http://bigbigquestion.com Question As Conversation Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:09:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Two epic guys with lots of respective canon. Both interested in peace. Both vilified by their contemporary powers-that-be. Somewhat different methods and personal philosophies. So what would the Christ and the Vigilante be able to get together on? What are the irreconcilables? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/18/would-jesus-and-batman-get-along/ Did you have any particular boogeyman as a kid? A specific monster in the closet at one point? Any particularly traumatic nightmares? What sort of things left clawed footprints on your young, imaginative psyche? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/15/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/ So everyone (who's old enough) remembers the JFK shooting, and the Challenger disaster. What other news events from your childhood really stuck with you? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/09/news-events-from-your-childhood/ At BBQ, Inc., we're house-hunting. And while we've been reading the likely resources, I can't help be feel curious about some of the more personal weirdities folks have encountered in their own housing adventures. What most surprised/dismayed/thrilled about a new place (house, condo, apartment, hollowed-out tree in the woods, whatever)? ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/07/worst-house-mistake-happiest-house-accident/ Adolescence + funny feelings + music = potent associations between certain songs and the singularly emotionally tumultuous period known as teenagerdom. What song or songs kick you suddenly back to middle/high school, to that girl or that boy or that dance or that night? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/ What major or minor errors or faux pas did you make in your early days of using the Internet? Any embarrassing moments or behaviors? I first got online in 1998. At one time I started noticing that a lot of search results I got were from some site called "wikipedia." ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/31/early-netiquette-errors/ Hunter S. Thompson is done writing books, certainly, but if old Duke was still in the game and working on a book, what would he be writing about right now? Fear and Loathing on/in/at/under x? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/28/wwhw-what-would-hunter-write/ Does anyone really use the "high priority" flag on email other than spammers and jerks? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/24/i-mean-really-are-you-that-important/ If you were moving out on your own for the first time, what is the most important (or top five, or top ten) household item(s) you would purchase for your new home? I am assuming you already have the most basic supplies, such a some food, a first-aid kit, and anything ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/23/most-essential-items-for-a-new-household/ The booger retrieval and storage company is on line one. They have been keeping all those boogers you've picked over all these years, and want to know what form you want the mass pressed into for delivery and drop off in your driveway later this afternoon. What shall ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/22/your-booger-spec/ Everyone always talks about meeting your past self...but what would you warn/remind your future self about, if you were able to travel forward in time a number of years? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/13/everyone-always-talks-about-meeting-your-past-self/ To celebrate (and, well, apologize for) the fact that I'll be out of town for a week on vacation and thus not updating the BBQ front page for a bit, here's a sprawling thematic wish-fulfillment question: What kind of vacation do you want?  Where, when, why?  What would you be doing, ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/12/whats-the-vacation-you-wish-you-were-taking/ What recurring dreams do you have? Do you ever have lucid dreams? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/11/dreams/ If you could ask one question, big or small, of (your preferred, for this exercise, conception of) God, and get a straight, thorough answer, what would it be? Why that question? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/09/straight-answers-from-god/ Imagine, for the purposes of this question, that you have found yourself elected King (or Queen) of the World. Imagine, too, that power corrupts, at least to a sufficient degree that you are willing and able to declare some world-changing fiat, on whim, purely for your own satisfaction. It can ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/07/what-unreasonable-change-would-you-make-to-the-world/ Taken from Lifehacker: What books have truly changed your life? I'm not talking about books that you thought were mind-blowingly excellent - I mean books that have changed the way you think or made you change your life. http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/04/what-books-have-changed-your-life/ What I wanna know...how will you help others? How widespread will that help be? Let's assume a substantial, after all applicable taxes, amount of $30 million. Who will you help and how (with a smattering of 'why')? Just family or a multitude of impoverished people? