The other day, Karl and I were scrolling through the DVR recordings to find something we both wanted to watch. Naturally, he didn’t want to watch a Bette Davis or […]

It seemed like it was going to be a nice, relaxing Sunday. Karl and I had dinner with friends on Saturday night, and the contentious, vitriolic Dallas municipal election was […]

Sitting at my computer at this moment, my gaze wanders around the room to identify all the things that identify me as an anglophile. Queen Victoria has a mug and […]

American ingenuity. American exceptionalism. But what about American precision? Does it even exist? Not when it comes to holidays, and seldom when it comes to language. While grade school children […]

Several years ago, I was excited to go to a party in California that was to be attended by Ben Mankiewicz. He is one of my nerdy hot crushes, doing […]

“. . . a wonderful dream, Papa.” See what those four words can do? “I had a dream” is the key to unlocking one’s inner Ethel Merman. Say those four […]

For as long as I can remember, there have been rock bands. Beatles and Stones and Monkees, oh my. Some grew somewhat organically out of key associations—Jagger/Richards, Lennon/McCartney—that began when […]

Something just isn’t right. And by not right, I’m talking about something is rotten in the state of Denmark—except this isn’t Denmark, and I’m not Marcellus. It’s that same queasy […]

The experience of watching movies on television, by definition, is not the same as seeing one in a theater as it was originally intended to be seen. This is particularly […]