Perhaps we were premature in declaring 2016 a banner year in sports. Apparently, a free agency has ruined athletics everywhere. Or so declared every blubbering bobblehead on ESPN after The Oklahoma City Thunder lost prodigious forward Kevin Durant to free agency and its sworn enemy, The Golden State Warriors. You would have thought George Washington were revealed a …
I recently came across a University of Indiana study that advertisers are increasingly turning to subliminal ads to woo millennials (who knew millennials had subliminal…anythings?). From sex to software, the study said, an Internet-fed generation increasingly relies on fleeting visual clues for information. The study wasn’t much of a jaw dropper: Journalism had to do a similar …
Between Donald Trump and Orlando and Brexit, the world appears on the verge of hating itself to death. But you gotta admit; it’s been a helluva year for sports. Consider: Peyton Manning retires after winning Super Bowl 50, and gives one of the all-time great farewell speeches. Made Ronald Reagan’s ‘The Gipper” speech …
What do the neighbors think? I wonder this almost every day, at the same hour of night, 10 pm. That’s when I’m most likely to blast my song of the day. Or repeatedly analyze banal scenes of some filmed silliness. Or dance. Practice card tricks. My geek flag flies at full staff most 10 pm.s. I could …
Another Sunday Mass. This time, a gay Florida nightclub, where 50 people were shot to death and another 50 wounded (by conservative estimate) today. There’s no reason to expect this shooting to unfold any differently than, say, the Sunday Mass in Charleston. The sane will say this needs to stop. The confederacy of dunces …
My name is Scott Bowles, and I’m a punctu-holic. It’s an inherited condition — from my mother’s side of the family. Dad was a legendary reporter, but he wouldn’t know punctuality if it broke his nose. He was unable to start a task until the 11th hour struck. He didn’t do taxes by April …
Like most guys (and this is statistically true), I keep my spare change instead of doing something useful with it, like using it. At the end of the day, I drop whatever spare coins I have into a plastic jar with the lid cut off. Every four or five months, I lug the 400-pound jug of …
I received a video link that was not only the funniest parody I’d seen in months, but also answered a question I’ve had for years: How do men get away with such sexist lyrics in rock? The answer, I guess, is obvious. For there is no powerful creature on earth than a rock god, …
While he never did so consciously, dad was always stealing mom’s thunder. While he drew laurels and praise for his amazing work as a city-wise reporter, mom worked the unheralded halls of the same cities: the classrooms. As dad won awards from peers and the admiring, mom received the same plaudits, perhaps deeper. From …
