Category Archives: Essays
Africa Is the Future
On February 19th, my story “Mofongo Knows” will appear in the anthology The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination (available for order here!) Mofongo is a super-science ape fallen on hard times, but the original inspiration for this story came … Continue reading
Biblical Based Budgeting
This year I gave Bible-based accounting a try, and I really saved a lot on my taxes! Here’s some of the advice my Bible-based accountant, Zebediah, gave me: “Do not allow a sorceress to live.” (Exodus 22:18) Any expenses incurred … Continue reading
Good movies, bad social science
It’s hard to do something new, especially when lots of money is at stake, and as a result, movies are usually based not on observed life but on other movies. Romantic comedies follow strict conventions that don’t actually occur in … Continue reading
A Magical Tour of Scary Chinese People
Racial stereotypes as a source of the funny has existed since different races first stumbled across each other. Of course, you’d have hoped that movies like THE HANGOVER 2 or shows like 2 Broke Girls would bring something new to … Continue reading
The Yellow Curse
My favorite free audio story site, Pseudopod, is home to my very short Lovecraft-y story, “Stepfathers,” and home to two of my stories about the White Street Society, “The Hairy Ghost” and “The Corpse Army of Khartoum.” Now, as part … Continue reading
The Talking Dead
(This was originally going to run on Slate, but there was some confusion and another piece on the season premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead popped up before mine. Hey, life happens, but I figured why waste it? So here … Continue reading
Journalism 3.0 = Trolls!
Journalism 1.0 was awesome! Remember that? It was a bunch of magazines and newspapers with high overhead and no viable business model for generating revenue beyond advertising and a lot of them failed and lots of people lost their jobs. … Continue reading
The Next Stupid Godzilla Reference Might Be Yours
It was only a matter of time before Western commentators evoked the image of Godzilla and linked it to the current crisis unfolding in Japan. Never one to disappoint its readers, the New York Times is the paper that pops … Continue reading
Choose Your Own Blog Post
My piece on the Choose Your Own Adventure books just went up on Slate. These books were an early-80′s publishing phenomena that swept the world and helped create a consumer demand for interactive entertainment which led to today’s massive gaming … Continue reading
South Carolina Celebrates Secession
(Originally written for Slate, this piece got cut due to the holiday madness. Here it is, a tribute to my home state on the 150th anniversary of its secession.) South Carolina is known for a lot of things. It’s the … Continue reading
