Humanities Tennessee, not Tennessee Humanities.

I don’t read a lot of fiction, but I was given a copy of “Exhalation” in preparation for Chiang coming to my little rural Tennessee town to speak to local high school students. (He was in Tennessee for the Southern Festival of Books, and Tennessee Humanities arranged for him to make this little side visit. I’m the…

My favorite line in “Good Night, And Good Luck” is when Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) is talking to a CBS executive (Jeff Daniels) about the fact that a sponsor has pulled out of a controversial episode of “See It Now.” Murrow says that he and his producer Fred Friendly will cover the cost of the episode…

I generally cringe at bad southern accents — one reason I never enjoyed “The Closer,” one of my brother’s favorite shows — but somehow it worked in this case. (I saw one of the early screenings Saturday night.) I think it’s because Benoit Blanc is supposed to be a larger-than-life character anyway, and they lampshade…

My mother made this — we called it “nuts and bolts,” because it had Cheerios and stick pretzels — every holiday season. On Thanksgiving day, with the whole family home, we would all sit around and crack nuts while watching parades or football, and mom would turn out an enormous amount several days later, giving it to…

The Nashville Sounds, the minor-league baseball team in Nashville, features a race around the base path each game with giant papier-maiche-headed mascots representing Johnny Cash, George Jones, Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton. It’s goofy enough to be fun, but it always bothers me for some weird reason that it’s a mix…

Oh, I have to disagree. I love their breakfast, and since they offer it all day, that’s all I ever eat there -- but it’s a great breakfast.

A recent article on a food site confirmed what I was already doing — I try to keep two different kinds of butter on hand. A good butter like Kerrygold or President for spreading on toast or things like that, and then ordinary butter (I typically buy the store brand) for cooking, melting, etc.

Well, technically, one of the Ant-Man movies *did* end with the death of half the population of the universe.

I remember watching Brooks’ remake of the classic “To Be Or Not To Be” in the 1980s with a former college professor of mine for whom I was working and whose son was a close friend. Brooks, in his remake, referenced the fact that homosexuals were sent to concentration camps — there’s a scene where Jews are forced to…

They should just confuse everyone and title it “New York Mining Disaster 1941.”

I understand what you’re saying, although the von Braun situation is a little more complex — it’s not just about whether someone should be forgiven but whether they should be lionized. When we look at his life as a whole, do we consider his work making missiles that killed innocent civilians on behalf of one of the…

On Saturday night, I drove from Tennessee down to Huntsville, Alabama, for a “Whose Live Anyway” show (with Dave Foley, Joel Murray, Greg Proops and Jeff Davis) at the Von Braun Center, an arena-and-theater complex downtown named for the man who was once Huntsville’s most famous resident. During the show, on the stage…

I watched a documentary maybe 20 or more years ago about the expansion of KFC into Japan. This was 20 years ago, so conditions may not be the same, but one of the key points of the documentary was that in Japan, at that time, most people expected to work for the same employer for their entire career, and because of…

I was going to ask why no mention of “The Spoils of Babylon” until I remembered that part was played by Sir Richard Driftwood.

I miss “The Pete Holmes Show.”

Right. You don’t really get the experience of appreciating the Mona Lisa; you only get the experience of being able to say you saw the Mona Lisa. I only spent a morning at the Louvre, and what I saw was incredible, but it was only a fraction of what’s there.

I am always delighted when I re-watch “The Sting” at how well it holds up even after you know the ending. On the morning of the big con, when Hooker and Gondorf are getting dressed, you actually see Hooker put something into his cheek. On your first viewing, you pay no attention to it, but the next time you see the…

I live, and grew up, in the same general area as Jack Daniel’s (20 minutes from my apartment), George Dickel (gets its water from the spring that gave my high school its name) and Prichard’s. I’ve taken the Jack Daniel’s tour multiple times, and the Dickel tour a couple, but Prichard’s is newer, and a little farther…

Believe it or not — and I’m delighted that I was able to find confirmation — when the ad first aired, it was not “New York City” but “New Jersey.” No idea why they changed it.