There’s football and then there’s football (played mainly with, you know, feet). It’s that time of the year again, when Europe’s (and parts of Asia’s) best teams battle in what amounts to an intercontinental version of the Super Bowl and World Series. As liveblogged by JustTyler, FC Barcelona beat Manchester United to win it all last year. But can Barca continue its dominance?
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I must admit that the Angry Birds phenomenon has largely passed me by, due to me being one of the few people in the world who uses a Microsoft KIN phone. Without the appeal of playing it on the hand-held touchscreen for which it was clearly designed, it just seems like a poor man’s Worms or Scorched Earth. But today I learned that my stubborn refusal to keep up with the latest trends in gadgetry and gaming has actually been keeping me safe from terrible harm. Continue reading
I’m sure most people are familiar with the ubiquitous set top box lounging around or near their television eating around 19 volts and putting off quite a bit of heat. Most people probably figure these are just part of the package with having cable service. A necessity that we’ve all come to terms with. Well not me. I stood up and challenged the system. I wanted something better for my house. Will no one rid me of these turbulent devices? Continue reading
America, we need to have a talk. I think it’s time we start seeing other people. No, no. It’s not you, it’s me. Actually, you know what? It is you. Continue reading
Welcome to another Republican Debate live blog! Tonight we are in Tampa, FL an appropriately crazy place for some crazy candidates. Tonight’s debate is cosponsored by CNN and The Tea Party Express. I guess the Tea Party is not as averse to The Lamestream Media as they pretend to be. Maybe they just wanted a little attention. Continue reading
The season can be as important to a film’s setting as any other detail great or small. Films set during summer and winter arguably have an easier job of portraying their season’s (extreme) weather conditions than do films set in the more temperate autumn or spring.
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The GOP is a mastermind coalition of terrific genius. Seriously. They are like the one true faction in identifying a problem, but not looking to solve it fairly and amicably or perhaps with honor and nobility. No, not at all. Instead of taking their message to the streets by producing the best campaigns they can muster, and letting the voting chips fall where they may in November 2012, the GOP plans to put Rick Perry, or Mittens Romney, or that crazy corndog, Michele Bachmann in the white house by basically taking the ability to vote away from millions of people in the next presidential election. Continue reading

Bruno Mars seems to be everywhere these days – his videos are on MTV, his songs are on pop radio, his face is on all manner of print ads. But what impact has he really made on the federal court scene? None, of course. Well, none until September 1st of this year.
Joseph Agnew was on a full football scholarship at Rice University when he suffered a career-ending injury after his sophomore season. The university informed him that he was no longer a member of the football team and therefore would no longer continue to receive his scholarship for the remaining two years at school. He applied for and received an additional year of tuition, even though he was no longer on the team. His request for full tuition for his senior year was subsequently denied and Mr. Agnew was forced to pony up his last year’s tuition out-of-pocket to recieve his degree. He sued claiming that two NCAA bylaws mandating one-year scholarships and scholarship caps for athletes were in violation of federal law.
Each week we bring you a poet, some of their work, and leave the rest up to you.
This week’s poet is Anne Sexton. Also, this week, EthologyNerd is substitute-hosting for Jennywren.
Background:
Anne Sexton was the Courtney Love of 1960’s American poetry. Sylvia Plath, her good friend and main rival at the time, was winning awards and smiling dutifully at receptions; Anne was showing up drunk to receptions if at all, lighting hundred-dollar bills on fire in restaurants, having multiple affairs, and was generally considered the one poet you had to see read…again, if she made it and you could understand what she was saying.
Widely considered to have opened the door for modern “confessional” poetry, she tackled all manner of controversial topics in her writing, including menstruation, abortion, her mania and depression, and her rebellion against her straitlaced, WASPy, somewhat abusive upbringing. As her mental illness worsened, so did her personal relationships. Her decades-long marriage ended in divorce in the early 1970s as Anne descended further into prescription drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and her suicide attempts, of which there had been several in the past, became more frequent and more serious. Her last suicide attempt in 1974 was successful. Continue reading

