Yesss! We’re finally back to our ersatz Survivor season. We’ve endured months of chest pounding and breast beating on the beach, with the contestants attacking each other. Not much else to do, there’s no voting going on for another four months. There has been plenty of spending, which
Post-debate note: The political wind seemed to change at the second debate. So--praise cheeses!--this may be the last Trump-centric column. He’s what’s happening, baby! His poll numbers keep climbing, the TV coverage is non-stop, and the rest of us just want cover our ears and shout
For me, the internet can be like standing in line at the supermarket. Oh, those tabloids! My eye is also drawn to the lurid headlines under the end of an online article, or to the movement in the far right column. And I end up
What’s so embarrassing for me (an old white man) about watching an old white presidential candidate say—almost indignantly—“Well
In the 1998 film Bulworth, Warren Beatty played a disillusioned politician who puts out a contract on himself, and then feels free to say exactly what’s on his mind. What he says is of course politically incorrect, but it forges a visceral connection with the public
Michael Ondaatje’s eponymous 2011 novel grants romance and intrigue to the lowliest dining area on a ship—The Cat’s Table. There was absolutely no romance and not much intrigue in the junior league debate Thursday night. And the Friday newspapers were filled with the other debate,
Here’s a quickie to help you prepare for the Republican debate on Thursday August 9. In 2012, my wife and I noticed certain phrases being repeated and decided to make a list. That list follows. You shouldn’t consider it a debate drinking game—just drink and
The folks who produce Survivor think that they understand tribes. Jeff Probst’s first official duty, on the first episode of every season, is to divide the contestants into tribes—for competition and drama. And of course all of that happens even within the tribes, because who joins which
“God bless Donald Trump. This campaign has been a masterwork of performance art. He couldn't be doing a better job to illustrate just how absurd our election process has become.” Texas_Vinyl said that in the Comments section of an article about Trump vs. Rick Perry. These days,
We are all Donald Trump now. In 1963, JFK went to the Berlin wall and said, “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner). Following 9/11, many people around the world said, "We are New Yorkers." Now former National Lampoon writer P.J. O'Rourke has stepped forward
