Discussions on Language
“Ugly and pointless new usages appear in the media and drift into everyday conversation: Faze, as in “it doesn’t faze me” Hospitalize, which really is a vile word Wrench for…
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Catalogs and Covers
What does a memoir that documents the painful loss of a family member and J. Crew’s summer catalog have in common? Nothing, which is why memoirist Robin Romm wrote this…
More Spears Style Appreciation
Another shout-out to Rumpus’ poetry editor Brian Spears for his post “A Note to My Fellow White Males,” appeared today on Slate. The editor of Lez Get Real, a site…
Burns Gets Burned
Remember all those VHS tapes that added up to a compendium of everlasting Civil War knowledge? It turns out Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary series isn’t entirely accurate, but in…
The Victorian MFA Debate
The next time you get into a debate over the value of a creative writing MFA, try this handy visualization exercise: imagine that everyone involved is wearing a monocle.
A Dog Is Barking Everywhere
Foghorns show up in much of my writing, but that’s because I cultivate a disingenuously melancholy disposition that my actual life, full of hilarity and good-natured insults, completely belies. But…
The Mythologist Of Our Time
Ray Bradbury conjures up for me images of sun-drenched Nebraska meadows, autumn landscapes beset upon by Buick-sized ravens and dusty towns overrun by sinister carnivals. He reminds me of the…
Charcoal versus Gas
Grilling is such a big deal that Mike Judge built an animated series around the charcoal versus propane debate twelve years ago and the show is still going strong. I…
Brian’s Saturday Morning Links
Not enough sleep? Echoes of a faint hangover? Then it’s time for Saturday Morning Links. Dahlia Lithwick and Doug Kendall point out that conservative politicians who are upset about empathetic…
Brian’s Saturday Morning Links
Looking for a way to set your company apart from the rest of the herd? Try business cards made of meat–beef jerky, to be specific. I don’t even want to…
Saturday Morning Links
Okay, all you (us) iPhoniacs out there–who’ll be the first to come up with an App to make sure we become the downloader of the billionth app? Dan Kennedy channels…