"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
“It was wrong of you to lock me up. I had to hurt myself to get out. And I know you’re in here, because I can smell your brains.” — Thom Matthews as Freddy in The Return of the Living Dead (1985). If you think you’ve seen a lot of DVD reviews here lately, you […]
“The ghost was her father’s parting gift, presented by a black-clad secretary in a departure lounge at Narita.” – William Gibson, Mona Lisa Overdrive Mona Lisa Overdrive, by William Gibson When I started reading William Gibson’s novels and short stories, I did not realize that they were component parts of larger stories. When I read […]
Toni Morrison is under the gun again, this time in Indiana. No way! Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were once banned from American libraries? State senators in Delaware want schools to notify parents 48 hours prior to any book being used in the classroom, so that parents can pull kids from school during those […]
I found a Q&A book meme at Electronic Cerebrectomy. It’s composed of headings one is supposed to respond to (I say “headings” rather than “questions” because the questions are formatted in title case . . . incorrectly so, in many cases). The meme hasn’t been stupidified by Facebook, as far as I can tell . […]
What’s in Paul’s grab bag? Unconnected thoughts and short observations which don’t rate separate blog posts, but when aggregated together might amount to something: A Society of Snitches? One of the more worrisome things about Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, which takes effect two weeks from now, is the provision that “allows a person to bring an action […]
“Happy endings are for stories that haven’t ended yet.” — Angelina Jolie as Jane Smith in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). As promised last month, I’m doubling the frequency of DVD review posts in an effort to catch up with movies I’ve watched and reviewed. Although I review movies right after watching them, sometimes two […]
This story made the rounds earlier in the week: after the 9/11 terror attacks the Bush administration directed the State Department to prepare magazines about American life and culture for distribution in Arab countries. During a meeting to review a draft photo-essay for the magazine, a high-level State Department political appointee rejected a photo of […]
No, it wasn’t our summer vacation, it was our kids’. But we were part of it, and anyway, I love that song (oh oh oh oh oh oh)! Now that the kids — our son Gregory, daughter in law Beth, and grandchildren Taylor and Quentin — have piled into the Family Truckster and hit the […]