Tag: popular culture

Pity the poor cockroach

Geoff and I were watching an episode of Criminal Minds the other night and a super familiar thing happened.  It’s something that happens a lot on TV and it always makes me roll my eyes, but this time it irritated me enough to make me want to come here and get all science-ranty about it.

I should probably say before I get started that I genuinely like Criminal Minds and that I’ve been watching it off and on since Season 1.  This problem is not specific to any particular show but to all TV and Movies that need a Big Scary Bug and science be damned.

Btw, there are photos of bugs after the jump.  Lots of them.  You have been warned.

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A very good year for swears

As most of you know, Geoff and I go out of our way to keep from swearing in this space.  This is mostly because this blog is read by our parents and both our mothers have been known to need smelling salts if they encounter too many F-bombs.  That being said, we both swear like sailors IRL and, as Geoff has said many times, he learned his particular talent for blue language in Cub Scouts and then basically got a graduate course in Foul Language in the Army.

So this post, both as it pertains to swear words, social media, writing, and the evolution of language, is very interesting.  I’m posting it here knowing that it will likely make our mothers reach for the smelling salts.  Be that as it may, the social science behind it is really interesting.  Also, the Strong Language blog is quite a read and worth checking out.  More after the jump.

~Kelly

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2015: A Year In Review

Before we get to the year that was or the year that will be, here’s your annual Christmas card.  Brought to you by the little dogs that keep us happy, on our toes, and forever finding rawhide chews in the strangest places.

All of us, yes, even Scratch, wish you the best in the New Year.
All of us, yes, even Scratch, wish you the best in the New Year.

 

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Baby it’s cold outside

Yes, Geoff is correct in the post that he just put up.  It isn’t cold outside.  At all.  But I’m not talking about actual weather, I’m talking about that blasted song.  I’m talking about that “Christmas Song” that’s commonly referred to now as “The Rapey Song.”

You know the one.    Once you actually listen to the words you get uncomfortable each time you hear it.  It’s a duet.  It’s ostensibly about flirting, a date, and a storm.

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Things you should be reading right now

Yes, we know that at midnight tonight you’ll be dressed up and in a theatre seeing Star Wars.  (We’re waiting to see it with our nephews and niece after Christmas.)  But, this is some of the stuff that we’re reading right now.  We think you should be reading it too.

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The Kitty Convict Project #KittyConvict

Regular readers know that we’re animal lovers here. We have cats and dogs here at Casa Dachshund, despite the name, and we love all animals.*  That’s why this new project by Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal fame is so cool.  This is, as he explains on the website, a form of cat atonement (catonement) for recently Kickstarting a super successful game called Exploding Kittens.  Really.

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“Sir Ernie of Fall River”, or how a Portuguese MIT professor helped bring about the Iran deal

There are so few Americans of Portuguese descent that are seen on the national stage, much less the international stage, and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz has managed to do both.  He is one of the few people in politics and policy circles that I would totally go all fanboy over if I ever had the chance to meet him.

Why? you might ask.  After all, this guy is probably more famous for his hair in American culture than for anything else about him.

Well, let me tell you a bit about him.

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Two judges cause much celebration

I haven’t been able to do a lot of writing here on the blog lately.  It’s been a combination of having a very full schedule and not sleeping well.  I am working on trying to fix the part about not sleeping well.  The full schedule will start easing off a bit after October 10th.   I will probably post more about that in the near future.

In the meantime, I wanted to say something about two stories in the news that are related to the title of my post.  One is in regards to civil rights, the other is in regards to one of New England’s favorite athletes.
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When memes jump the shark, or, artistic integrity at the pet store

I’m not sure where in the mists of Internet history the Jesus riding the dinosaur to church thing first happened.  To me it’s felt like it’s been around as long as the Westboro Baptist Haters or the crazy doomsday prophets on the street corners.  That is, always.

Today, however, I think the meme jumped the shark… as it were.  Today, it showed up in Petsmart.

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