Category Archives: Culture
Rivieras and Siberias and why players can’t wait to get the hell out of most NBA cities
I’d like to offer up a theory. Tell me what you think. I’ve written some lately about the NBA, which despite all its flaws is still my favorite North American professional sports league. (My favorite pro league anywhere, of course, is the English Premiership, the greatest soccer league in the world.) In particular, I’ve pondered The League’s structural issues vis
Read moreSurvivor wrap: the question I wish someone had posed at the final tribal council
A few weeks ago I had some thoughts on the embarrassing displays of blasphemy in this season of Survivor. A quick refresher.
Read moreFrost/Nixon: The rehabilitation of Tricky Dick and what it says about the soul of modern America
My colleague Michael Sheehan recent offered a tip of the cap to a local staging of Frost/Nixon, which starred our old friend Stuart O’Steen. If anything, Mike was understated in his praise of the show and O’Steen’s performance. Anytime the big-city Denver Post says nice things about a community theater production up in the hinterlands of Longmont you know something special
Read moreCop Killer 2011: Police, power and the case of Lt. Pike
I think at some point in our lives, most of us imagine that it might be cool to be famous. But perhaps…perhaps not like this.
Read moreShould math be taught in schools?
Props, yo. (And thanks to Wendy Redal for passing it along….)
Read moreA note to the Penn State community: We support you
I love sports and have my whole life. Ask anyone who knows me. But thanks to my upbringing, I have never been one to lose perspective where athletics are concerned. My grandparents never let me think for a second, for instance, that playing was as important as studying and the lesson stuck. The state of big money college sports appalls
Read moreDear Judge Adams: No, it was worse than it looked
“He who spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes.” (Proverbs 13:24) “Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell.” (Proverbs 23:13-14) By now, you’ve probably heard about the video of
Read moreTim Tebow: a morality play in faith and football (and maybe even national pride)
Some time back I called Tim Tebow a “faith-based” quarterback. In that article I took on a prominent sports commentator who had lost all perspective and tried to address the ways in which the questions of religion and quarterbacking ability were getting all twisted up around the second-year Denver Broncos QB. Since that post, some things have changed and others
Read moreJesus wept: Sports, reality TV and those embarrassing public displays of piety
Some people think I hate Christians. My occasional comments on Tim Tebow probably have something to do with that perception, although you have to aggressively project a hater stereotype on me to make that work. Which a lot of Christians are happy to do, make no mistake. I won’t lie, though. I’m very much not a Christian myself and I’ve
Read moreBanished from the English language: “flip-flopper”
Every once in awhile a new term/catchphrase/buzzword/meme catches fire here in the US. Sometimes it’s a function of the fact that our incredibly plastic language, with its myriad dynamic influences (everything from media to subcultural to ethnic to technological) sort of inherently generates new words. Other times the term is a result of political or PR craftiness, as was the
Read moreAre you ready for some FOOOTBAALLLL?! A couple of notes on the Hank Williams, Jr. hullaballoo
Hank Williams, Jr. said some stupid shit. Because, you know, he’s not exactly a rocket surgeon or a model of progressive, pro-human ideals. I can’t imagine that this comes as much a surprise to anyone. Now ESPN has done what they pretty much had to and kicked Hank to the curb. Read all about it. Two quick thoughts. First, that Monday
Read moreThe lie detector is a lie, the polygraph is my bitch, and Americans should stop acting like slack-jawed yokels
Of course I’ve overpoured a drink, dumbass. Every bartender has overpoured a drink.
Read moreSunday Video Roundup: a 9/11 special
Today, if we choose to listen, we’ll hear a great deal about America, about the last decade, about the lessons we’ve learned. Football will be played. Flags will be waved. Tears will be shed. And tomorrow we’ll be exactly what we were yesterday, only moreso. Maybe today is a bad time for critiques. Or maybe it’s the perfect time. Hard
Read moreHappy Labor Day: S&R salutes the American worker with selections from Whitman, Springsteen and Mellencamp
While our country has in recent times engaged in a relentless policy war against the working class I grew up in, there was a time when honest labor was a thing to be celebrated. America became the greatest nation on the planet for a period of time thanks to its workers, not its CEOs or its bankers. Our character is
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lullaby pit 