Idiotprogrammer: Texas Literary Blog

Category: Pop Americana

  • Time's Person of the Year should be "Reality Winner"

    Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019 should be Dallas woman Reality Winner. Reality Winner (yes, that’s her real name which was given at birth) served in the Air Force and was a multilingual American intelligence specialist who did her job well. Her Wikipedia page states that she learned Arabic, Dari and Pashtun to…

  • Who will NOT be president in 2021

    Exactly 4 years ago I wrote a tongue-in-cheek article about who would be president in 2017 by figuring out who could not possibly win. (I basically predicted it would be Jeb Bush vs.  Andrew Cuomo). I had fun writing this article and I tried to take the exercise seriously even though it was just an…

  • Only Chumps with a Rump vote for Trump (Poem)

    Only Chumps with a Rump vote for Trump. He will pump this country into a slump. Don’t make me a grump. Don’t be a lump. If you thump for Trump, You might as well jump into a dump! Let’s get over this mad callithump and dump this Trump. He’s no Forrest Gump. He’s just a…

  • Guns and more guns to the rescue! (Guns in movies and real life) By Robert Nagle

    TX blogger (and crime victim) Robert Nagle tries to understand people’s fascination and romanticization of guns in cinema and real life.

  • Who is Not Going to be president in 2016

    In September 2008 I was visiting distant relatives in Ireland. The topic of conversation was “Sarah Palin.” All the Irish people at the table were genuinely worried about her. “We can’t afford to have another Bush Administration — that affects many people not just in America. This Sarah Palin seems formidable. Why on earth didn’t…

  • The Silliness of TV shows

    I normally don’t watch TV dramas or procedurals. They are dull and predictable. I started making exceptions for supernatural sexy teen angst shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but really the entire series is silly. I have done some binge watching of TV shows — I once watched 20 episodes of Lost in 26 hours. That…

  • Time Magazine Person of the Year should be… the Lone Gunman

    (This was written a few days after the mass killing by a lone gunman at a Connecticut elementary school which claimed 27 lives). For the past few years, my mom and I have been busy guessing who will be picked as person of the year by Time magazine. So far I had selected John Roberts…

  • Doris Day’s Secret Life

    Today, while waiting in line at the supermarket, I picked up a tabloid with the headline “Doris Day’s Secret Life.” I was mildly curious, if only because these tabloid publications rarely covered celebrities from so far back.   It’s hard to remember that merely because celebrities drop out of public life doesn’t mean that they’re dead. …

  • Pondering Kellie Pickler

    I’m sure this blog post will reveal my profound ignorance about pop culture. So bear with me. Start by watching this hilarious video by a dumb-sounding blonde contestant on a TV game show called  “Are you smarter than a 5th grader?”  I had seen it before, but I watched it again with delight.  After watching…

  • Inane Logic of Teabaggers

    An odd fact: I was once mistaken for a Teabagger.  It’s true. I was a proto-teabagger. I was outraged at the bank bailouts especially because it meant shortchanging public services like education. The protest was sparsely attended but focused. I met teachers, investment bankers (!) and a token LaRouche groupie. All in all a positive…

  • Shallowness of Sunday talk shows

    I noticed that mediamatters is now  factchecking the statements made on  the Sunday talk shows. I don’t know how hard this is, but it’s extremely convenient to have this as a reference.  Up until recently, TV commentary was provided only on Sunday talk shows. Now with 24 hour cable, we have news commentary shows that…

  • Risque Comedy & Flagging those Molecules

    Crazy TV nonnews. The actor who played the annoying Screech in Saved by the Bell  tells how he picked up women: walk around Disneyland until a teenage girl recognizes him and starts hanging around. (From an amusing book review written by Sam Greenspan). Ever wonder how to get on CNN? Write a random note about…

  • And I thought I was so cool (the incredible speed of Internet memes)

    I had been having a back-and-forth about global warming with a friend in Japan. Just on a lark, I sent a silly music video that was a remix of an infomercial . It is absurd and yet it’s hard to resist rewatching (“Stop having boring tuna!”). My friend in Japan is a bit crazy, but…

  • The List is back: Old Gossip Page on wayback machine

    A few years ago I came across this hilarious  gossip site and even blogged about it. But the site name “The List” was horribly generic, so much that I couldn’t even search my own site to find out the original URL. (I tried several times). Quite by accident I stumbled upon my mention of it…

  • Breaking News: Celebrities are Dying all around us!

    Joanne McNeil on the phenomenon of media outlets reporting a constant barrage of celebrity deaths. Every day on Twitter, news of another death. Les Paul, John Hughes, Farrah Fawcett, those big names, but also the editor at this publication, the founder of this startup, the people who we might not all know, but someone you…

  • Where is Glen Beck in space?

    John Holbo on whether political conservatives should like the Star Trek franchise.  Hilarity ensues. Fave comment: I will admit one illiberal thing about the ST universe that has bugged me: The absence of media. Picard is saving the universe week after week, and no one bothers to do even so much as an interview with…