Has there ever been a figure more simultaneously beloved and despised than Ronald Reagan? I don't mean beloved by some and despised by others—I mean by the same people. The intelligence community in DC must've felt that way about him—on the one hand, he gave them unlimited funding, unlimited freedom to act without…

You lose a point for not describing Mr. Picker as "gutless." Or "heartless." Or…look, guy got blown up—PUNS.

e famous: No.

Fakkin'-Ay.

The Catiline speeches by Cicero were addresses that he gave to the Roman Senate accusing, indicting, and condemning the traitor Catiline—who, believing that he and his fellow optimates didn't need to take any shit from an uppity novus homo like Cicero, had planned what amounted to a Reichstag-fire-setting campaign in…

I had this huge behemoth of a post written on this episode, and realized looking back on it that it was the epitome of tl;dr. So scratched it, and will just say this: THE AMERICANS is another instance of why the Golden Age of Narrative is currently on television. Because there continue to be shows that take seriously…

The local Paunch Burger team comes over every Sunday and smashes all their windows.

Only thing I'd disagree with in this review: The notion that Raylan has done more harm than good. You may see that way, Art may see it that way, but Raylan doesn't. Apart maybe from the fact that Alison is in danger, and even in that case, you could see that he saw that danger and the obligation to "protect" her as an…

Last night was a curious instance of a show being better than it intended to be—that is, as others have noted, the flaccid conclusion regarding the abusive husband was genuinely disturbing precisely because it was so half-assed and unsatisfying.

Hey—what I choose to do for a pick-me-up when I'm alone at my desk at the office is nobody's business. (Although it did make for a terribly awkward Take Your Daughter To Work day.)

No, no, Mr. Sims. No, no. *You* do not get to shriek someone *else's* last name in frustrated rage. That's just…look, there's a level of "meta" that threatens to buckle the Earth's gravitational pull. Think of the children, Mr. Sims. Think of the children.

Nothing regularly; I'm hesitant to switch my attention to other, more established shows because their commenters are already settled in and don't need my Tolstoyan ass crowding my way in. Also, and I don't mean to rag on Ms. Sairaya, but I'm less motivated to pontificate when I agree with the review, which I usually…

Thank you; my pleasure—always enjoyable to rattle on, and I'm most glad it's enjoyed by others.

Possibly. Though I've given Sims so much shit over the past few months, I wouldn't be surprised (or offended) if it were Mr. S.

I see your point, but (and really, this reading is a product of my cynicism, so it may be dismissed as such) I'd argue that Bill's genius/ego manifests in a ruthless ability to disregard the respect, patience, and prioritizing that I associate with "love." Only Gini excites those requirements, because only she shares…

Watterson is never wrong. Except about whether or not to retire.

Dammit, I said I didn't want to know!

The timeline's a little fuzzy. On the show, the sense is that Masters was out on his butt within a matter of days; in real life, he hung around for awhile before a much more mutual decision to leave the hospital. He and Johnson (HISTORICAL SPOILER) founded their institute in 1964, soon after Masters's departure from…

Historically, the study—that is, the scientific observation of sex—had been going on for about five years when Masters gave the presentation. (Mind you, we picked up the series with Masters in mid-study, since he'd already made contact with the prostitutes and worked out the "hide in the closet with a stop watch"…

…I do not wish to know if, much less how, those two desires are related.