Producing Various and Sundry

Stephen Colbert takes another Michigander at Monroe

Still thinking of The Late Show coming to an end last week, I enjoyed one of Colbert’s jokes: that he’d probably wind up hosting a cable access show. I clearly forgot that, back in 2015, that’s exactly what he did in the run-up to his tenure on The Late Show. So, in what must have been planned as part of his exit, Colbert closed his show Thursday… and then he went back to host that…

Continue reading

Various and Sundry Writing

Children’s Books are Dangerous

As I continue to celebrate Banned Books Week 2024, I feel I need to follow up yesterday’s post about Kurt Vonnegut’s “dignified fury” with mockery… and when they’re cooking with gas, few folks mock as well as McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Shanna Walsh, who as a former middle school teacher knows a thing or two about the dangers facing kids, gives us a list of children’s books that will make their brains rot… or possibly their…

Continue reading

Acting Various and Sundry Voiceover

International Talk Like William Shatner Day

I may have overlooked it, but I don’t think I’ve previously done a blog post about a little known holiday today. Sure, you knew it was William Shatner’s birthday today. Sure, you knew that, at age 92, he’s still making movies and even being blasted into space. But you might not know that today is International Talk Like William Shatner Day, a minor holiday started over 10 years ago, but really deserves to be a…

Continue reading

Various and Sundry

I’m Afraid the Force is with this Mashup, Dave

Look, I wasn’t looking for this. You weren’t looking for this. But the Internet finds ways of creating things we weren’t looking for. So enjoy one of the classics of sci-fi (2001) cited occasionally by some for why they don’t like sci-fi mashed up with another one of the classics of sci-fi (Star Wars) cited continually by too many as something that “ahktshually, isn’t science fiction.”

Continue reading

Various and Sundry

This Viking Has Dibs on the Library

So, for the past few years, there’s been a particular cartoon that’s made the rounds on social media which friends invariably send to me. I mean, besides being an avid reader, several members of my family are or have been librarians and are all in favor of libraries. And, let’s be honest, in this scenario, I would totally do this: some of my Viking brethren forget to pillage before they burn. Sure you may have…

Continue reading

Writing

Sci Fi versus Fantasy

A meme tickled Twitter users’ fancy late last month and for good reason: it was a pair of pithy comments contrasting science fiction and fantasy and skewering the related tropes for both. Mignon Fogarty has a good collection over at the Grammar Girl, but be warned! You’ll start wanting to do your own. To whit: Sci Fi is this blog on an encrypted server you’ll need some cyberpunk hacker to access. Fantasy is this blog…

Continue reading