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/02/you-just-won-the-lottery-and-i-dont-care-what-you-bought/ Imagine some economic/ecological/othertypical disaster strikes before we're properly able to get out of our current petroleum culture. What might the world look like carless? Who would be worst off? Who would manage best? What unexpected effects might we encounter? note: other things which likewise run on ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/02/a-world-without-cars/ I've found myself in a few discussions about just how permanent web content is, and how permanent it should be, and what folks expectations on that front are. It's a big question, and I'm curious what sort of take you folks have on it. What do you expect to stay ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/02/permalinks-and-the-internet-as-an-archive/ Philosophico-semantic cage match GO. http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/07/01/morals-or-ethics/ It is the year Eleventy-Billion CE. The last vestiges of humanity have boarded the spaceship that soon will take flight toward what we hope is a habitable star system (Glorb-32, if you're curious) some 10000 light years away. The ship can only move at half the speed of light, so ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/26/cultural-drift-and-knowledge-transmission-in-spaaaaace/ Automotive paint jobs seem to come in two flavors: high-gloss shiny finish, and then even shinier.  But why?  Is it market momentum (cars are shiny, so a non-shiny car is weird, so manufacturers don't want to try selling non-shiny cars, ergo cars are shiny)?  Is it just plain dazzle-and-flash?  Is ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/25/why-are-cars-shiny/ I read yesterday in the Metro that new cooling fans were being placed at a number of underground stations. Took them long enough! The article also stated that Mayor Boris was looking at ways of implementing Air conditioning onto the underground.Within the article it stated that there were issues getting ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/25/air-conditioning-on-the-london-underground/ Take spammer Stephen Sanchez, iProfile shill, who (round of applause here) is the first person to try sockpuppet spam on the Big Big Question. Steve-o posted a (bizarrely practical!) question about resumes and then thoughtfully answered it himself under a different account, couched in a fictional happy discovery of ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/24/are-spammers-dumb-lazy-or-incompetent/ What life lessons, or even small things, have you found yourself learning the hard way? What were the outcomes? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/20/what-lessons-have-you-learned-the-hard-way/ What superstitions do you have? What little things do you do, or not do, even if you think/know it probably won't hurt you? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/18/superstitions/ As the world changes around us, we tend to get used to the "new"; this is especially true of those who are younger, and never really knew the "old". Over time, this leads to a situation where it may be difficult to imagine having to live in a world without ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/18/what-advancement-has-spoiled-you/ One of the unavoidable constants of growing older is looking back and realizing how wrong you were about some things when you were younger. Big things and little things; stances taken on ethics, aesthetics, and so on. In that spirit, what are you doing now that your younger self was ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/18/what-were-you-never-gonna-do/ If you're a newspaper reader, are the obits a part of the paper you read daily? Occassionally? Never? If you read them, why? If you don't read them, why not? Does it simply not occur to you to bother, or do you actively avoid them? And, given that ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/16/do-you-read-the-obit-pages/ My friend's couch is cursed, but only one side of it. The first time I laid with my head on the right side of the couch, a spider crawled along the back of the couch. The second time I laid there, a 2-inch-long moth was hanging out from ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/11/breaking-the-curse-of-the-couch/ If you'll allow an overwrought metaphor, the gap between idealism and pragmatism is often wide and littered with the broken, sun-bleached bones of righteous convictions. What are the things that you feel like you should be doing but which you just aren't, for whatever reasons? What's the thing that bugs ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/11/what-should-you-do-that-you-dont/ Election-as-human-nature-barometer: Imagine a two-party system where, during the primaries, you had to vote for the party that you were NOT a registered member of. So, if you're a republican, you get to pick the democratic candidate. Assume that people are actually registered in the party that most closely aligns with their ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/08/a-two-party-system-where-you-had-to-vote-for-the-other-party-in-the-primary/ If not, did you used to get enough sleep? What do you do instead of getting enough sleep? Or are you getting too much sleep? And where does your sense of what's enough and whether you're getting it come from? Your doctor? Folk wisdom? Self-assessment? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/06/are-you-getting-enough-sleep/ To answer this question, it shouldn't matter if you actually believe in free will or not. This is a counter-factual (though, personally, I don't believe in free will). Let's say an entire world of people didn't believe in free will (and that they were right). What would such a world ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/04/what-if-a-free-will-didnt-exist-b-people-knew-it-didnt-exist-and-c-people-had-a-gut-level-feeling-that-it-didnt-exist/ You discover you have a disease which will eventually kill you if it is left untreated. It could take weeks or years. There are a few treatment options available. The cost of the treatment is not a factor - you have great health insurance. The treatments offered to you may have ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/06/03/suicide-by-inaction/ Would you spend a year locked in Wal*Mart for $2 million? Condition: you are alone, with no contact with outside world (including news), but you do get electricity and full reign over all the goods in the store. http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/29/a-year-in-walmart-for-2-mil/ It occurred to me that if we do find some kind of life on another planet, our first instinct is probably going to be try and communicate with it. What if it is an animal with the intelligence equivalent of a dolphin, horse, or a cat? It seems to me we ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/28/communicating-with-aliens/ What's the worst Earworm you've ever heard? Which one can't you get out of your head? How long did it stick with you? