I don’t know what it is that keeps you up at night worrying, dear reader, but I think I’ve got something more important to bring to your attention. It’s not anything mundane like the economy, airline terrorism, or global climate change-these simply are not the biggest problems facing humanity, and we’ve all got to be on the same page if we’re going to survive. So pull yourself together for this.

In the last week, two news articles caught my eye. Taken separately, they might be merely interesting tidbits of zoological behavior research. But when taken together, they indicate an alarming pattern, and they paint a clear picture of impending doom for our species. [Read more →]

Tags: animals, science by Jason Sterlace
2 Comments »

I have been more than a little slack in my blogging in recent weeks. But, sometimes, the actual world will do that … make demands upon the time you would normally spend in the virtual world. Such was the case with me for the better part of two weeks this month. Sure, at times, it was tiring and annoying … but it was also educating and inspiring … and it reminded me that the best way to shut out the hectic hustle of the holiday season might not be shutting one’s self into a darkened and sound-proofed room but, instead, to go out into the world to serve, to accept added tasks and responsibilities.
[Read more →]

Tags: race & culture by Jeff McDonald
2 Comments »

November 2009 — It is Sunday here in Africa. The sun is pretty strong for it being a “Dark Continent” and all. Regardless, the weather is predictably hot but not near as bad as what I call “The Devil’s Breath” or what others might call Kuwait. Wait… let me back up…

…I flew up to Cleveland, Ohio to meet with the small group of guys that were picked for this unique mission. I wonder what I can say about the mission, as most of what I specifically do is classified. Please don’t mistake that for actually being cool. I just simply can’t talk about it. If I did tell you, you most likely wouldn’t think it was all that cool. Real secrets aren’t like in the movies. They are, in actuality, pretty boring. [Read more →]

Tags: terror & war, travel & foreign lands by Jeffrey Maryak
No Comments »

I just watched what is quite possibly the most brilliant and hysterically funny movie review I’ve ever seen. This masterpiece critique was created by Mike of Red Letter Media and consists of seven parts that can all be viewed on YouTube. I highly recommend everyone viewing at least the first two parts of his videos, but it will not be necessary to understand what I’m about to say. His analysis brought to the forefront something that I’ve pushed down deep into my psyche for over ten years and am only now ready to release: The Phantom Menace is not only the biggest disappointment in movie history, it is also very likely completely responsible for screwing up our world’s history. [Read more →]

Tags: movies, religion & philosophy by Marc Oromaner
No Comments »

I went to see James Cameron’s new film Avatar with my family yesterday. To call it a lot of fun seems almost unnecessary. It’d be better to offer a command than make a judgment: go check it out. I defy anyone who sees it on the big screen to deny the beauty of the locales, characters, spacecraft, and weaponry — all computer-generated, mind you — or the roller-coaster thrill of the battle scenes. It’s all directed and edited with precision and flair. As Dana Stevens wrote in her very apt Slate review, this is “a world so richly and specifically imagined that it’s thrilling just to dwell inside it.” And it culminates in a showdown that is immensely exciting and gratifying. [Read more →]

Tags: movies, politics & government by Calvin Pollak
4 Comments »

I’ve realized the other day that the reason I may be feeling so blasé about the whole “Nothing Less Than The Survival Of The World Is At Stake!!!” hysteria is that I’ve been desensitized by watching too many “Nothing Less Than The Survival Of The World Is At Stake!!!” movies. In every one, it all works out somehow. [Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, environment & nature by Olga Gardner Galvin
No Comments »

I wrote a blog last year that centered around growing up as a Jewish kid during Christmas and how to now handle my daughter during this time of year. You can read it here. I used to think it was pretty funny; I kept it light and to the point. But now I don’t think it’s that funny. I’ve been finding people’s assumption that saying “Merry Christmas” to everyone is totally normal and acceptable to be pretty fucking presumptuous and rude. [Read more →]

Tags: family & parenting, going parental by Jaclyn Roth
7 Comments »

As a crime reporter and writer of a regular column, I was compelled to look into a report of a burglary of an unemployed construction worker on Christmas Eve in South Philadelphia.

The burglar or burglars broke into the home early on the morning of the 24th. They stole the family’s TV and other household goods. They also took a dozen or so wrapped gifts under the Christmas tree that were intended for the family’s two children.

[Read more →]

Tags: on thrillers and crime by Paul Davis
No Comments »

Raising a kid can be expensive. There are diapers and formula when they are babies, and as they get older they get pickier about their toys and their clothes (not to mention you still need to feed them!). Plus, maybe there is a certain bike they want or there is a new Wii game that is out. And in this economy, buying any holiday gifts at all may be a difficult expense for some people. Needless to say, I was intrigued when the other day, a friend “invited” me to donate to her daughter Ashtyn’s bike fund through Facebook.  [Read more →]

Tags: family & parenting, technology by Amy Boshnack
1 Comment »

In 1999 I wrote a piece for the first installment of When Falls the Coliseum titled the All-Coliseum Team. It was a list of the 2oth Century’s most intriguing sports figures – an alternative to the standard Best of tallies published and broadcast by sports magazines and shows at the time. It seems just like yesterday I wrote about Jim Thorpe (versatility), Buster Douglas (improbability), and Cal Ripken (durability) as being All-Coliseum warriors who represented the unconventional excellence our magazine seems to promote. Now ten years have come and gone just like that, and we have a new All-Coliseum compilation. But this time it is more than just sports. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, ends & odd by Robert O'Hara
2 Comments »

December 3, 2009
I dream I am a student at a school.  I am not one of the cool kids, but everyone seems to accept me. My writing class is taught by an earnest young man who drives us to and fro in a van. One day, he asks to see my notebook. I hand it over and say “I’m sorry, but I didn’t realize you were going to ask people to show this to you.” He seems surprised and upset that anyone would object to that. There is no problem, though, because I have nothing to hide.

