In Gary Shteyngart’s futuristic and comic narrative about the upcoming demise of the United States, "Super Sad True Love Story," one of the signs of the Apocalypse is the fate of books. You remember books. Those hefty artifacts of paper, glue and ink that we used to cart from place…  [more]

The same day I read Amy Adair’s TC post on Cinderella culture, I heard about Walmart’s launch of a new makeup line for 8- to 12-year-old girls. The introduction of GeoGirl makeup products for tweens, including anti-aging ingredients, has caused some controversy. This cosmetics line certainly seems to reinforce the…  [more]

In my perfect world, my wardrobe would consist of two types of outfits: jeans with a nice t-shirt and dresses. Very Fancy Dresses. Of course, in my real world, I wear the jeans. Opportunities for Very Fancy Dresses are few and far between. It’s rare that I wear something that…  [more]

Did you see yourself in any of this year’s Super Bowl commercials? Because advertisers are trying to give us what we want - or convince us we want something - their commercials often work like mirrors. When we look into them, we can see the people that (advertisers think) we…  [more]

I love it when Stephen Colbert gets sacrilegious. Well, maybe that's a strong word for what the comedian often does on "The Colbert Report," his nightly parody of reactionary news shows. (We've written about Colbert before, including the host's actual faith background.) In regular bits inspired by the latest religious news, he…  [more]