Slipping into Solipsism
Rand Paul strapped on a pair of opaque ideological blinders when he posited that Eric Garner died because of taxes. Seriously, he must have matching black holes swirling two inches…
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Turn the Survey Inward
Philip K. Dick’s story “Survey Team” was so prescient for its time that it has completed the cycle and now seems passé. He sees a future where we are stuck…
Thoughts like Fish
Many awesome passages percolate up from the thick tome that is Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives (Picador Edition). “…[S]trange ideas would come to my head. Ideas that were like dead…
Attention to the Next Generation
A great line from Evelyn Waugh, said by a doctor no less, Dr. Puttock: “Some people even think that a disproportionate attention is given to the next generation.” (The End…
David Backes is…
The lopsided loss that unceremoniously dumped the USA Hockey Team from the 2014 Olympics was unfortunate (although being a fan of Kari Lehtonen, I confess to some ambivalence), but at…
Breaking Bad did NOT Oiler it
And it wasn’t just the perfect musical choice at the end (and throughout) of the episode. The highlight for me, beyond “Baby Blue,” was Walt’s parting admission to Skyler, “I…
Moths and Snails and Slugs
I recently critiqued the writing style in Swamplandia!; however, there was at least one passage that had a lasting impact on me: “Outside our porch had become a cauldron of…
Cheerios Appreciation Day…?
As we approach the first anniversary of Chick-fil-A appreciation day, when right-wingers boasted their bona fides by tweeting pics of fast-food orgies, another large corporation – General Mills – is…
Inundated with Similes
Karen Russell makes excessive use of similes throughout her book Swamplandia!, at least in the first half I completed. Some are clever or insightful, such as “We were watching the…
Don’t lose your PC badge in the Apocalypse
It was an interesting coincidence that The Simpsons aired their “survivalist” episode “Homer Goes to Prep School” the same night The Walking Dead was wrapping up its third season. I’m…