 Dec 31 DIY tips from a person who might knowwdevoe, Pop Culture Hello and welcome to a very special post-Christmas edition of Pop Culture, America’s No. 1 resource for ice sculpture and animal training tips. Of course, you and I know that these claims are made in jest, but a few months ago, I signed off a column by saying that Pop Culture is America’s No. 1 resource for watch and small appliance repair, and since then I’ve received a handful of letters asking my advice on those topics. Admittedly, my knowledge of watches and small appliances is conducive mostly to breaking them, but I’d feel as though I were shirking some sort of solemn columnly duty by not answering those letters. So, here they are. Names have been changed to protect the innocent and all that jazz... Continue Reading CATEGORY: Humor
TAGS: Pop, Culture, DIY, DeVoe, spotlight Dec 22 All I want for Christmas is ... plumbingwdevoe, Pop Culture Hello, and welcome to a special Christmas edition of Pop Culture. This year has been a crazy one for my family and me — we purchased our first home, a foreclosure that was pretty well neglected, and are in the process of fixing it up. With that foremost in my mind, and not being content to let a Christmas classic like Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit From St... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Christmas, pop culture, plumbing, house, disaster Dec 03 Dad hits boiling point when temperature dropswdevoe, Pop Culture If there has ever been any doubt in your mind as to whether or not the DeVoe family is paying to heat the outside, let me clear it up for you: No. No, we are not. One of my earliest memories is of my older brother, Dan, throwing a football to me in the backyard of the home we grew up in. The football was a real leather one from the ’60s, brown laces and absolutely no foam or — God forbid — an aerodynamically engineered tail fin that you see on a lot of those mega-mart balls. We have a picture in one our family albums of that day... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: heat, dad, pop, culture, DeVoe Dec 03 A swine time was had this Halloweenwdevoe, Pop Culture
The other day I was making a 20-foot, UFO-shaped helium balloon — you know, just something for the kids to play around in — when my 6-year-old son, Kevin, comes up to me to tell me some disturbing news:
“Dad,” he says, “I don’t want to be a superhero for Halloween.” My heart stopped. What had I done wrong as a parent? Not enough television? I could get him subscriptions to all of Marvel and DC’s best sellers, but I doubt they’d get here in time for me to change his mind. “I want to be something scary,” he says. “Spiderman’s scary.” “I’ve been Spiderman three times,” he said, and it was true. One year, I purposely told him it was Halloween a few months early so I could dress like Dr. Octopus and chase him around the neighborhood... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: swine, flu, Halloween, pop, culture Aug 06 A bad case of the clapswdevoe, Pop Culture
No one applauds anymore.
I was at the circus with my family a couple of months ago, and virtually no one clapped for anything. A woman fired herself out of a cannon. Nothing. A man walked upside-down along the rafters of the stadium we were in by hooking his feet into tiny ropes. Not one round of applause. A performer balanced a running chainsaw on his chin while juggling household appliances. I looked over and saw a man playing Tetris on his cell phone. I made it a point of compensating for the lack of claptitude by applauding as loudly and for as long as I could... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Clap, spotlight, applause, parade, Jul 24 Beyond the seawdevoe, Pop Culture  So, that was two years ago — why post this now? Because my wife asked me to, and the key to a successful marriage is doing exactly what your wife asks you to do. Most marriage counselors call that compromise. that being said, Here we go: Bobby Darin. For some reason that was the first thing that went through my mind when the nurse told me and my wife that our unborn child had a considerably pronounced arrhythmia. Bobby Darin was born Walden Robert Cassotto on May 14, 1936... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Spotlight, Pop culture, bobby Darin, sea Jul 01 Fathers are as weird as the day is longwdevoe, Pop Culture
Father’s Day is a largely useless holiday. Along with Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, it is a holiday that exists solely to market greeting cards and holiday-specific gifts under the guise that there should be a single day that should embody the sentiment we should express to the important people in our lives on every day of the year.
In fact, I’m a big proponent of the Anti-Holiday-Day. Instead of having a single day during the year where we show our husbands/wives/fathers/mothers/kids/receptionists how much they’re appreciated, why don’t we do that all year except for one day— a day when we can disregard everyone around us. Think of how liberating the selfish indulgence would be... Continue Reading CATEGORY: General Society
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