The mention of Walmart evokes strong opinions both favorable and otherwise, but this may be the first time that anyone has compared Walmart to Henry David Thoreau’s idyllic Walden Pond. Crispin Sartwell is a philosophy professor at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. His essay “My Walden, My Walmart” appeared in the New York Times in May …
Continue reading A Bit of Intimacy in the Peanut Butter Aisle: Sartwell Contemplates Walmart
What happens when athletes lose their tempers? What happens when you lose yours? Do athletes punch walls and doors more than ordinary folks? Are such responses to be expected or are they indicative of something more serious? Malcolm Ritter, a sportswriter for the Associated Press, examines these questions in a report that was published in …
Continue reading The No-Hit Game: Malcolm Ritter on Athletes and Anger
The recent suicide of former NFL player Junior Seau, the “bounty” scandal with the New Orleans Saints, numerous lawsuits filed by current and former NFL players against the league, and a growing awareness of the long-term effects of concussions have all contributed to increased public attention on health and safety in football at all levels …
Continue reading My Kid? No Way: Ashley Fox on Health, Safety, and Football
Unless you’ve been living in a kingdom far, far away from any media, you are probably aware that this month marks the centennial of the sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. In this April 2012 article from The New Yorker, author and critic Daniel Mendelsohn attempts to explain why …
“We’ll be right back after these weddings, er, messages, from our sponsors.” Have you ever noticed that love and marriage-related themes appear in commercials for tires or cat food, or other seemingly mundane items? Bella DePaulo has, and posits a theory as to why. A professor of psychology and blogger, DePaulo has studied and written …
Continue reading Walk Down the Aisle, Top Shelf on Your Left: DePaulo on Weddings and Advertising
Lately, fast food chains have been under considerable pressure to provide more nutritious food choices, and they have responded in a variety of ways. This report introduces McDonald’s new advertising campaign, which features an animated goat that learns to eat Happy Meals instead of furniture. The author, Mark Brandau, is associate editor of Nation’s Restaurant …
Continue reading Old McDonald Had a Farm: Nation’s Restaurant News on the New Happy Meal Campaign
Higher education is a major issue in current public debate. Should it be accessible for everyone? Why or why not? If not, for whom? How much responsibility should federal and state governments bear for providing higher education? These questions are complicated, difficult, and likely to remain in open debate for a long time. Consider, for …
Continue reading College and Then What?: Lawrence Mishel and the Higher Education Debate
The slogan of Applebee’s, a restaurant chain with several thousand locations internationally, states, “There’s no place like the neighborhood.” But which neighborhood? Whose neighborhood? Where? Freelance journalist Tracie McMillan worked in the kitchen of an Applebee’s and wrote about her experiences in this neighborhood chain. This excerpt from her book, The American Way of Eating: …
It’s certainly not news that sugar consumption is blamed for a variety of social and personal maladies—from obesity to behavior disorders to chronic disease. But what to do? A group of scientists at the University of California San Francisco has just made major waves with their newly published report in the journal Nature. Erin Allday, …
Continue reading The Deadly Spoonful: San Francisco Chronicle on the War on Sugar
Muhammad Ali? Oh yeah, he was a great boxer, right? Said a lot of outrageous stuff. Boasted a lot. Dave Zirin remembers more and adds to the story. Zirin is sports editor for The Nation and author of several books about the political history of sports. This article was published in the Los Angeles Times …
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