As is often noted, most modern recordings of Christmas songs range from utterly bland to excruciatingly awful. There are some that sorta-kinda work, though, and a bare few that are brilliant: In the interest of promoting, you know, music that doesn’t suck, it’s perhaps worth taking a look at what makes the good songs work.… Continue reading Notes Toward a Unified Theory of Modern Christmas Songs
Category: Pop Culture
Person of the Year, 2010
I’m very pleased to announce that the Uncertain Principles Person of the Year for 2010 is… SteelyKid: Why do I say this? Well… First, as lots of people will tell you, we’re all citizen journalists now. Which means that I’m every bit as entitled to declare a person of the year as Time magazine is.… Continue reading Person of the Year, 2010
…As Long As They Spell Your Name Right
As previously noted, the UK edition of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is selling very well via the Guardian‘s online bookshop, among other UK venues. It’s doing well enough that I might need to start referring to the original text as the American edition of How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog…… Continue reading …As Long As They Spell Your Name Right
None Dare Call It Treason
As usual, the most sensible commentary on the Southern organizations celebrating the 150th anniversary of secession comes from the Daily Show. Specifically, Larry Wilmore: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c The Daily Show on Facebook This whole business makes me think the British have the right idea regarding the… Continue reading None Dare Call It Treason
Annual Request: Christmas Songs That Don’t Suck
As you can see from the picture at right, we’ve got our Christmas tree up, waiting to surprise SteelyKid when she comes home in a couple of hours. This also means it’s getting toward the time when I switch over to the holiday music playlist on iTunes. Christmas music is, of course, a problematic genre.… Continue reading Annual Request: Christmas Songs That Don’t Suck
Literary Interlude: Bearded Mentor Figures in the Literature of the Fantastic
It’s time now to talk about two of the greatest mentor figures in the literature of the fantastic. You know their stories well, I’m sure, but the parallels between them are eerie: Both are gruff but kindly mentor figures who provide crucial guidance for the young and naive protagonist of the story as he moves… Continue reading Literary Interlude: Bearded Mentor Figures in the Literature of the Fantastic
Eat My Dust, Darwin!
How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog, the UK edition of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog continues to sell very well. The vanity search today led me to this, screen captured from the Guardian newspaper in the UK, which sells our book in its online bookshop: Woo! Take that, biology! Yeah, yeah,… Continue reading Eat My Dust, Darwin!
Fredette-apalooza
SteelyKid is off spending the weekend with her grandparents, so Kate and I went out to a nice restaurant last night (we love SteelyKid dearly, but miss eating in restaurants without a kids menu). I was kicking myself for forgetting to set the DVR to record a basketball game, though. Not the Duke or Kentucky… Continue reading Fredette-apalooza
Teleportation of Toddler Toys
Today is the official release date for the paperback edition of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, so I wanted to write up something cool about quantum physics to mark the occasion. I looked around the house for inspiration, and most of what we have lying around the house is SteelyKid’s toys. Thus, I… Continue reading Teleportation of Toddler Toys
25 Years of Great Albums
It feels a little weird not to be doing a Short Story Club entry, so here’s a different sort of pop culture item: Over at EphBlog, my classmate Derek Catsam has decided to break up the carnival of reactionary politics by commenting on great albums, jumping off from Spin‘s Top 125 of the Last 25… Continue reading 25 Years of Great Albums