My friend’s mother sent me this clip from the Ellen Show. I never pay any attention to these kinds of forwards and actually came very close to deleting her email without even opening it up. But something made me look… and man was it worth it. The things people will spend money on. Truly hilarious.
Asparagus is arguably the best thing about spring. Its peak season only lasts from April to July, so I try to make the most of it.
At the market, choose asparagus stems that are not too thick, and whose flowered tips are tightly closed. When you get your asparagus home, store it in the back of your fridge, away from the light (bright light kills the folate). [Read more →]
Is it me, or is everyone on Dancing With the Stars getting more and more orange? Chuck Wicks, the country singer guy, is starting to look like an Oompa Loompa. For real. I couldn’t even look at him when the judges were reviewing his relatively mediocre performance last night. [Read more →]
If you’re tired of the current glut of wimpy, sparkly-shiny vampires, this book is the perfect antidote. Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan have given us vampires that are brutal, disgusting, ravenous monsters — and they are out to take over Manhattan. [Read more →]
Friday Night Lights has been renewed! Two more 13-episode runs for now, to be aired through the 2010-2011 season. And it will, once again, be aired on DirecTV before reaching NBC, something they did this year in order to help finance the whole thing. Fine by me! Anything to avoid another excruciating cancellation for a show completely undeserving…. Amen.
“Any life is made up of a single moment,” Jorge Luis Borges wrote, “the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.” I came upon this the other day, and it has stayed with me ever since, as much in my heart as on my mind, stirring up my memory and exciting my imagination. [Read more →]
I began playing World of Warcraft (WoW) again recently. It’s my second time around. I played during my carefree college days, averaging 5 hours a day, which would have disrupted my social life except all my friends played too. [Read more →]
Last Week’s Roundup
Samantha Who? (Thursday, ABC, 8:30PM) – Hooray! Sam and friends were back last week. You nearly always get a laugh (or many) from this comedy about Sam (Christina Applegate) who has amnesia and uses it to change her ways, as she learns she wasn’t such a nice girl in her previous life. [Read more →]
TIPs are inflation-protected securities provided to you by the American government although rumor has it you can purchase them in France, England, Canada, or even in variety packs. [Read more →]
From time to time I will write about the short novel or novella. Over the last 100 years, American authors have written some of the finest novellas in any language. For authors like William Styron and Carson McCullers, their novellas, The Long March and The Ballad of the Sad Café respectively, are the best things they wrote. [Read more →]
NFL player Ryan Moats, of the Houston Texans, was rushing to the hospital with his wife, whose mother was about to pass away. Right by the hospital, he ran through a red light when there was no crossing traffic, as they wanted to make it to the hospital before she died. He was then pulled over in the hospital parking lot by an over-eager police officer, who detained Moats despite the situation having been explained to him. He intended to detain Moats’ wife as well, but she ran into the hospital and did manage to be there for her mother’s final moments. Moats was too late. [Read more →]
10. Your “dust bunnies” have all been devoured by “dust ferrets”
9. Mickey Rourke thinks your place looks “nasty”
8. The Health Department has declared your living room eligible for FEMA funds
7. After a mudslide swept through your house, it actually looked better
6. The “lace curtains” seem to be catching an unusually large number of flies
5. Your place received The Good Housekeeping Seal of Disapproval
4. Your bathroom has hot and cold running rats
3. Your “bean bag chair” is made of accumulated lint
2. You wipe your feet on the mat before stepping outside
1. When you open the refrigerator door, the light makes all the food suddenly stop moving
It’s been 24 years since we went through this as a city. Twenty-four years years since Villanova made believers of us all. In 1985 Villanova was Howanova did these guys get to the Final Four? [Read more →]
It’s very easy to be an overprotective parent. I remember walking with a friend of the family when I was only a teenager and criticizing (in my head) the mother we were with as she let her 4-year-old run ahead of her at a busy amusement park. Her kid is now 18 and doing just fine. Was I wrong? I think about how crazy some parents get, baby-proofing like mad, knee pads and elbow pads to get on any moving object, and don’t get me started on those kid-leashes! [Read more →]
I was flipping through the radio dial yesterday and heard a commercial for a morning talk show that shocked me, disturbed me, and made me lose just a bit more faith in humanity — Danny Bonduce has a morning talk show on Philadelphia radio. Either this was a really bad dream or I drank way too much cough syrup. [Read more →]
Don’t tell my wife. I did a bad thing. Seriously, don’t tell her.
