War in the Middle East, surging inflation, the Republican Speaker of the House clinging to a one-vote majority, a presidential election campaign stumbling toward what is certain to be a photo-finish conclusion, with one candidate doddering in senility and the…
In an era when anyone with an iPhone and the bare minimum of creativity can go viral on the internet, celebrities are the least relevant they’ve ever been. On today’s episode of The Spectacle podcast, hosts Melissa Mackenzie and Scott Mckay speak…
Cussin’ is on the rise. It’s no surprise that F-bombs and associated maledictions are flying around at loading docks, at construction sites, under NBA baskets, and wherever our addlepated chief executive happens to be at any given time, but in…
In the last eight or nine years, it’s felt to many Americans as if the country has changed very dramatically, if not irreversibly. A century ago, our forebears had a similar feeling. In 2016, Donald Trump was elected president and…
Taylor Swift is Time magazine’s Person of the Year, ending the suspense that, in the days and hours leading up to the announcement, was nigh on unendurable. Recalling football coach John Mackay’s line along the lines of: “win or lose,…
Now that the dust has settled, it is possible to gain a clearer understanding of the most fascinating cultural phenomenon of late summer 2023: the skyrocketing success of a completely unknown musician’s protest song. In mid-August, Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men…
If you’ll forgive the reference to the Elvis Costello classic of yesteryear, “Oliver’s Army” has grown up out of the hustings, and our elites simply refuse to reckon with it. The same thing keeps manifesting again and again in America,…
As the flag lowers on Pride Month 2023, we stand enlightened by yet another variation in the “LGBTQ” acronym, courtesy of America’s intrepid cultural revolutionaries. For a while, it evolved to “LGBTQIA+.” You know what LGBTQ stands for, but for…
I watched Dead Poets Society again after many years. As I like to live dangerously, I put it on for a group of children between the ages of 10 and 13. Too soon, you might say. Maybe, but kids at…
