Film, Television, Sex, Music, Literature, Pop
The United States Of America No Longer Exists? It’s a good thing Matt Walsh wasn’t there at the battle of Trenton. He certainly wasn’t there during the battle of Hillary. When George Washington’s army had dwindled to a mere 2,000 soldiers, down from 25,000 during the summer of 1776, it looked as though the American..
Early on in my married life, I was introduced to a Greek Orthodox tradition that involved showing up at the church with cups of a dish made (I think) from rice, cinnamon, and raisins and serving it to the congregants as they left the church. The ritual had something to do with remembering the dead..
Hairspray and Hamburgers When our house empties of our children and grandchildren, Mary and I have been settling into wine and just about whatever is on HGTV — Fixer Upper, Flip or Flop Atlanta, House Hunters International, Love it Or List It, and Beachfront Bargain Hunt. (Neither of us like Property Brothers; it earns an..
It’s never really that bad, when you think about it… I have this bad habit of not connecting anything I do (or eat) to my physical condition a few hours later. Mary and I took a little vacation break, a few months ago, and I was feeling bloated and sluggish in the early afternoon. “I..
The #MeToo Stories Gotta say I was shocked to read some of the detail reported in the #MeToo posts I saw yesterday, by both women and a few men. When you read phrases like “friend’s dad” and “hated the locker room” and “had to fight back,” I get a better sense for why my wife..
The Age of the Image Anyone else think it strange, or at least inadequately considered, that Hugh Hefner should receive a loving pop-culture send-off upon his death, just about a week before the news cycle was flooded with Harvey Weinstein’s tale of epic sexual harassment? On the one hand, we were invited to ponder Hefner’s..
I desperately cling to the idea of America because, over the course of my life, I’ve known too many immigrants who saw us (yes, us, with all of our problems) as the last best hope. My mother had a friend who escaped the Armenian genocide. As a boy, he saw a woman’s baby cut from..
Decent Folks Correct Their Children As I’ve written before, I firmly believe that racism is officially over in the United States, but that only applies to reasonably normal people. There is, in fact, an approved, coddled and utterly “unchained” kind of racism out there, and it flows at fire-hydrant volume from people who have been..
In a stunning theological development, pastor and “Desiring God” teacher John Piper has come to the conclusion that God is just not “big enough” to solve race problems. Employing his usual amorphous, affable and directionless prose, and employing the phrase ‘I don’t know’ for earnest emphasis three separate times, Piper admitted that race is just..
Weirdly, on Saturdays, I don’t have a great deal to do. My children grew up in this business and they learned the basic tools of the trade better than I have. “Tend thy shop, and thy family,” I think, (improving Poor Richard’s advice), “and they will tend to you.” That leaves me “hospitality” as a..
