Author Archive: Paul Epps

Warhol’s Prophecy

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I wish Andy Warhol was around to see that his most famous prophecy — that everyone will eventually enjoy 15 minutes of fame — came true with a vengeance. Talk shows opened the stage door to trailer park America, and now game shows are celebrating anyone who knows the capital of Spain or who marries a potential wife-beater on camera . . . — Michael Musto, Village Voice Read more →

The Modern Critic

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‘This book [Judith Levine’s Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex] encourages children to have sex, and that is very, very dangerous,’ Bill O’Reilly said on his show. He also provided a sampling of the complaints against the book, calling it ‘vile,’ ‘disgusting,’ ‘insane,’ ‘perverted,’ ‘sick stuff,’ ‘outrageous,’ and ‘evil.’ (He also admitted on air that he hasn’t read it.) [Emph. added] — Hannah Rosin, “Lust Busters” Read more →

Dogfood

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The netscape.com domain, which is owned by AOL, has replaced its Netscape-Enterprise servers with AOLServer. Repeat: netscape.com no longer runs on Netscape servers. Also: netscape.co.uk now runs Apache, while in France, netscape.fr runs Microsoft-IIS. Read more →

Senegal 1, France 0

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In a historic upset, Senegal, making its first appearance in World Cup competition, defeats France, the defending champs. Senegal was a French colony until 1960. Ironically, France has previously scored a number of impressive victories against the African colonies, although it must be noted that they were competing with guns against spears in those matchups. Read more →

Are You Being Served?

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The Guardian sends writers to bookstores to test the staffs’ literary knowledge: I point to the word ‘jawbo’ on page 330 [of Joyce’s Ulysses]. ‘That’s not a word,’ I say. ‘Mmmm,’ he says. ‘It’s rare that publishers make a mistake like that.’ Read more →

Word of the Day

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sang-froid, also sangfroid \sang-FRWAH\, noun: Freedom from agitation or excitement of mind; coolness in trying circumstances; calmness. Sang-froid is from the French; it literally means “cold blood” (sang, “blood” + froid, “cold”). Read more →

Ask a 3rd Grader

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If Amelia Earhart were alive today, what do you think she would be doing? If Amelia Earhart was alive today, she would be doing things that are not dangerous because she would be 105 years old. Read more →

Welcome to Irvine!

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Education is important in our community . . . Word came home last week that this year’s Stanford 9 testing starts the first week of May. Immediately, my wife got a call from another mom announcing that she’s cancelling all play dates through the end of the testing period so her kid can spend every waking moment on test prep. The gauntlet has been thrown! Meanwhile, in business news, thanks to the tech meltdown, office space vacancy rates in southern Orange County continue to hover around 30 percent. The screaming rent deals this creates were enough to induce the company I work with to pack everything up and move one off-ramp further south on the 405 . . . Read more →

Kidding Around

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Parents who joke in a light-hearted fashion during tense or stressful situations may make their children feel more comfortable and accepted, less anxious, and more willing to communicate in a positive manner. This is according to a study done at Arizona State University. My kid’s reaction: “Go, Arizona State! If USC [where I went to school] is so great, why didn’t they figure that out?” Read more →

Are You Proud of Me Now?

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Barbra Streisand’s mother died last week at age 93. The two had a strained relationship, as people sometimes do with their mothers. When Mom attended one of her shows in 1994 — she would have been 85 years old at the time — Barbra addressed her from the stage, saying, “Are you proud of me now, Mama?” I’m not a big fan of anything Barbra Streisand has ever done, but for articulating a lifetime of pain in seven words, you can’t do much better than that . . . Read more →

Fluffy Had Babies

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Last week, we bought a hamster. This afternoon, I got a call at work from my son, who was yelling something into the phone. On the third try, I understood it: “Fluffy had babies!” Read more →

I Fought the Law . . .

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Doreen Waddell, a former vocalist with the chart-topping 1980s British band Soul II Soul, died after being hit by several cars as she ran across a busy road. Police said it appeared she had been running from a supermarket after being confronted about shoplifting. Read more →

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