The Republic

Critical reflections on the issues of our republic (and a few others).

Girls Dating Younger Men

December 17, 2010

In my mid-twenties, I dated a girl who was six years older than me. She let me go politely, saying she was looking for something more serious. Her next guy was twenty-one. He was a hair model paying his own way through an undergraduate degree in communications. She left him, I heard, citing his immaturity. [...]

SF Sketchfest: The Cost of Comedy

December 16, 2010

It turns out that cheap jokes aren’t cheap (pardon while I gag on my powers of wit with that one-liner). And as much as I’m looking forward to the upcoming SF Sketchfest in January, I’m a cheap bastard, and I’ve got to start looking at the costs. I added it up. More or less (“I [...]

My Kidney Box

November 12, 2010

Some of you may know a bit about what I do for a living. But even those closest to me rarely get an actual look at the process (It’s not easy to invite friends over to my place of work inside the operating room). This is a photo of a kidney box that I prepared [...]

Jukebox Sabotage

October 6, 2010

What’s the quickest way to set the mood in a place? It’s not the lighting or the decor. It’s not even the crowd. It’s the music. Here’s a neat little trick. Next time you’re in a bar filled with assholes, take charge, musically speaking. (A quick warning that this works best with one of those new, [...]

Wealthy News

October 4, 2010

I was scanning through the news at my local executive terminal while waiting for my private jet. My favorite thing about being so very wealthy and important is how little I need to care for worldly affairs. You’re one of the poors, so you probably wouldn’t understand this, but when you’ve got quite a lot [...]

Meat Market

June 29, 2010

“I get a call on my way to the audition from the agent. He said, ‘What is really important is that you are fuckable.’” – Adrienne Shelley (young actress) The market showed signs of slowing as news came to light today of a string of weddings. Megan Fox (MFOX) and Carrie Prejean (MSCA) lead the [...]

How to Fix the Environment: Make Cigarette Butts with Seeds

May 26, 2010

Wouldn’t that just flip the whole goddam world upside down? Imagine if there were seeds inside every cigarette butt. Every time a smoker tossed their butt out of a car window or onto the pavement somewhere, it would have a chance to sprout into a beautiful tree or flower or something. Instead of brands of [...]

How to Survive Bay to Breakers

May 14, 2010

Update!: Once again, Bay to Breakers is being threatened as they try to sanitize the event down to a family friendly PG level. Find out more and help support the protest for good, clean, adult fun. This institution is one of the last precious events of its kind in San Francisco. The first step to [...]

Stupid Nerds – The Lost Social Class

May 12, 2010

I had a realization some time ago that there is a sad little sub-sect of the Nerd social class that nobody much talks about: Stupid Nerds. In the broad, two-party system of social classes, where you’re either a jock or a nerd, most accept that, where nerds lack in athletic prowess or social aptitude, they more than [...]

Cinco de Mayo – Celebrating Mexican Independence

May 5, 2010

Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) is not Mexican Independence day, but it might as well be where Americans and, specifically Chicanos are concerned. Pride in one’s nation, check. Beer being marketed at an unusually high level, check. Bar-b-que? Check. I did some checking up to try to figure out this holiday’s significance, because knowing why [...]

Five Topics I’m Not Writing About Today

May 3, 2010

Being a writer means treating it like any day-job: you ought to work at it every day, and you can’t just cheat it. But I’ve been busy the last few days with my actual day job and, frankly, nothing has fired me up saying, “Write me! Write the shit out of me!” So here’s a [...]

Modern Sophist 2.0! (up and running again)

April 20, 2010

There’s always going to be more improvements to make but, for now, ModernSophist.com is back up and running again. How’s it look? You’ll notice a lot of the same features with features on news and podcasts. Mostly I changed the look and tried to make the navigation a lot more visually appealing as well as [...]

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