I grew up watching James Bond movies and loved the outrageous tongue-in-cheek spy thrillers starring Ian Fleming’s iconic character. As our society has become more politically correct, the great Bond has been bowdlerized. He seduces fewer women, drinks less, and doesn’t smoke. Worse yet, the fanciful over-the-top plots that characterized Bond films from the 1960s […]
People my age often complain that the favorite comedies of our youth – Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles for instance – could never be made today. Brooks is a comic genius but his bawdy creations bothered the bluenoses even back then. It’s gotten to the point, however, that beloved shows with sophisticated messages would likely suffer […]
There are so many great authors I haven’t read, and yet it seems I often discover them because of controversy. One of these was 2016 Dragon Award winner Ctrl-Alt-Revolt by Nick Cole. I’d heard that publisher HarperCollins unilaterally canceled his contract because of a controversial passage in the first chapter. He refused to change it […]
It’s that time again, to hear the conservative lament about the “War on Christmas.” Is this, as the New York Times has opined, merely in our imagination? I’d agree that the term “war” is a bit of an exaggeration. “Cultural skirmish” might be a better fit. No one has outlawed Christmas in America, but […]
This classic television series exemplifies the fun of fictionalized history. For those of you who are too young to remember, it was a western historical drama created by Michael Garrison, set during the 1870’s. It starred Robert Conrad and Ross Martin as Jim West and Artemis Gordon, dashing Secret Service agents. I loved it for […]
