By Daniel Rigney

If famous people in history had broadcast on Twitter (big if), what last words of truncated wisdom might they have left behind in the twittersphere? We can only imagine:

William Shakespeare:

2b or ~2b. That is ? Whethr tis noblr in mnd to suffer… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Following the Supreme Court’s historic decision affirming the constitutionality of Obama-Romney Care (Obamneycare? Rombamacare?), I am relieved to know that Mitt Romney can no longer be legally denied access to health insurance coverage due to his pre-existing wealth condition… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Amoebas (pictured here) are single-celled organisms that move and change shape through time. They were originally called proteus animalcule, taking their name from the mythic Greek figure Proteus, the shape-changer. Later they were given the name amoeba from a Greek word meaning &ld… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney (reposted from 1/5/2012)

Since I joined Open Salon nearly a year ago, I’ve been looking for a metaphor to describe what kind of strange and interesting community this is. I’ve found that one way to think of OS is to describe it as an… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Clichés are mental energy-savers. They reduce our need to think afresh. I rely on them constantly, as we all do. One of my favorites is “if I’m not mistaken."

What especially intrigues me about IINM is that it is always literally true. Thus,… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

The Academy Awards should add a new Oscar category: an award for best product placement, or alternatively, a citation for worst product pollution, in the movies.

The award would recognize exemplars of "embedded marketing"  in the cinematic arts. It would spotlight movies that… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”

Twentieth-century Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen is often  quoted or misquoted as having made this quip about the size of the federal budget. The same could be said of massive conc… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

 

Asked in 1992:

Whatever happened to communes?

Whatever happened to Transcendental Meditation (or Medication)?

Who is Glenn Beck? 

What is a blog?

Whatever happened to vinyl?

Whatever happened to waterbeds?

 

Asked… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

It’s not too early to begin worrying that 2013 will be an unlucky year. I’m assuming optimistically, of course, that we survive the end of the tabloid version of the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012.

There was a time when the impending arrival of… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Need an idea for a book project? Read on.

Think about writing a book that takes its title from Shakespeare, as Faulkner did in The Sound and the Fury. There must be at least ten other potential titles hiding in that single soliloquy from “Macbeth”:

To-morrow,… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

You’ve probably heard about the imaginary* new Wall Street Casino on the strip in Las Vegas. Many of the casino’s clients are small fry with pension funds, but its biggest clients, or “whales” as they’re known in the speculative industry, are major corp… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

As a kid growing up behind the Pine Curtain of east Texas, I heard more than my share of cultural and political cliches. You may have heard some of these yourself if you grew up in a red region, or maybe even if you didn’t.… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

How shall we characterize the American political system in this age of "Citizens United" and citizens divided, when big money speaks anonymously and carries a bigger and bigger stick?

De Tocqueville, if he could return to our shores today, would probably take one look at us,… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

My dictionary of the future defines a “scottwalker” as (1) a political figure, usually Republican, who represents the private interests of corporate giants, esp. two wealthy brothers from Kansas  (2) a political sock puppet of any party affiliation.

A &l… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

We interrupt this blog to bring you a special news bulletin.

Three separate cannibalism stories are breaking this morning* on the pixelated front page of the right-wing political tabloid, Drudge Report, linking to articles originating in Miami, Baltimore and Montreal.  All thr… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Those of a certain age will remember Saturday morning television ads for the Chatty Cathy doll. Pull the cord and Cathy says endearing things like “I love you unconditionally” and “I’m glad you own me.”

This fall, as we approach the holidays, be watchi… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Here are ten things not to do if you're thinking about getting a tattoo.

1. Find the cheapest tattoo parlor you can, or ask a friend to ink you.

2. If the artist charges by the hour, ask him or her to “hurry it… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

The world of tattoo art is a cultural twilight zone for me, and maybe for you too. Yet here we are today, about to enter a gigantic traveling tattoo exposition that’s just arrived from Los Angeles.

A colorful crowd is gathering in Houston’s cavernous Reliant… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

The Kentucky Derby is over for the year, but the dust hasn’t settled yet. Huffington Post reports this morning that I’ll Have Another's trainer is suspended under suspicion of “milkshaking” a horse in another race (HuffPost Sports, May 25, 2012).

A milkshake,… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

The word “success” can denote many things, and it can mean different things to different people. But words have connotations as well as denotations, and in American culture, success typically implies material $ucce$$, the market society's core value.

As a euphemism for ac… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Blogging can be a valuable discipline for practicing writers. It can serve as both a learning tool and an unlearning tool. Here are a few things I’m trying to unlearn in my own writing here. Your self-advice may vary, of course, depending on the unique nature of… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Tabloid newsman Andrew Breitbart met his last deadline when he died a few months ago, but his mean spirit lives on at Breitbart.com, the website he founded in admiring imitation of conservative news-spreader Matt Drudge.

Maybe this is what immortality looks like in the 21^st… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

One of my guilty pleasures in life is browsing political tabloid news, and nothing says tabloid politics like the Drudge Report. Today I’m scouting lurid Drudge headlines (or “Drudgelines”) in search of new lows.  

A working democracy, if we had one, needs a w… Read full post »

By  Daniel Rigney

Today we’re in Houston, gateway to Louisiana, celebrating the biodiversity of this sprawling urban ecosystem built in a swamp -- I mean a wetland -- on the western edge of Cajun country.

Even those who don’t know their boudin from an etouffee will appreciate the… Read full post »

 By Daniel Rigney

A striking geographic pattern emerges when we map the migration of North American professional sports franchises during the past century. Before 1963,  migrating franchises moved from east to west, mirroring the westward migration of the population as whole. Baseball's Br… Read full post »