Practicing random acts of kindness seems like a good idea these days, so as motivation, here’s a collections of writings on the subject from Marcus Aurelius to Leo Tolstoy to a host of writers in between, all courtesy of Maria Popova for The Marginalian.
I enjoy trying regional specialties, hence my trying to recreate the Italian Beef when watching the recent season finale of The Bear. Maine has some obvious ones, and, no, I’m not referring to the McLobster (“with flecks of real lobster” was an actual selling point back in the day), though a real lobster roll is good. No, another item you will find in that flattened bun is a Maine-only hot dog known as the red…
I’ve been trying to figure out why this timeline is timelining the way it is. I mean, I’m not the only one who isn’t a fan, right? But anyway, I’ve been seeking out material that goes into how things are work, how certain societal structures are the way they are, and what forces have been and are shaping them. You know, psychohistory kinda stuff. In my travels, I came across the videos of geopolitical consultant…
Yes, it’s not just for some inestimable hobbits (or rather, for ones giving a speech to said inestimable hobbits). The Great War aka The War to End All Wars (Except Not) aka The War That Produced Some Reactions Including Art That is Painfully Still Relevant started 111 years ago today. Is there a connection between World War One and Tolkien, you ask? Yes, there is. Just ask the Legends of Tomorrow. Anyway, what with the…
This weekend is the annual pop culture extravaganza known as Comic-Con. In fact, I’m already seeing photos and updates from friends who are there (alas, I have never been). So, in lieu of being able to give you the latest videos unveiled at Comic-con (which will surely be across the Internet by weekend’s end), here’s a video with prolific comic book creator, Todd McFarlane, with strong opinions on everything from, yes, Comic-Con, but also monsters’…
So I was actually going to post this before posting last Wednesday’s post, but I had enough thoughts in my head that I wanted to watch it again and perhaps comment. You see, I can make the entirely unremarkable observation that various forces are making the Internet less usable in a process of crapification (also known by other terms), but at the same time I’m at a loss for how to tackle it or frame…
For those who don’t know, Babylon 5 is a science fiction series from the 1990s that managed to put an epic amount of space opera into TV sets quite smaller than what many of us have today. I posted my own viewing guide on this site back in 2023, but seeing how current events make Babylon 5 uncomfortably prescient in several ways, it’s worth a re-watch or a new watch on today’s TV sets. The…
I’ve been increasing my reading this year and I’ve been thinking about what a “bestselling author” means so along comes “bestselling author, John Green” with an explanation of what having a “New York Times Bestseller” means, seeing as the term gets thrown about like the literary equivalent of the “Dow Jones Industrial Average.”
This isn’t the first time I’ve posted about work-life balance, but it does feel that, in 2025, more people have the assumption that WORK has won and the imbalance is fine. We know it. We’ve felt it. I’m sure some researchers have excellent terms for it, but I’m thinking of it these days as overproductivity. And it succeeds because we have zealots, who probably get up at 4am, who push for overproductivity. And when they,…
I know it’s hard to imagine in this peaceful time of extraordinary bipartisanship and respectful political discourse, but this country hasn’t always been so easygoing and [checks notes]. Whoops! Wrong timeline. Eesh. Okay, so you’re not in the mood for 1776, Hamilton, or even Stan Freberg presenting the United States of America. Well, maybe you will want to try one of these films out. Having worked for a company that published multiple civil war magazines…