Things I Said on May 25

2014: Finished The Wars Of Reconstruction: The Brief, Violent History of America’s Most Progressive Era by Douglas R. Egerton last night; final two chapters were easier than the rest, which may indicate I’m a bigger historiography fan than previously assumed. Halfway through The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault On America’s Children by…

Bar-B-QAnon

Top 5 Reasons I Still Don’t Get Texas Barbecue Joints: (1) It is impossible not to feel under pressure and self-conscious standing up there trying to figure out which of 6+ always passably but never overwhelmingly attractive species of meat to order as a line of hungry people forms behind me. (2) Side orders (beans,…

What’s So Dramatic About 21st Century TV?

I’m not one of those people who thinks The Sopranos wrecked television, though I kind of get where they’re coming from. Tom Carson:  “I may be alone in this, but I could make a good argument that The Sopranos RUINED TV. The medium was a lot more original when it wasn’t ‘art.’ And I’d rather…

What’s So Awful About 21st Century TV?

Asked which highly regarded and/or acclaimed TV shows of relatively recent vintage I felt deserved to do poorly an ILX poll, I answered: Family Guy definitely, above all. House MD, if it even has any chance. And 30 Rock‘s pretty much left me cold since the pilot, and I hated Wonder Showzen the one time…

What’s So Funny About 21st Century TV?

Surprised not to see anybody take the clickbait and post about the NY Times‘s 21 best TV comedies of the first 21 years of the 21st Century thing a few days ago, but what the heck. Pretty sure my three favorites, none of which got mentioned, are The I.T. Crowd, Kim’s Convenience and the revamped/updated…

’90s and ’00s TV I Like(d)

20 Favorite TV shows of the ’90s (from a fall 2009 ILX poll) 1. Northern Exposure2. My So-Called Life3. Freaks and Geeks 4. The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd5. Seinfeld6. The Wonder Years7. Roseanne8. The Simpsons9. Caroline in the City10. The Fresh Prince of Bell-Air11. Blossom12. The Critic13. King of the Hill14. Quantum Leap15.…

Freaks and Geeks vs. My (Own) So-Called Life

I never even HEARD of matheletes back then. They definitely never had them at my school; I don’t think any other suburban Michigan schools had them then (because if they did, I’m sure West Bloomfield would have, too), though I could be wrong. (Either way, am I the only one who thinks it’s weird that…

Old Man Yells at Socks

So, can somebody please explain the current state of men’s sock fashion to me? I was in a room with maybe 15 other male grownups yesterday, in 85 degree early summer Austin where male grownups aren’t scared to wear shorts, and I was wearing shorts too but near as I could tell I was also…

‘Til the Sea Cows Come Home

Manatees were briefly in the news in recent months on account of wildlife officials successfully convincing some of the ones inhabiting the Atlantic coast of Florida to eat lettuce as a hopefully temporary replacement for the sea grass that pollution has helped deplete 90 percent of — an urgent fix since apparently almost 13 percent…

Pro-Life During Wartime

Earlier this week, the Washington Post editorial board scolded people for protesting the imminent overturning of Roe v. Wade in front of justices’ (specifically, John Roberts’s and Brett Kavanaugh’s) homes, even though, at least in Kavanaugh’s case, the march was apparently organized by his neighbors, in their own suburban Washington neighborhood, on public property. Ex-Obama…