Your Child Is a Human Shaped Security Blanket

If you’ve been out in public during the past ten years you may have noticed that there are few “adult” domains dotting our landscape. I don’t refer to the “Live” “Nude” Times Square of decades past. I refer instead to any and everywhere. The stroller set has infiltrated your local coffee shop and bar (hey after a long day playing in a sanitized million dollar soft-edged heat-proof playground, you’d need a stiff drink too.) Restaurants whose white tablecloths and staggering bills once signaled and adult oasis, now have nuggets of processed foods on the menu (because after all small children do enjoy fine dining they just don’t enjoy actual food.) No doubt much of the free-range high pitched squealing you experience (in restaurants, bars or Holocaust memorial museums) is mostly due to a parent not wanting to deny themselves anything of their pre-parenting life. It would seem that some people skipped the “What to EXPECT when you’re expecting” chapter. Life should continue unaltered save for many more accessories. Continue reading →

Battle of the Running Mates

A week after Willard Romney overclocked his untruth modules and scampered energetically around the sleeping President during the debate in Denver, the two vice-presidential candidates met for a debate in the pleasantly whisky-scented auditorium at Yokelburg State College in Kentucky. Vice President Joe Biden’s goal was to stop weeping Democrats from jumping off of ledges. “Atlas Shrugs” cosplayer Paul Ryan wanted to show everybody he was all growed up. Continue reading →

The Career of Ray Lewis, in Gif Form

Put down your can of Natty Boh and stop saying “hon” for two seconds, Baltimore fans, because I have something to tell you: National Bohemian is a shitty fucking beer. It just is.

Also, it looks like Ray Lewis tore his triceps on Sunday. His season is over and this may very well be the end of a legendary 17-year-career. So instead of making fun of that ridiculous goddamn Dundalk accent that all Baltimorons speak with, let’s take a trip down memory lane and re-live the career of Ray Lewis — a football story as surreal and over-the-top as any John Waters movie.  Continue reading →

QOTD: Got a Hotel Story for Us?

Let me start with the worst hotel experience I ever had. It was in Albuquerque, a word that if I never have to type it out again in my life I’ll be very happy.

It was part of a cheap chain, one we’d often stayed at before and done just fine.  They’d all been clean, quiet, and had very comfortable beds. But this one! When we first entered the road, there was no air conditioning (it was nearly 90 outside), no remote, no fridge, microwave, iron, ironing board or coffee-maker, as there had been in the rest of the chain. Continue reading →

The Walking Dead Recap: Finally Discovering that this is In Fact a Zombie Apocalypse

When we last saw the Grimes group and what was left of Hershel’s family, the two factions had together come to the realization that in a zombie apocalypse “safety” is an abstract concept. With the incineration of Hershel’s farm, after a zombie horde had all but overrun it, what we were left with was a badly battered group trying to decide their next move. But whatever that move was to be, they were going to have to do things differently — and that meant there was going to be one rule of order. One rule or everyone dies. Continue reading →

Richard Lawson Defends Adrian Chen’s Troll-Exposing Article About Reddit

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Richard Lawson Defends Adrian Chen, Explains Why Anonymity is Not An Absolute Right

On Friday Gawker’s Adrian Chen dropped his much-anticipated article exposing the IRL identity of star Reddit troll “Violentacrez.” The article raised some interesting questions about how Reddit is managed and its close ties to some unseemly characters. But even more interesting is the debate it has ignited over whether internet users have a right to their own anonymity.

This is a a topic we’ve debated here before and it really is a subject worth discussing (especially since Crasstalkers rarely agree on anything). That’s why I particularly enjoyed the comment that former Gawker writer (and longtime Friend of Crasstalk) Richard Lawson posted in reply to Chen’s article Friday.  Continue reading →