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/28/some-people-started-singing-it/ How do you handle panhandlers? Do you give cash? Do you feel guilty about it, either way? Are you actually helping, or just enabling, and is that a bad thing? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/23/spare-some-change/ It's a common ice-breaker question: what's your earliest memory? I was thinking about this today, and I realized that I don't have one. The question stymies me. I mean, I have tons of memories going way back to early childhood, but I can't even come close to pinpointing one as the ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/23/do-you-have-an-earliest-memory/ tabula rasa? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/23/untitled/ If you are aghast at or strongly dislike our current President, what fictional undisclosed set of facts would it take for you to completely and utterly reverse your stance on George W. Bush's actions during his Presidency? I was reading a rather scary Radar article and came across "Homeland Security Presidential ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/20/if-you-are-aghast-at-or-strongly-dislike-our-current-president-what-fictional-undisclosed-set-of-facts-would-it-take-for-you-to-completely-and-utterly-reverse-your-stance-on-george-w-bushs-actions/ Broad-brush topic -- this could spawn a dozen future (big big) questions: What's not fair? Locally or globally, personally or systemically, emotionally or economically: what are some big and small things in the world that are unfair? Bonus questions: why isn't it fair? And if it isn't fair, why does ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/19/what-just-isnt-fair/ OK, you're a mad scientist...scorned by your peers, theories discredited, a disgrace to your field. Time to take revenge! How do you destroy your enemies, threaten the world, and generally inflict terror in the masses? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/14/fools-ill-destroy-them-all/ What are some really short phrases that you find deeply meaningful, moving or powerful? On a lighter note than "This too shall pass", I've always thought this was a brilliantly funny entry into the Five-Word-Acceptance-Speech contest: "Fools! Release the giant robot!" http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/13/this-too-shall-pass/ Well? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/13/whos-your-daddy/ If I offered you a million dollars (two million? three million? five thousand?) would you let me have sex with your wife? (Or husband?). Don't answer that. That's not my question. (Well, you can answer in email if you want, but I can actually only spare about sixty bucks right ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/09/is-there-anything-for-which-you-do-not-have-a-price/ Yesterday and this morning, I've been involved in the zillionth argument of my life about words. I have these arguments (not generally the angry kind) all the time. They generally take this form: Someone: Word X means Y. Me: I guess it does to you. That's not what it means to me. ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/09/do-you-believe-that-theres-any-sense-in-which-words-have-fixed-meanings/ Contact with E.T.'s? An Old Testament sign from God? A woman president? Proof of what created the universe? Something else? What what you like to see happen before you discard your mortal coil? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/09/what-would-you-like-to-see-in-your-lifetime/ Taking a break from questions this morning -- it feels like about time for a How Y'all Doin' post. So? How, exactly? Wait, those are questions. Dammit. So, fun facts: we've just hit 1,500 comments. Zounds! And 132 questions so far. Which is not a ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/09/metapost-open-thread-hi-and-howareya/ I've noticed a big difference between people: some people (most people?) think of themselves and others as part of a team; others don't. For me, it's been very tough to bridge this difference. The two frameworks seem incompatible. By teams, I mean categories like male, female, black, white, American and so ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/07/are-you-a-member-of-a-team-do-you-think-all-people-are-team-members/ Who is your current cell phone carrier, and what do you like and dislike about them? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/05/cell-phone-carriers/ Don't get me wrong: I'm in my 40s, and there are tons of ways I wish my life were different: I wish I was richer for one thing, and if I'd taken a different career path in my 20s, I probably would be. But that doesn't make me feel like ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/05/do-people-really-feel-like-theyve-wasted-their-youth/ Whether you live exactly where you want to or you're stuck somewhere you dislike for the time being, there's got to be at least a few things you dislike about your neighborhood (or your town, or your secluded wilderness compound, or...). So what bugs you about where you live right now? ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/05/what-wrong-with-your-neighborhood/ Vital, necessary research here: Boxers or briefs?  Or something else?  Why?  When?  What made the change for you?  