Tag Archives: culture

Egg Creams, French Fries, and Cupcakes Comments

New York has food. I have a biological need to fuel myself by regularly ingesting an assortment of nutrients. It was a perfect arrangement.

So, there are these egg creams. Egg creams are supposed to be some kind of big deal in New York. It seems they possess neither egg nor cream. Instead, they are composed of seltzer water and some type of chocolate syrup. I had my first egg cream during my late night stop at the 24-hour Court Square Diner. It was good and it was different from any fountain beverage I’ve had, but I’m not yet convinced that it lives up to the hype.

Let’s talk about French fries.

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Published:
January 19, 2010 – 12:00 pm
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By J. Mattocks

Languages Comments

As you can imagine (and probably already know), I’ve been giving a lot of thought to life after graduation. I feel less terrified now and more excited. Honestly, one of my biggest worries was that, until grad school, my education would be over. But now I’m just excited about how I’m going to continue self-educating myself.

Language is the subject I’ve been thinking about most. For grad school, I need to be able to demonstrate some proficiency in a language in addition to English. I also want to be able to converse with people in other cultures because, if you haven’t noticed, I really want to travel. So I came up with the following list of what languages, in no order, I’m most interested in learning. Keep in mind that I’m not expecting real fluency in any of these. I’d rather know a little bit of a few languages than a lot of just two.

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Published:
March 13, 2009 – 1:14 pm
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By J. Mattocks

Casablanca Comments

After seeing the title pop up in every “best movies” list I’ve come across, I finally decided to watch Casablanca.

Holy crap, that was a good movie. I mean, wow. That was the most well written movie I’ve seen in a long time–possibly ever. I mean, the characters! It had real characters, with depth, motivation, and personalities! The lines were so unbelievably smart, and the plot was engaging and complex, cinematic and utterly human, theatrical while remaining completely believable and understandable. There were times during the film when I would actually say to myself aloud, “damn this is a good movie!”

Now that I’ve finally seen the movie, I’m thoroughly disgusted and repulsed by the thought that my father, of all people, thought “they” should make a sequel. While we’re at it, let’s add to the Sistine Chapel. You know, a painted floor might be a good idea. Since it was such a hit, let’s make it entirely out of brown patina!

Dad, come on. No way.

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Published:
January 4, 2007 – 3:40 am
Author:
By J. Mattocks