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While Truncheon will draw from the breadth of current events,
cultural nanotrends, and pings from the Blogosphere, there are certain
topics (found below) that are declared to be either dietetic for the mind,
or personal hobbyhorses of the editors, if not both.
Truncheon solicits your opinions, research, and unfounded rumors
on all such subjects. If we have neglected to comment on recent
developments relating to any of these topics, give us a whack,
and we’ll endeavor to give satisfaction.
Similarly, some readers might find some of these subjects tiresome, and
this list should therefore serve as Fair Warning, should such readers
persist in frequenting our pages.
Last week's New Yorker
Thanks to Tina Brown, the editors can make useful
sense of more than half the text without having lived in New York. On
balance, this is determined to be a good thing.
Film Criticism
Not film reviews; our goal is to develop standards
of taste in making, viewing, and writing about cinematic art, not helping
you decide whether to see the new Jack Black vehicle in the theater or
to wait for video.
Parenthood
Eric recently became a father, and has no illusions
about his inability to keep this commonplace phenomenon out of his writing.
Aaron fervently believes that all you folks out there having children
are on crack.
Photography
The Fascist Gaze retains its fascination in the
digital age.
Soccer
We'll try to keep this to a minimum.
Science Fiction
A troubled genre, science fiction nevertheless
played a formative role in the editors' education, and will pop up occasionally
when they try to make sense of a surprising world.
Wargames
Another adolescent imprinting, pre-computer wargames
provided a vast arsenal of metaphors for living in the shadow of superpower
confrontation. As the War on Terra Cotta slouches toward Baghdad, expect
the editors to take refuge in hexgrids and terrain effects.
Nationalism/Tribalism
Eric's travels to Europe continually reverberate
with observations on the many contrasts with the United States. Similarly,
Aaron's travels within the United States show up regional differences
often as great. The editors can rarely resist generalizing from these
distinctions into cultural tropes spanning hundreds of years and thousands
of kilometers.
Bush v. Gore (2000)
Remember remember
The Twelfth of December
Florida's tainted ballot.
We can think of no reason
Why Supreme Court treason
Should ever be forgot!
P.G. Wodehouse
No civilized Anglophone should pass up the opportunity
to anoint him or herself with what Stephen Fry has appropriately (and
appropriatively) dubbed "this balm for hurt minds."
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