miconian

On “Problems And Other Stories”

miconian — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 03:26:06 +0000

Some years ago, when a friend showed me John Updike’s short story “Problems,” I loved it. The protagonist has left one woman for another, and he isn’t quite sure he made the right decision. His angst is presented as a series of math story problems. In what’s literally the final analysis, the narrator/test writer tallies

Movie Review: The Little Fugitive (1953)

miconian — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 23:09:54 +0000

I might have easily stumbled across this movie while flipping channels late at night, in which case I wouldn’t have lasted through the first five minutes. And that would have been a shame. At the beginning, Joey, who is about six, watches his older brother and his brother’s friends play games he’s left

War Of The Words 2010: Percolate FTW!

miconian — Sat, 29 May 2010 01:26:20 +0000

Satirist and comedian (and Revolving Floor contributor) Rich Zeroth is gearing up his annual War Of The Words tournament. Basically, a bunch of words compete against each other in a bracketed tournament, and fans bet on the results. Updates will appear on the Facebook fan page, and you can sign up at Bracketmaker. It’s

Metafilter And The Russian Sex Slaves That Never Were

miconian — Sun, 23 May 2010 23:07:33 +0000

I’m part of a vocal minority in a conversation over at Metafilter that has gotten a lot of attention from other blogs, and on the websites of popular print-based publications like Newsweek and Mother Jones. I’m disappointed at the lack of critical thinking and willingness to embrace the hype all round, and the mefi threads

Movie Review: Iron Man 2

miconian — Tue, 11 May 2010 02:25:39 +0000

It was often said of the first Iron Man movie that it was “surprisingly good.” It was good, because the characters were well-drawn, the audience’s intelligence was not insulted, and the dialog was terse and well-constructed. The action was terse too. Stuff exploded, people died, but one had the feeling that those things were happening