Author's note: This was written nearly four years ago and I must admit my opinion of the Star Wars Holiday Special has softened a bit. Oh, I still think it's awful don't get me wrong, but it has for me fallen into the "so bad it's good" category. Well, [...]
We are all familiar with the benevolent nighttime intruder who once a year indulges in mass breaking and entering to deposit gifts under indoor foliage. You know, the omnipotent fat man dressed in red who observes your every waking and sleeping moment to determine if you are “bad” or “good” [...]
The blood elevator scene, sometimes called the ‘river of blood’, from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a horrifying and disturbing image in a film full of horrifying and disturbing images. Upon watching it the scene produces in many - myself included - a feeling of dread; an uneasiness that is [...]
The new season (series) of Doctor Who started yesterday and I feel I am required to say something about it. Typically this is not something I do, at least in the terms of a “hot take” or some such thing. I usually like to ruminate on a thing for a [...]
Growing up my Saturday afternoons would be spent with creatures, monsters, ghosts, ghouls, murderers and mad scientists. Beginning around one o'clock I would settle down in front of our 17" Sony Trinatron (complete with simulated wood grain plastic sides) with a soda (typically Frank's grape or ginger ale) and a bowl [...]
It was late December 2007 and I was driving home from work listening to the radio. There is an indie station that plays Christmas music by alternative bands with alternative takes on the holiday and that is the only type of Christmas music I listen to because yeah, I’m [...]
My dear friend Michael Daly retired from teaching today. A rather large amount of people gathered in a ballroom to celebrate his career and the man. He mingled the crowd as we sipped our cocktails and nibbled the h'orderves. There were handshakes and pats on the back and hugs. It [...]
2017 is officially over and frankly, good riddance. Among the vast amount of awful this past year brought we saw a once lauded political institution (know colloquially as “The United States”) become a world-wide punchline and a seemingly endless stream of celebrities and other men in positions of power get [...]
Editor's Note: I originality wrote this back in 2015 I thought it could use a re-post. My great-great-grandfather came here from Ireland. He did so to escape famine, civil war and oppression. He left everything he knew – family, friends and culture - to come to America and create [...]
2016 was not a good year. I could mention the abundance of celebrity deaths or the uncivil election or the discouraging decisions in Europe as the reasons for the awfulness of the year. Or on a smaller scale there were financial issues, work related shakeups and arguments I don’t care [...]
