On road trips in my youth, watching the Bob’s Big Boy signs transition to Shoney’s Big Boy was often part of the adventure. As the franchises close, the cheerful burger-wielding statues have been rounded up and corralled, presumably for their own safety. Source: The Big Boy Graveyard Similar:Unemployment rates for recent college grads: Overall, 5.8%;…
Rewatching ST:DS9 A duo of knobby-faced macguffin-hunters, bantering like the crooks from Home Alone, rough up a bumpy-foreheaded alien, then vaporize him. In Quark’s, Bashir is happily casting his friends Dax and O’Brien in his next unnamed-for-copyright-reasons British superspy holodeck adventure, Operation Nudge-Wink. Odo declines, looking uncomfortable. I had never seen this episode before. What…
Rewatching ST:DS9 Quark watches with detached bemusement as Rom backs out of declaring his interest in Leeta. As O’Brien celebrates a win over Bashir at darts, Dr. Zimmerman, a hologram researcher (whose face Star Trek fans will instantly know from the then-contemporary Trek series Voyager) says he’s here to make Bashir “immortal.” Starfleet has chosen…
Some 50 years ago, my father took me to his office in Washington, DC. I believe he was working for the Social Security Administration as a technical writer. I remember he held tightly onto my hand as we used a moving lift like this. The event was notable to young me for two reasons. One,…
I had fun recording this in the studio — with live foley artists! Similar:How to be a Medieval Spectator (Intro to Toronto York Plays 2025)York Corpus Christi Pageant, Toronto, June 7The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)The Big Boy GraveyardA Simple Investigation #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 17) Odo falls for…
Rewatching ST:DS9 Space Dad fusses hoveringly as Jake packs to move in with Nog. Cadet Nog, who has been placed on DS9 for a sophomore internship, is all about duty and cleanliness and exercise, setting up comic tension with Jake, who wants to play computer games and have fun. Odo smugly collects Quark, who’s wanted…
Rewatching ST:DS9 Sisko, Dax, Odo and Garak return from a conference on the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, where Garak got flak for his pro-Cardassian bias, and Odo is uncomfortable with his own reputation as a hero. They’re in a runabout, so it’s no surprise that a plot contrivance particle field hits them before the opening…
Rewatching ST:DS9 Strait-laced time cops arrive on the station to demand “just the truth, Captain.” Sisko’s voice-over informs us that on a trip to recover a Bajoran Plot Contrivance Orb, the Defiant picks up a passenger who would be strangely familiar to anyone who had seen any of Paramount’s extensive promotion for this episode, scheduled…
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When I went off to college to be an English major, my father (who passed last December at 90) told me a story about how his respected professor at Northwestern University spent a whole lecture on the seven levels of symbolism in Melville’s Moby-Dick. Being of an analytical mind and precise mind, my father copied…
I was perhaps a bit more conversational and chipper than usual during class today. A grinning student asked what I was drinking. (It really is just iced tea.) Similar:How to be a Medieval Spectator (Intro to Toronto York Plays 2025)York Corpus Christi Pageant, Toronto, June 7Waiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s Apollo…
As part of an ongoing bid to get his hands on Vantablack, the super dark, light-absorbing material to which Anish Kapoor controversially has the exclusive license, artist Stuart Semple has legally changed his name to… Anish Kapoor. “It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Semple told me. “I like the idea of being able to try a name…
If you like bloody, singing, punning demons you will love this show. Similar:York Corpus Christi Pageant, Toronto, June 7Waiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s Apollo programSpring 2025 Final Grades Submitted!The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player "Useless"The Big Boy Graveyard
I am not in the splash zone but still definitely out of my comfort zone. Support the arts in your community. Similar:York Corpus Christi Pageant, Toronto, June 7Waiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s Apollo programSpring 2025 Final Grades Submitted!The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling…
I have a daughter who does things. If demon curses and buckets of stage blood are your thing, join the fun this weekend in Greensburg. (I will not be seated in the splash zone.) Similar:York Corpus Christi Pageant, Toronto, June 7Waiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s Apollo programSpring 2025 Final Grades Submitted!The…
Did you see that guy’s license plate? Similar:York Corpus Christi Pageant, Toronto, June 7Waiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s Apollo programSpring 2025 Final Grades Submitted!The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)The Big Boy GraveyardA Simple Investigation #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 17) Odo falls for a femme…
I’ve had a lot of fun in this new ensemble audio storytelling series. Did I do a good job convincing my friends I really saw a time-traveling elephant? Similar:Pesky journalists, always showing up to document atrocities.I MacGyvered myself a heat sinkHow to be a Medieval Spectator (Intro to Toronto York Plays 2025)Cockatoos start sipping from…
I came of age playing too many CD-ROM point-and-click adventure games to ignore these steep stairs. (Downtime in downtown #Pittsburgh.) Similar:York Corpus Christi Pageant, Toronto, June 7Waiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s Apollo programSpring 2025 Final Grades Submitted!The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically…
The daughter is in “Very Berry Dead,” a new play which opens this Friday and runs for two weekends in Pittsburgh. Similar:Pesky journalists, always showing up to document atrocities.How to be a Medieval Spectator (Intro to Toronto York Plays 2025)Cockatoos start sipping from Sydney’s drinking fountains after mastering series of complex…York Corpus Christi Pageant, Toronto,…
I’m very amused at this nerdy news story about some tension between a judge who asks for legible documents and a lawyer who files documents with flasher typography. While I recognize that language changes and the distinction between “font” and “typeface” is unimportant to the general public, I teach my journalism students that historically…