On July 2, 1776, in a letter to his wife Abigail, John Adams wrote: This second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.
As it turned out, Adams was nearly right about this, [...]
Two new videos came out this week for songs sung by women in their early 20s. One is the one above. And while it's blatantly banking on reminding people of last year's smash hit "I Love the Way You Lie," and it's always creepy, because of what we know about her real-life past, to watch Rihanna flirting with the notion of domestic violence as turn-on, I like it. It's certainly very titillating. Like Requiem for a Dream, from which it also borrows heavily. The song itself is great, too, which certainly helps. Big dumb disco done just right. I think I like it more than any song of [...]
Have you started dating someone recently? Have you noticed that in the rush of your new relationship and finding out all the cute things about your new squeeze and the dates and the fun and the lovey-dovey social-networking proclamations and omg the sex that some of your closest friendships have run a little, well, cold? Well, OK, you probably didn't notice. (Because omg the sex!) But that's all right, because once you come up for air and/or breakup drinks, Science will be here to remind you why certain people haven't been returning your calls as quickly as they might have mere months ago.
No, I'm not some joyless prude. I was once like you, even. Remember when we were sitting around your apartment and decided to watch the trailer online? How we laughed! Someone had tried to adapt early 90s Trapper Keepers® for the screen! And they'd spent a small nation's GDP to make it happen! If, some months from that point, James Cameron Trips Over A Fanboy Wishlist Into The Uncanny Valley wasn't going to be the flop of our young century, jeez, it really should've been.
Then we went about our admittedly terrestrial lives.
Dear Answer Lady,
I am kind of a hermit. I didn't use to be. Anyway, I don't have any friends where I was transferred to three years ago (which is a pretty urban, cosmopolitan place, as long as you stay well within the city limits), unless you consider the Internet a land mass, nor do I feel like meeting or dating anybody or even having much sex even though I am gay and have quite an active libido. I am quite old, but I am fine with that too, much finer than I was with being young, in fact. Nonetheless, I'm conflicted about the fact that I think I'm [...]
