It was an innocent errand, a friend and I were wandering the grocery store looking for two specific items.  I had spent a good 20 minutes doing laps through every aisle, carrying a cantaloupe in my hands, looking for this item. 
I know that grocery stores are designed such that customers spend as much time possible [...]

If you have never heard of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and you love a good long immersion in a book, stop reading this blog right now and go pick up the book.  Don’t be deterred by the Oprah sticker on the front.  Those come right off, and sometimes even Oprah has good taste.
Anne Fadiman [...]

Foreign policy would make more sense to such a large group of people if we could reliably often discuss it using rap feuds as examples. Tongue could be firmly planted in cheek here, but Marc Lynch makes a couple of really good points.
About foreign policy. And also Jay-Z. To wit:

But the limits on [...]

Tab dump!
So I’ve got three articles sitting in my Firefox window, and I need to get rid of them if I’m going to scratch this itch at the back of my brain. Over the weekend last week three separate articles on three very different news sources identify just how crazy the Republican Party is. [...]

And, in brief, here is why:
And yet — and here’s the part where I really think ROTF approaches “art movie” status — the movie’s id overload reaches such crazy levels that the fabric of reality itself starts to break down. Michael Bay has boasted about how every single shot in the movie has so much [...]

Internet!
Here are my most recent book reviews (in most to least recent):
1) “Horse Soldiers” by Doug Stanton sucked.
2) “Hey! Nietzsche! Leave them kids alone!” by Craig Schuftan was amazing.
3) “The Chris Farley Show” by Tanner Colby and Tom Farley, Jr. surprisingly stuck with me (and still does).
More stuff right here.

When you’re writing a book about the military, this critic thinks, you’ve got to be a great writer. You have got to know what you’re doing, and you have got to understand the shark-infested waters you’re swimming in.
A bad book about the military will do one or several of the following things: 1) reduce [...]

So, I got unemployed a long time ago (back in March, he says, dusting off the cobwebs from Overthinking It), and was sitting in my apartment applying for jobs with my girlfriend this morning, when I came across this quotation, from Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“Doubt not, O poet, but persist. Say, ‘It is in me, and [...]

I realized I was addicted to texting when I grabbed lunch at Panera.  I traipsed over to the soda dispenser.  I don’t usually drink soda, so I couldn’t decide between Pepsi and Dr. Pepper.  Naturally, I sought the opinion of my best friend, Nichole.
How did I, a 26-year-old graduate student, who has lived on my [...]

Okay, so I went to see that little movie based on some four-color funny book that just hit theaters, “Watchmen,” and maybe it was the inundation that comes along with every big-budget movie like this, but when I finally got to see how Zach Snyder, David Hayter and Alex Tse rendered their homage to Alan [...]

The deconstructionist middle finger of Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” showed an industry built around taking masked heroes seriously just how silly it was.
It was the punk kid in the back of the classroom who knew everything already, and was angry with and bored at the kid in the front of the classroom who didn’t know the [...]

I thought it was bad when my mom joined Facebook.  It was my fault.  I did that thing where you add pictures then invite friends via email to view your photos.  I thought she would be able to see my photos without opening an account.  I was wrong.
She signed up, saw my photos, then I [...]

Woke up this morning to a pair of slap-you-in-the-face headlines. The first, from Boingboing, is a good earnest ‘how is everybody doing’ post:

What are you telling yourself? How are you all sleeping at night? Are you hedging your bets with canned goods and shotguns, or plans for urban communal farming? Are you starting a business? [...]

Did you hear? It’ll be Mr. Darcy vs. the Predator!
It might prove something of a boon to those who reach for the remote control when yet another costume drama comes on television: Elton John’s Rocket Pictures is developing a new spin on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this time featuring a nefarious seven-foot extraterrestrial with [...]