by Mark O'Brien | Jan 23, 2017
When I was in my teens, Brent Musburger was on CBS covering the NFL. During one such telecast, my father told me Musburger was an idiot. I took Dad at his word and remained skeptical. In the 1980s, I was watching a college football game with my sons, both of whom are...
by Mark O'Brien | Apr 15, 2016
Dick Clark has been gone almost four years. But his past — the origins and ethnic derivations of the celebrity entrepreneur and perennial New Year’s Eve fixture — remained stubbornly murky … until now. According to Clark’s Wikipedia profile, he was...
by Mark O'Brien | Feb 15, 2016
The airing of the current television series, The People v. O.J. Simpson, brought back a mixed emotional torrent — ambivalence and disgust, anger and confusion, bitterness and disbelief, despair and hope. I was in a gym the afternoon the O.J. verdict was announced:...
by Mark O'Brien | Feb 10, 2016
That creaking sound you hear is Western Civilization, or at least the English-speaking parts of it, teetering on the edge of the abyss. That’s right. We’ve finally devolved to the point at which Inc., a Forbes publication, has to publish an article about a...
by Mark O'Brien | Oct 19, 2015
When it comes to topics for blogs posts, I tend to have a fair degree of fortitude (or at least I imagine I do). But I have to admit this one made me a little squeamish: “Jerky Juggernaut and the Power of Protein”. This part was unsettling enough: Sales...