The other day, I spent $5.49 on a 12-pack of Diet Pepsi. You know, the fridge pack of cans. $5.49! I don’t even drink Diet Pepsi. My wife does. So really, it’s her fault. [Read more →]
Cinema This Week: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
A few weeks back, I was biking home over the Manhattan Bridge, when I noticed the bridge was closed to car traffic. There was a movie shoot occurring. It’s not uncommon to see film and television shoots around the city, but one that has the permission to shut down a major river crossing is somewhat rare, so I actually stopped. That’s when I noticed Denzel Washington performing a scene from the re-make of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, directed by Tony Scott and set to be released this year. [Read more →]
This is brilliant (and nicely dovetails into Kelly Conaboy’s column). It’s been going around the Web, with bloggers reposting it and claiming nobody knows who created it, but, in fact, the authors’ names are there, bottom right: Erika Grace Carlson and Heather Day. So let’s give credit where credit is due. Took me a lot of digging to find that out by reading the whole thing. Phew. I need to lie down now. Investigative journalism is hard work.
Actually, the editors of one blog did their job. Not surprisingly, it’s a Rutgers University blog. They have an interview with the authors.
This is the original full-page image. You may need to click on the image to enlarge it to readability. I hope you’re having a slow day at work.
It’s been praised by Time magazine, has been nominated for prestigious awards (no, not you Emmy), and is one of the best-written and acted dramas on television. And it’s in danger of being cancelled. Again.
Friday Night Lights (Friday, NBC, 9PM), a show about High School football team Dillon Panthers and its small-time Texas town, is getting the shaft. [Read more →]
Last night on American Idol, Smokey Robinson dropped by and taught the contestants a thing or two about Motown. Some of them got it, most didn’t. Here’s the short short version: [Read more →]
I give you fair warning here, I am probably about to upset you a little bit.
Restaurants are a dirty, disgusting, filthy, mess. Last year, one out of three Americans became ill after eating out, and the real number is much higher than that — many of you just didn’t connect that virus you got with the barista who coughed in your latte. [Read more →]
For her seventh installment of the Bastion Club series, Stephanie Laurens, in The Edge of Desire, tells the story of Christian Allardyce, the Marquess of Dearne, and his long-lost love Lady Letitia Randall. Like the previous six novels in the series, the hero, Christian, has been away for the past ten years, a spy for England in France during the Napoleonic Wars. He returns, expecting that his love, Letitia, has waited for him, only to discover she married years before. [Read more →]
In a world like ours, filled with beautiful distractions like Facebook, Whitney Port, Internet things, games, Twitter, people talking to you, appointments, and MTV, it’s hard to see how anyone can stay informed about the boring stuff that’s going on in politics and whatever else. Who wants to read a dumb news article or watch a dumb news show when they can read an awesome blog about Lindsay Lohan or watch an awesome show about exploding things? I’d venture to guess only about 10% of people would say they want to do the former, and I’d also venture to guess that all of those people would be lying. [Read more →]
Via Instapundit, this video is of Daniel Hannan giving British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a spanking what-for. It became the number one video in Britain on YouTube. Hannan discusses the viral nature of its popularity and notes that the mainstream press was bypassed entirely in making this a big news item. It’s a shame no one ever gets to talk to a U.S. President directly this way. Would be good for the country.
So, everything is sort of falling apart slowly, right? Still sort of trying to work the marriage thing out, trying to get my own business off the ground, still not sure if we can keep the house, blah blah blah. And yet, here I am, for the first time in years, fronting a full four piece band. Here I am, for the first time ever, singing in the type of band that has enough interest to have options. [Read more →]
You might have noticed that When Falls the Coliseum has been adding lots of new content and new writers in recent weeks. This is only the beginning. We are looking for contributors who can write engaging posts on any of the subjects we cover. So if you have something to say and can say it well, read on. [Read more →]
August 19, 2008
I dream I get mixed up with Eastern European rugby players, but the game they’re playing is not rugby. It involves whacking pieces of plastic with brooms. I find myself involved, not only with their sport, but with walking their mascots, one of which is mangled by a ferocious weasel owned by one of my foolish teammates. The old people who control the sport are furious. [Read more →]
I must confess that:
1. I know many magicians.
2. I have performed mentalism.
3. I saw the Amazing Kreskin perform a scaled-down version of his show in a seedy, off the Strip casino in Las Vegas.
4. I love John Malkovich.
But while my interest in the subject matter and lead actor may have enhanced my enjoyment of the film, you do not need to know anything about magic or Kreskin to appreciate the The Great Buck Howard. [Read more →]
Wow. Did anyone actually last through the full two-hour episode of Dancing With the Stars last night? I barely got through it. It was painful, excruciating actually. I would rather get a Novocaine-free root canal than watch that show again. But it’s my job. It’s what I do. And I do it for you. [Read more →]
“Life is like eating artichokes, you have got to go through so much to get so little.” –Thomas Dorgan, writer, cartoonist, New Yorker.
Artichokes are yummy. And good for you too. They have tons of vitamins and nutrients in them, including calcium, iron, and magnesium. [Read more →]
