The digitized scribblings of Matthew E. Milliken
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
June 18, 2016
Yesterday, I surveyed the troubled state of the campaign of New York real-estate mogul and reality-TV star Donald Trump. Today, I wanted to offer a modest proposal aimed at revitalizing his run for the presidency.
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that Trump is a master at grabbing the attention of the news media, largely because he says a lot of outrageous things. It’s a truth nearly as widely accepted, however, that an alarmingly high proportion of the outrageous things he says earn him condemnation.
My solution is simple: Turn the candidate’s liability into an asset by casting Trump as an archetypal sitcom character that everyone recognizes and loves.
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
April 23, 2014
Two.
That’s the number of times this month that Antonin Scalia, the longest-sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice, has publicly suggested rebellion against the U.S. government.
The first instance took place in early April, at a Brooklyn Law School event. In a roundup of legal news, Joe Patrice restated the the episode this way: “Justice Scalia was asked, ‘Why should society be bound by laws that were passed only by white male property owners?’ If you guessed he’d eschew a substantive response in favor of a condescending sarcastic quip, you’re right!”
What was the quip? Let’s go to an April 8 Wall Street Journal article about Scalia’s visit to the school, which closed with an anecdote about the question that Patrice had highlighted. The justice, in reporter David Shapiro’s telling,
hesitated for a few seconds, longer than he had all evening. “That’s a reasonable position,” he smiled. “You people wanna make a revolt? Do it!”
Something not dissimilar happened last week, when Scalia delivered a lecture at the University of Tennessee law school. In response to a question, Scalia stated that the income tax is constitutional, “but if it reaches a certain point, perhaps you should revolt.”
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
April 21, 2014
Yes, it’s another list — this time of unappealingly renamed sitcoms.
• Unhappy Days
• I Loathe Lucy
• The Cosby Shoe
• Mork Murders Mindy
• Laverne and Shirley and John Wayne Gacy
• It’s Always Grungy in Philadelphia
• How I Ate Your Mother
• Two and a Half Carcasses
• Family Bondage
• Alf Autopsy
• Everybody Punches Raymond
• Gilligan’s Graveyard
• Neinfeld
• Charles de Gaulle in Charge
• Charles in Chains
• The Gallstone Girls
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
April 18, 2014
And now, this blog humbly presents some alternative, and far less appealing, names for some well-known (and otherwise) science fiction franchises.
• Star Bores
• Star Dreck
• Battlefarts Galactica
• The PG-13 Files
• Starship Bloopers
• All-But-Dissertation Who
• Agents of I.R.S.
• Blade Cleaner
• Peninsula of the Apes
• RoboMeterMaid
• Sept. 11, 2001: George Bush’s Odyssey
• Men in Gray Flannel Suits
• Fahrenheit 51
• Invasion of the Body Sculptors
• The Lamest American Zero
• Infinitesimal Leap
• Logan’s 5K
• seaQuest DVR
• The Six Million Dollar Hip Replacement
• Buck Rogers in the 21st Century
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
July 17, 2013
Man’s best friend. Man’s west bend. Man’s bed send. Man’s hedge bent. Man’s nest tends. Man’s quest ends. Man’s dread rends. Dan’s fed men. Fan’s edge fens. Tan’s hedge trends.
Man’s jest lends. Man’s breast condescends. Man’s test fends. Man’s vest mends. Man’s stressed wren. Man’s guest vend. Man’s dressed wen. Man’s pressed ten. Man’s pest Zen. Man’s zest wends. Man’s Midwest Brent. Man’s oppressed yen. Man’s incensed Ken. Man’s recessed Ben. Man’s depressed den. Man’s suppressed hen. Man’s progressed then.
Man’s chest pen. Man’s request lens. Man’s professed hem. Man’s rest descends. Man’s protest intends. Man’s interests rescind. Man’s coalesced oven. Man’s dispossessed clench. Man’s arrest trench. Vans suggest human. Crams southwest glen.
Man’s digressed inch. Man’s finessed bench. Man’s thirst quenched. Man’s infested mensch. Han’s regressed French.
Man’s obsessed finch. Man’s ingest dent. Man’s messed tent. Man’s tressed scent. Man’s compressed blend.
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
July 10, 2013
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