Big-city Americans' perceptions of the competence of small-town fast food workers in the U.S.; and rural Americans' perceptions of the competence of big-city fast food workers in the U.S.: a comparison study.

9 years ago / 293 visits

I thrashed about restlessly in my bed as I dreamed of four rich people in expensive recreational outerwear, saying in unison again and again: "Shame on this government for not grooming us a cross-country ski trail."

9 years ago / 361 visits

The Placement of ‘Losing Control of One’s Vehicle’ on Rural Male Americans’ Ranked Lists of the Most Embarrassing Ways to Die: A Longitudinal Study, 1946-2012.

9 years ago / 335 visits

'"Why don't you tune in and turn them on?" was a thoughtful way for Bernie Taupin to have expressed his idea,' thought Elton as he reviewed the proposed lyric. 'I will agree to sing the words.'

10 years ago / 247 visits

I think that Annie Lennox's weird and funny pronunciation of the word "this" as these in the song "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" might have had the effect of imparting a campy humor to the word "these," at least in certain contexts, perhaps especially when the word occurs at the end of phrases or…

10 years ago / 253 visits

"Well, I have been dining at this same Big Boy restaurant nearly every week for over forty years, and during that time I have not noticed any changes in the menu offerings, the portion sizes, or the quality of the food. I don't know what you're talking about."

10 years ago / 223 visits

What we'll do is, we'll have the full choir sing the choruses and the repetitions of "That's my soul up there." And our little twelve-year-old sweet-voiced nightingale will sing the other lines solo, i.e., the lines about the butterfly in the spiderweb and the skeleton choking on a crust of bread, e…

10 years ago / 217 visits

Be careful about how you phrase things. Because to say, for instance, that Christine McVie famously wanted to be lied to in song could be misleading because it sounds like you're saying that Christine wanted somebody to sing lies to her. But in true fact it was Christine herself singing that she wan…

10 years ago / 271 visits / 1 comment

There's a song for which I'm trying to remember the title and artist, and unfortunately I don't own a copy of it and I can't seem to find it online. It was guitar rock, hard rock, with a male singer, and the chorus was him yell-singing "Tryyyyin' to have a baby! Tryyyyin' to have a baby!" again and…

10 years ago / 206 visits

'I feel like I ought to raise the point with Bob Geldof and Midge Ure that an occurrence of severe drought in a region of the continent does not grant one licence to wantonly declare that "in Africa" ... "nothing ever grows,"' thought Simon Le Bon.

10 years ago / 252 visits

Young filmmaker records as I, a man in my seventies, solemnly recite the names of every U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir, each name followed by the words "provides recreational opportunities." We're on a porch and I'm in a rocker.

11 years ago / 216 visits

an idea to get rural and smalltown U.S. protestants riled up with paranoia that the Holy Bible was "adulterated" somehow during the centuries that its text was under the control of the Catholic Church

11 years ago / 207 visits

"Well I'm researching Madonna's pregnancy in 1996, and at this point I'll take anything I can find, basically. The paper is due on Wednesday. I know it's hard to get access to medical records but do you have any ideas for places I could look? Would there be articles about it somewhere?"

11 years ago / 223 visits

In honor of the careful new restrictions it has placed upon its customers' use of paper napkins, we hereby award this Sustainable Green Living Certificate in Recognition of Environmental Friendliness to: Burger King at 34th & Nicollet in south Minneapolis. Congratulations!

11 years ago / 240 visits

We are working to convince one million smalltown U.S. Christians that Lady Gaga recorded a song called "Here's To My Sweet Satan," and that it topped the Billboard Hot 100 -- that it was "the number one song in the country" -- for eight weeks in the fall of 2012. Can we count on you for your suppor…

11 years ago / 216 visits