These views are mine alone, but they should be yours, too.
Apropos of nothing in particular, my father and I recently made a pact of sorts to attempt to try every single one of the cheese varieties mentioned in the script of “The Cheese Shop,” one of British comedy troupe Monty Python’s more famous sketches from its Flying Circus television show that aired on the BBC in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (Keep reading)
Many people seem to be as provincial about their gumbo as they are about their favorite sports team. I have enjoyed almost every bowl and variant of gumbo that I have ever tried–at least I cannot remember disliking one–and this is by no means the only way to make it. It is just the recipe that I use because it reminds me of a restaurant where I used to work. (Keep reading)
As George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen would put it, “markets in everything.” (Keep reading)
Just like we should with television or print media, we should approach podcasts with a healthy dose of skepticism, particularly with regard to whatever motives may be behind a story being told or the method in which it is told. (Keep reading)
A 1979 debate on a BBC program is well worth any Monty Python fan’s time, but, more broadly, it should also appeal to anyone who noodles over the tensions between the sacred and the profane. (Keep reading)
Torture occurring in art doesn’t make the art–or its viewers–morally reprehensible, even if it makes us uncomfortable. (Keep reading)
On August 11 this year the Michelle Pfeiffer film Dangerous Minds, and its Grammy-winning flagship song “Gangsta’s Paradise” by rapper Coolio (feat. L.V.; Tommy Boy Records), below, will be 20 years old.
If that makes me old, it makes many of you much older.
Happy Friday!
One tweet to rule them all. (Keep reading)
I need to go rethink my life after reading this. (Keep reading)