The Star Wars series is one of the biggest cash cows in human history. The absurdity of its storylines is only matched by the lunacy of its fan subculture. In any objective analysis, it is a children’s cereal box pastiche of kitsch, pedestrian borrowings from Buddhism and the myths of King Arthur combined with an […]
The increasing likelihood of cascading failures is the most important thing the press has missed about the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico, devastated by Hurricane Maria. By knocking out the entire electrical grid, supplies of clean and safe water, telecommunications and roads, the storm unraveled the complicated web of infrastructure that underpins modern life. It […]
Welcome to the Funhouse The ongoing second-rate carnival that is Rhode Island politics continues to dazzle, amaze and confuse, even with the freak sideshow that is the General Assembly not in session. Rep. Teresa Tanzi’s leap into the #MeToo ring, sparked by the Harvey Weinstein heinous rape and sexual abuse accusations that have spread […]
RIP, Yelberton Abraham For New England football fans of a certain age, the passing of Y.A. Tittle brought back a ton of good memories. Tittle was the famed quarterback of the New York Giants in the early 1960s. He was the NFL MVP in 1963 and held records for most TD passes and yardage back […]
Now that the media-content-franchising, frighteningly biased conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group has purchased local WJAR News Channel 10, you can expect Terrorism Watch and other trumped-up segments (like one starring Boris Epshteyn) to invade the minds of those watching local news broadcasts. Our intrepid AltFacts investigators (who don’t, technically, exist – but neither do unbiased Sinclair […]
Bend Over, JARheads WJAR-TV, Channel 10, the local NBC station, was publicly shamed and disgraced — and rightly so — by The Urinal’s recent excellent front pager by Jacqueline Tempera that pointed out that the JARhead’s Big Daddy, Sinclair Broadcast Group, was forcing them to air pre-packaged promo pieces for President Trump and his policies (read: unhinged, […]
A foreign country, far, far away, full of far-i-ners, seems to want our help. At least that’s what about half of Americans seem to believe – possibly including our President, at least up until he was briefed on the fact that Puerto Rico is, in fact, part of the US. Since he used to golf […]
Christopher Columbus has become a controversial figure: He is simultaneously honored by the Italian-American community as their foremost symbolic personage and reviled by Native Americans as the bringer of near-genocide. In Providence, Columbus Square features one of the nation’s most recognized statues of Columbus, refabricated in bronze a year after the display of an identical […]
Benny’s – Sign of the Apocalypse It is easy to talk about the impact on local businesses of Walmart, Home Depot and online shopping, but then comes the announcement that 31 Benny’s stores will be closing due to those soulless competitors by the end of year. That’s in-your-face reality, and not so pleasant. In fact, […]
Tragic events in Georgia shortly before press time have added an element of gritty reality to the topic of campus shootings. Scout Schultz of Georgia Tech was shot and killed on campus by police. He was encouraging them to fire at the time, armed with an unextended utility tool and, according to notes he left […]