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I need wine advice.
I think wine is overrated, but I understand that many people like it and I don't mind when others drink and discuss wine. What I don't like is people acting as though my choice to refrain from drinking is wrong and, in the case of wine, shows a lack of sophistication and intelligence. Drinking isn't a moral issue for me; I just don't like the ...
Posted to Drink by Anthea on September 28, 2009
And how was the book?
I find it curious that this 'review' had so little to do with the actual work. Perhaps it would be better to have Graphic Novels reviewed by someone who has a better understanding of the medium, or at least isn't utterly contemptuous of it.
Posted to Books by Simon Fraser on August 17, 2009
Is bogus trend spotting itself a bogus trend?
Bogus trend spotting seems not to have spread past Slate in 6 years of Jack Shafer writing about it. I'm thinking either:a) it requires a journalistic eye, more than even most media people possess, and most of our hardcore journos are stretched too thin and too focused on Real Issues to care about the culture;or else b) it takes too much of a ...
Posted to Press Box by pwlsax on August 15, 2009
Don't be So Sure, Hitchens
As a Sri Lanknan, I can relate to something robusto has said. Hitchens is mistaking politeness for friendliness.When foreigners talk to Sri Lankans, they are delighted to know that the locals absolutely love them! What they don't realize of course, is that we would only tell them how much we love them for to do otherwise would be rude by our ...
Posted to Fighting Words by tvs on August 5, 2009
Flint is a cultural dynamo.
Not in the traditional sense, but nevertheless... Many of the comments in criticism of this post emphasize the value of services and cultural amenities. A few hundred square feet in a major city, they argue, trumps a few thousand in Flint, because big cities offer big city amenities. But there's a lot of flash and not much substance to these ...
Posted to Dispatches by blueskiesfalling on June 19, 2009
Re: The beauty of polysynthetic languages
This is beginning in some respects to resemble a chicken-and-egg question. And I think it's largely because both you and Wrolph tend to import esthetic judgments into a historical and sociological arena. The survival of Latin can be considered an exception. The Latin language itself followed the swords of the legions to a certain extent, but only ...
Posted to Culturebox by Boswell7 on May 9, 2009
Shortage of Chinese Surnames
This article in the NYTimes points out an interested facet of Chinese culture that could very well play a large part in Chinese people seeking out English names: distinction from the crowd. ''By some estimates, 100 surnames cover 85 percent of China’s citizens. Laobaixing, or “old hundred names,” is a colloquial term for the masses. By contrast, ...
Posted to Culturebox by KanisSapphirus on May 3, 2009
The Audible Problem Explained . . . Maybe
On the past Gabfest you brought to your listeners attention that the subscription to Audible from the culture listeners is dwindling to say the least. Whilst the subscription from the Political Gabfest is raging. As a listener of the Gabfest, i just wanted to promote to you two theories that I have developed about this phenomenon. As a culture ...
Posted to Culture Gabfest by Anderson Dodd on April 23, 2009
Celebs and Twitter
I only follow a few. I started following them after John Mayer, whom I'm a big fan of, started tweeting. I was heading down to L.A. to get on the Mayercraft, his cruise, for the second time. I figured if I was geeking out and sending out tweets about it, he probably was too. And, yes, he was. That made the lead-up to the cruise much more fun ...
Posted to Culturebox by rkwalton on April 22, 2009
Looking Back and Looking Forward - Columbine as Exception or
LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD: COLUMBINE AS EXCEPTION OR EARLY WARNING? Unfortunate incidents of violence can be guarded against by revising police and school stratagems, by soliciting more peer Informants, and by planning ahead of time. Unfortunately, there are several reasons why I think this Reaction Result leaves America almost as ...
Posted to History Lesson by MichaelBernard4 on April 19, 2009

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