The Fanatic and the Addict

March 27, 2011

Is addiction related to fanaticism?

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Thoughts from a Valentine’s Day Grinch

February 13, 2011

“Romance” and “love” are not synonyms.

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I’m so busy!

January 7, 2011

The new year is now upon us, and with each new year comes the pressure to reassess ourselves and our lives, to figure out what we should do differently. I will exercise more! Eat less! Volunteer more! But it’s hard to fit anything new in, because we’re all so busy, we’re all going at 90 [...]

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Christmas and Sarah Palin

December 21, 2010

Images and practices that combine what might seem to be contradictory ideas help us to reconcile those contradictions in our day to day lives.

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PowerPoint, Tool of Satan

November 20, 2010

It’s sometimes difficult to get across in print when you are kidding, so let me state upfront that I don’t really think that Bill Gates and his crew are minions of the devil.

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Romantic Realism and Romantic Relationships

October 24, 2010

Our culture is saturated with romantic realism—stories and images that depict a world that is just a little bit better than the one you and I dwell in. One of the primary sources of romantic realism is advertising, which depicts products that are beautiful and new, which work perfectly and easily, and are always associated [...]

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Fame and the Celebrity Game

October 3, 2010

People play the celebrity game to experience the emotional arousal that any brush with fame provides.

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Playing the Celebrity Game

September 19, 2010

Why are we so desperate for contact with celebrities we claim to disapprove of?

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Men, Shopping, and Museums

August 23, 2010

Having confessed that I don’t like museums, I am now ready to reveal that I also don’t like shopping. This is unlikely to get picked up by the major news services: “Guy doesn’t like shopping!” Of course I don’t like shopping, men never like shopping.

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Museums and the Celebrity of Stuff

August 8, 2010

In the culture of entertainment we expect to be entertained, which is why many of us are miserable in museums.

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