Pop Culture

  • Lost Eko II

    Last Night on Lost (#305–"The Cost of Living"): The Smoke Being reappears, and it becomes clearer that it is the spirit of the Island that is the object of Locke’s faith.  The Smoke Being is what Locke refers  to when he says things like "The Island brought us here." It also seems pretty clear that

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  • Lost Season Two Finale

    Thomas Merton somewhere said that the only reason that the world continues to exist is because of the monks in their cells praying, which keeps the world’s roof from caving in.  I know, it sounds a bit grandiose, but this is a gloss on the "righteous man" tradition that goes back at least as far

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  • More on The DaVinci Code

    I saw the film last night, and it was more tolerable than the book. At least it didn’t take as long.  But I have to say, I still don’t get it.  I do believe that there is a hunger for what is really at the heart of the Mary Magdalene story, which is the sacred

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  • Lost Observations

    Here are some random, speculative thoughts about this week’s episode of "Lost".  I welcome comments that you might have about your take on what’s going on.  We didn’t learn  much about Michael’s motivations.  He let Henry escape.  It would seem that he is therefore working in collaboration with the Others, but maybe not, and if

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  • Lost Thoughts

    I haven’t commented on developments in the show "Lost" recently because there didn’t seem much to say, but this week’s episode  increases the intensity level of the plot with the return of Michael, who now appears to be an agent working undercover for the Others.  Is he a kind of brainwashed Manchurian Candidate, or has

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  • My What Big Teeth You Have.

    Con artists understand that most people operate in a symbolically patterned world, and that reality, whatever is really there, is hidden behind the symbols. We tend to accept the world as it appears at face value. We can't live without a certain minimum level of trust that things are in fact as they appear. Con

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  • Dharma Bums

    This post is about "Lost", so if you're not into it, no need to read on. I've been presenting my theory about what's  going on, which is something along the lines of "Sixth Sense" meets Dante's "Divine Comedy" meets "Cast Away". I don't don't know if I'm right; time will tell. I'm not searching out

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  • Bad Calls Steal Game from Everyone

    The refs may or may not have robbed the Seahawks of a Super Bowl victory, but they surely robbed football fans of what could have been a very exciting, competitive game with several lead changes and ending in a tie.  If just two critical calls, among several which almost everyone agrees were egregiously bad, if

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  • Lost Charlie

    Some quick thoughts on this week’s episode, "Fire and Water": Charlie’s, like Eko’s, is a brother story.  Eko’s story with his priest-brother resolved itself when he found his remains in the plane wreckage. Eko’s and his brother’s stories, intertwined from the beginning, have become  one story, and Eko has assumed his brother’s priesthood. We might

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  • Lost This Week

    I've been told by several people that the Purgatorio hypothesis that I proposed last week had been quashed by the writers and producers long ago. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe not. The producers can't confirm that all the survivors are really dead because it would be the same as letting it be known before the movie's

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