and to think: I lived through that year!

For me, a lot changed in 1985. I started my junior year in high school, got elected one of three class senators (an office I held during senior year), and stopped wearing glasses, what with soft contacts being very much in vogue. Of course, back then, contact lenses were much more susceptible to accumulating protein deposits; the deposits could become painful (and only appeared if you wore your lenses for days and weeks, as I used to). In fact, because of the protein deposits, I graduated from high school without wearing my contacts. It literally was all a blur. But aside from the protein problem, 1985 was an awesome year for me, and 1986 (the year "Star Trek IV" and "Aliens"* came out) was just as great.

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*For people who think we old farts have no appreciation for strong female characters, 1986 brought us a very strong Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), whom we all loved. You needed to be in the theater when Ripley said her line right before her confrontation with the alien queen: "Get away from her, you bitch!" The theater was in an uproar. I recall being awash in sound at that moment, and while I didn't join in the yelling (I've never been much of a joiner), I felt the crackling energy of the audience. It was a testament to James Cameron's filmmaking ability and to the power of the story (Cameron also co-wrote the script). We all could relate, in that moment, to Ripley's aggressively maternal stance. "Toxic fandom" supposedly coming from men who can't stand the idea of strong female characters is just a myth. We just want well-written characters, male or female.