Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category

Top 25 Sports Movies Of All Time (& 50 More)

Posted by Chad on March 11th, 2010 under Entertainment, Opinion, Sports Tags: , , , , ,  •  3 Comments

I’ve always been disappointed in other people’s lists of great sports movies. After thumbing through the movie database in my brain for a recent post, I decided I’d compile my own list. To begin, I decided on the criteria. I tried to be objective and strip the films of personal nostalgia and [...]

77 Good Movies You Might Not Have Heard About

Posted by Chad on March 4th, 2010 under Entertainment, Opinion Tags: , , , ,  •  No Comments

I was discussing films with my wife’s cousin at a wedding a few weeks ago, and we promised to trade suggestions for good movies that aren’t commonly discussed. In order to compile my list, I pulled up my Netflix history and started copying and pasting titles. As the list grew longer, I decided [...]

My Letter in The Greenville News

Posted by Chad on February 18th, 2010 under Greenville, Opinion Tags: , , , ,  •  No Comments

I recently wrote another guest editorial for The Greenville News. This time, instead of printing it just as I wrote it, they butchered it down and ran it as a letter to to the editor. As is all too common, their selective editing removed the larger context of the piece.
Here’s their [...]

Eastern Market Loses its Charm

Posted by Chad on January 27th, 2010 under Opinion Tags: , , , ,  •  No Comments

I lived on Capitol Hill for five years, splitting my time between the Lincoln Park area of SE and the Union Station area of NE. I only moved away a few years ago, but the change in the local culture has been extraordinary. Maybe I just didn’t notice it before, but there’s an [...]

On Culinary and Cultural Condescension

Posted by Chad on November 20th, 2009 under Opinion Tags: , , ,  •  2 Comments

I very rarely blog about political or cultural issues, but this commentary was so dead-on accurate that I just had to comment on it:
In a recent episode of Top Chef, the American cooking show I appear on, I complained about the other judges’ insistence on pronouncing ‘paella’ as ‘py-ay-a’. ‘You don’t say “Bar-the-lona” or “Me-hi-co”,’ [...]

Organic Foods Have No Health Benefits

Posted by Chad on July 30th, 2009 under Cooking, Gardening, Opinion Tags: , ,  •  8 Comments

True believers will no doubt find it difficult to accept that they’ve been paying a premium for Food A over Food B even though the only difference between the two is the label:
Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, according to a major study published Wednesday. [...] A systematic review [...]

The Utility of the Internet

Posted by Chad on June 3rd, 2009 under Opinion Tags: , ,  •  1 Comment

Critics often howl about the lowbrow triviality of internet content and the perils that await inexperienced web surfers. They dismiss the usefulness of blogs, YouTube and web forums with the casual indifference that drinkers display when waving off cream for their coffee. But for the initiated, the internet is the most useful tool [...]

The Perils of DIY

Posted by Chad on May 14th, 2009 under Opinion, Remodeling Tags: , ,  •  No Comments

I went off on a tangent about the perils of DIY in my original kitchen remodel post, but I thought it deserved its own permalink:
One problem with the growing DIY movement is that people with little talent and/or experience are making major changes to their houses after ten minutes of incomplete instruction from a television [...]