There are a variety of theories attempting to explain the relative minority status of women in comedy, ranging from socialization (women are raised to laugh at others, not to tell the jokes) to courtship (men want to be the ones to make others laugh) to good old-fashioned sexism (club owners tend to be men and […]
We’ve all been guilty of it — the inside-out logic of deliberate self-delusion, to try to convince ourselves of something we really wish were true, such as:
I admit, I was a pretty infrequent watcher of the show. I watched the way most people now watch TV, through YouTube clips, funny recaps, and even the lowest form of TV watching, gif recaps. But the announcement last week that Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell had been cancelled was pretty crushing. Other sites have more […]
It’s always astounding when two closely related things turn out to be complete opposites. Like siblings who have totally different body types, books with matching bindings but one is Jane Austen and the other is Judith Krantz, or the time my father took his first bite into an avocado slice, not knowing what it was […]
For anyone who doesn’t known someone in 12-step recovery or who doesn’t have a folk-wisdom-spouting Bubbe (or Nona or Grammy or Nana, etc.), “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.” This perhaps-overused aphorism has so many useful applications, I won’t bore you with too many. (Let’s just say […]
That title makes more sense if you hum it to the tune of the line, “You say either, and I say either.”
Last week’s speedy Congressional action that gave the FAA more flexibility to deal with sequestration-imposed cuts was hailed by many as a great example of government functioning at its best. But I’m feeling a little like the little kid who insists the Emperor has no clothes; after all, wasn’t the pain of those cuts supposed […]
Apparently, all three of the presidential debates can be summed up by one neat phrase or image. For the first one, it was “Big Bird” (as in Romney’s promise to cut all funding for public broadcasting, since it represented a simply unaffordable .01% of the budget). The second debate gave us the unforgettable “Binders of […]
Politicians have always been infamous for tailoring their remarks to specific audiences (okay, call it “pandering.” I’m trying to be nice). And it is certainly possible for them to claim their views “evolve” when it seems more politically acceptable (look at Bill Clinton on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, or Obama on gay marriage).