Has the Bling Bubble Burst?
A website called sellyourgoldteeth.com; among rappers, a sudden interest in cubic zirconia; and an auction of storied hip-hop jewelery canceled for lack of potential buyers: the Wall Street Journal reports on how the recession is damaging bling culture. (Whatever happened to Roland Fryer‘s paper that was to be called “Bling-Bling”) Read More »
Introducing Captain Steve, Who Will Now Take Your Airline Questions
The good news is that he has agreed to share this knowledge with the rest of us on a regular basis. As longtime readers of this blog are well aware, airline issues have been a recurring theme, ranging from the old cellphone debate to safety precautions to the question of why flight attendants aren’t tipped.
So leave your questions for Captain Steve in the comments section and over time he will answer them in small batches. Read More »
“The Force Will Be With You … Always”
That’s what Obi-Wan Kenobi really said in Star Wars (1977), according to AMC’s list of famous film misquotes, not the popular variant, which is properly attributed to Han Solo. The list also includes famous quotes that, AMC claims, were never actually spoken in the films to which they’re linked: “Me Tarzan, you Jane,” for example. For the doubters — run them past Fred Shapiro. Read More »

The Art of Trashing the Classics
We’ve written before about the occasional hyper-critical comments on certain blogs, but such comments are like valentines compared to what some Amazon.com customers heap upon The Rolling Stones, The Godfather, The Dairy of Anne Frank, and other standards. The Cynical-C blog lists the most caustic of these every day. Read More »