There is at times a strange sense of pleasure to be had from watching reality television. Like fashion magazines, reality shows make life seem simple and airbrushed. Men and women prance around communal kitchens in candy-colored outfits and blow-dried hair. Everyone's basic needs are always met. Whoever stays on the...

Cairo -- For a day, it was just one dirty brown goat standing on the cracked cement to the side of the apartment building. The next day there were three. Then, later, there were more -- cows, goats, sheep -- all over the neighborhood, all over the city. In the...

Five things that annoy me about your blog:

1. You started it just to get a book deal.

Think of how flummoxed you would be if we went ice skating in the park one winter and I told you that I was only shuffling around the rink with you...

I'm completely sick right now, but the irony wasn't lost on me. I was walking home with my five-dollar cup of matzah ball soup when I saw a new banner unfurled across Citibank's window. It depicts a man with a bowl cut. He is grinning manically. And he's perched atop...

Several weeks ago, a gigantic subterranean Barnes and Noble opened in my neighborhood. I bought one book, which was placed into a sturdy promotional ("eco-friendly!") bag and left with a line of others carrying matching totes. What a smugness factory those escalators were! On one side -- the "before" side...

I first got interested in Iran a couple of days ago when I looked at my Facebook and saw that everyone's updates were about the demonstrations. I looked at the pictures and determined that I really supported @Mousavi because everyone looked so cool on the street. So together. Like at...

Living overseas I would sometimes run into English colonialists. Left over from another time in India and Africa, these relics have stuck around in a country that no longer needs or wants them. They spend their days in British "clubs," sipping gin and tonics and calling waiters "boy" as a...

Status Updates on Facebook have a whole new tone to them these days. While usually a barometer as to how hungover/ready for happy hour a person is, in the past week these innocuous little descriptors have been replaced by some heavy war-petting, Israel style. I'm no stranger to politically-tinged updates...

Early this morning, still in my "Joe Biden: A Clean Articulate Guy" t-shirt, I stumble down four flights of stairs and go next door to the deli to pick up a copy of the newspaper that I will save to show my children. The New York Times is my local...

Dear John,

I have been following your career for quite a few years now, especially lately if you know what I mean. In reference to last night's debate, I have several suggestions.

First off, before you step into those bright lights, try to shake it out a little so...

Part One:
In which I am humiliated and later vindicated

When I was in the second grade, my teacher went around the classroom asking each student to name the materials that various objects were made from. She'd say "desk" and point to Timmy who removed his finger from...

I've always assumed that WaMu makes no sense as a bank because it is owned and operated by a large Killer Whale. Take the design of the interior, which has no discernable counters and is full of large, seemingly useless open areas. I take it that all of this space...

Things have been a little bit crazy lately, huh? Suddenly, even my president, George W. Bush, is telling me that America is going to hell in a hand basket. You may be confused. I am. You may be exhibiting signs of depression, staying out at the local bar extra late,...

Watching the Republican National Convention tonight, I realized that it has eerie similarities to another gathering which makes my skin crawl. Burning Man, which recently took place in the Black Rock desert in Nevada, consists of a very large group of people who descend on an otherwise rarely talked about...

Funny that. And I was just getting sick of hearing about Sarah Palin.

I think we mostly agree McCain picking Palin was a strange choice that informed the public that it takes more experience to break into middle management at an Applebee's then it does to get the VP...

In elementary school, on the first day of every school year, my class was shown a video about being a "latchkey kid." Little Billy or Tony -- or whatever his name was -- would have his house key on a string around his neck. The movie documented the latchkey boy's...

You'd think that beyond the showiness of it all, the Olympics would at least be a place for countries to fight out their age-old grudges. You'd think that, for example, when Georgia's beach volleyball team took on Russia's yesterday there would've been some seriously angry and vengeful spiking, which would...

As Denver draws closer, bringing with it the Democratic nomination, I can say that I am finally committed to Barack Obama. Not committed to him as a candidate so much as I feel we are in an actual relationship. I know much has been made of people with Kennedy-like crushes...