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Culture

Eyes of the Beheld: Bette Davis and Marty Feldman

Sometimes, I think Google was invented so Generation X could piece together what happened in the 70s and early 80s before our consciousness was fully-formed. Take today as an example – a little bird on Twitter told me it was Golden Age film star Bette Davis’ birthday. Of course, what first comes to mind when…

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Culture

Richard Scarry’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ham

Be careful what you read to your children as it may have long term consequences for the shape of their lives. Consider what happened to me, which I only realized today when my three-year-old brought me a new book to read to him. It was a classic, Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day? whichI…

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Culture

Jonathan Lethem on Being Outre

This seriocomic quote from Jonathan Lethem, author of Men and Cartoons and The Fortress of Solitude, succinctly sums up the pervasive sense of outsider-ness many creative types of my generation (x) experience to this day: “Listen, you can’t imagine what a freak I was. I worked in used bookstores as a teenager. I grew up…

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Culture

Slouching Toward Quadragenaria: On Turning 40 (Eventually)

The countdown has begun. In 90 days, I will be 40-years-old. It’s like the last trimester before I’m reborn as “quadragenarian,” which reads more like a dietary choice than an age past 39 but before 50. In many ways, it is a dietary choice. At least according to my physician, who would prefer I answer…