As I continue to celebrate Banned Books Week 2024, I feel I need to follow up yesterday’s post about Kurt Vonnegut’s “dignified fury” with mockery… and when they’re cooking with gas, few folks mock as well as McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Shanna Walsh, who as a former middle school teacher knows a thing or two about the dangers facing kids, gives us a list of children’s books that will make their brains rot… or possibly their…
I may have overlooked it, but I don’t think I’ve previously done a blog post about a little known holiday today. Sure, you knew it was William Shatner’s birthday today. Sure, you knew that, at age 92, he’s still making movies and even being blasted into space. But you might not know that today is International Talk Like William Shatner Day, a minor holiday started over 10 years ago, but really deserves to be a…
Look, I wasn’t looking for this. You weren’t looking for this. But the Internet finds ways of creating things we weren’t looking for. So enjoy one of the classics of sci-fi (2001) cited occasionally by some for why they don’t like sci-fi mashed up with another one of the classics of sci-fi (Star Wars) cited continually by too many as something that “ahktshually, isn’t science fiction.”
There are many ways to remember the “Day that Will Live in Infamy.“ Watching the 2001 film, Pearl Harbor, is arguably not one of them. Honest Trailers has my back on this. I mean, it does inexplicably find a way to cram Spitfires in there, but come on!
A holiday tradition for many people is cookie making, which is all well and good, but what to do about all those cookies once they’re made? Here, we learn from the undisputed master of cookie eating.
So, for the past few years, there’s been a particular cartoon that’s made the rounds on social media which friends invariably send to me. I mean, besides being an avid reader, several members of my family are or have been librarians and are all in favor of libraries. And, let’s be honest, in this scenario, I would totally do this: some of my Viking brethren forget to pillage before they burn. Sure you may have…
A meme tickled Twitter users’ fancy late last month and for good reason: it was a pair of pithy comments contrasting science fiction and fantasy and skewering the related tropes for both. Mignon Fogarty has a good collection over at the Grammar Girl, but be warned! You’ll start wanting to do your own. To whit: Sci Fi is this blog on an encrypted server you’ll need some cyberpunk hacker to access. Fantasy is this blog…
Maybe it’s the overwhelming melting pot of 80s that speaks to my Gen X self. Maybe it’s the fact that this past season has included the best Munsons since Logan (the quality and fate of characters named Munson throughout media is a post for another time). In any case, I’ve very much enjoyed the latest installments of Stranger Things, what we were almost certain was the last season, but… it’s not. So many fun touches…
I can’t believe I hadn’t already shared this on the blog, so here’s something quite appropriate to share for Independence Day: because what’s more exciting than fireworks? Flying through fireworks! This did lead me to wonder about how much drones have been used to fly through fireworks since then, which led to the always enjoyable comic XKCD. Look. We’re probably in another timeline at this point, but watch out.
Many of you, knowing my project management tendencies, know I make lists — and by this time, it’s quite clear I’m a fan of ranking, so how could I say no to a ranking of Muppets recently conducted by NPR? Do I agree with all the rankings? Of course not. That doesn’t make the list any less wonderful. Mind you, the article does reference the Chaos/Order Theory of Muppets first proposed by Dahlia Lithwick in…