Critic
“Skip Politics” is nonsense.
Seth Meyers – a comic and late night talk show host who I adore – released a comedy special on Netflix this week called “Lobby Baby.” It was very good. Not great, but perhaps that’s because I had heard chunks of the special before as parts of monologues on his show, but I still enjoyed…
Read MoreDie, suits. Die.
I’m going to buy a new suit today,. It’s a little crazy, since I don’t wear suits, Or ties. Or anything formal at all. I’ve been know to throw a sports coat over a tee shirt if necessary, but I completely abandoned neckties about 15 years ago (because they are stupid) and stopped wearing suits…
Read MoreMany traditions are kind of stupid. Some are epically stupid.
Residents in the town of Nejapa in El Salvador have been commemorating a volcanic eruption in 1658 which destroyed the town by hurling fireballs at each other. Yes, that’s right. Residents take to the streets with gasoline-soaked rags and hurl them at one another. Check it out. If you like this video, go to YouTube.…
Read MoreYOLO is not new
A twenty-something explained on a podcast that her generation doesn’t believe in allowing things to pass them by. “You know,” she said. “YOLO. That’s where that word comes from.” Just for the record: YOLO is an acronym popularized by Drake in his hit song “The Motto,” but it’s certainly nothing new. “You only live once”…
Read MoreAm I a jerk because I think this way?
This sign is affixed to the side of a local school. It’s got a lot of problems. There is the obvious and tragic punctuation problem, of course. “OWNERS” is missing a possessive apostrophe. Presumably someone (or hopefully many people) working at the school have noticed the mistake and decided to accept the error rather than…
Read MoreI’m going to criticize you and then stop listening to you because I’m stupid.
Mike Pesca, host of Slate’s podcast The Gist, was responding to emails and tweets on Friday after listeners wrote to him in response to a segment he did on the likelihood of the pronoun “they” becoming a universally accepted, commonly-used singular, gender-neutral pronoun. Mike’s argument was simple: It’s unlikely that a word as commonly used…
Read MoreAs a Disney shareholder, here are a few improvements that the parks needs now.
As a Disney shareholder, I spent much of our recent vacation to the Magic Kingdom and its surrounding parks looking for ways to enhance the customer experience. I found a few. Many were related to specific rides. My philosophy on a Disney ride is simple: It needs to make my heart skip a beat, either…
Read MoreStand up, damn it.
This shouldn’t need to be said, but based upon recent experience, it apparently needs to be said: If you’re a healthy adult sitting on a bus or subway, and there a small child in your vicinity who does not have a seat, stand up and offer your seat to the kid. How any adult can…
Read MoreThe standing ovation has come to signify nothing.
Elysha and I attended a play last night. I won’t mention the name because it wasn’t good, and I don’t want to publicly denigrate the effort and art of the people involved. I’ll leave that to the theater critics. Instead, I’d like to denigrate the audience. At the end of this tragically bad, objectively bad…
Read MoreThe middle finger is just a finger
Good news! By unanimous decision, a federal appeals court in Michigan last week upheld an American’s unalienable right to extend her middle finger. A Michigan woman gave the middle finger to a police officer after receiving a ticket. The officer pulled her over again and upgraded the ticket to a worse offense. It turns out…
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