I’ve been enjoying the “Firefly” screenings at Portland’s Mission Theater these last few Tuesdays. It turns out I’d only seen five episodes of the series, so most of it is brand-new to me.

I’m not generally a sci-fi sort of person, and I admit some of the people at these screenings are far geekier than I tend to associate with. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) But it’s been interesting to discover that “Firefly,” while surrounded by sci-fi trappings (outer space, the future, etc.), is not always strictly a “sci-fi” show. Many of the stories could just as easily be used in a straightforward action series like “The A-Team” or “MacGyver” or whatever.

For that matter, the show is set on the frontiers of space 500 years hence, and a lot of the frontier resembles the American Old West. Because of that, a lot of what goes on could happen in a Western series, too. Replace “going to visit this planet” with “going to visit this town,” and everything else is the same.

The point is, if you’re generally averse to science-fiction, you might like “Firefly” anyway. Did I mention it’s also very, very funny, often exciting, and full of lively, interesting characters? Well it is!

The free screenings at the Mission have been very well attended, so much so that people are lining up outside an hour early in order to get a seat. And some people have gone even further:

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This week’s “Snide Remarks” Classic column is #355, “Mister Wind,” in which a trip to the mall results in a stroll down memory lane. It was originally published on April 20, 2003. April 20 is also Hitler’s birthday, but that’s not really relevant here.

And to the person who posted this comment last week — “What I’m most interested in is the columns that will never be ‘Snide Remarks’ classics. Any chance you’ll let us know which those are?” — first of all, no one likes a smart-aleck, and second of all, yes! I’m preparing a feature to be posted very soon that will count down what I consider to be the 10 worst “Snide Remarks” columns ever. So that should be a great deal of fun. (We’ll balance it out with a list of the 10 best ones, too.)