Do you maintain a hybrid schedule?  Do you have a word in what your partner chooses? (Also, hey, look under there!  Yes.  Yes.  I just made you say "under where".  Happy Friday!) http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/05/02/the-underqweary/ Say you were spending one night in a haunted inn that is located at the center of an ancient English stone circle. Supposing that ghosts, spirits, and so on exist, what would you do, say, or bring to provoke an encounter? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/30/how-would-you-piss-off-a-ghost/ Do you vote in local or national elections? If so, why? If not, why not? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/29/do-you-vote/ The office cubicle -- four interchangeable grey walls surrounding a desk -- is the fixture of the modern corporate work aesthetic. Nobody likes them, but abolishing them by force of will won't work, so: What could make cubicles better? What's been done already? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/29/what-would-make-cubicles-better/ The question comes courtesy of the referrer logs; I hate to think that whoever was doing their metauniverse research came up empty-handed, so, okay: What is it?  What isn't it?  How many are there?  What colors do they come in?  Etc. http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/28/what-is-a-metauniverse/ Recently, I watched a (much discussed) "60 Minutes" episode about a potential cancer cure. I know that sort of news story pops up all the time. Like most, this is probably much ado about nothing. But let's pretend its true. Five years from now, we're able to cure all cancer. My ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/22/what-would-happen-if-we-cured-cancer/ Have you made any attempts to change the environment for the better? If so, what have you done? Do you bring your own bags to the grocery store, or use CFLs? Do you find it easy to live a greener life? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/18/have-you-gone-green/ I'm sure there are some people out there who are confused about whether they're attractive or not. But I bet most of us have a gut-level feeling about our looks. It doesn't matter (to this question) whether our feelings are based in reality or not (whether there's such a thing as ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/18/whats-it-like-to-feel-attractive/ There are folks who malign, and folks who defend, video games as a one of the main forms of entertainment for the current generation of kids; and it seems to me that one of the touchstone arguments in either direction is a comparison to what kids were doing thirty or ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/18/video-games-the-new-book-or-the-new-cap-gun/ You are about to have a boy child, and for some reason, it is imperative that you choose one of these two names: Adolf Gaylord Which is better? Why? Discuss. http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/15/which-name-is-better/ http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/15/corey-fight-haim-or-feldman/ I feel like I can divvy up the people I've met into two groups: people who are angry that they bothered reading all the way through Atlas Shrugged (or Fountainhead), and Objectivists. Ayn Rand gets a lot of guff, but she's got her fans, and literary disgruntledness aside I've ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/14/objectivism-whats-the-deal/ Short answer: yes.  But being as how it is his birthday today and he is my brother, I thought maybe you folks could go into a little more detail about what makes him so dang keen.  While some of you may be familiar with him (e.g. for his Arlo Guthrie ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/11/is-alex-millard-just-a-totally-awesome-guy/ Women, what things do you wish men widely or more commonly knew about womankind? Men, what things do you wish women widely or more commonly knew about mankind? What misperceptions do you think the opposite gender has about your own that you'd wish would be corrected? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/08/mankind-and-womankind/ What do you choose when you're at the grocery store? Why? Is your answer "(c) other"? Do you even have a choice? Do you remember a point where you didn't? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/08/paper-or-plastic/ If I met my genetic duplicate, would I instantly like him or fear him? What if I was the duplicate? (Hat tip to robocop is bleeding, who posited this and other questions over in Metatalk recently.) http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/07/twos-a-crowd/ I recently read a book which included an argument that the story of human history was our desire to impose power and control structures over each other - men over women, the rich over the poor, etc. Since my Master's work focused on this type of topic (the nature ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/04/is-it-our-nature-to-dominate/ Is doing something repulsive well a valuable kind of art? What merit do you see (or not see) in refined, skillful ugliness in graphic art, music, writing? Does a mastery of something unpleasant make it more reprehensible, or subvert its reprehensibility, or both? What piece of art (door wide ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/04/the-art-of-ugliness/ As much as I'd like to think that Big Big Question (along with a number of other fine sites and misc. internet and non-internet venues) makes for a good way to get some head-scratchers scratched and What Ifs what-iffed, there are probably some more complicated life mysteries that seems less ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/02/what-do-you-worry-youll-never-understand/ It's four in the morning, and I'm awake with a sore throat. I cannot stand a freakin' sore throat: I can't ignore it, and it doesn't daze me such that I can just drift