The Ride

T and Sympathy

If Mike Schur wanted to make Pawnee in Springfield's image, as I heard he did, that may be why the villains on the show are so uninteresting. Councilman Jamm, Bobby Newport and Joan Calamezzo all have one goal and one giant flaw, just like a weekly Simpsons villain.

Something that just occurred to me: making your friend take a job that doesn't use their skill set just so they can work in the same building as you is not super healthy, but because it's Ann it seemed normal.

My problem with Ann is that she's so adept at some things, like giving Leslie advice, and inept/aimless at others, like interaction with pretty much all men.

I like Jesse a lot, but I can't stand how sometimes he'll make a joke for the express purpose of reminding everyone that he knows a little something about pretty much everything, which seems to be one of the things you're getting at. Of course, Hodgman likes to mispronounce things like "pedANT" and, this week,…

Re: Hang Up and Listen

Was anyone else surprised by how much weight Hodgman put on the fact that he liked hockey? He was probably just trying to make the case seem closer than it was. Still, it seems to me many people in America enjoy hockey in a typically masculine, unaesthetic way that can't be reconciled with hipsterdom.

Cold, sure. But if a nihilist had made Paths of Glory, it would be a very different movie. Glad the exhibit was enjoyed by all.

The pretty background colors and skewed perspective remind me of George W. Bush's oeuvre

C'mon, Britain, we've been over this. He's Canadian. Can't you leave us out of the one bad thing in the world for which we're not responsible?

There's definitely something tribal about it that goes way beyond silly TV shows on late at night. I remember a few months after the War for Late Night someone on this site pointed out how similar it felt to, and how Conan's ouster coincided with, Obama's declining popularity and effectiveness and a changing mood in…

In the middle of Tenth of December. Endlessly impressed, both in his fiction and in interviews, by how subtle and compassionate Saunders is about the enraging subjects he writes about. I can't think of many other writers who could do that without crossing over into the dreaded "WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!" territory. That's why…

When it's over….is it really over?

I recommend Barbara Ehrenreich's The Hearts of Men for anyone interested in how men's lives changed, from just after WWII through Second-wave feminism

@avclub-4cfd158c4a8894b07b5dd245343609e0:disqus I wish commercials were the last refuge of truly magical thinking for adults, the world would be much better off. Sadly, I think it's probably the tip of a very large iceberg. If you can't suspend any disbelief for commercials, it's probably because you're more tethered…

It's been a long time comin', but I know…

The other similarity with The King's Speech is that they're both essentially coasting off of an incredibly good story, and in both cases it makes for a very solid movie

There's some promising Hugh Jackman and Life of Pi numbers coming in from Butler County, OH, folks. Don't trust the MSM, it's gonna be a long night!