I think Gorbachev (and most of the leaders of the Soviet Bloc, minus Romania's CeascufuckifI'mgoingtobothergooglinghowtospellhisname) deserve recognition for not using tanks to crush popular uprisings as his predecessors had done in '56 and '68, and as Deng was doing in China at the same time.  I'm not sure I would…

I don't know how it is today, but kids in the early 80s didn't read Judy Blume books—they skimmed through the pages until they came across one of the rumored "bitches" or "damns," then stared at it for several minutes with commingled horror and awe, aware that their lives could no longer ever be the same again.

One of my biggest regrets in life is that I didn't buy that t-shirt of Calvin and Hobbes hugging above the line, "Our love is love, not fade away" which I encountered at a Grateful Dead concert some 18 years ago.

My household had a second-hand "12 Songs" LP back when I was in high school so I can say conclusively that his best song is "Let's Burn Down the Cornfield," listened to in a dark room with all of the cracks and hisses of an old vinyl record.

You might enjoy Philip Jenkins's book, Decade of Nightmares.  It's a lively academic work which explores the various panics of the period from roughly 1975 to 1985, including worries about Satan worshipers, drug pushers, serial killers, and child abductors.

The transformation was actually pretty noticeable, even to those watching steadily (to me at least).  Either the beginning of this season or the previous one I remember thinking, "Wow, he's lost a lot of weight."  The change is probably starker for someone who hasn't really "seen" Baldwin since Season Three, but there…

I don't think I'll ever be able to see your avatar again without thinking of Goya: http://upload.wikimedia.org…

Just a random thought (and maybe it's been hashed out before), but what if the main point of the ending isn't so much that Tony gets killed (if he does) but that Meadow gets saved.  I don't think that the characters are ones who CAN'T change so much as they are ones who lack the will to change.  Carmela wants to be…

Just a random thought (and maybe it's been hashed out before), but what if the main point of the ending isn't so much that Tony gets killed (if he does) but that Meadow gets saved.  I don't think that the characters are ones who CAN'T change so much as they are ones who lack the will to change.  Carmela wants to be…

Honestly, the only reason I read comments on any site other than the AVClub (and the only other places where I really bother to read comments are hardly fringe sites—I'm talking NYTimes and Washington Post), is because I have some odd drive to experience the vertiginous feeling that comes with the conviction that…

Honestly, the only reason I read comments on any site other than the AVClub (and the only other places where I really bother to read comments are hardly fringe sites—I'm talking NYTimes and Washington Post), is because I have some odd drive to experience the vertiginous feeling that comes with the conviction that…

I imagine MrZ was satirizing the commonly bandied about argument that armed, law-abiding citizens could prevent such tragedies as they occurred rather than actually endorsing the arming of eight year-olds and elementary-school teachers.  But, with the Internet these days. who knows.

I imagine MrZ was satirizing the commonly bandied about argument that armed, law-abiding citizens could prevent such tragedies as they occurred rather than actually endorsing the arming of eight year-olds and elementary-school teachers.  But, with the Internet these days. who knows.

Weird.  I'm a big fan of  Take Out the Trash.  It doesn't strike me as Smash-Mouthy at all, but more Brian Selzery (more in terms of his Stray Cats phase than his later swing phase, but in line with the retro feel of both).  It reminds me in that sense of "The Guitar."

Weird.  I'm a big fan of  Take Out the Trash.  It doesn't strike me as Smash-Mouthy at all, but more Brian Selzery (more in terms of his Stray Cats phase than his later swing phase, but in line with the retro feel of both).  It reminds me in that sense of "The Guitar."

I have to say, I went into the Zeppo expecting to love it, but left underwhelmed.  Can't fully explain why, but it just seemed to me that the execution somehow never lived up to the concept.

I have to say, I went into the Zeppo expecting to love it, but left underwhelmed.  Can't fully explain why, but it just seemed to me that the execution somehow never lived up to the concept.

@ColdGottoBe:disqus : If you really haven't seen the ventriloquist one then you owe it to yourself to watch its final scene, even if it means scrolling through everything which precedes it.

@ColdGottoBe:disqus : If you really haven't seen the ventriloquist one then you owe it to yourself to watch its final scene, even if it means scrolling through everything which precedes it.

There was one point where Weiss made a joke about liking to  "dip his cigar in brandy" before smoking it, but he was suave enough to repeat it to Mr. Brandi himself so as to emphasize the (supposed) good-natured harmlessness of it