My partner and I have been known to explore or dismiss a restaurant purely based on the font of the signage. And most of the time it works. Really. If it weren’t for this technique, we might never have discovered the Wicked Oyster in Wellfleet, Mass., or Moon and River Cafe in [...]

Have our Hollywood candidate and vote for him too: Actually, the cheese factor is a little high, but it is moving. In any case, as Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times notes after he saw the video debuted at a Oprah/Caroline Kennedy/Michele Obama rally (”the best campaign rally I’ve seen in 20 years of [...]

I’m quoted twice in Jennifer Parker’s abcnews.com story about the significance of the presidential candidates’ theme songs. It’s a nice, wide-ranging piece about how the candidates are tapping into pop music to add a boost to their campaigns. Of course, I had a lot more to say than what Jennifer was able to quote. [...]

So I dropped in on the new TV series based on the “Terminator” movie franchise: “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” And the usual lowest-common-denominator limitations of broadcast TV are certainly present. Everyone is “hot” (even the freaky and geeky kids at John Connor’s high school) — and many of the characters feel [...]

So here’s how my hypothetical one-hour news show would be covering this election cycle. Instead of hearing Chris Matthews or Anderson Cooper talk night in and night out to same pundits about the latest poll numbers or the latest gaffe on the campaign trail, we’d have a “Health Care Week.” Each night would start with some actual [...]

The problem with national holidays is that they make groups and individuals into symbols and icons that fit into comfortable narratives about American progress. We’re still celebrating Columbus Day, of course. True commemorations should, instead, act as unsettling reminders of what still needs to be done. I imagine that Martin Luther King, Jr., a rabble-rouser if there ever [...]

The return of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to the airwaves tonight is bittersweet — but pretty much just sweeeet. Yes, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), who are on strike, will be picketing both shows — and they are certainly justified. The WGA’s grievances with the media industry are clear and undeniable. But we really [...]

Having already had an early look at the first episode in the final season of “The Wire” (premiering this Sunday on HBO), I’m ready to be as effusive as I have been in the past about what is clearly the best show on television and — bear with me as I flirt with hyperbole [...]

A quick New Year’s kudos to NPR for bringing more depth to our discussions of modern pop culture. Their new series In Character explores how authors develop indelible characters and, more significantly, how those characters reflect our broader cultural values. While the series is appearing on “All Things Considered,” NPR is also maintaining [...]

I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought it rather weird that in between two of the usual thumbs-up reviews in a recent newspaper ad for the “Golden Compass” was a glowing review from … the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: “The Golden Compass” Is An Exciting Adventure Story, Entirely In Harmony With Catholic Teaching. This [...]