BENEATH THE COLUMN
I’ve referred to New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman roughly a half-dozen times in this blog, each time bashing him as uselessly obtuse and confused. I’ve called him “deranged,” an idiot,...
View ArticleTHE TEAMING MASSES
Since being an outsider breeds resentment, you can imagine the pique simmering in me from a dozen-plus years living in, ahem, Red Sox Nation and its overlapping districts of Patriotstown, Celticsville...
View ArticleERRORISM
A new terrorist plot is coloring an ongoing political season, and that means there are some important things to remember in the upcoming weeks and months. All are important primarily because...
View ArticleTHE SHAMING OF THE CREW
Given the level of directorial interpolation and deletion going on in the Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.’s “Taming of the Shrew,” this year’s free Shakespeare on the Boston Common, it is more than a...
View ArticleTWENTY-EIGHT DAYS LATER
Has anyone noted the utter absurdity of our officials envying British antiterrorist tactics? For anyone who hasn’t read or heard the nonsense, let me quote at length from Eric Lichtblau’s article in...
View ArticleADDRESSING THE PROBLEM
To keep gawkers from the one-time home of serial killer Son of Sam, the city of Yonkers, N.Y., changed a building’s address. But if stressing normalcy was the goal, changing the number to 42 Pine St....
View ArticleDID SHE MEAN ‘BIG BOTHER’?
Yesterday’s Los Angeles Times included a take on the movement toward energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs, the sale of which California would mandate by 2012.The story talked to one average consumer —...
View ArticleIRISH IT WERE OTHERWISE
In a little while I’m headed off to Central Square’s The Field to be in the presence of people celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. I do this because a friend is visiting, but being at a funeral would...
View ArticleCAN CAN'T
The Diet Coke ads in the Porter Square T stop — featuring cans decorated or arranged to suggest when they should be enjoyed — have been bothering me for weeks.Yoga class is one suggestion, illustrated...
View ArticleSUPER IS RELATIVE
I’ve been shopping at Market Basket over the past weeks and have been shocked at the price difference between it and Shaw’s supermarkets — something to which I’d been blind because there’s a Shaw’s...
View ArticleHITCHENS’ BEST DEFENSE: OFFENSIVE
Possibly because Vanity Fair and Slate must wonder why they feature Christopher Hitchens so prominently, considering how wrong he’s been on Iraq over so much time and with so many words, Hitchens has...
View ArticleAESTHETICS OF NONCOMMITTAL? YES. WHATEVER.
Some of my most expressive eye-rolling has been in response to the language artists use to define what their work means. I think the first experience with this was in the liner notes to Genesis’ “The...
View ArticleEXPOSING YOURSELF
Someone seems to think the way to sell penis enlargement techniques via junk e-mail is by letting men imagine the process involves flaying them alive. I assume the idea behind showing a penis of...
View ArticlePower co-opts, and great power co-opts absolutely
Being unemployed has allowed me to again watch “Gilmore Girls” on DVD. I have the full seven seasons, all but the last of which I’d seen before starting the collection, and all of which had to wait for...
View ArticleImmortality is mine
My submission to Overheard Lines was used. Here’s the direct link, although the entire Web site — which is exactly what it sounds like, complemented by witty headlines that add much to the...
View ArticleMexico time
While I had my job, I worked six or seven days and often 72 or 80 hours a week. I would leave Roger Mexico, my cat, in the morning with water and a bowl of dry food and return to feed him a can of wet...
View ArticleRealistic estate
I am back in Massachusetts. Back in Cambridge. Back with near-constant access to Diesel.Life is scary and failure certain, but location, location, location.
View ArticleClosure on Connecticut (Part 3 of 3): Election
In November 2007, I made a tacit endorsement of Republican Mayor Timothy Stewart for re-election, although even then there were concerns about his “anger and paranoia.” If Stewart looks for a fourth...
View ArticleClosure on Connecticut (Part 2 of 3): Leftovers
All of my business with New Britain is old business; these three items I wanted to clear off the agenda happen to be about business as well. All are offered in the spirit of constructive criticism, not...
View ArticleClosure on Connecticut (Part 1 of 3): The Post-Herald
Following through on the details to leave Connecticut again — packing up, arranging to shut off gas and electricity and such — also begged some closure on what I tried to accomplish there as editor of...
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