other words, you aren’t paying a premium for a major because that’ll get a higher paying job.  Some of the majors being charged a premium, such as journalism, actually have some of the lowest salaries.

But my real concern is that these premiums will pigeonhole which students take which majors.  The choice of a major will no longer be based on the student’s interests and strengths.  Instead, students will be limited to selecting a major from those that they can afford.  As if college isn’t expensive enough with tuition, books, lab fees and supplies, now students have to worry about premiums.

I hope this trend will fizzle out before my kids get to college.  I’m already worried about how I’ll be paying for two tuitions at the same time.  I don’t want to limit my children’s opportunities because of some dumb premium.  Guess I’d better save a little extra just in case.