Aly Welch's Blog, page 3

Superb Owls and Other Distractions

Last month, the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl as preordained by Soros, according to antiemetic conspiracy theorists. And for all the complaints about excessive NFL coverage of Taylor Swift, her critics made sure she remained in headlines by accusing her of Satanism. What? You thought one of her videos featured snakes because people called her one, and not because she was repaying her dark master with a cameo?

I’d say I should have seen it coming, but I kind of did.

My first novel ...

Seriously?

This is another one of those ridiculous pop culture controversies (see last year’s faux-outrage over Barbie) that I feel almost embarrassed to discuss, but choose to because it still fits into a larger narrative. If you somehow missed it, comedian Jo Koy was asked to host the Golden Globes on short notice, and a lot of his jokes did not land. One was about the NFL’s excessive coverage of Taylor Swift. According to the comedian, it had been rewritten a lot (by him and a team of others) and he had...

Tough Crowd

“‘Why do men feel threatened by women?’ I asked a male friend of mine.
“‘They are afraid women will laugh at them’, he said, ‘undercut their world view.’
“Then I asked some women students, ‘Why do women feel threatened by men?’ “‘They are afraid of being killed,’ they said.

Margaret Atwood, Hansard transcript from the 2nd session of the 27th Legislature (December 5, 1990)

As it turns out, men fear not being laughed at, as well.

This is another one of those ridiculous pop culture controversi...

That’s a Laugh

“‘Why do men feel threatened by women?’ I asked a male friend of mine.
“‘They are afraid women will laugh at them’, he said, ‘undercut their world view.’
“Then I asked some women students, ‘Why do women feel threatened by men?’ “‘They are afraid of being killed,’ they said.

Margaret Atwood, Hansard transcript from the 2nd session of the 27th Legislature (December 5, 1990)

As it turns out, men fear not being laughed at, as well.

This is another one of those ridiculous pop culture controversi...

The Cat’s Meow 2023

If you’ve seen my annual wrap ups before, you know I’m often playing catch up. Case in point, Nope (2022), Jordan Peele’s brilliant homage to blockbuster creature features that holds up a mirror to society – it’s no coincidence a character dubs aliens ‘Viewers’. Nope has more in common with Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake than Jaws due to their shared interest in the exploitation of animals for entertainment, but a grizzled cinematographer’s straight-faced recitation of “The Purple People Eater...

The Cat’s Meow: 2023

If you’ve seen my annual wrap ups before, you know I’m often playing catch up. Case in point, Nope (2022), Jordan Peele’s brilliant homage to blockbuster creature features that holds up a mirror to society – it’s no coincidence a character dubs aliens ‘Viewers’. Nope has more in common with Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake than Jaws due to their shared interest in the exploitation of animals for entertainment, but a grizzled cinematographer’s straight-faced recitation of “The Purple People Eater...

The Adults Are Not Alright

Bill Door made the mistake millions of people had tried before with small children in slightly similar circumstances.  He resorted to reason.

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

The biggest problem with kids these days is adults these days (and those days, and the days before that, and the days before that). Lately there’s been a lot of debate about “gentle parenting”. It sounds like a rebranding of authoritative parenting, which is not a happy medium between permissive and authoritarian parenting...

The Kids Are Alright

: Carl, I’ve been teaching for 22 years. And each year, these kids get more and more arrogant.

: Aw, bullshit, man. Come on, Vern. The kids haven’t changed. You have. You took a teaching position because you thought it’d be fun, right? Thought you could have summer vacations off. And then you found out it was actually work. That really bummed you out.

The Breakfast Club

When people aren’t complaining about kids being ‘groomed’ by ‘woke’ teachers, they complain about ‘w...

Barbenheimer: Pink & Violence

Part of me feels a little embarrassed to write this because I expected the faux outrage to die down weeks ago, especially since my inbox is filled with real outrages like child rape victims and worsening maternal mortality rates (did you know homicide is the leading cause of death in pregnancy?) I did, but it might be news to people offended by imagined slights.

The other part of me remembers an old Facebook post I’ve been wanting to rework for my blog.

When I wrote the original in 2018, t...

Tears in Rain

All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain… Time to die.

Rutger Hauer as Batty in Bladerunner

The story behind that quote feels even more apt now that actors have joined writers in striking. AI can’t adlib. It can only be programmed to reproduce or remix the work of real people. And it will do so with diminishing returns. We’re already seeing this with ChatBot, which has – predictably – become even less reliable over time.

Also predictable?

Many pe...