Tag Archives: General Culture and News

The Perfect Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Tom Garrett

Valentine’s Day (f/k/a St. Valentine’s Day) arrives to bestow upon us its annual bounty of heart-shaped confections and edible unmentionables. Most of us are simultaneously delighted by this wonderful holiday and perplexed by how best to spend it. Anyone with … Continue reading →

The Take-home Message from the SOPA Debate

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Tom Garrett

Tracking the political discourse regarding SOPA proved to be quite instructive in ways I hadn’t anticipated. My own view on the proposed bill was that, while the aims weren’t entirely bad, some of the presumptions in the law overreached in … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Gaming, General Culture and News, Movies, Music, Politics, Television | Tagged Commentary, Crysis 2, Gaming, General Culture and News, Intellectual Property, Internet, Internet Piracy, Movies, Music, Occupy Wall Street, Politics, SOPA, Television, Torrents | 4 Comments

What I’ve Learned So Far

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Tom Garrett

Today is my birthday. That fact triggers no negative emotion whatsoever. I don’t feel as old as the calendar tells me I am. That’s one thing I’ve discovered as I’ve gotten older: I don’t feel the age I’m supposed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News | Tagged Birthdays, Commentary, General Culture and News, Introspection, Lessons, Philosophy | 5 Comments

The Bark Side of the Force

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Tom Garrett

Things have been a little long-winded around here of late. I wanted to try to accomplish two things with this post. First, drop the Brow-o-Meter down a notch or two. Mission accomplished. Secondly, I wanted to see how many categories … Continue reading →

Posted in General Culture and News, Movies, Music, Sports, Television, Videos | Tagged Commercials, Dogs, General Culture and News, Movies, Music, Sports, Super Bowl, Television, Videos, Volkswagen | 1 Comment

Six Open Questions About Tim Tebow

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Tom Garrett

If you can’t stand Tim Tebow, here’s the good news: This will be the last Tebow-related piece I write until at least August, barring some unforeseen incident involving a trade or the Rapture. The bad news is that it’s going … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News, Politics, Sports | Tagged Commentary, Denver Broncos, Focus on the Family, General Culture and News, John Elway, NFL, Politics, Pro Football, Religion, Sexuality, Shahid Khan, Sports, Tebow, Tebowmania, Tim Tebow | 10 Comments

Best of 2011

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Tom Garrett

This year began with me being bitten in the face by a dog and will end with me staring at a dwindling bank account and vowing to reform my questionable eating and exercise regimen before I suffer a coronary. Yet, 2011 … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News, Site Stuff | Tagged 2011, Best Of, Commentary, General Culture and News, Miley Cyrus, Quantum Physics, Robots, Site Stuff, The Kitchen Sink, Tim Tebow, UCBW, WWE | 6 Comments

This Strange, Twitterfied World

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Tom Garrett

The profound changes to our culture wrought by the rise of the Internet as a whole are obvious to all. But I’m fascinated by one very surprising and strange way in which Twitter specifically altered the manner in which we … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News, Music, Sports | Tagged 1980's, Boogie Nights, CM Punk, Dare, General Culture and News, Internet, Music, Sports, Stan Bush, The 80's, The Touch, Transformers, Twitter, WWE | 2 Comments

Escape to New York

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Tom Garrett

It’s been an unusually-long time since I’ve posted, but there’s a good reason for that: I knew that writing about the trip I took to New York City a little over a week ago was going to take some time. I’ll … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News, Sports | Tagged Big Sister, Charity, Commentary, Froot Boots, General Culture and News, Hurricane Irene, John Cena, Kofi Kingston, Little Brother, Mick Foley, Sheamus, Stand-up Comedy, Survivor Series, The Rock, UCBW, Vacation, Wall $treet, Whole Lotta Denim, WWE | 6 Comments

My Father, the (Fake) Doctor

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Tom Garrett

Among the cultural artifacts I unearthed at my mother’s house during recent preparations for a yard sale were issues of Time and Newsweek from March, 1961. The Newsweek cover is especially fantastic. The bleak picture painted in today’s media environment when one … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, General Culture and News | Tagged 1960's, A. H. Robins, Advertising, Commentary, General Culture and News, Newsweek, Pharmaceuticals, Time Magazine | 1 Comment

The Last Toy

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Tom Garrett

I recently helped my mom prepare for a yard sale by going to her house and sifting through my childhood toys so that she could label and group them more accurately. As an only child in a middle-class family, I … Continue reading →