Everybody Hurts is lovely, imo, but it does more or less repeat the same verse multiple times, which is a sin REM commits often (I say that as a fan).
Mainly I wanted to second your love for those three songs. The first two in particular are just perfect.

The writer admits that they judged Automatic by the radio hits, so, perhaps unbeknownst to them, they missed a lot of the best stuff. I love that record, but I can certainly understand being put off by "Everybody Hurts," and "Man on the Moon" does have that weird line about being "locked in the punch."

The AV Club
A bizarre tonal mix that never quite evens out

I think I read something about that. Apparently, Black used to be a stoner but was out of practice. He probably didn't realize how low his tolerance had gotten and smoked like it was the old days. I think Benson felt bad about how it went.

or John "Hot Rod" Williams, who was a decent professional basketball player!

Hey, lay off Matt Flynn! He was a very solid college QB and seemed like a nice enough guy. It's not his fault that certain general managers thought he was a legit first-string NFL quarterback. I'd have taken their money too.

Does that combo actually exist in nature? Or does he shave his back? I assume the latter, but if it's the former, he's a lucky, lucky bastard.

I'm a freelance journalist and I'm registered as an independent. But I find there are fewer and fewer elections in which I feel comfortable voting, as it's hard for me to know what I'll end up writing about.
I think some reporters would say they can report objectively and still vote their conscience. But I would…

Wow. At my J-school, the straight-up news profs weren't even registered to vote, because that's how serious they were about not taking sides. I thought that seemed extreme at the time, although now I think it's a pretty good system.
As for the Times, I think it's fair to say that the center-left [definitely not…

The U.S. population is more than 320 million. So 11 million isn't much in the grand scheme of things, nor is it much compared to what hit shows were getting a couple decades ago.
And I think "The Walking Dead sucks now" is a pretty mainstream opinion. Even people who watch it often say they're not sure why. A…

Thank you for offering an actual substantive defense of the show, rather than just whining about the criticism like some of the other fans are doing here.

Or maybe–and this is a wild theory, but please hear me out– critics of the show are giving their honest opinions. And that everyone is in fact entitled to their own opinion, no "apparently" about it. [Side note: Why the scare quotes around "apparently"?]

First of all, saying "Walking Dead sucks" does not make one a "contrarian." Lots of people have been saying that for years. Yes, it's still a big hit by modern standards, but "big hit by modern standards" isn't a very big number in the grand scheme of things.
Also, there are quite a few lengthy comments where people…

Wow, I'm not great with numbers, but that looks pretty definitive to me. The lesson, as always: Football coaches are idiots.

Holy shit, I watch them play at least twice a year and never noticed that before.

I seriously wouldn't mind that rule on extra points. Move it back to the old distance, but make someone who was on the field when they scored kick it.

I've seen stats that would indicate that it helps, although I haven't seen the numbers recently. Football coaches are such control freaks, it's hard to see them giving up even an illusion of affecting the outcome of the kick.

Saints fan here too. Part of me wouldn't mind seeing Atlanta win the Super Bowl, since they've never won one, but I know actively rooting for them would just feel weird. I'll probably submit to peer pressure and end up rooting against them.

That must have been a rough six-and-a-half minutes for you. I found it pretty succinct, myself, given that it was breaking down a pretty intricate bit that was probably years in the making.

And if it's the former, Kylie seems to have missed the part where Hamburger Trash says "I know you're joking." It's misunderstandings all the way down.