Day 81: Dreaming of My Aero Skyblazer

originally published March 21, 2012 Oh, the flying car. It had to show up sooner or later. I’ve been bitching about the fact that we as a society have not moved on to the flying car ever since we started acquiring things that were cooler than the Jetsons, cooler than the future promised in Back […]

Day 80: Last Words On German Executioners

originally published March 20, 2012 Every so often, a seventeenth-century German guidance counselor would look a student over, consult his notes, and pull out the word ‘scharfrichter’ as his recommendation. For these confused teens, this was not good news. A scharfrichter, while clearly a vital cog in the twisted workings of the German government at […]

Day 79: Send In The Dead Clowns

originally published March 19, 2012 Every so often, we here at 1000 Words, 1000 Days like to touch upon the issues. We feel that, as a popular website with dozens of readers (projected annually), we have an obligation to lend a voice to the issues that touch us all. Of course, I’m talking about suicidal […]

Day 78: Before My Time – Texaco Star Theater

originally published March 18, 2012 I wasn’t entirely sold on this topic. Sure, I have a sense of history. I understand that, while my childhood television hours were focused on whether Schneider would fix Bonnie Franklin’s squeaky hinge, or whether Fonzie would get together with those girls and… well, I didn’t know what he did […]

Day 77: The Criminal Mind of Dutch Schultz

originally published March 17, 2012 Dutch Schultz. The name just oozes gangsteriness. So did the man. Born in 1902 with the decidedly less menacing name of Arthur Flegenheimer, Schultz was traumatized by his father’s departure when he was fourteen. He left school to find work, hooking up with Schultz Trucking in the Bronx. At the […]

Day 76: Miller Lite – Everything You’ve Always Wanted In An Article… And Less

originally published March 16, 2012 I have not yet written an article on one of my favorite topics: great beer. Today I will unfortunately not be breaking that streak. My topic du jour is Miller Lite. I’ve only had one Miller Lite in my thirty-seven years, and I vaguely remember it being only marginally different […]

Day 75: Golden Classics Cinema – No Contest

originally published March 15, 2012 Over the past seventy-five days, I have had the great fortune to write about a number of fantastic films. I wrote a piece on Double Indemnity, another on a Spanky & Our Gang short, and yet another piece on Greenlandic cinema. Wow. Okay, I’ve written about one fantastic film. Now […]

Day 74: Lesser Known Weirdness From The Monster Manual

originally published March 14, 2012 At my high school, the kids who played Dungeons & Dragons were looked upon as outcasts, rejects from popular society, miscreants who couldn’t or wouldn’t adjust their hobbies to fit in with the mainstream. Of course, back then the mainstream looked like this: This leads me to believe that the […]

Day 73: Crazy Uncle Dave’s Temperance Letter

originally published March 13, 2012 Dear Marty, As your “crazy hip uncle”, I feel that I should reach out to you. You are at a crucial age, one where you’ll be faced with a lot of choices about how to live your life. Some of those choices may offer you a better path than others. […]

Day 72: Play ‘Em In The Dark – The Banned Video Games

originally published March 12, 2012 Those who know me know that I am not easily shocked or offended. Perhaps this is because I’ve been desensitized by our permissive culture. Maybe it’s because I am more offensive than most anyone I know (I often tell jokes in which the punchline features the word ‘poop’, so yeah, […]