Archive for January, 2010
31
Jan
Posted by Tim in Literature, Sunday Book Review. Tagged: amory blaine, boy meets world mr. turner, gratuitous shots at john steinbeck, high school literature, Holden Caulfield, huckleberry finn, JD Salinger, john has clearly read this more recently than me, leopold bloom, middle school fiction, Taylor Swift, the awkwardness of 15, The Catcher in the Rye, the voice of american adolescence. 4 Comments
Like the majority of Americans born in the last half-century, I read The Catcher in the Rye in high school—part of the summer reading program before my sophomore year to be exact, when I was 15. Fifteen—as I believe Taylor Swift reminds us—is a strange time when it comes to reading: You’re stuck between more [...]
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31
Jan
Posted by John S in Literature, Sunday Book Review. Tagged: college interviews, Fuck you signs, high school English, high school teachers say dumb things, Holden Caulfield, idealism, important protagonists, in memoriam, JD Salinger, minor tragedies, reclusive authors, Robert Burns, The Catcher in the Rye, unreliable narrators, young adult fiction. 1 Comment
Long, long ago, when I was deeply enmeshed in the process of college applications, an interviewer from a certain school asked me which book that I had enjoyed the most in high school English. I thought about it for a second, trying to determine which answer would be the most impressive, and eventually just said [...]
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30
Jan
Posted by Tim in "We Take, Among Other Things, Umbrage", Rankings, Sports. Tagged: david tyree catch, espn, greatest plays in super bowl history, james harrison interception return, james harrison super bowl, john clayton, lynn swann's catch, marcus allen super bowl run, riggins' run. 5 Comments
Having two weeks off leading up to the Super Bowl is great—so long as you’re a fan of one of the two teams playing. That fortnight is filled with excitement, to the point where you can celebrate the previous week’s win and your trip to the big game before getting anxious about how the Super [...]
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29
Jan
Posted by John S in Music, Ranking Bob Dylan Songs. Tagged: Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan (album), Bob Dylan's debut, Bukka White, Fixin' to Die, In My Time of Dying, Jesus gonna make up my dying bed, Led Zeppelin, Martin Scorcese, No Direction Home, singing in blackface, wholly forgettable songs, worst Bob Dylan songs. 1 Comment
These are the two worst songs on Bob Dylan’s self-titled debut album and, as such, two of the worst songs Dylan would record in the 1960s. To my knowledge, he never played either of them in concert; Dylan would, for the most part, abandon the songs that he didn’t write when he started performing regularly, [...]
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28
Jan
Posted by John S in "We Take, Among Other Things, Umbrage", Culture. Tagged: charity, condoms, earthquake, ESPN firings, Haiti, Haiti relief, hurricane katrina, international aid, outrageous opinions, Pat Robertson, paul shirley, poverty, the Beatles, tsunami, Twitter trending topics, unsympathetic figures. 1 Comment
Our old friend and adversary Paul Shirley has gotten into some trouble recently, for saying something even more controversial than that he doesn’t like The Beatles: I haven’t donated a cent to the Haitian relief effort. And I probably will not. I haven’t donated to the Haitian relief effort for the same reason that I don’t [...]
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28
Jan
Posted by NPI in Sports, The Double Bonus. Tagged: austin freeman, barack obama likes john calipari?, byu, conference parity, darrin horn is adrian veidt is ozymandias, demarcus cousins, devan downey and the gamecocks, dominique jones, duke, harvard cornell, history of the world part I, jeremy lin, kalin lucas, Michigan State, pat forde, the disappointment of purdue, the pac-10 is awful. Leave a Comment
We’re back to Week 1 with our formatting here: Tim is in black, John is in red. We asked for feedback last week, and we got one response demanding the return of color. You’re welcome. We’re roughly halfway through the conference season already, and I can’t help but react to the season thus far the [...]
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27
Jan
Posted by Tim in Comedy, TV. Tagged: george washington and the cherry tree, hans sprungfeld, hollis hurlbut, homer as town crier, i'm an antiquarian dammit, jebediah springfield, lisa the iconoclast, simpsons classics, the myths of history, the proper use of guest stars, The Simpsons, ye olde toast. 6 Comments
Our first two Simpsons Classics looked at early-season episodes in “Life on the Fast Lane” and “Bart Gets an F.” This time, we jump ahead a few seasons and to an episode that focuses on Lisa. I admitted in my last Simpsons Classic that I’m a bit of a Lisa fan. But you don’t have [...]
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26
Jan
Posted by Tim in Sports, Unabated to the Quarterback. Tagged: Bill Simmons, brad childress mismanagement, brett favre, colts jets, monday morning quarterback, overtime ideas, pantheon of vikings losses, peter king, peyton manning, Pierre Garcon, saints vikings, the colts still shouldn't have rested their players, the jets fans impressive response, Unabated to the Quarterback. 8 Comments
“This is a gift I have, simple, simple! a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions. These are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion.” —Holofernes, Love’s Labours Lost Over the past several seasons, I have [...]
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25
Jan
Posted by John S in Advertising, Culture. Tagged: david simon, journalism, pay for content, RIAA, the death of journalism, the death of newspapers, the Napser effect, the new york times, the wall street journal. 1 Comment
As was reported last week (and noted today in our Monday Medley), The New York Times is planning to announce that it will soon begin charging for its online content. In some respects, this was inevitable: In order to produce a product, you need to generate revenue, and it’s becoming clear to many people in [...]
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25
Jan
Posted by NPI in Monday Medley. Tagged: ammon shea, Bill Simmons, charles p. pierce, Christopher Hitchens, Citizens United, Conan O'Brien, fumbles, james patterson, jersey shore, new york times magazine, on language, orthographic reform, Perry v. Schwarzenegge, Slate, staten island, the new york times, The Supreme Court, The Tonight Show, the use of "like", Vanity Fair. 3 Comments
What we read while fumbling the football… Conan O’Brien hosted his last Tonight Show on Friday (you can’t see, but a tear is slowly falling to the ground). His farewell was funny and poignant, and his ratings were huge. Some think that the creative stride initiated by his firing could be a turning point in [...]
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