There was that, yeah, but in the way it used the historical figures in it, it seemed like the novel was at least in part about how much anti-semitism there really was in the US at that time, and I felt like part of the point of that was puncturing this belief we have in our innate goodness or the strength of our…

I was profoundly disappointed in this book, but anything David Simon does gets a chance from me.

I dunno about broccoli but I think you just decided the next thing I’m putting on roast cauliflower.

You really want to give yourself a scare, read the first few chapters of Albert Speer’s “Inside the Third Reich.” I picked that up because I wanted to try to understand how an educated, reasonable, seemingly not particularly racist dude would wind up going whole-hog for Hitler and it was unsettling.

A friend once pointed out that drinks that aren’t water can essentially be classified as liquid food, liquid candy and chemicals, and that he’d rather eat his food and candy.

Is a Chicken McGriddle that different (conceptually, at least) from fried chicken and waffles?

No. I probably should, but “Grapes of Wrath,” “Of Mice and Men” and “The Pearl” in high school effectively killed my desire to read more Steinbeck.

“Namely, that any criticism—no matter how valid or accurate—is an ad hominem attack on their preferred presidential candidate meant to destroy their chances of becoming the leader of the free world.”

My complaint with Steinbeck was how unrelentingly grim it is, and that it never feels like there’s anything more to the stories than the unrelenting grimness. Finishing a Steinbeck book, I never felt uplifted, or entertained or educated. I just felt kicked.

I would watch the hell out of that.

To be fair, there’s a noticeable demographic that seems to suddenly start caring about old media the second they are rebooted with the main character as a woman and/or a person of color.

This was pretty much made for out-of-context quoting by people who have seen it to confuse and annoy people who have not.

Wage slavery as the moral equivalent of chattel slavery was a favorite of Confederate apologists for a while and it still gets trotted out by certain types of far-left contrarians.

Dudes genuinely become more woke to women’s issues when they have daughters. There are studies and everything.

I didn’t realize I was commenting on something from almost a year ago. Yikes. Sorry.

The majority of the media we consume has always been open about its fictionality. Chris Evans doesn’t keep being Captain America after the director yells “cut.”

It’s the summer of 1992. I’m at debate camp. This album is playing as two kids from Utah recreate that scene from “Platoon” by blowing cigarette smoke into each other’s mouths using the metal tube from a vacuum cleaner.

Now that it occurs to me, it’s kind of surprising Mark Wahlberg hasn’t done a Spenser revival yet.

I don’t see any need for or point to a second season of Watchmen, but I didn’t see any need for or point to the first season when it was announced and look how that turned out.

Sometimes you just want half a baked potato. Why the hell shouldn’t you share it, then?