Day 241: A Brief History Of The CFL

originally published August 28, 2012 Despite my geographical position in one of the most tundra-ish of Canadian cities, I have found that the majority of my readers are located in the United States. I have also found that I possess a dependable disinterest for Canadian football, opting each and every Sunday (Grey Cup Sunday included) […]

Day 240: Big-Head Al’s Empowerment Emporium – Deals, Deals, Deals!

originally published August 27, 2012 Hey! Big-Head Al here for Big-Head Al’s Empowerment Emporium. Are you lookin’ to protect your home and business? Do you worry about the prevalence of crime and violence in our society? Are you in the market for the most thorough and complete way to secure your property and defend your […]

Day 239: Give Me A ‘W’! Give Me A ‘T’! Give Me An ‘F’! Give Me A New Mascot!

originally published August 26, 2012 This is the article that might get me some hate mail. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time – my exposé on Pac-Man clone games caused a ripple of fury among devoted fans of Munch Man. But this is different. Today I’m having a look at college mascots. People get […]

Day 238: The Great Pope-Off, 1378!!!

originally published August 25, 2012 I’m about as far away as possible from believing in the Pope as a figure worthy of worship. Not to knock anyone’s faith, but for a disconnected observer, it strikes me that the higher-up Catholic bureaucracy averages somewhere beneath Central American politicians when it comes to quality of character and […]

Day 237: Class Calendar – Fall, 2012

originally published August 24, 2012 With Labor Day weekend approaching and my mid-summer hangover showing signs of abating, it’s time to turn our attention to the upcoming school year. This will be my final year of post-secondary studies, unless the University discovers that the credits I claimed for Marine Biology 335: Touring With Phish are […]

Day 236: The Ghosts Of Omaha’s Dark Past

originally published August 23, 2012 When I was a young, struggling writer, someone told me to write what I know. It turned out I knew almost nothing about anything, and my writing aptly reflected that. Now that I have matured into an old, struggling writer, I prefer the approach of writing whatever the hell interests […]

Day 235: From The Battlefield To The Movie Theater – Journey Of A Song

originally published August 22, 2012 Sometimes a rich and textured piece of music requires further analysis. Only by delving deeper into the complexities and subtle modal shifts of a great work can we truly hope to understand it, to appreciate its aesthetic and kinesthetic properties, and to gauge its true importance in whatever sub-cultural niche […]

Day 234: Class & Elegance From The Bradford Exchange

originally published August 21, 2012 I have waited a long time for this day. No online catalog of kitsch, from the Franklin Mint to the R2D2 replicas on Skymall, comes close to the sheer volume of quirky miscellany as the Bradford Exchange. Indeed, this may be the first topic I re-visit, as they continue to […]

Day 233: The People vs. Sharktopus – Causation Law In Cheesy CGI Action

originally published August 20, 2012 So I was watching Sharktopus, the exquisitely awful Sci-Fi Channel film, when I began to contemplate the legal ramifications of the story. Not so much what should happen to the evil science-guy who unleashes the shark-octopus hybrid into the world – I didn’t really care about that. But what if […]

Day 232: To Be Shakespeare Or Not To Be Shakespeare

originally published August 19, 2012 Libraries and libraries of material has been written about William Shakespeare, the brilliant playwright whose works continue to amaze theatre-goers and confuse the unholy hell out of high school students every year. This particular thousand words is not about him. It’s about the other William Shakespeares. I couldn’t find a […]