I'm not sure about the U.S., but awhile back I heard a BBC podcast on benefit fraud, and one of their main points was that the average citizen had a grossly inflated idea about how much fraud was happening. (According to Wikipedia, "on average people thought that 27% of the British welfare budget is claimed…

I would say that consumerism is not so much fueled by the ability to act on our desires, but by the desires themselves. Just because people have less to spend doesn't mean they don't still have the desire to spend and aspire to spend. If anything, such economic contractions could well make the desire more acute, and…

I don't think powerlessness plays much of a role, really. In fact, if you look at the history of infantilized or childish adults, the idle rich (who certainly aren't alienated from power) are the vanguard. A character like Arthur (from the eponymous movies) would be one example, but the type stretches back to the…

Well, that's kind of happening with the arts. Before the printing press, the art economy was based on patronage. After the printing press, art became a commodity supported through direct sales. Now, in the Kickstarter Age, there's a shift back towards patronage — albeit a decentralized form of patronage.

I grew up in West Tennessee, much of my extended family all have noticeable to strong southern accents (of varying flavors), and I while I am told I have a little hints of twang in my speech, most people don't peg me as a Southerner. More to the point, I despite growing up surrounded by Southern accents, I can't put…

I have a pet theory about the much-commented-upon phenomenon of "vocal fry," which is that it's actually an attempt to suggest a degree of maturity. Women in their twenties and even thirties (actually, there is no upper limit anymore) are expected to look like teenagers, dress like teenagers, have the posture and…

There was a great This American Life segment (Act III of episode #138: "The Real Thing") in which a native Southerner ranted about terrible Hollywood Southern accents. As part of that segment, the guy interviewed a professional dialect coach — and this man who is paid to train actors in accents proceeds to perform…

I don't think it's alpha-malism that's falling aside. It's maturity. Maturity is becoming less of a virtue and more evidence that one is out-of-touch with the true center of culture and merchandising — the 14-year-old brain.

@avclub-d7f43e1fb2d4977c86163d9b0cb07814:disqus I haven't been to a theatrical release that had an intermission in years, but I honestly would not be at all surprised if the theater owners these days switched on their ScreenVision program to milk those ten minutes for whatever trickle of dollars they can.

Aw, how cute. He wants music from the movie's soundtrack played before the start of the film and during the intermission, rather than a stream of obnoxious advertisements. It's almost like he cares about creating a powerful and consistent aesthetic experience for consuming a work of art.

And they both ripped it off from Neil Simon's Lionel Twain in "Murder By Death."

Ah, I see. To realize that, I would have had to scroll, like, way up there, though…

I think Brazil is the more egregious omission.

I just recently listened to the audiobook version of David Mitchell's memoir "Back Story." I enjoyed it. Though it's fairly lacking in incident up until the actual show business part starts (and even then, his comedy career proceeds along a fairly conventional pattern), it did provide a lot of little "I had exactly…

I, too, have the audiobook versions of both Martin's book and Fey's. And I have to say that while I certainly enjoyed Bossypants as I was listening to it, I remember virtually nothing about it now. It didn't really leave much of an impression. Born Standing Up, however, I remember a great deal of and have actually…

It's kind of interesting to compare Linda with Laura from Dr. Katz. Both characters manifest similar veins of impatience, eye-rolling contempt, and entitlement, but somehow people seem to have huge crushes on Laura and despise Linda. But would a relationship with Laura really be that different from a relationship with…

It's been awhile since I read the main Gladwell books, but isn't it a little unfair characterize him as "inventing theories"? He's primarily a journalist. He is summarizing and reporting on the theories of others. What theories do you propose Gladwell has actually "invented" himself?

@avclub-6997a8bd0e1042b70b60c5c879a1780e:disqus Who's arguing that the Sopranos is unique? It's presented as one example of narrative structure possibly reflecting presentist ideas.

Dragonslayer.

I never cease to be amazed how some people will trumpet their ignorance of a thing as though that's a failure of the thing, rather than a demonstration of their own ignorance.