I can’t say I usually agree with former Fox News outrage mannequin Megyn Kelly, but like a drunk at a dartboard, sometimes even though her aim is off, she hits the target. This can be seen in her latest tirade throwing red meat to the zombies looking for something to be angry about, in which she ripped on Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony and its skunky ratings, saying that the Academy Awards’ poor viewership numbers were because they were overly “woke.” “How’s all that incessant, insufferable woke, depressing lecturing via film, interviews, social media & at... Read More

Jake Paul can’t stop courting controversy, or people wanting to punch him in the face. Paul has long elicited the enmity of countless people, going back to when he was on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark, and pushing a rap career that saw his single, “It’s Everyday Bro“, become the third most disliked video in YouTube history. The hate/love relationship with Paul has continued with his boxing career, which has seen people lining up to pay in the hope of seeing him get his ass kicked. Thus far, Paul has led a pretty charmed life in the ring, disappointing his haters. His... Read More

There’s a phrase, whistling in the dark, describing someone scared who is taking any number of glib, superficial actions to avoid confronting the fact that deep down, they’re frightened out of their minds. This phrase is reminiscent of much of the media right now, as this week, and several times over the previous few months, the United States government and the U.S. military has admitted the existence of UFOs. This is not a joke. I’m not kidding. There isn’t a punchline at the end of this column, as there usually is. The U.S. government, the Pentagon, has admitted the existence... Read More

Every week, we provide you with a huge calendar of activities that will take place in the Quad-Cities area over the coming week. Because we love you. And because it’s our job … to love you. (The preceding sentence was written in tribute to the late Luther Vandross.) However, some calendar items we receive don’t make the list. Some are out of the geographic area. Some aren’t really entertainment. And some … well, some just don’t seem to fit in, if you know what I mean. For those of you who don’t know what I mean, I thought I’d provide a few examples. Following are listings for a... Read More

There’s a controversy on Facebook that everyone is talking about. I know, shocking! What is it, a Tuesday? Yes, actually it is. Quick, pick up your dry cleaning before they close. You’re welcome. Of course, every day there’s a new controversy on social media. The social media companies pay people to engage and stoke controversies and then they push them through their algorithm to people they know will get ticked off, to get people fighting, and that’s how they draw bigger audiences, and make more money. The previous paragraph was brought to you by… But today’s... Read More

It’s that time of year again, and if you have kids in elementary school, you know exactly what I mean. School pictures time. That’s right, that time when you get your kids all dressed up and tidied up and get their hair looking perfect and their outfits looking spot on and send them to school, and then six or eight weeks later you get a packet of pictures that features a child that looks fantastic, but has a look on his or her face somewhere between fear, disinterest and a desperate need to pee. I’ve been pretty lucky over the years in that my 13-year-old’s pictures have been pretty good. ... Read More

We’re entering the home stretch of the NBA season and along with talk of playoffs and playoff seeding (more on that in days to come), here comes the speculation on post-season awards firing up. The biggest award, of course, is the MVP trophy, which causes the greatest debates and in many ways generational rifts among sports fans. There’s a highly vocal contingent of mostly younger sports commentators who absolutely worship LeBron James, and their media companies make millions off of clickbait articles unreasonably and unfairly comparing him to Michael Jordan. There is no comparison. This... Read More

I got two election fliers in the mail the other day. Being that we’re only a few days away from the April 6 election, and the mayoral race in Rock Island is, from most reports, closely contested between incumbent Mike Thoms and challenger Thurgood Brooks, this is not surprising. But what has been pleasantly surprising is the positive nature of this campaign. While the Moline mayoral race slides around in the mud, with a bunch of slanderous and poorly spelled fliers by a dark money group peddling lies about Stephanie Acri’s challenger, Sangeetha Rayapati, the two men vying for Rock Island’s... Read More

It’s an odd trend in entertainment and pop culture, but strangely, there are a lot of creative, imaginative and cool creators named John and David. Think about it. Think of all the popular and/or pop culturally influential Johns. John Lennon. John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten). John Belushi. John Cusack. Johnny Depp. John Steinbeck. John Hiatt. John Waters. Johnny Carson. John Mayer. John Grisham. John Fogerty. John Legend. John Mellencamp. Etc. Etc. And then there are the many Davids: David Letterman. Dave Chappelle. Dave Barry. David Mamet. David Lynch. David Fincher. David Byrne. David Sedaris. David... Read More

Stephanie Acri apparently has a very short memory. It was just four years ago, that previous Moline mayor Scott Raes was set to pretty much cruise to re-election. He’d done a pretty good job as mayor, voters seemed to like him, and there didn’t seem to be much reason to switch leadership for the city. Then Raes made the monumentally huge mistake of contesting the candidacy of one of the most popular men in the Quad-Cities, “Mr. Thanksgiving,” Bob Vogelbaugh (as well as Acri’s candidacy) over a ridiculous technicality that they didn’t number the pages in their... Read More