Book spines

Books 2014 #TBT

The now annual books of the year list takes its third bow next week. The impetus for tracking what I read each year — other than inspiration, accountability, and memory — started as a bonus list tacked onto the end of the Movies 2014 list.  Books 2014 was just a list, yet I am expanding it for this #TBT to provide what I remember of these books.

A memory test three years later, here are the books I read…in 2014. […]

NFA Hall of Fame pin on AFA-NIET All-American Award

NFA Hall of Fame & AFA-NIET All-American Award

The National Forensic Association (NFA) and the American Forensics Association – National Individual Events Tournament (AFA-NIET) at the turn of the millennium established awards aimed at honoring collegiate forensics competitors beyond the scope of the tournaments they respectively hosted. The two organizations had already established awards for distinguished service to their organizations and the wider forensics activity, yet both organizations saw the need to recognize contributions by competitors and former competitors beyond individual events.

In the approaching 20 years these awards have existed, who has been honored, how did they receive these honors, and what can we learn about the honorees? To try and make sense of these questions I complied the data of every NFA Hall of Fame inductee and AFA-NIET All-American Individual Events Team. […]

Detail of comic book cover from Black Panther #9

Black Panther and Diversity

I am reading Marvel’s current run comic book Black Panther. Black Panther’s writer is Ta-Nehisi Coates (pronunciation: Tah-Nuh-Hah-See Coat-s), winner of the National Book Award for “Between the World and Me”. Mr. Coates is the reason I am reading the comic book, the first I have purchased and read during its print run.

Like a lot of comic books, there is a letter section at the back. I enjoy letter writing, but have had no reason to write beyond “I like your comic book.” In April, that changed. First, a Marvel VP decried diversity as the reason for sales declines. Then, the letters in Black Panther issue #12 contained a long diatribe opposed to the LGBTQ issues and themes in Mr. Coates’ Black Panther.

I have no idea if my letter to Mr. Coates will be chosen for print.  So here are my thoughts on Black Panther and diversity. […]

Movie theatre marquee advertising The Hateful Eight

Mass Infantilization Plaguing Movies #TBT

A. O. Scott, the venerable, initialed movie reviewer and societal critic for the New York Times, wrote an article a few years ago on a disease he saw plaguing movies entitled “Open Wide: Spoon-fed Cinema.” Scott’s diagnosis: “Forty is the new dead” for cinema as mass infantilization engenders profit at the box office, while stealing profit from culture and the soul. I have thought a lot about this article off and on since its 2009 printing. Initially, I agreed Scott’s diagnosis was a chronic condition of Hollywood. Now I believe it to be a seasonal affliction. […]

Police wearing face masks to protect against influenza

Still Sick Despite Flu Vaccine?

Every flu season I hear someone say, “I received my flu shot, but I’m still sick!” Usually it is simple crankiness caused by not feeling well, but often others will comment they skip the cheap or free flu vaccine every year because they do not want to waste time on an ineffective vaccine. Sound like someone you know? Maybe even you?

Hold up there overreact-er. Vaccination is what made influenza (the scientific name for the flu) a seasonal annoyance. Before you take the path of least disease resistance, read about why you should vaccinate, how the flu vaccine is made, and what you should do with your new knowledge.  The flu shot is not a panacea, but your flu symptoms are not likely caused by a bad flu shot. […]