Culture

Had a chance to see The Exorcism of Emily Rose last Sunday night, which might not seem like a big deal—but when you have two small kids, going to a movie that doesn’t feature Barney or the Wiggles or some animatronic character from the depths of merchandising hell represents a watershed moment in your adult life. I made the most of the occasion by picking a pretty scary flick, and was not disappointed in the least.

ThatÂ’s high ...

I’m not a full-fledged member of the Cult of Mac, but I do have a Powerbook G4 that I really like, and bought an iPod way before the little device captured the cultural zeitgeist with its scroll wheel and tiny white earbuds. Call me a Mac fan, if you will–a guy who likes OS X better than Windoze XP, but wouldn’t chain you to a radiator and make you renounce Bill Gates and all his evil ways.

That said, ...

When is a book not just a book? When it becomes a cultural phenomenon.

Would it surprise you to know that The Da Vinci Code originally had a print run of only 50,000 copies? Or that the first Harry Potter novel was rejected multiple times before getting picked up by a small publisher of children’s books? The way these works have changed the world, it’s hard to imagine that their authors were once unknowns hustling for ...