Shipwrecked & Comatose

One of pop culture's biggest controversies: Should Andie have gone for Duckie, or did she make the right choice in taking Blane back? Pretty in Pink was one of the defining movies of my generation, and nearly forty years after its release, GenXers still discuss it at length. I belong to a couple of Gen X groups on social media and the topic is often tossed around. The opinions are always sharply divided. After reading multiple arguments about this movie, I realized I had something to say about the topic. ( If you haven't seen it, or don't at least know the plot, click here . I won't explain it in this post .) You want to know what's strange? When I saw the movie as a teen, I was Team Blane.*  Why would I be rooting for Blane? I admit he was the kind of guy I found physically attractive in high school, but he also represented the kind of people I hated. He was too good looking to be trustworthy. I knew boys in high school who came from those rich-boy cliques like th...

The United States has never been more divided. This divided country will fall apart. Are we headed for another civil war? It's hard to listen to any political commentary these days without hearing about how "divided" the country is. The United States isn't united. It's an assemblage of different groups who all have different goals and dreams and lifestyles and values. It's urban again rural, liberal against conservative, Christians against non-Christians, native-born against immigrants. The entire country is a powder keg of hate waiting to blow because nobody can agree on anything anymore. Is it really? The mass media and all the various political commentators feed us these stories about American division every day. They can't be wrong, can they? It's not as if the news outlets, owned by giant media conglomerates and run by billionaires have any stake in keeping us afraid, right? The media are all reporting the facts and there is no advantage to making...