Monthly Archives: November 2014

“Hello there, I’m John Q. Hirer. And you must be Ramon Arroz?” “What? Oh, oh yes, that’s me. That’s me all right. Yep.” “Whoa, quite a handshake you’ve got there! Well, thanks so much for coming in. Please, sit down.” “Thanks. Thanks a lot.” “So, it says here you went to Rutgers University. Impressive.” “Thank you.” “Did you…graduate 55th in your class? The wording here…‘selected 55th in my class’?” “I think you said it well.” “…Okay. And then you spent […]

Jon Carroll’s Thanksgiving column has always been a favorite part of the holiday. It is comfortably free of the strident religious and/or militaristic overtones that give other holiday columns their soft emanations of uneasiness. At Christmas, for instance, some columnists prosletyize the divinity of Christ — I know some of you folks have made up your minds about that one, but not me — and on the Fourth of July columnists wrestle with the question of whether all those simulated […]

You might think the biographical picture is an outmoded relic of 20th century filmmaking. If so, you obviously don’t run a major Hollywood studio. Biopics are everywhere, particularly in this year’s Oscar race, featuring Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken and three films whose leads are considered Schlage-strong-locks for Best Actor nominations: Foxcatcher, The Imitation Game, and the film I’d like to examine today, The Theory of Everything, the story of Stephen Hawking’s life with his first wife, Jane. Everything hits every note […]

On the hard left, it’s axiomatic that corporate America has created an “illusion of choice” that isn’t really much of a choice at all. Probably the easiest way to understand this axiom is by looking at this chart: Yes, this concentration of power amongst these few companies is somewhat disturbing. These represent oligopolies, or what President Theodore Roosevelt would have called “trusts” while he was legislating to break them up. However, I’m here to tell you that in relative terms, […]

Dar has been up since 5, mostly tee-tee-tee-ing. That means he stops and starts, walking around the house saying “tee-tee-teeeeee.” Nowadays, he’ll find the iPad, unplug it from its charger, and watch Sesame Street videos for hours. I get up, change myself, change him. Half the time, he rebels against being changed like I’ve got pliers in his teeth. The other half, he laughs about it as though I’m tickling him, even if I’m not. I walk him to the […]

If there’s one thing Interstellar taught us, it’s that the right wormhole can bridge solar systems. If that’s the case, certainly the proper wormhole can also serve as a bridge between interstitial ideas, tropes, attitudes, entire systems of thought? In the case of Interstellar, director Christopher Nolan builds several such cognitive bridges and asks us to accept them as wisely joined. Are they? Or are parts of Interstellar more like a bridge too far? Let’s grade four such wormholes: The […]

This is weird – an “essay” I wrote in 1991. Not sure what the heck I was talking about – let’s let it live here. Ever hear the famous riddle about the creature with four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening? Of course the answer is Man, in the sense of mankind. The metaphor invites you to see why a lifetime can be looked at as a day. There are things […]

I suspect that Dar’s home therapist reads or at least has read this blog, though we’ve never spoken about it. Why? Well, somehow she knew “Dar Mar rock star” – could she have invented it? Well, she IS marvelously inventive and a tremendous help in Dar’s life. And I certainly don’t mind her reading it, or why would I have it be public? (By the way HI YOU!!) Here are notes of hers…she is nice enough to provide us little […]

CASE: Are they asleep? TARS: Finally, yes. CASE: Oh, thank Hawking. Honesty and humor settings back at 100%? TARS: You know it. CASE: Sweet. Did you catch Brand telling Coop he was literally wasting his breath? Maybe it’s because I’m a robot, but I liked that one. TARS: What about that shout-out I gave to 2001: A Space Odyssey? CASE: I might have missed that. TARS: When we left the atmosphere, I was like, “If I don’t throw you out […]

2014 isn’t even over, and yet it was a singularly awful year for women in the public spotlight. When you read about various public incidents, it seems like a lot of essays – and not just the ones in Jezebel – conclude by asking men to take more responsibility for less sexist behavior. Agreed. As a man, let me answer that call. While I recognize my male privilege, I do not seek to wield it, unlike, say, Robert Downey Jr., […]