There is a near perfect karma to modern children’s stories, at least in America. Heroes are beautiful, honest, and kind. Villains are ugly, greedy, and cruel. The message we tell our children is that good always triumphs because life is ultimately fair. If you work hard and do the right thing, you will succeed, and villains always get what’s coming to them.
The Death Of The Insult
We seem to be getting rather soft even as the world feels a little spikier every year. It’s hard to know how we will survive as a species if this keeps up. Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s almost as if it’s no longer culturally permissible to ridicule, mock, shame, disparage, deride or denigrate your fellow man any more.
Jesus And John Wick
What happens to our shared reality when we finally discover that our entire existence has been nothing but a lie? When faith and ideology abandon themselves, how far are we from descending into a massive Lord of the Flies scenario, complete with automatic weapons, religious fervor, and ungodly wealth?
On Being Good At Life
I know the right path. The good path. I know it both intellectually, emotionally, and even historically, but still, I refuse to take it. It’s the path that leads to sanity and happiness. It’s right there and I decline, knowing I’m choosing a more difficult one, from which I will surely emerge bruised, battered, and torn. I know this from personal experience, and yet still, I persist. I make the poor choice.
In Pursuit Of Happiness
I think that once you figure out how to get off the hamster wheel you walk away realizing you were never really going anywhere. This is probably quite true of many things in life, and in my experience, it’s definitely been true of social media and other online platforms that are designed for maximum engagement.
Where Have All The Hitmen Gone?
Are contract killers nothing more than a Hollywood myth, or has government-sanctioned murder been revived? We all know the routine. A highly-trained, solitary figure, using bespoke technology, martial arts proficiency, and expert marksmanship and weaponry, breaks into a secure government facility undetected and silently kills a high-profile target before slipping away unnoticed.…
The Slow News Movement
How we became terrorized by the 24-hour news cycle and what we might do to combat the charade of exigency Prior to the advent of 24-hour cable news networks, social media, or the internet of any kind, we relied on newspapers and the nightly news, televised on one of three networks,…
Ed Dobbs Has Left The Building (1958-2026)
Ed Dobbs always looked to me like he’d just thought of something darkly funny and was trying to decide whether or not you were worthy enough to share it with. More often than not, he kept it to himself, which is presumably the same reason I didn’t know Eddie was sick until I got a text from him last night. Only it wasn’t him after all, it was his wife, Fran. Eddie, it turned out, had already left the building.
Becoming A Local
I have never been a local—never the native. I’ve always been the transplant, the visitor, the outsider, the interloper. I have met people who have never left the town they were born in and everyone they’ve ever known resides within 50 miles of their home, but I have never been that guy. I have always been from somewhere else.
The Flyers Are The Team Philly Fans Need Right Now
When you’re a city with a reputation for being a tough, scrappy underdog with a chip on your shoulder, finding yourself as the team to beat can be disorienting. Philadelphia has never been one of the big dogs. No legacy of championship eras here. We’ve never been the San Francisco 49ers of the 80s and 90s, or the Yankees with 27 World Series titles to their name. No one has ever mistaken us for “America’s Team.” We’re Philly. We’re lucky if all our players are out on bail in time for the game.