[Read more →]

Tags: Fred's dreams by Fred Siegel
No Comments »

Yeah, there are some spoilers, but it won’t affect your read — trust me. For those of you not keeping score at home this is the fifth installment of the Preacher series by Garth Ennis. I’m reviewing them one at a time, which means there are four previous reviews. There’s a plot summary below and I apologize for any repeat material. I will say this — overall Preacher is the best graphic novel I’ve read so far. It’s a long and far-reaching storyline that demands a great deal of time, but is compelling enough to be easily remembered.
[Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, just fantastic by Steve Mazzeo
No Comments »

If you have ever lost a job, or been close to someone who has, expect tears while watching Up in the Air. But you should also expect a smart, funny and insightful film.  Add George Clooney to that, and things are almost perfect. [Read more →]

Tags: Gail sees a movie, movies by Gail D. Rosen
No Comments »

I was asked by someone if it was now improper to say “Tiger Woods is playing 18 holes”.  Ha!  Funniest thing I heard last week.  AND it opens up a very interesting field of questions.

Has the response to Tiger’s indiscretions been appropriate?  He is being punished, hence, he must have done something wrong, correct?  To an objectivist libertarian, what is “right” and what is “wrong”?  How does one define “good” and “evil”, both moral concepts, when you believe in reason, logic, and that the basic requirement that dealing with the world as it is precludes emotional, moral, non-superstitious judgement?

[Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy by Mike McGowan
9 Comments »

Alone by Loren D. Estleman is a marvelous mystery about the movies.  Film archivist Valentino (no first name necessary with a last name like that) specializes in hunting for lost classics and convincing their owners to donate them to the UCLA film school.  He doesn’t mean to keep getting mixed up in murders, but with this cast of crazy characters, interesting things are bound to happen.

Valentino’s life is a bit of a mess at the moment. [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, Lisa Reads by Lisa Hura
No Comments »

Live long enough and you will start to grow old. As someone who has crossed that threshold I can say that, so far, it isn’t exactly turning out as expected. Not that I expected much, mind you, just what I took to be the usual. I figured I’d put on a bit of weight, get a little paunchy, and have some more aches to put up with. That’s all come to pass, but what I didn’t expect is how, at some point, it all seems to come together into some sort of critical mass, and it’s no longer something that’s happening, but something that has happened. It’s a bit like when you notice that all the leaves are off the trees and realize it’s not really autumn anymore. [Read more →]

Tags: getting older, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
No Comments »

I recall Christmas, 1970, when I was an 18-year-old sailor stationed aboard a swaying aircraft carrier off the coast of North Vietnam.

We young sailors, like our civilian counterparts back home, thought of ourselves as young, hip and cool guys. After all, we were teenagers during the swinging 1960’s, a time noted for drugs, sex and rock music. The 1970’s promised to be cooler still, we believed.

As we were eating our Christmas dinner the 1MC, the ship’s public address system, offered Bing Crosby singing his Christmas classic, White Christmas. A lot of young, hip and cool guys became misty-eyed.

[Read more →]

Tags: music, terror & war by Paul Davis
No Comments »

Greetings!  I’ll be covering online hyperbole for WFTC — what it looks like, how it works, how it might be refashioned into more artful statements or smoother arguments.  In a medium prone to unending tantrum, some focus on minimalism might counterbalance the tendency to write as if starved for attention.  And what better way to begin than with a wee exaggeration about a big hyperbole?  Today, Andrew Sullivan wrote a brief post entitled “What Paul Krugman Cannot Say.”

[Read more →]

Tags: language & grammar, politics & government by Neil Verma
No Comments »

I was having a conversation in the truck with my girlfriend yesterday about laundry detergent.  Not, of course, because this is a subject that interests me, particularly, but because we were going to the store to pick some up.  She told me about discussions she had with her stepmother and various friends about switching to certain “formulas,” i.e., a certain detergent and a certain fabric softener or whatever.  I was flabbergasted.  My girlfriend is something of a feminist and imagining her debating the merits of detergent and fabric softener was… incongruous, I guess. [Read more →]

Tags: his & hers, money by Dooley Womack
4 Comments »

It’s not often that a television commercial has the power to send me into a white-hot rage. You know the ones to which I refer: skinny, cooler-than-thou hipsters stuffing their faces and singing their songs of youth atop the roofs of a land that responsibility forgot. I tuned them out at first, assuming that the scruffily adorable trust-fund babies were shilling for vodka or the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.  Sure, they were annoying but they were harmless, right? Wrong. To my horror, I realized recently that these ads are for something much more soul sucking-ly lame than smart phones or American Apparel. These ads are trying to put a positive spin on something that is pure, unadulterated evil: Miracle Whip. And now I’m pissed. [Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, recipes & food by Meg Boyle
No Comments »