There are few pop cultural motifs quite as cool as the moniker “Mr.”, which is a perfect conflation of classy, sleek, cultured and mysterious, with an air of authority and cold, calculating power. Whether or not you’re aware of it, many of your favorite characters were Misters, from Rogers to T to Spock, Bean and [...]

In case you didn’t know it (or hear about it over at our big brother The L Magazine) we’re currently celebrating Banned Book Week here in the U.S., which means reading up on the rich tradition of literary censorship in America. One way you might familiarize yourself with popular targets is by reading Banned Book [...]

Today is Elephant Appreciation Day, which we learned is a fairly young holiday created in 1996 by a father who was disproportionately elated by the paperweight of elephants parading that his daughter gave him as a gift. Doesn’t he know that paperweights are just about the most thoughtless and empty gifts one can give? At [...]

The first time we ever saw a pop-up book was when we were sleeping over at Louis’ house. He had all the coolest toys, board games and video games, and this new kind of book was just the icing on the cake. Clearly, Louis was ahead of the curve and this three-dimensional book thing would [...]

What’s a good sci-fi or fantasy series without a fascinating, deeply rich urban locale to serve as its backdrop? Batman’s got Gotham, Superman has Metropolis, and any comparable franchise that plans to stick around would do good to create comparable settings from which subplots and supporting characters can emerge to provide new narratives and continuing [...]

The first zeppelin (named after inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, seriously) took to the skies exactly 109 years ago, and though we’re a little sad they didn’t catch on as well as the airplane, we suppose all the flammable gases and whatnot are a plenty good reason. At any rate, to celebrate that 109th anniversary, [...]

Today is beloved comic strip character Garfield’s 31st birthday, a fact regular readers of the lazy cat’s antics will already know since Jim Davis makes a point of marking his famous creation’s anniversary ever year. Not surprisingly, being that he’s a grumpy foodie who loves to eat about as much as he likes to be [...]

We’re always pleased when some graphic designer takes it upon themselves to spruce up the look of an oldie but goodie music album, videogame or film. Today’s re-looking project comes courtesy of designer Huw Gwilliam (aka Littlepixel), whose re-imagined 39 Classic Album Covers as Vintage Penguin Books. Our favorite would have to be this version [...]

A few weeks back some literary theory friends of ours invited us to a very special edition of their annual party Twainmas, this year’s having been the 99th anniversary of Mark Twain’s death. Though we couldn’t attend – by a strange coincidence that date was also Anthony Quinn’s birthday and we’d committed to a Lawrence [...]

It’s funny, we’re always disappointed to learn that a character we’ve come to love isn’t actually as original and unique as we thought. Like our uncle Ted, who we thought was just the sweetest guy, but turned out to be a documentary filmmaker making a life-long project about the decline of the modern family. That’s [...]