I used to eat a lot of cereal. A lot. Three or four bowls a morning, every morning at 6am just before I went off to teach the teeming hordes of America's youth at an all boy's Jesuit high school. At one point I got sick of throwing out all those cereal boxes--this was 1995,… Continue reading The Cereal Box Wall
Author: Mark Sample
Speaking up for Jerry Falwell
Last week I posted a video clip of Jerry Falwell in 1998 delivering a sermon about the potential apocalypse of Y2K. In the clip, Falwell tosses off a weird aside about how he used to teach billy goats to "do what they're best at." It was a funny clip, especially out of context. In a… Continue reading Speaking up for Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell on Y2K and Goats
In September 1998, Jerry Falwell delivered a series of sermons about the impending social collapse soon to be delivered to a wicked nation by the "Millennium Bug" -- that is, the disaster that never disastered, Y2K. In the sermons, Falwell likens the Tower of Babel to Y2K, and prophesizes that "God may use Y2K to… Continue reading Jerry Falwell on Y2K and Goats
Oprah on The Road / The Road on Oprah
I'm a voracious reader and my personal and professional lives both revolve around books: I'm always either reading a book, teaching a book, or writing about a book. Sometimes all at the same time for three different books. In short order this spring I've read a string of novels, nonstop, usually starting the newest one… Continue reading Oprah on The Road / The Road on Oprah
Between here and Philadelphia
The train. Unapologetically steel. Irresistible momentum. And the joy of discovering the red brake handle, knowing I can pull, and the train becomes my limb, my extension, which I control. Overriding engineers, coffee splashed on laptops throughout, the sudden stop. A hundred people stalled on tracks, the train a bullet bludgeoned to a blunt standstill,… Continue reading Between here and Philadelphia
Are you a guest or a host?
Thinking more about fugitives and detainees, and how fine the line is between them, I am wondering if there is some corollary relationship between the detainee and the detainer, between the prisoner and the warden. I am guided here by a curious etymological fact: the words "guest" and "host" share the same root. Both words… Continue reading Are you a guest or a host?
Fugitives and Detainees in American Social Life
Two years ago in Tracking the Fugitive I predicted that one of the dominant symbolic figures of the 21st century will be the fugitive. In film, literature, music, art, video games--in all these arenas, the fugitive will play a central role. And the reason, I suggested, is because there is no room anymore for fugitives… Continue reading Fugitives and Detainees in American Social Life
KUBARK on 24
Jane Mayer, an uncompromising journalist who's become a thorn in the side of the Bush administration (for her reporting on current U.S. torture tactics and the method of "extraordinary rendition"), has written a New Yorker profile of Joel Surnow, one of the creators of the hit television show 24. Her profile focuses on Surnow's support… Continue reading KUBARK on 24
The CIA on Effective Arrests
My current research project revolves around the use of torture in the so-called "War on Terror"---and I'm uncovering a wealth of astonishing, depressing material, much of it compliments of the U.S. government. Here is a page from a top secret CIA manual on "Human Resource Exploitation," distributed by CIA trainers in Latin America in the… Continue reading The CIA on Effective Arrests
More Political Tag Clouds
It doesn’t attempt the kind of analysis I try with the State of the Union addresses, but chir.ag has a great visual tool that builds tag clouds for hundreds of important presidential speeches and texts, all the way back to the Declaration of Independence and George Washington's State of the Union speeches. The site has… Continue reading More Political Tag Clouds
Word Clouds for the State of the Union
Pattern Recognition has a word cloud for Bush's State of the Union address, in which words are weighted according to frequency. So, "terrorism" and "security" appear very, very bold, because Bush mentioned them time and time again in his address. And the word "plan" is much smaller, indicating that it was rarely used in Bush's… Continue reading Word Clouds for the State of the Union
Falling Down in Mother Goose
After another week of reading Mother Goose to my son, it's become obvious that he has a clear preference for a certain kind of nursery rhyme. Namely, one in which people (or in one case, an egg) fall down. And there's a lot of falling down in Mother Goose. We all know about Jack and… Continue reading Falling Down in Mother Goose
Disaster Porn: Airplanes Crashes!
Google Maps Mania recently highlighted a website that should satisfy your urge for disaster porn during that dry spell between hurricane season and tornado season: AVCRASH, a Google Map mashup with aviation accident (i.e. plane crash) data from the National Transportation Safety Board. You can narrow your search by time period, location, type of aircraft,… Continue reading Disaster Porn: Airplanes Crashes!
Death in Mother Goose
For Christmas, I gave my son a new edition of the classic The Real Mother Goose, with illustrations by Blanche Fisher Wright. First published in 1916, the book has been a perennial childhood favorite for almost a century. It certainly was one of mine. And so it was with nostalgia that I began reading "Little… Continue reading Death in Mother Goose
Goodbye 2006, Goodbye US Airways
It's been one long fall. And it's finally come to a close. Late December is when everyone comes out with their "best of" or "worst of" lists, so I thought I'd throw together a few lists. There's no best and no worst, simply a snapshot of some of the things that made life as a… Continue reading Goodbye 2006, Goodbye US Airways