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A second-chance Super Bowl for second-place cities

Here is a tale of two once-great cities. They lost their steel mills and auto plants. The factories went quiet. The populations dwindled. In spite of that, they never lost their football teams, which became sources of ragged pride amid snowy desolations. Now, these survivors stand at the edge of something spectacular. A Super Bowl […]

Conclave proves fallible

Let it not be said that Conclave, the new film about the selection of a new pope from director Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) and screenwriter Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), is dishonest. I found it fascinating, unsentimental, and exceptionally keen in its understanding of human nature. Nevertheless, there is, at […]

Success has many fathers, but Gladiator II is an orphan

The original Gladiator is Ridley Scott’s magnum opus and remains one of the best films since the turn of the century. The script, despite being written on the fly, had great lines. Everyone old enough to have watched the original remembers “Are you not entertained?” and “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” These […]

Kevin Killian’s user experience

There is something inherently ridiculous about Kevin Killian’s posthumously published Selected Amazon Reviews. The book takes great pains to show it is very aware of this and to make sure the reader is just as aware. It is evident right there on its cover, puckishly aping the Library of America’s canonical majesty. It continues beneath […]

Is mowing your lawn really the end of the world?

President-elect Donald Trump has promised a mass deportation of illegal immigrants once he takes office, and while many people are over-selling what he will be able to achieve, the picture his open-borders opponents are painting of an illegal immigrant-free United States is just not as dire as they think. Estimates on the size of the […]

The youth are feeling Trumpy

It wasn’t that long ago that the phrase “the children are our future” was a source of consternation among Republicans who believed young people were overwhelmingly embracing the Democratic Party. No one told that to President-elect Donald Trump, who has found a new fanbase with Generation Z. A new poll from CBS and YouGov has […]

When reality TV gets too real for TV

A decade into its run, when most reality TV series have either died an ignoble death or are simply awaiting the axe of cancellation, Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules stumbled upon a late-career renaissance. When TMZ broke the news that the show’s leading lad, Tom Sandoval, was carrying on an affair with the best friend of his […]

The state of the college student

“Be honest,” I said to a friend of mine over dinner a few days ago. “How bad is it?” My friend is a professor at one of the most famous and respected universities in the world, and what I wanted to know was, are college campuses really filled with neurotic, brittle students and psychotic, Maoist […]

Canada sues Google claiming ‘near-total control’ of online ads

Canada’s antitrust watchdog said Thursday it was suing Google over its alleged anticompetitive conduct in online advertisements. Canada’s Competition Bureau said it wants Google to sell off two of its advertisement tech services and pay a penalty, noting that its necessary because an investigation found the company is “unlawfully” tied with its tech tools to...

Amazon workers plan strike from Black Friday to Cyber Monday

Amazon workers and some allies are planning a worldwide strike during one of the company’s biggest weekends, from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. The strike, called “Make Amazon Pay,” is organized by UNI Global Union and Progressive International. It will begin Friday and run through Monday, typically very busy times for online commerce with the...

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