The new high-end LED/LCD, 3D HDTV’s are ruining my old school eyes, but not in a painful way. It is delightfully devious retina ruination, an eye-opening bite of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, like in Genesis. Instead of a snake, however, you are tempted by a remote – four of them, [...]
Almost 4,000 feet above sea level: you can smell the horsepower from up here on its way from Michigan. A runway stretches across the top of this mountain in Bath County, Virginia. The road that ends at the door of a small terminal is a snake-crooked trip, hair-pinned into kinks that would give an 18-wheeler heartburn. [...]
(Warning: Contains rock lyrics from 40 years ago) Some music goes beyond the sound that comes out of your speakers. From time to time, these sounds define a cultural or political movement. In a few cases, they become the soundtrack for a generation. Neil Young wailing, “four dead in Ohio,” still conjures memories of a [...]
The Super Bowl is Sunday. It is a big deal for football, entertainment, advertising and Saints fans. If you enjoy the NFL, thank Steve Sabol. His stories created it. Sabol is 67 now. He became famous by turning football into art (according to Joe Posnanski in Sports Illustrated his week). It is a great story [...]
Have you seen the commercials for Chantix? It is a smoking cessation prescription medication. All of these pharmaceutical commercials have a long recitation of side effects and warnings. We have heard them for years: constipation, nausea, gas, etc. Everything on the shelf has those side effects. But anxiety, panic, aggression, anger, mania, suicidal thoughts, hostility, [...]
During the holidays I was hit by a moment of revelation while watching Bobby Bowden coaching his last game at Florida State. After his final win, he gave a press conference. He was classic Bobby B. I flipped channels and there was Paula Dean on the Food Network. That is when it hit me; Paula [...]
Go to ESPN or Sports Illustrated and check out the college bowl games this year. There are 33 of them. We all know the Rose, Orange and Sugar Bowls. We know about the BCS Championship game. I’ll get excited about the Cotton, Gator and Fiesta Bowl. But did you know there is a Little [...]
Speaking of credibility: I love college football. Always have. But there are parts of it that chew at me. This is one of them: When a student athlete transfers to another program (for whatever reason), that athlete is punished by having to sit out a year, basically losing a year of eligibility at a time [...]
Last night I saw a B-52 bomber sprinkling bombs into history on the History Channel. I think it was the same, black and white, archival footage I have seen all of my life. A young airman probably shot it with a spring-loaded camera (like the 8mm Bolex) on a run over Vietman in the 1960′s. My first B-52 experience [...]
After 24-hour-a-day basketball, what are we supposed to watch now? American Idol? Baseball that doesn’t matter? Diners, Drive-Ins and the Toast Chees I used to eat every day for lunch?
Do you watch Iron Chef? Have you seen some of the fru-fru things they are doing with food lately? I saw one just now, using basil. The stacked little bites on the plates were so precious no one should lay utensils so crude as knives and forks near them. I don’t think people are actually [...]
I have one. You have one. Animals have them. While guys getting hit in the groin may still be popular, the biggest thing in advertising these days is your butt (not literally, of course). It started with the “does this dress make my butt look big?” commercial a few years ago. No one complained, so [...]
An old friend of mine, Peter Kaufman, recently invited me to a function where it was my job to be a panelist, talking to a fairly large group (who paid to get in – more for the drinks than the entertainment) about Super Bowl commercials. I was supposed to be a critic, comic, commentator – [...]
If this is your favorite TV show (that title up there), then stop reading now because what I’m about to say will just torque your sensitivity gland. But if you think this show is as ridiculous as a man willing to saw off a leg to save money on socks, read on.
We’re all going to be living on bugs in a few years; you know that, don’t you? Roaches, scorpions, grubs, crickets, worms, crispy, crawly crunchies, they are the answer to the coming food shortage — and that shortage is coming. Read around, you’ll see. I’m trying to wrap my head around that insectful situation now.