The Ubiquitous Grammar Cop

One of the better movies in 1990 in my opinion was "Pump Up the Volume" starring Christian Slater. He played a disaffected high school student who operated a pirate radio station under the moniker Happy Harry Hardon. On his show he said this about the state of affairs (as he saw it) regarding our society, "You see, there's nothing to do anymore. Everything decent [has] been done. All the great themes have been used up and turned into theme parks. So I don't really find it cheerful to be living in totally exhausted decade where there is nothing to look forward to and no one to look up to." That statement then is even more true today than it had been nearly twenty years ago. It seems that everywhere you look, everything you hear, and everything you touch is nothing more than a rehash of something that came about previously. Quite possibly the best examples of this phenomenon appear on television (especially its advertising) and in movies. Once upon a time, mak...

Reconnecting with people can put a person on treacherous ground. When you sidestep to avoid the mine, you can sink chest deep into quicksand. I find myself in that position right now (or so it feels). Just in the last two months, more people from my past have made contact with me thanks to the loveliest of tools: the internet. People who I have done my best to maintain a civil, respectful disconnect from are coming out and forming a community centered on our twentieth anniversary of our high school graduation. The flood of people making contact with me from high school has me in several minds. A big part of me would prefer to stay anonymous, thankful that I don't look like anything I did in high school (enabling me to hide in plain sight). I am also slightly curious to see some of those who found me so I can verify that I am not the only person still sorting things out. Most importantly, I wonder why so many of them only feel the need to reconnect after a decade (or two) passes. T...