I never thought I’d see the day when the Atlantic advocated racist generalizations. Actually, it’s the white guys who never seem to wash their hands…
Today, please adjust the settings in your mind, as follows: 4:00 PM: Yearly Self-Diagnostic. Run defrag program. Check for viruses. Finish organizing and prioritizing memories…
Patrice Moore, a 43 year old one-time mail clerk, was trapped under a pile of books and paper. Emergency workers filled 50 garbage bags with…
Way to go, Brian! And, another good victory. Bertrand Russell’s last essay: “There could be a happy world, where co-operation was more in evidence than…
Today, Wood S Lot reminded me that eighty-one years ago, one of the most underappreciated American novelists was born. I first came across Gaddis when…
No less an authority than University of Wisconsin professor Barbara Chatton has revealed that the film form is bad for Dr. Seuss. Chatton notes that…
Here’s my Mayfly 20 word capsule: Holed up, reborn, maturity, resolve, decisions, less damnations, hitting the ground running, whipping my lazy ass for next year’s…
Shortly after Xmas, I was astonished to get this email: Dear Mr. Champion: Randy’s at it again. Every time our family gets together for the…
Apparently, Ewan McGregor’s uncle (Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy) turned Ian McEwan’s infamous short story,”Solid Geometry,” into a…
Angry Asian Man points to this fascinating article on the booming plastic surgery in Asia: “The culturally loaded issue today is the number of Asians…
The Guardian has an excerpt of Carol Shield’s unfinished novel, Segue, which she was working on at the time of her death. Terry Gross interviews…
According to the Google News algorithm, six American lives are worth more than 20,000 Iranian lives.
The streets remain quiet, even after Xmas has come and gone. Those who remain hide behind locked doors. But some can be found on buses…
Karl Rove reads “Santa’s New Reindeer.” Beyond the expected lack of conviction, let me count the many ways that this is wrong.
Melissa Panarello’s One Hundred Strokes of the Hairbrush Before Going to Sleep, the latest “sexually frank memoir,” is different from the usual memoirs, but only…
Sarah points to this article on Philip K. Dick adaptations, which suggests that the best PKD movies are those made by directors dismissive of the…
Okay, folks, here’s what I know about the Eggers-Where the Wild Things Are connection. I contacted Playtone Productions, the production company that’s behind Where the…
Oddly enough, I had a “date” similar to this, though nowhere nearly as extreme: ME: Why is she walking home and why are you picking…
Jospeh T. Hallinan’s Going Up the River has countless revelations for anyone interested in how the prison-industrial complex has changed American life. But two, so…
For all those who have offered, “Happy holidays,” thank you for the well-wishes that don’t specifically reference Xmas. Happy holidays and good cheer back to…
Infinity expert A.W. Moore compares David Foster Wallace’s Everything and More against two other books specializing in the subject and concludes that DFW is wrong:…
4,000 men were questioned in Britain. The results: Married men are more likely to suffer mental health problems than those who live with their partners….
What Tom Ridge Said: “I don’t think we’ve got to worry about threat fatigue. We need to be on the alert and America needs to…
British practitioners are tired of writing doctor’s notes. Apparently, there’s a rampant epidemic of comparative note shopping. This collection of notes, however, suggests that the…
Reading on a Dream: I hope these kids take their show on the road. Opening night at the Library of Congress? Somewhat Related Link: If…
Maud’s posted a great little ditty on pallor. But I must assure Ms. Newton that she don’t have jack on my albino ass. For years,…
Last night’s planned baking extravaganza went awry. The situation was perhaps best described by today’s Chronicle in a remarkably redundant headline: Blackout puts S.F. in…
While trying to score some bakeware this afternoon, I ran smack dab into a huge display that read “Emeril.” Physically, I was unharmed. Emotionally, however,…
Like everyone, the Muthafu’in Holidays have kept me so perplexed that I’m dropping key letters from colorful adjectives and creating nonsense. Expect something coherent again…
Well, now that I’ve seen It (It being a high-profile film release that will make many people rich this week alone), I must confess that…