How to Know When a Joke Is Sexist
Today DCist has an interview with Top Chef contestant and Zaytinya chef Mike Isabella. He was a contestant that came under fire after the first episode where he made a remark about losing to "a girl," another talented Top Chef contestant Jen Carrol, who managed to shuck clams at a faster clip than Isabella. In the interview, Isabella expressed regret for making the remark:You personally drew fire for being perceived as obnoxious and even sexist at the start of the show, then went on to become one of the more likable and vibrant personalities. When you said the

David Brooks Gets Judgy on Relationships, Fears Text Messaging
Today David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times, seems to have been reading a few too many New York magazine online sex diaries. Brooks seems horrified at what he reads, saying "the choice of a Prius can be a more sanctified act that the choice of an erotic partner." Brooks goes down the tired old path of decrying the "hookup culture," where people occasionally have causal sexual encounters rather than asking partners to the sock hop and grope each other in the back of a car. Brooks wistfully says: Once upon a time — in what we might think of as the “Happy Days”

Reviewing Eating the Dinosaur
BOOKEating the DinosaurScribnerPublished: Oct. 20, 2009 Chuck Klosterman, depending on your opinion, is either a brilliant and hilarious cultural critic or a self-indulgent and trivial asshole. His latest book, Eating the Dinosaur, will only seek to magnify the opinion you hold of him. I happen to be one of those people that thinks Klosterman

YAF Calls for Liberals to Enlist, Stays Home to Fight 'the Battle of Ideas'
I'm really trying to back off of making fun of Young America's Foundation. Honestly. But sometimes they make it just too easy. Take, for instance, the poll they put up on their site this week: Yes, you're reading that correctly. The poll question is, "Why haven't Obama's youth brigades signed up for military service?" The options to answer are, "They prefer telling others how to live their lives," "They are chicken hawks," "They are ju

‘Untrustworthy’ (Read: Black) Students Banned from Chicago Bar
Six black students from Washington University on a senior trip were denied admission to a bar in Chicago because the manager said their "baggy jeans" violated a code. The Student Life newspaper at Wash U has done a good job of covering the story, and has a summary of what happened: Washington University seniors on their class trip accused a Chicago nightclub of racial discrimination over the weekend, protesting nearby after the club allegedly denied entry to six black male students because of their race. “I think it’s because we were a group