Category: cultural analysis

The Two Kinds of Twitter D&D

Here is a handy scientific reference chart, to help you track which one you encounter in the wild:...

Regressing Harder: Post-Colonial American Lit

Those Americans who paid attention in high school carry around in their head an understanding of early American literature built upon a foundation of two works: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter (1850), and Edith Warton’s, Ethan Frome (1911*).  Both fine works, but both on the heavy side for high...

Around Masks, Don’t Relax

“Masks on in public,” is a common refrain in my household. Oh, the subtext.  Subtext so thick you could stir it with a spoon.  Let’s stick with the surface level interpretation of that phrase for today, shall we? The drawing of the lines around the Masked Eloi and the Maskless...

We Are Hama

Been thinking about this scene a lot lately. You know the one.  An old and senile king has been corrupted by his handler into thinking that the best thing to ever enter his throne room, a man in white, poses an existential threat to him.  They both thought the...

My Dog and My Gun

I mean, dogs can be very dangerous in the wrong hands.  So why do dog owners have more rights than gun owners?  I think we should bring the ownership laws of those two possessions into better alignment:...

Essentials of Fantasy

There aren’t any. Sure, there may be a pretty hefty list of really important books in the fantasy genre.  Books like Starship Troopers, Lord of the Rings, and Harrison Bergeron should be on everybody’s reading list, but the genre is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big...

Solid Recommend: Blow the Man Down

Good news, everyone! Not everything sucks, and I’ve found a rare gem in this modern cinematic wasteland.  Imagine if Fargo was set in a small New England fishing town, and it wasn’t completely retarded.  Don’t let the “Amazon Original” tag fool you – this one is worth a watch....

My State < Your State

The Mayor of Honolulu noticed a real problem.  The people had adapted to all of his intrusive and un-necessary restrictions on daily life in these days of Chinese SupaDupaAIDS.  To make matters worse, those numbers did what he said they would if everyone adapted to his intrusive and un-necessary...

Hello, Not Helping Department?

We’ve got a call from the USPS on line one: That is roughly 100 million more ballots than there are eligible voters in these United States of America.  If you’re delivering that many ballots in October and November, then we’ve got bigger issues than your delivering capactiy. This is...

Always an Alternative

No entertainment product is indispensable. There is always an alternative, even if it’s just reading bible stories around the living room.  The powerborkers – spelling intentional – forgot that the artificial little tribes they built around jerseys and colors mean a lot less to the public than the organic...