BOARD GAMES
5 years ago
May 30, 2003 | Chris Wright extolled the advantages of an online social life.
“The thing is, my online social life has everything I could wish for. There's tenderness: ‘My condolences to you and your family.’ There's ribbing: ‘Chris, you are one dumb mule.’ There's fighting: ‘Of course I was insulting you, dumbfuck.’ There's flirting: ‘I got all dolled up for ya ... red silky panties & matching bra.’ There are confessions: ‘I shit myself at work yesterday and had to throw my boxers in the garbage.’ And there's outright weirdness: ‘Yeah, I don't shave my balls either.’
“Best of all, we can do this free of consequences. There are no diseases to worry about, no bar tabs to divvy up, no questions about where we'll meet or who's invited. We can sit around in our undies, zits on our faces and our hair in tatters, and make like we just stepped off the runway at a Prada fashion show.” Read Full Article
SOMEONE’S EXCITED
20 years ago
May 27, 1988 | Francis J. Connolly was awed by the Celtics’ playoff win over the Atlanta Hawks.
“By now, the astonishment having passed into memory and the riot of superlatives having subsided in the face of the new challenge from Detroit, it’s possible to put Sunday’s Boston victory over the Atlanta Hawks into some sort of realistic perspective. What we’re talking about here, remember, was only a basketball game...That Bird and the Celtics managed, through the force of sheer will, to prevail against a younger, faster, and more muscular Atlanta squad should be of little consequence in this hard and cynical world; Colonel Qaddafi, it’s safe to guess, was not impressed by what happened in the Garden Sunday afternoon, nor did news of the Celtic triumph have any noticeable effect on Wall Street, in the shipyards of Gdansk, or at the Vatican. What happened Sunday, after all, was just a game.
“All of which is like saying that the Titanic was a fairly big boat, that Astaire could dance a little, that Pavarotti can carry a tune, or that Marlene Dietrich had a decent set of gams. Boston’s victory over the Hawks was one of those exercises in artistry that demands understatement, precisely because there is no adequate way to describe it. Either you saw it, and you know what true athletic greatness is, or you did not, and the loss is yours.”
LOSE THE MUPPETS, MAN
25 years ago
May 31, 1983 | Owen Gleiberman found Return of the Jedi to be an unsatisfying end to the Star Wars trilogy.
“...the commercialism of Jedi isn’t what’s so bothersome...The truth is that, in trying to stage the ultimate Muppet-movie, Lucas has shortchanged his vision. The final chapter of the Star Wars trilogy is the last part of the saga that should have been gummed up with cuteness. We want grandeur in the climactic episode — blaring trumpets, an epic plot, a final duel so rousing we watch it with our hearts in our throats. Return of the Jedi is fun, but it isn’t a satisfying rave-up. Whenever the movie verges on the requisite sense of majesty, it’s interrupted by cuddly half-pints dancing around a treehouse like so many Winnie the Poohs. Just when you want George Lucas to get grandiose, he turns into a puppet master.”
EXTREME MAKEOVER
30 years ago
May 30, 1978 | D.C. Denison looked at the second generation of skateboarding.
“It may be dangerous, but it’s clean. And the effect of this fresh image on the sport is not lost on Skateboarder publisher Dave Dash. ‘There is no sex and violence, no dirty posters or condom ads in our magazine,’ he assures. ‘Parents can trust it.’ And they can also trust the new circle of skateboard heroes, who are careful to maintain an all-American image... In the words of Bill Riordan, the agent who steered Jimmy Connors to fame and currently manages 18-year-old Ty Page, one of the hottest skateboarders in the country, ‘To make this sport viable in America, you need to create national heroes to sustain it. Ty’s image is apple pie and ice cream. He’s clean-cut, wears proper safety equipment, and everyone wants to mother him. Jimmy Connors came up in the age of the anti-hero. It was easy to make a rascal out of him. Those days are over. We’re in the Goldwater phase of teenagers now.’ ”
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