Category Archives: Popular Culture

Nobody Does Similes

…like Lileks:

…the power stayed on, damn the luck. In fact the entire storm skirted us – 60 MPH winds downtown, but here at Jasperwood we just got gusts and downpours, the far edge of the mayhem. I was stupid enough to put fresh batteries in one of the lights, too. Now they’ll be useless the next time I need them. They will sit in the lantern for a year and quietly drain themselves, like old men peeing in their pants while they sleep.

There’s a lot more where that came from.

[Update a few minutes later]

I know, I say to read the whole thing, and I didn’t before I posted this. So farther down, I found this:

And must we start with a rap song? Must we? It was like the trailer for “Nanny McPhee Returns,” which have “Everything Little Thing She Does (is Magic)” by the Police to remind you that, you know, Nanny uses Magic. Nevermind that it seems to take place in England in the 30s. I doubt it’s in the movie itself, but when they stick in the Obligatory Pop Song it not only takes you out of the world they’ve constructed, you feel like you’re being treated like a fool. Don’t worry! It may be set in the past, icky icky, but it’s hip as all hell! Here’s a 25-year-old pop song to prove it!

I watched a dumb Jennifer Aniston flick on the plane yesterday (captive audience, not enough seat pitch to use the laptop), and one of the annoying things about it was the occasional rap in the soundtrack. Is there anyone who would not go to a movie if they knew there wasn’t rap in it (other than a movie about rap, that is)? Because I know at least one person with exactly the opposite opinion. Why do they feel the need to do that? What value does it add?

I Hate When This Happens

This seems like a paramedic’s nightmare:

Police said that in their investigation they learned that the people inside the car were dressed as zombie costumes and they were headed to a party at the time of the crash.

Yeah, a likely story.

Sgt. Greg Stewart said people who witnessed the crash initially thought the victims’ injuries were much more serious, because of the zombie costumes.

“We’re glad that everyone is alive, despite being ‘undead’,” Sgt. Stewart said, referring to the costumes.

I think that this was just a probe of the defenses, myself.