Category: Culture
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Inclusive Ghost Story That Changed the World? Pac-Man!
On October 10th of 1980, the US met Pac-Man and his mortal enemies Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. In 1979 Toru Iwatani assembled a 9 person team to develop a video game that women could play and enjoy as well as men. In an interview he said, “The reason I created Pac-Man was because we wanted…
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The Curse of the White Bic Lighter and the 27
Have you ever heard of the curse of the White Bic Lighter and the 27 Club? Let me get my flashlight as you gather around the camp fire. One October night I was out with a woman I was dating. We were outside of the iconic Metro Chicago having a smoke and a toke together.…
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Total Eclipse of the Heart Was a Vampire Love Song
In 1983 Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart entered October as the #1 song in America. It stayed on the number 1 through most of the month of October. It did not make it to Halloween, which is a shame. The song is about vampires hooking up. The song was meant to convey something…
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A Conscience Pivots to September’s Top Stories
A few moments ago I scrapped an article I had been working on for weeks. In the Members Only Patreon Page I talk about the cutting room floor. Back story of articles and what I included and did not include. At the end of this article I want to touch on why I scrapped a…
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Mark Hamill Gave Us the Gift of Imagination
I’ve decided to try a new thing on Wednesdays! Just be a nostalgic fan as opposed to the deeper dive. So let’s kick off this experiment and celebrate an amazing man! Nothing deep and not full of facts and figures. I started this idea of Gen X Watch to counter the toxic Gen X nostalgia…
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The Power of the Pen Pal to Expand the World
When many of us were young there was nothing more magical than getting mail that was for you! The best was a letter or a card from a friend. To this day I enjoy the week of my birthday and Christmas because there are still a few beautiful people who will send a hand written…
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Miami Vice and 40 Years of Art Transforming!
Today marks the 40th birthday of Miami Vice. The show had an impact on fashion and music. It forever changed the landscape of television, movies, and police dramas. It also changed the city of Miami and may show us a path for art to change our current social landscape. We may have to do more…
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Memento Mori and the Masque of the Red Death
2 days ago I had emergency surgery. I’ve had it before and I am going to have it again. It is a reminder that life is to be lived and pain is bittersweet. It is also a reminder of mortality. Since I was ten I have been a fan of Edgar Allan Poe. In grade…
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You Made August Matter For Strong Women!
This month was really a sifting of the wheat from the chaff. There were challenging articles and the readers took to the challenge. It is ever a reminder of how wonderful and powerful our audience is. This was a rare month that we did not have growth, but we missed that by less than 200…
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Lessons From 100 Articles: What Readers Want
Thank you for 100 articles! Nothing we have done could be possible without you, the readers. The last 8 months have not been what I intended, but it is more than I could have imagined. There have been some changes from our original direction. The changes have been all of us working together to take…
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Comments
Patrick, you are a wonderful, compassion-driven writer. Glad I read this piece. Keep healing. Keep writing. Keep sharing how performance…
It is so rare that we get comments on the site these days. Most people send their hate mail in…