Hype is the point, writes Hampton Stevens: The Super Bowl is our National Day of Capitalism—a feast and party that's mercifully without the least bit of spiritual underpinning. It's a celebration of commercialism and consumerism, and consumption for consumptions' sake. Today we slurp and cho down as much food and drink as humanly possible. We payContinue reading “The Superbowl: National Day of Capitalism”
Category Archives: thinking out loud
America’s largest crop is a lawn. Could it be a garden?
Mark Bittman, the amazing cook and bold columnist for the New York Times, tries to restrain his temper as he reports on how some suburban governments are citing homeowners for transforming their lawns into gardens. He grumbles: …several times a year we hear of a situation like the one in Orlando[1], where the mayor claims toContinue reading “America’s largest crop is a lawn. Could it be a garden?”
Who needs sleep? Insomnia cookies available now!
From Pacific Standard comes the news that insomnia cookies — aka, a wonder drug called Modafinil, is available that will make sleep all but unnecessary. An hour or two a night will be plenty, it is said. No problems. The past week has seen a flurry ofattention around the latest purported wonder drug, Modafinil, which claims to makeContinue reading “Who needs sleep? Insomnia cookies available now!”
“That’s not a safe altitude”: Moonrise Kingdom
Do you ever change your mind about a work, or act, or a person? Last year I saw "Moonrise Kingdom" and hated it. Unbearably cute, I thought. But then I started to remember it with affection, how preposterously droll it was. (See above.) Then I saw about a thousand reviewers love it, and evenContinue reading ““That’s not a safe altitude”: Moonrise Kingdom”
Bamazon: A jungle reality show that doesn’t strike it rich
What's wrong with this picture? This is a screen capture from a new reality show on The History Channel called Bamazon. It's about eight construction workers from Alabama who decide to go to the Amazon in search of a fortune in gold. They mine gold in the Amazon the way we used to do itContinue reading “Bamazon: A jungle reality show that doesn’t strike it rich”
Sex and dating: Women no different than men?
An op-ed in last Sunday's New York Times challenged the idea that physiology and evolutionary psychology can explain the differences between men and women. Author Dan Slater took on three of the most prominent "differences" between the sexual behavior of men and women, beginning with promiscuity: Take the question of promiscuity. Everyone has always assumed — andContinue reading “Sex and dating: Women no different than men?”
Oddest of strategies to condemn homosexuals: Wendell Berry
The culture mostly ignores the Kentucky-based writer and poet Wendell Berry, despite his vast eloquence, save on two subjects. (Or so he claims.) Undeniably he is heard regarding his distaste for computers, and his compassion for gay people who want to marry. The latter he phrases memorably in an interview with the Associated Baptist Press: Continue reading “Oddest of strategies to condemn homosexuals: Wendell Berry”
The Fair Barbarians: The “New Woman” Climbers of 1900
In Nature's Altars: Mountains, Gender, and American Environmentalism,Susan Shrepfer reveals how in the early 20th century the mountains became a sanctuary for what was briefly known as "The New Woman." Unfettered from womanly duties and heavy skirts, these women found a freedom distinct from their urban sisters, the flappers, and arguably more meaningful. Writes Schrepfer:Continue reading “The Fair Barbarians: The “New Woman” Climbers of 1900″
The sound of 2012: Anthemic, but with banjo or violin
Although Frank Ocean captured the headlines and topped the critics' lists, for yours truly what stands out in pop music this year is the discovery of a consensus acoustic sound that is not rock, for better or worse, and yet is shared by the likes of relatively new bands Mumford & Sons, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear,Continue reading “The sound of 2012: Anthemic, but with banjo or violin”
Coffee is good for you: New England Journal of Medicine
Unbelieveably unpuritanical but factual. Here's the first sentence of the conclusion of a study of 617k participants, published in our leading medical journal, and written in (of course) the driest possible prose: In this large, prospective U.S. cohort study, we observed a dose-dependent inverse association between coffee drinking and total mortality, after adjusting for potentialContinue reading “Coffee is good for you: New England Journal of Medicine”
Kit Stolz 