The Big Cat

So does that guy.

No. Actually I took the Tool Time logo and Photoshopped it. You burn about as well as sand.

Crocenstein: best accountant in the Northern Territory.

I mean, Je-SUS:

Ha, just sent it to them.

Now you're just cribbing the Onion "column" you pushed earlier...

Nor I. I would, however, like to believe we're approaching an impasse between the Honey Boo Boo fans and the people who want to kill the Honey Boo Boo fans for perpetuating unfettered idiocy. I honestly believe the number of people identifying with the latter is slowly beginning to outnumber the former, and a revolution will soon be at hand!

Okay, I'll concede The Internet for the technical reasons you mentioned. And poo poo Facebook/Twitter all you want, but they've created substantive international social and cultural changes. Shallow though they were, political ones too (Arab Spring). And while CERN gave us The Internet, America gave the world Amazon, EBay, Wikipedia, Google, YouTube and Napster (I mention Napster because it single-handedly turned the music economy on its ear). Not to mention, there's a reason why Apple (world's most powerful/valuable brand) has products on display in museums. And sure, for the most part we eat like idiots. But we're also producing celebrity chefs and food concepts at an outrageous clip right now. We've also been home to the "Best restaurant in the world" (Alinea, Chicago). As a Chicagoan, I must interject the importance of food in our culture. As this is a Buffalo-centric message board, it's something most here could/should understand. It aint all Ho-Ho's and Lucky Charms, but I get your point. You mention baseball, but gloss over other uniquely American sporting cultures like football, anything pertaining to college sports (not least of which: March Madness), and the fact that we continue to kick the world's ass in the Summer Olympics. Just because you might not "get" other things like video games, doesn't mean they aren't culturally significant, too. Newer games like BioShock Infinite are pushing the boundaries for what an entire medium can do. We also have guys like Tracy Letts writing some DAMN good plays right now. I mentioned it briefly, but shows like The Wire, Arrested Development, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, we're in a television renaissance right now. Music: yeah, I dug a little deep, but you completely ignored hip-hop. Again, an entire GENRE born and perfected here in the United States. We also have contemporary bands doing great things with styles of yore--guys like Robert Randolph and Derek Trucks (though he benefits from some pretty sweet lineage). How about experiential culture like amusement parks and festivals? Our country is lousy with those! I understand we had some pretty big cultural breakthroughs in the first half of the 20th Century. But we live in such a fragmented age right now that it's bogus to say "nothing" has happened since The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan. If Ed was up against 1,000 other channels, YouTube, video games, and the entire Internet at large, I think we'd be a bit less romantic for how we perceive the cultural "significance" of events that happened during a time when not a lot of options existed.

C'mon. Now you're just being obstinate. If we're talking about culture for the masses--what's wrong with a lot of TV, particularly series that have been on HBO? What about the entire medium of improv comedy? How about the Internet? Facebook? Blues music and rock and roll? The American automobile? Jesus, you didn't even bother to include Vonnegut! You really don't think this country has produced anything that's culturally significant since the mid-20th century? Are the films of Steven Spielberg to low brow for your taste? What about Wes Anderson? How bout writers like DJ Pancake? Michael Chabon? Tim O'Brien? What about Paul Simon? Bob Dylan? There's a whole thread going right now about "good rap music." Jazz counts but rap/hip hop cannot?

C'mon, grandpa. We've had plenty of culture since 1960.

I want 15% of T-shirt royalties:

well, that's !@#$ing perfect

The ONLY thing!? Nothing about the giant foam finger threw you off!?

I agree. And then something changed. Most likely for a reason.

Sit back and spend the rest of life shoving c-notes where the sun don't shine? What else does she have to do? Ms. Montana's got plenty of the green to survive.

Who the !@#$ cares what Kurt Warner thinks? He's a Jesus Freak who could chuck it. He's not a coach, he's a talking head.

It's a divisional game. He !@#$ing plays. He'll have had much more than a week to "prepare." To suggest otherwise is false.

That was clear by her bizarre insistence on waving her tongue around throughout the 'performance.' The whole thing was an avant garde sex nightmare. Thanks to Lady Gaga, popular music has turned into a contest for who can be the strangest. Is it safe to say that Top 40, and all its glorious corporate machinations has official jumped the shark?

He has an ego made of porcelain, couldn't take the heat, acted like a child, conducting himself in a highly unprofessional way, took his ball, scolded everyone, told everyone what a hot shot he was, cried some more, basically said '!@#$ you I don't want to be here anyway,' then went home.

I can't believe this thread title brought out the cane-wavers! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ0FNmlEhRE

Because science.

Well, that link just got tucked into my 'save for when you're not at work' bookmark folder.