I saw Ready Player One at the “real” theater and Phantom Thread at the local college. RPO was fun, though I thought the pop-culture references were rather forced, but how did I not have any clue about the weird plot twist in Phantom Thread? I’ve been following discussions of Oscar-nominated and other “prestige” movies…

This was my favorite part of the article. The idea that the state of Kansas would have an official guitarist made me laugh.

Hey, thanks for this! I’ve got family and friends in the Twin Cities but they are all transplants, so advice on where to eat there is appreciated. I’m cutting, pasting, and saving your post!

Thanks, Obama!

Has anyone else ever done the “split the front end of a Planaria in two” thing in a biology lab? I have, and what’s supposed to happen is that it will grow two heads. Which is weird, but just as weird is that what sometimes happens is that the head just grows back together as if nothing happened.

I could not care less about this movie, but am just commenting because of the Weird Al reference in the article title. Hi, everyone!

I’m from the South Bend area, and have relatives who have worked for her, and I’ve never heard a bad word. There you go.

Am I the only one who read this as “player feces”?

Also, “Home” was genuinely scary, whereas this episode had a lot of humor, and while bloody, certainly wasn’t.

That was the biggest laugh of the episode for me! (Speaking as one who has been married for almost 30 years.)

Everyone, if you’re a Little House fan, just read the annotated Pioneer Girl (you can get it now at a reasonable price). It provides both Laura’s original text and incredibly researched context for all those stories from the books you remember. As someone who grew up with the books and followed the various…

You had me at Nina Totenberg.

I’ve been spending a considerable amount of time grading essays lately, and I think I might give extra points if a student used either word, just for the entertainment value.

This is timely, as I was just talking with a friend who had never even heard of John Waters (though he was somewhat familiar with Hairspray), and asked for a recommendation for one of his films. I told him I’d have to think about it, as I wanted something edgier than Hairspray, without scaring him off (e.g. Pink…

Testies?

There is no fucking way I’m going to read the linked article (not that it would provide any reliable information anyway), and I sort of hate to ask because it might seem like I’m legitimizing these idiots, but is the artist actually known for including images of sperm in his work? Or is this completely a figment of…

I don’t have a clue as to how you go about starting a podcast, but I can’t believe I didn’t think of the concept of “Sleep With Me”. I’ve been listening to recorded lectures at bed time for over a decade, starting with The Teaching Company CD’s and now streaming. I’ve always been an insomniac, and I’ve found that…

I live in one of those (very) small midwestern towns, and our mall is as dying as the one in this game. Once the anchor Menards moved out, it really went downhill, and we lost JC Penney last year. It’s maybe 1/3 occupied. However, I have family in South Bend, IN, and the mall that was one of the originals from the…

As a huge Bloom County/BB fan, how have I never heard that story? Perhaps it is the inspiration for the classic Bloom County poem that rhymes “jasper, wine, and sugar” with “Casper Weinberger”.

I’m still traumatized by Joe Theismann’s leg break, so no.