Nobody does anything anymore without first checking the reviews. Whether it’s watching a movie on Netflix or buying a hammer at the hardware store, you’re practically obligated in this era of instantaneous thumbs-up and thumbs-down to see what other people think first, before you act. Even if those people have an axe to grind. Or… Read More Upon Further Review
Pretty much every morning, for the past two years, the First Amendment champions at The New York Times have kept us up to date on the grim totals of the pandemic with all manner of charts and graphs and statistics. In the 21st century business of journalism, this is known as “data journalism:” the gathering,… Read More The End is Near
Probably 15 minutes or so into one of the latest Netflix blockbusters, a satirical hammer to the skull about disasters that human beings so blithely and comically ignore — ha! climate change, ha! silly politicians, ha! the pitfalls of sudden fame, ha! a comet destroying Earth, ha! we’re such dunderheads — I knew that we… Read More Remember When Movies Were Good?
During my first semester of college, in between learning to catch a screaming frisbee behind my back (I should have been in class) and drinking unfathomable amounts of beer (I probably should have been studying), I wandered through a slightly advanced English class — trust me, it wasn’t that advanced — in which I was… Read More If At First …
For a long, blissful time in my life, television existed in its rightful place. It was there when I had to, or simply wanted to, catch a game. It was right there, in the prime real estate of the living room, when I needed to turn off my brain. It was an easy way out… Read More TV for These Times
We are just back from a trip to the West Coast. “We” meaning my wife and I. “Just” meaning, keeping with the currency of JDBlogs, almost a month ago. The getaway to San Diego was the first big trip of the pandemic for Mary Jo and I, and it went largely without incident. Cross-country air… Read More Catching Up, Still
JD Blogs 