Expressing these class tentions, there was a tradition of plebeian anti-clericalism and irreligion. To go no further back, the Lollards carried a popular version of John Wyclif’s heresies into the sixteenth century. Lollard influence survived in a popular materialist skepticism which makes one feel appreciably nearer to the age of …
This is the kind of entry I hate to write — not only because I know nobody’s listening, but because it’s about issues that I fear that there may be no solution to, or at least not the starkly delineated solution that people who think they’ve figured it out seem …
For reasons I don’t enjoy being yelled at enough to go into, the subject of violence has been much on the minds of my fellow Americans the last few months. The current way of thinking seems to be that certain types of violence exist as a sort of protected category, …
POOR-SELLING CELEBRITY COOKBOOKS 1. Jackie Mason’s Sculpting with Chopped Liver 2. Someone’s in the Kitchen with U.S. Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero 3. Vincent Gallo’s Cooking for Faggots 4. My Hands Hurt with Jennifer Aniston 5. Journey to the Center of John Madden’s Unthinkable Gullet …
ON THE INTERNET To Do and Say TO THINK: “I have not been completely inundated with self-validation about _____.” TO SAY: “Am I the only person in the world who thinks _____?” TO THINK: “I am irrationally excited by the overly familiar.” TO SAY: “Squeeee“ TO THINK: “I …
Hey, folks. Do you know Fiasco? You should: Jason Morningstar‘s cleverly constructed, tonally perfect role-playing game (available from Bully Pulpit Games) is one of the greatest things going these days. Built for 3-5 players, with minimal dice-rolling, few rules, and no game-master, it’s perfect if you enjoy dark, cynical crime movies, film …
UNSUCCESSFUL DOG BREEDS 1. Comptonian Malamute 2. East German Shepherd 3. Melancholy Dane 4. Rhodesian Racist 5. Wireless Terrier WORST POSSIBLE BAND NAMES 1. Eichmann Tina Turner 2. Harcourt Fenton Mudvayne 3. Fag of Convenience 4. Englebert Needledick 5. Muslimgauzey Muslimgauzebourne THINGS PABLO PICASSO WAS CALLED, OTHER THAN AN ASSHOLE …
I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that being a witness to even the most electrifying events is no guarantee of recalling them accurately. The men and women who survived the sinking of the Titanic disagreed as to exactly how the great ship went down, even though they all saw it at …
The soul of man is forever striving, straining for victory, for glory, for transcendence beyond his mere base physicality, to become one with a universal whole. But it is this very striving that grounds him to the ordinary, by mussing his hair, coating his tongue, and causing various antisocial odors …
SUGGESTED WAYS TO DISPOSE OF MY BODY 1. Ground into paste and surreptitiously mixed into fanciful coffee drinks at Lincoln Park Starbucks 2. Turned into decaying, offensive puppet by German performance artist 3. Used as reanimated zombie drug mule by Haitian coke dealers 4. Brain used as defective component by …
Ever since the first e-mail was sent, it was only a matter of time before governments worldwide would find a way to monetize the internet. Its commercial potential revolutionized capitalism, but it fiercely resisted the inevitability of the state taking its traditional cut; despite the way it ran roughshod over …
Hello, readers! As you know, the holiday season is upon us. Posting has been light around here of late due to professional obligations, health care issues, and the usual hubbly bubbly of the season, but we should be back in full swing by the start of 2013 with all your …
Victories have been coming in batches for those who find the prohibition of gay marriage to be an intolerable and absurd hindrance to human freedom. The last election found voters deciding for themselves that they found nothing threatening about two adults of the same sex choosing to participate in …
Sure, friend. I’m just like you. Oh, I know, I seem unapproachable, with my thriving career as a failed writer, my jutting stomach and chiseled spine, and my daunting command of most of the English language. But I put my condoms on one foot at a time, just like anyone …
Program note: ages ago, some internet fiends and I used to play a constrained writing game called “Mad Ape Den”, where you’d have to re-tell a well-known story (novel, movie, TV show, play, etc.) using only words of three letters or fewer. I’d completely forgotten about it until today, when …
