Quotations 
He used to be a walker
Barack Obama used to be a walker, breaking from his work for 15 minutes each afternoon to stroll outside and clear his head. But that was then. On the first day of his life as the 44th president of the United States, Obama needed to travel three blocks from his temporary home to a church […]
The puzzling popularity of Guitar Hero
I’ve been puzzled by the popularity of the game Guitar Hero, for what seems to me like obvious reasons. It’s like karaoke minus the trouble of having to hear the sounds you make. If you want a more interactive way to enjoy music, why not dance, or play air guitar? Or better yet, if holding […]
More than football
Indeed, more than football, Friday Night Lights is a show about relationships, about being let down, letting others down, and surviving the accompanying disappointments; it’s about learning what it means to be a friend, a team mate, a spouse, a parent or a child. Its about dreaming and surviving and loving. Its about being passionate […]
The stupidest NFL rule
The overtime rule continues to be the dumbest, stupidest, most indefensible rule the NFL has on its books. Giving a coin flip more power than Tony Soprano has now deprived us of a satisfactory ending to two pivotal games this year — Jets-Patriots in Week 11, when the Patriots and 401-yard passer Matt Cassel never […]
BCS and Big 10 exposed
A second-half rally by Penn State in a 38-24 Rose Bowl loss to Southern California was a mirage – just like the notions that the Big Ten deserves its reputation as an elite football conference and that the Bowl Championship Series can provide a satisfying ending to the college football season. On this day, on […]
Before shopping malls
Elderly woman at the bus stop: “Young people often ask me, ‘what did you do before we had malls?’ I tell them we played cards, played ball, that sort of thing.” Middle-aged man with really bad teeth sitting next to her: “Didn’t you have soda fountains?” Elderly woman: “Yeah, we had those too.”
A ‘curious’ concept of color blindness
One of the distinguishing characteristics of modern American conservatism is that it believes in a curious concept of ‘color blindness.’ In this view, racism is bad. But absent truly egregious behavior, it’s not something you’d really get all that upset about nor is it something you should be really attuned do. But so-called ‘political correctness’ […]
Bottom gun
I can’t name another American icon who has been so popular, and for so long, and yet so hard to like, and for so long. -Stephen Metcalf, writing about Tom Cruise in Slate