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Articles in Culture and Criticism

The Forensic Science of CSI
March 5, 2007 – 1:51 AM | No Comment

Pretty interesting, but it only encompasses the first season — and a lot of it seems redundant if you watch the show on a regular basis.   Quite well-written of its ilk, though.   (1/31/04)

50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know
March 5, 2007 – 1:50 AM | No Comment

Some of the stuff I already knew from Bigger Secrets, but that the Ten Commandments most of us know aren’t actually the ones on the tablets?   That was news. (8/27/05)

Fiasco: A History of Hollywood’s Iconic Flops
March 5, 2007 – 1:50 AM | No Comment

I wanted really badly to like this book, but…it didn’t work out that way.   Parish, the author, is, I think, extremely knowledgeable about film history, and I think I would enjoy talking with him …

Fair Ball
March 5, 2007 – 1:49 AM | No Comment

I like it so far; I think Bob Costas is rad, just generally.   But I have to see how it shakes out, because some of the things he’s talking about, dynastically, were germane when …

Elvis
March 5, 2007 – 1:49 AM | No Comment

It’s a quick read, but I think the subject is problematic; I don’t remember music pre-Elvis, so it’s difficult for me to relate to how much he changed it, and while he’s a unique figure …

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series
March 5, 2007 – 1:48 AM | No Comment

An interesting story, marred at great and poorly written length by myriad inexcusable misspellings and the occasional exclamation-point cluster-bomb.   Read the section on the scandal in Baseball Babylon instead to get all the relevant …

8 Ball Chicks
March 5, 2007 – 1:48 AM | No Comment

It’s a semi-depressing read, but Sikes’s prose stays out of the way of the subject, which is impressive in a book about girl gangs; occasionally she editorializes and you’re like, “Yeah, we get it,” but …

Edie: American Girl
March 5, 2007 – 1:47 AM | No Comment

I’d had this for ages; New York (…I think) happened to recommend it in the current issue; I was bored last night, grabbed it, and read it in more or less one sitting.   I …

Dry: A Memoir
March 5, 2007 – 1:47 AM | No Comment

Like I did Running With Scissors, I read this in one day, and I love his writing; it’s so conversational and clean, like a friend’s house where everything is just so, but lived in, too. …

Drinking: A Love Story
March 5, 2007 – 1:45 AM | No Comment

Caroline Knapp is such a wonderful writer — direct and exact, unfussy, and it’s so difficult to talk about things like addiction and self-loathing, particularly as they affect women, without getting bogged down in the …