Monday evening, some strange creatures are apt to appear at your front door; scary witches and Frankensteins and green goblins. I suspect vampires will be especially popular. Then again, not all these weird beings will necessarily be frightful. There’ll surely be a few Spidermen and Captain Americas to take the demons to task and protect the fairy princesses.
Dear College fresh-man,
I’m sorry to hear you couldn’t find employment last summer. This isn’t unusual. As you’re surely aware, America is currently suffering through a rather severe recession and most of our students couldn’t find work during the summer months.
Throughout the duration of this foolish column (more than 10 years now), my editors have always let me explore any damned topic I chose, which is certainly appreciated. I’ve even written about subjects that are generally reserved for other specialized columnists.
Well, I was about 4 years old when my father presented me with a cocker spaniel puppy. I was quite delighted by this, but really didn’t know what to make of the animal; that is, to a greater or lesser degree, I regarded the dog as a toy, though I certainly realized it was alive. Dad told me to pick a name, so I selected Bob. He laughed and said it was a girl dog. So, quite logically, I decided to call her Girlie. He felt this was a rather silly name and offered other suggestions, but I stubbornly (perhaps a harbinger of a future personality trait) held my ground.
One of the best things about living in a metropolitan area is your ready access to a multitude of ethnic restaurants. That’s especially true in cities like San Francisco, New Orleans and New York, which have some of the finest cuisine on the planet.
I have rather mixed feelings about the importance and value of motion pictures; that is, whether comedy or drama, most films are enjoyable, yet remain pretty shallow, passionless and unimpressive. Just as we forget TV shows the moment the set is turned off, we frequently forget movies within the time it takes to walk to our cars.
Though I was never big enough nor rough enough to play it, I’ve always enjoyed watching football. Apparently, this is true of most Americans. The popularity of the game clearly indicates that football has begun to rival baseball as our “national pastime.”
One hundred years ago, give or take a few days, the only medicines available in most households were booze and aspirin. The booze was used to induce sleep, relieve pain, treat coughs and colds and to sterilize wounds. Aspirin was used for everything else.
America is the greatest nation on earth. This is true from almost any perspective you care to mention.
A few weeks ago when the national debt was being debated (if debated in the correct word for such camera-posturing and close-minded ideological sound bites) our elected jesters on the Republican side argued (again, if that’s the correct word) that raising taxes on businesses would increase unemployment, a tenet quickly dismissed by the Democrats. Since I lean towards the liberal side of politics, you may be surprised to learn that, in this particular case, I agree with the conservatives.
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve examined various generations of American youth; i.e., the “Lost Generation,” the “Beat Generation” and the “Now Generation.” Today, the process whereby new generations are labeled and promoted may be over. Since the mid-1970s, the process has become rather muddled and transient in part because the mass media has become more diffused, especially owing to the Internet, so now it’s more difficult to dictate and control public opinion.
Last week this silly, little column discussed the various generations of American youth as defined by the mass media. Each…
From time to time throughout the course of the 20th century, there was a tendency for the mass media – movies, radio, newspapers, TV, etc. – to label and describe the youth of a particular generation. Thus, we had the “Lost Generation,” the “Beat Generation,” the “Now Generation” and perhaps others.
