As the semester comes to a close, I find myself wildly optimistic in my oddly Dean’s List-worthy grades, a job lined up to start literally days after I graduate, and minimal summer plans which include having an incredible time doing absolutely nothing.
When I envisioned this last column, I did not picture myself advocating the lifestyle […]

What do American Idol, America’s Got Talent and Dancing with the Stars all have in common?

OK, well, besides the incredible ability to indefinitely kill your brain cells typically used to hold the quadratic formula. In case you were wondering, that’s why you can never remember it.
The real answer – they all have judges. But not […]

There’s a tendency among book readers and book critics alike to use the phrases “summer reading” and “beach reading” somewhat interchangeably, as if the only books published between the months of May and August were penned by the likes of James Patterson (who does, incidentally, have a new novel, Sail, coming out in June).
Neglected in […]

It is incredible that happy people always seem to be hiding something jaded under their smiles. Just when I started to get a tad jealous of people in relationships, I remembered some of the issues I once had way back when I was addicted to dating.

One of my closest lady friends has been dating a […]

One man can’t elicit much change. But I elect to help by giving Tinsel Town somewhat uninteresting storylines based on actual events to appease the masses.

I gave up on meeting new people after the demise of my last serious relationship. New guys are like new shoes in my twisted stream of consciousness – they look amazing and turn heads when people first see them, but after a while they become worn, painful and tainted. It’s inevitable – purchasing a new […]

Who would have guessed in 1991 that the post-Cold War era would last only a decade? That, just less than 10 years later, an even more momentous event than the collapse of the Soviet Union would come to shape the lives of our generation? The enormity of Sept. 11, 2001, is now almost utterly uncontested […]

Apple. Indiana. Jagger. Dweezil. Moxie Crimefighter.
No, these aren’t a few of my favorite things. Rather, they’re proof that babies born to celebrities don’t have a shot in hell when it comes to “standard” names.
Adding to the miserable fact that these kids have names worthy of Oompa-Loompas rather than humans is that they’re being raised […]

Let me tell you a little something about how the book-criticism business works. I don’t pay for the books I review. Sometimes, publishers send me a copy unsolicited, but most of the time I request a review copy directly from the publisher. There’s no set system for how I choose the books I’m going to […]

It’s where I go if I want to grab a midnight snack, ‘unwrap’ some secrets, or practice my Southern accent. Personality trumps experience on the Food Network.