Day 431: The Rancid Underside Of Winning

originally published March 6, 2013 Most lottery winners disappear with their winnings into obscurity, savoring fortune whilst evading fame, happy to have their spotlight moment in the evening news, then disappearing into the night with their oversize novelty check tucked beneath their arm. Whether the money changes their lives, whether it changes who they are, […]

Day 424: The Good Folk Of ’71

originally published February 27, 2013 People – mostly the imaginary people who routinely accompany me in dull, solitary tasks like taking out the garbage or folding laundry – often ask me if I worry about exhausting the Wikipedian supply of kilograph-worthy topics. I have spent enough hours clicking ‘Random Article’ to realize that this will […]

Day 410: Charles Fourier – Prototype Hippie

originally published February 13, 2013 You know what really bothers me? The present-day career opportunities for philosophers are remarkably few. Nowadays if you come up with the ideal means for crafting a likely unattainable utopian society, the closest you’ll get to seeing it realized is when you sell the idea to a reality show. But […]

Day 370: Eponymation, Part III

originally published January 4, 2013 I devoted a couple of December articles to the curious phenomenon of eponyms, those nuggets of linguistic history in which a word enters our language, named for the soul responsible for its origin. I don’t know if I’ll ever be among the fortunate who have contributed their moniker to our […]

Day 343: Tim Lopes – The White Knight Of The Hidden Camera

originally published December 8, 2012 A few days ago, I joked about becoming a journalist. I suppose that, had I grown up with the right role model, that could have been my reality. Indiana Jones made archeology look cool. Jaws taught me that marine biology could be full of thrills and excitement. And TV’s Jessica […]

Day 322: The Angel Of Warsaw

originally published November 17, 2012 This site’s reputation has been built on a reputation of hard-cutting satire, edgy intellectual comedy, and a complete lack of awareness about what this site’s reputation has been built upon. But sometimes we have to check our laughs at the door and have the cajones to stand up and start […]

Day 319: The Gates Of Hell

originally published November 14, 2012 When construction began on a new quintet of buildings – three apartments, one office building and one hotel – in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington DC, no one had any idea just how much these structures would come to impact every political, media and sports scandal, ever. It all […]

Day 316: A Salute To The Ass-Whomping Good Guys

originally published November 11, 2012 In honor of this day, one of the most unexploited and truly genuine days of note on our calendar, I would like to take a few words (let’s say, a thousand or so) to reflect on some of the most ass-kickish Canadians in our military’s history. No one’s making movies […]

Day 314: The Weird Fate Of The Batavia

originally published November 9, 2012 Today we hear a tale of murder, treachery, and sopping wet Dutchmen. This is the story of the Batavia. In 1628, the Dutch East India Company strapped twenty-four cast-iron cannons and a mess o’ bronze guns to their new ship, a 186-foot beauty they called the Batavia. I think the […]

Day 256: — — –• (OMG – The Famous Telegrams)

originally published September 12, 2012 Sure, social media has become a powerful force for communication and social change. Yes, I can use it to stalk ex-girlfriends, tend an electronic farm for hundreds of hours with no palpable rewards, or follow the thoughts and musings of some guy who writes for The Big Bang Theory. But […]