Author: Chad
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What a Chad
I get the Word of the Day from Merriam-Webster, the OED, and Urban Dictionary in my RSS feed every day, which usually make for a lively bunch. Well, today, May 8, 2018, Urban Dictionary’s Word of the Day is What A Chad: A phrase describing a stereotypical young urban white male, typically single and in his…
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Ain’t no road just like Lake Shore Drive
And there ain’t no road just like it Anywhere I found Running south on Lake Shore Drive heading into town Just slippin’ on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound — “Lake Shore Drive” by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah I’ve had occasion to drive into or through downtown Chicago several times recently, which is unusual. A…
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There’s always money in the Death Star
I don’t know who made this mashup of Arrested Development and Star Wars, but it captures the show’s tone so perfectly, and not only because Ron Howard himself provided the narration: This might even make me want to see Solo: A Star Wars Story. [*Ron Howard Arrested Development voice*] It won’t.
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Don’t let affordable technology ruin your day
Mashups from the March/April 2016 issue of Popular Science. (See more magazine mashups.)
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Music we leave behind
There are two works of art I associate with an ex. One is the music of Mayer Hawthorne, specifically A Strange Arrangement, which had come out a few months before our brief relationship and was a primary jam for me that winter. The other is the Disney animated film The Princess and the Frog, which…
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Pattern-spotting in a Chicagoland alley
Though the cold, wintry weather has extended into April this year, the other day the sun beamed and the temperature jumped into the 60s. I decided to take a break from work and go for a short walk, and I soon ambled down one of the countless back alleys that cut through Chicagoland. (Here’s the…
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What’s your favorite library memory?
In honor of National Library Week, I’d like to know your favorite library memories or experiences, distant or recent. And if you don’t have any, why not? See my libraries tag for more goodness.
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Magazine Mashups: North America’s best is Rodney Dangerfield
Mashups from the January 28, 2018 issue of New York Times Magazine. (See more magazine mashups.)
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The People v. O.J. Simpson
I was seven years old when the O.J. Simpson trial happened. I don’t have any personal memories of it, but through over 20 years of cultural osmosis I’ve grown familiar with its broad strokes and iconic images: the Bronco chase, Kato Kaelin, O.J. trying on the glove, Judge Ito, the verdict. Watching FX’s The People v.…
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Refer Madness: Could be home, doing nothing
Refer Madness spotlights strange, intriguing, or otherwise noteworthy questions I encounter at the library reference desk. In my library, one of the information desks sits in a high-traffic area where all the activity from the entrance, auditorium, elevator, and stairs to Youth Services converge. One result of this configuration is that whoever is at the desk (and anyone in the…
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You Are A Service, and other ads for smartphone addicts
Typecaster Rino Breebaart on what messages he’d put on bus ads for people who happen to look up from their smartphone: These would work just as well, if not better, as digital ads. Or maybe as a service where you get one of these texted to you for every 10 minutes you’re on your phone.
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Quisling: What’s in a name?
In July 2016 I visited the Norway Resistance Museum in Oslo, which told the story of Norway’s occupation by the Nazis during World War II. A name that kept popping up throughout the museum was Vikdun Quisling, the Norwegian politician who collaborated with Hitler and seized control of Norway’s government during the occupation. I wanted to…
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From defeat, not victory
In his book Washington’s Crossing, David Hackett Fisher writes about how the colonists responded to the dark days of the American Revolution in 1776: This great revival grew from defeat, not from victory. The awakening was a response to a disaster. Doctor Benjamin Rush, who had a major role in the event, believed that this…
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The Death of Stalin
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like The Death of Stalin, Veep creator Armando Iannucci’s new film about the farcical machinations of Stalin’s inner circle after the dictator’s sudden death in 1953. Don’t be fooled by the serious title: this is social and political satire at his sharpest, loosely based on real events…
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Magazine Mashups: Am I human?
Mashups from Scientific American, March 2017. (See more magazine mashups.)
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Grandma’s dressers
It’s been a year since my Grandma Helen died. I inherited several things from her before and after her death, including a Selectric typewriter and typewriter desk. But of these heirlooms, what I now notice most frequently, and what most often remind me of her, are the dressers. One horizontal and one vertical, they are massive…