On Local Man Cannot Operate Beard Trimmer
"Argument between bearded man and other bearded man, surprisingly, does not take place in 19th century"
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On Did Spencer Ackerman Get Beaten Up Enough As A Kid?
I really enjoy Attackerman's work, but I think he misses a major point brought up in the comments section of the original piece - Vader's obsession here is his son, not ending the rebel alliance. That's why he goes down to the base before it's barely even been cleared. That major actors act irrationally, without taking into account the material plus-minus of a major military action, and that paternal factors may be the cause of such irrationality, is a possible lesson that recent history has taught us.
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On Farewell To Our Beloved Nazi Pope
He has to give up the hat, but his face gets to keep the "Imperial March" music cues.
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On Roseanne v. Jamaica Kincaid, Round 403
Did Ms. Barr ever insist that Kincaid and George W. S. Trow (the other "classist", who, despite this prejudice somehow was friends with the writers of Caddyshack) write an episode of her eponymous program? No? I suppose that must be classism as well.
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On 'Newsweek' Takes Bold Stance Against Tumblr's Struggle for Profit
What I learned here: italicization is a magazine's soul, and when it loses its italicization, you know it's dead, like the lack of a mirror reflection for the undead. A possible supernatural variation of How To Lose Friends and Alienate People will feature an editor at a magazine that's supposedly high-profile and successful, but which no one seems to read: the editor then notices that the few times his magazine is written about, it is never italicized. And that his publisher is actually an insane super-villain.
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On Donald Fagen Is 65
That's 'Onald Fagen
She don't remember the King of Soul
It's hard times befallen
The sole survivors
She thinks I'm crazy
But I'm just growing old
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On Speed-Dating With Barack Obama
The middle picture for me is:
"Though you resemble apples in all outward aspects...you're from the planet Quatron IV...you have the ability to destroy any object through the combined power of your minds...yes, I am writing all this down, sir..."
"I have to call you back...it's a bad time...a really, really bad time...there are a bunch of apples here talking to us...no, I did not go for a drink with the speaker...there a bunch of apples here and they're gonna kill us all..."
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On Why Does the 'New Yorker' Hate David O. Russell?
Just to be clear, Slant magazine didn't like it either - which brought out a bunch of cries from the wise commentariat that Slant should have its reviews conform more with the metacritic average. I think Mr. Sicha's arguments in favor of the movie are far more in-depth and persuasive than that of the Slant comments (this praise may come off as faint, but it's not intended to be) - and I do hope he's right on this one, because I'm huge fan of Russell's, grateful that he's gotten a comeback, and it would be great if he's now able to complete his James Caan-Jessica Biel comedy about Washington D.C.; I would look forward to a Mickey Rourke-Liza Minelli collaboration directed by Russell.
His approach all depends on hitting certain some off-beat notes subtly - in premise, Spanking the Monkey, "a comedy about incest!" - sounds absolutely terrible, dealing with a way too serious subject in a lighthearted way, making you expect a movie that's either amoral or sensationalist, when it's actually a very good, well-observed film, that rightfully started Russell on to bigger things.
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On Either Way, Media People Unpleasant
"People on the left are just as bad. They are just as apt to believe all stories about the wonderful, beneficent effects of government spending, about the evils of any private-sector enterprise, and about universal racism, sexism and so forth."
I appreciate your identification of another problem: false equivalence. That you do so in an incredibly subtle, ironic method as if this equivalence actually existed, and two equally financially endowed and equally influential powers were putting forth conservative and progressive narratives, was sheer genius. Nice work, Italo Calvino.