Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 117

Don't Shake Henry's Hand

Yesterday we noted a mid-1980s toothpaste commercial that still freaks us out to this day. Now, in the space normally reserved for Bad Movie Friday, we'd like to recall the celluloid character who creeped us out more than Freddy and Jason combined: Henry Kane, the demonic cult leader who menaces the Freeling family in Poltergeist II.

Sadly, part of what makes Kane such a terrifying character is the ill health of the man who played him, the late, great Julian Beck. He was actually suffering from

Clarification on Divorce

Due to some less-than-stellar writing on our parts, we attracted some mystified "huhs?" regarding yesterday's post on arranged-marriage divorce rates versus those for "love" marriages. That admittedly confusing post, in turn, referred back to a concept we mentioned about two months back: what we've termed the natural rate of divorce.

Okay, let's slow down and explain what we mean here. By "natural rate of divorce," we're asserting that mankind must accept that a certain percentage of marriages ar

"Speed Like the Wind"

After receiving word that a team of Notre Dame pigskin alums will soon take on Japan's national football team, we got to wondering about the uniquely American sport's history in the Land of the Rising Sun. Our natural assumption was that it was brought over during the post-World War II occupation. But it was, in fact, another cataclysm that ushered in the gridiron era in Japan:

The history of American Football in Japan goes back to 1934 when Paul Rusch, a teacher and missionary from Kentucky (US

Motrin, Motrin Everywhere

Apologies for the super-late start today. Microkhan Jr.'s struggling with an aggressive virus that landed the whole crew in the ER last night. Naps, kiddie Motrin, and maybe a touch of kumis are in order, then we hope to catch y'all in a few. In the meantime, reward yourself with a week well done by revisiting the glory of Automan.

The Monsters in Your Teeth

Microkhan Jr. stunned us yesterday by yelping out "Elmo!" upon seeing the ubiquitous monster on Sesame Street. That incident has got us thinking about how brands weasel their way into young minds, a train of thought that in turn led us to dig up the classic Crest commercial above. We've been Crest-loyal for years because we saw these as wee bairns, and we're totally creeped out by the prospect of drill-wielding beasts attacking our molars. Show this to your young'uns, then watch 'em run screamin

More on Marriage

Staying on the marriage string, we wanted to note a stat we found buried in this recent piece on Unification Church mass weddings. The reporter found a figure that Microkhan has long been on the hunt for, regarding the divorce rate for arranged marriages (of the non-Moonie sort):

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, an economics professor at Rochester Institute of Technology who has studied arranged marriages in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States, said he believes about 15 percent to 20 percent of a

"Prefer Saturn 7″

An eagle-eyed reader, obviously aware of Microkhan's longtime obsession with all things Sri Lanka, recently turned us on the marriage-proposal ads in one of the island nation's leading papers. They make for fascinating reading, in part as evidence of how closely first-generation immigrants remain tied to the marital practices of their homelands; the bulk of ads seem to be placed by parents seeking partners for their sons and daughters abroad. Our hunch is that there's a real fear that kids who l

The Red Sultan's Legacy

We find ourselves completely baffled by the uproar over the publication of the Turkish-language "Blue Book," a once-secret British dossier that chronicled the Armenian genocide some 93 years ago. The Turkish government's griping is predictable enough, of course, given its long history of chafing at public mention of the slaughter. But we're mystified as to why anyone thinks the Blue Book could possible contain explosive revelations, given that Henry Morgenthau's 1918 account of the genocide coul

"They Do That to Taunt Me"

We're about to jet downtown for an all-important meeting regarding the Now the Hell Will Start screenplay, so we'll call it a day with this super-classic clip from Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. Though we're no great fans of the band, we swoon over the doc—a probing portrait of creative minds in crisis, brought on by age, ego clashes, and way too much money. The scene above is perhaps our favorite in the whole film—ex-Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine lets loose his innermost feelings about be

The Mammoths' Last Stand

Yesterday's news that a comet helped kill off the Ice Age's most glorious creatures reminded us of this groundbreaking 1995 paper from the journal Radiocarbon. While most of the world's mammoths disappeared long before mankind figured out the rudiments of civilization, a small pack of the elephant-like beasts survived until 2000 B.C. or later. Their location? The ceaselessly amazing Wrangel Island:

During the last glacial maximum (ca. 20 ka ago), environmental conditions on Wrangel Island proved