In the two weeks since my Hitler meme post, we’ve already got two new iterations, embedded below. Posted to demonstrate both the fast-moving evolution of this meme and also its ready applicability to nearly any cultural development. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4aQCiRjvZY&hl=en_US&fs=1&] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQnT0zp8Ya4&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

From the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog: Kellar! … Levitating … Left-handed … Self-decapitating … Flirting with danger … Studying up … The what? … Just generally raising hell … Taking some time and reflecting

A month or so ago, I heard a strange version of “Nothing Was Delivered,” which I knew as a Byrds song, and was immediately transfixed by the simple boogie-woogie piano riff and the all-around lackadaisical style — not to mention the bizarre and earnest lyrics (“Nothing was delivered/And I tell this truth to you/Not out [...]

Some silly things spotted in various airports during my recent trip: World’s tiniest baggage carousel (Vieques, Puerto Rico). Yes, I know I already posted this in the Clichés In Action post… but: I wish I could rent this thing out for children’s birthday parties. I like how the modest tiny wall partition in the middle [...]

During my month-long vacation in the U.S., one of my pleasure reads was Chuck Klosterman’s Eating The Dinosaur. This was the first Klosterman book I’ve read and I found it highly digestible and somewhat addictive, finishing it in three quick sittings over two days. After an excellent essay on Ralph Sampson, my other favorite bit [...]

(Attributions, top to bottom: 1-6: no idea / can’t remember; 7: Josef Capek; 8-11: Cristina Couceiro; 12: part of new series of Nabokov book covers; 13: fascinatingly ugly German tabloid Der Bild; 14: letter from Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol; 15-17: no idea / can’t remember)

In addition to the Belmont pit stop described below, we also made it up and down the east coast during our just-completed month of traveling, making stops in upstate New York, Vermont, Vieques (small island off of Puerto Rico) and New York City. One of the perks of sampling so many disparate places is all [...]

Can we at least agree to print this on the back of all relevant health insurance correspondence for the next generation? Thanks. Speaking of the Massachusetts special election, here’s the first ever Mock Duck poll: Vote early and often, and move for cloture.

My wife, baby kid and I have been on the road for nearly a month now and are flying back to Prague this evening. Currently, we’re holed  up in my hometown of Belmont, MA, a town which – despite its close proximity to Boston – was once declared ‘Region’s Most Boring Town’ in a Boston [...]

I am somewhat ashamed to use the term “meme,” which I have been resisting for years. I’ve tried to group it into the category of pointless, space-filler terms like “outside of the box” or “on a going forward basis,” but it has become increasingly clear to me that “meme” is, in fact, a concise and [...]