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I'm Stephen Metcalfe, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest.

What is Stuffed Inside of What is Stuffed Inside of What Edition?

It's Wednesday, November 14th, 2012.

On today's program, the new and so far madly beloved James Bond movie Skyfall,

and then we look at an intriguing list, the top 10 essays since 1950. And finally, yes, it's true, the veggie duckin, with our producer, Dan Pashman, who's also the host of the wonderful podcast, The Sporkful. Joining me today is Slate's deputy editor, Julia Turner. Hello, Julia. Hi, Steve. And finally back is Dana Stevens, our film critic, Slate's film critic. Hey, Dana.

Hey, yes, Acts of God kept me away an extra week, but I'm glad to be back.

Force majeure.

Perhaps.

All right. Anyway, so Skyfall is the 23rd installment in the James Bond franchise.

It made something close to $90 million this past weekend. It is getting a 91 rating

or something like that on Rotten Tomatoes. You didn't even need to look at Rotten Tomatoes. It's

ambient. The love people are feeling for this movie. It supposedly is going to revive the franchise

for another 50 years, which the movie itself winks at in its own storyline.

It stars, of course, Daniel Craig returning as James Bond for the third time, along with Judy Dench's M.

And Ray finds, as a bureaucrat with a heart of adventure, it turns out.

Before we get lost in our discussion, let's listen to a clip from the film.

O7. I'm your new quartermaster.

...