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Articles in Culture and Criticism

Product Crush: ‘Tis The Season
July 24, 2008 – 7:42 AM | 18 Comments
Product Crush: ‘Tis The Season

The Times on the Ramapo tomato’s triumphant return: “When I hear these young chefs gushing about heirlooms, I wonder: haven’t they ever tasted a Big Boy, or an Early Girl?”

The article implies that a big …

Brain freeze
July 22, 2008 – 10:12 AM | 108 Comments
Brain freeze

As the champion-foodstuffs bracket prepares to make its triumphant midsummer return with an ice-cream face-off, Keckler and I find ourselves with a few unanswered questions — starting with whether Rocky Road is the same thing …

Support Local Business: July 16, 2008
July 16, 2008 – 8:17 AM | 32 Comments
Support Local Business: July 16, 2008

Simon Tofield is back, with his cat, in “TV Dinner.” Do not drink hot coffee while watching.You may, however, make fun of me for having the premiere date of Tofield’s latest entered into my Outlook …

The Ikea Visual Pronunciation Guide
July 8, 2008 – 11:24 AM | 62 Comments
The Ikea Visual Pronunciation Guide

If you’ve ever visited an Ikea, you know that one of the rituals of the trip — along with the sweet reward of meatballs after a deflating hour of comparing countertops, and the despair with …

Department Of Famous Boyfriends: Walter Kirn
July 6, 2008 – 12:36 PM | 31 Comments
Department Of Famous Boyfriends: Walter Kirn

Walter Kirn’s zero-Fahrenheit appraisal of James Frey’s new novel, Bright Shiny Morning, is a reviewing masterpiece, opening with a sharp observation about the L.A.-novel genre and building through concisely dismissive observations about Frey’s prose to …

Support Local Business: July 3, 2008
July 3, 2008 – 3:21 PM | 4 Comments
Support Local Business: July 3, 2008

Last weekend’s heavy rains caused a lot of flooding here at the bottom of the Slope, and the Root Hill Café got hit with heavy inventory losses.The RHC is a nice little place that makes …

The Chris Farley Show
July 3, 2008 – 9:49 AM | 9 Comments
<I>The Chris Farley Show</I>

Reading The Chris Farley Show immediately after Wired is perhaps not the best idea if the goal is to lighten one’s mood, but I figured, what the hell — I have them both in the …

Wired
July 2, 2008 – 9:13 PM | 34 Comments
<I>Wired</I>

I have always had trouble…accessing John Belushi, I guess is the right term.The guy is just not funny to me.A lot of early/”classic” SNL is not funny to me, which stems partly from hearing the …

Just curious
July 1, 2008 – 9:10 AM | 112 Comments

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Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
June 24, 2008 – 8:20 PM | 30 Comments
<I>Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired</I>

From a reader:
Hi Sars,
Have you watched the Roman Polanski doc on HBO yet? With your interest in true crime, I wondered if this one appealed to you.

As much as they tried to make him very …