Clik here to view.
Living Here In Allentown and on Reverse Frontiers
At about 118,000 people, Allentown is the third-largest and fastest-growing city in Pennsylvania. After long and short falls from its place as a national commercial and industrial leader, Allentown is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Those Unknown Search Terms on Your WordPress Dashboard
The Search Term Mail Bag is one of my favorite kinds of posts. It’s that part of the show where we pretend your search terms are sent by you to me ala David Letterman’s CBS Mail Bag or Craig...
View ArticleClik here to view.
They didn’t just swagger and sneer…
They didn’t just swagger and sneer at the abyss. Between 1994 and 1998, they swaggered — sneered — it back to hell. Supplanting nirvana as a concept and a band, they called themselves Oasis, after all.
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Letterman Keeps Winning
Jay Leno may have delivered more viewers in the long run, but Letterman’s move to CBS 21 years ago created the late night ethos dominating NBC and cable even now. Notes David Bauder: “Like most comics...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bullets With Butterfly Wings: A Writing Prompt About Nerves, Dread, and Fear
Write about your strongest memory of heart-pounding belly-twisting nervousness: what caused the adrenaline? Was it justified? How did you respond? The prompt (not the awesome title reference) came...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Not Just Bacon: The IronPigs, the Liberty Bell, and Allentown’s Revolution...
The new bacon hats are getting all of the attention (and a lot of it) in the regional and even national press. But for me, the most interesting new look in the ‘Pigs’ line up this year is the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
’99 Problems: Jimmy Fallon Lost Me at Bitch
A few nights ago, Chris Rock’s “Bigger and Blacker” special was on. Because I remember it being from 1999 and also hilarious, I watched it for a while. A few things stuck out this time around....
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Gospel of Mark as Sudden Fiction
Sudden fiction is another term for flash fiction, but the two aren’t simply synonymous, at least not to my ear. Don’t read too much into the title of this post. I’m not making some argument that the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Today is Casimir Pulaski Day; Because of Sufjan and Slavery, I Offer This
It’s mostly an Illinois thing, but there’s also an important Lehigh Valley connection. I wrote about this a few years ago, but because I love Sufjan Stevens and hate injustice, I’ll tell you about it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thinking About Chicago
It’s possible to encounter O’Connnor’s stories (you never really just read them) without explicitly discerning her deep, abiding belief in literary art as Christian vocation or her mission to show, as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Yum! Brands Vietnamese Fast Casual Concept with Communist Iconography, Claims...
20 years ago, someone now working on branding at Yum! was maybe giving the Cold War portion of their high school history class the fast casual treatment. Very hard to believe this branding wasn’t an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Like It’s 1999
We’ve had a lot of good alternative and indie music come out in the last few years. Today on alternative radio, though, I heard two novelty songs in a row which got me to thinking that we might be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Columbus Day Thing
Remember when Kay lambasts Michael about “this Sicilian thing?” My Southern Italian roots are Campanian, but you get the point. I hate the nickname of the Washington, DC football team. I think it’s a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Andrew Sullivan Retires from Blogging
Christopher Cocca I have progressed past my libertarian stage, but this piece at the libertarian venue Reason.com does a good job of capturing the gist of what made Andre Sullivan’s blogging so...
View ArticleClik here to view.
John Ratzenberger is a Time Lord: The Life and Work of Jacob Riis
Forget about the alleged image of Jay-Z from the 1930s. John Ratzenberger and groundbreaking photojournalist Jacob Riiss are one in the same. They even have the same initials. Nice try, Cliff Clavin....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Beneath Pixie Hollow: A Brief Social History of the Fey Folk
RDG Stout So apparently fairies are a thing again. When most folks hear “fairies,” we surely think of Tinkerbell. Disney has rather cornered the market on tiny winged Victorianesque young ladies. As a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Boyhood’ and Other Films I’ll Only Watch Once
Nathan Key This isn’t a review of the film Boyhood – there are other articles that can give you a full play-by-play. I watched it a few weeks ago on the evening it won the Golden Globe for Best Film,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Notes from Niflheim: Country Moon
One’s definition of “rural” is completely relative. After spending years living out of efficiencies in Philadelphia and Boston, moving to Fargo deeply jarred me. Everything seemed so small, what with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
[B]rad Infinitum: Photographing Hummingbirds in Costa Rica
Brad Molnar Hello everyone, and a special thanks to Chris for inviting me to write about photography. This article is about photographing hummingbirds at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens in Costa Rica....
View ArticleClik here to view.
[B]rad Infinitum: Cannon Beach, Oregon, at Sunset
For this post, I would like to talk about how I created a photo from Cannon Beach, Oregon, last year. Before I left on this trip, I read about a new technique that can create interesting patterns in...
View Article