drearily through it. Two thumbs down. What's the symptom that bugs you most? Worst ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/04/01/what-is-your-least-favorite-kind-of-sick/ Help me do some plot spinning, BBQ’ers! I’ve got a serial story/novella in the works (9,600 words so far), and I’m stumped as to who will be the Bad Guy/Bad Girl. Plot: A hairdresser in California is subject to psychic visions while she sleeps, which come true. Her husband is a programmer/science ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/29/who-is-the-bad-guygirl/ (A question by proxy, for Keith.) When I was growing up (Im 21 now, so when I was 13-14) whenever my sister or I said we hate something my parents/grandparents always told us not to say hate its a strong word. Then I was watching Scrubs and one of the characters ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/28/has-hate-lost-its-meaning/ You know when you read a book, hear a piece of music or see a painting, and you think, "Wow! It's bottomless. I could look at it forever and still see new things!" This is one of the most profound experiences I get from art (and sometimes I get it from ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/26/what-gives-you-a-feeling-of-complexity/ Not all people, granted; in fact, it only occurs to me because I personally love 'em. But there are a lot of folks out there who react negatively to puns or even to the abstract notion of puns. Where's all this wordplay animus coming from? Did puns ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/26/why-do-people-hate-puns/ There's a well-trod (if not exactly widely accepted) argument for the idea that the world we live in now could be not the real world but a simulation being run by far-flung descendents of what we think of as the modern human race. (Nick Bostrum is probably the foremost ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/25/proof-that-were-living-in-a-computer-simulation/ If you could change the country where you were born and raised, would you? I'm not talkin' about being born and moving to another country as a baby. If you could change your birth place and culture, would you? If so, where would you rather have been born and raised? ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/23/would-you-change-your-birth-place/ Impossibly pat premise: the house is burning down.  Everyone is out and safe (pets included), and you know for an implausible fact that you can safely go back in for exactly one thing. What do you save? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/21/the-one-thing-youd-save-from-a-fire/ The internet will never be free of spam and shilling and astroturfers -- human nature plus a profit motive is a pretty resilient thing -- but are we past the worst of it, or are we just in the eye of the storm? Are things going to get worse? What ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/20/will-spam-get-worse-before-it-gets-better/ Pet animals have a degree of maintenance cost built in that their owners implicitly accept up front: food, shots, routine and incidental medical care.  But now and then a pet gets seriously injured, or seriously ill, and the cost becomes a serious and likely emotionally wrenching question:  how much is ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/19/where-do-you-draw-your-pet-healthcare-line/ Astronaut? Ninja? Actuarial scientist? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/18/what-were-you-going-to-be-when-you-grew-up/ Sure, you're not going to murder anyone, or rob a bank, and set a house on fire.  But what about the little things?  What's the least-bad thing you just fundamentally will not do?  Or what's the worst thing you will do?  And in either case, why? Have you ever stepped over ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/17/whats-the-least-immoral-or-unethical-thing-you-wont-do/ Lousy novel?  Awful non-fiction?  Horrific columnist?  What's the worst piece of writing you've spent time on in the last year or two? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/14/whats-the-worst-thing-youve-read-lately/ An oldie but a goodie. Interpretations for different values of "God" welcome; personal belief not required, but personal/practical as well as philosophical/abstract takes would be great. http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/13/why-does-god-let-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/ In case it's apropos, I'm American. So, a friend of mine and I got into one of many arguments about my political apathy, and she trotted out that old horse: "You pay taxes, so you should care about what the government does with your contribution." I was about to say, "Yeah, ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/11/how-does-it-make-sense-to-say-that-i/ Why is co2 always seen as a problem and not a useful resource? For instance large water tanks or reservoirs could be built inside or adjacent to power plants, pumped full of plant life (eg plankton)and exposed to sunlight. The co2 could then be pumped into the water and used ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/10/why-is-co2-always-seen-as-a-problem-and-not-a-usefull-resourse/ Okay, so let's say that reincarnation as other species is real. What/who do you think you were in a past life, or think you were meant to be in this life? For example, I think I was meant to be a penguin. I rarely get cold - it can ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/08/what-were-you-meant-to-be/ On September 11, 2001 and the days immediately after, what songs did you find yourself playing? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/07/911-music/ Would you go on a mission to mars? What about if it was a one-way mission? And you were by yourself? Blatant Plagiarism: Gizmodo http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/06/to-infinity/ Setting aside the pat answer of "because we can", where does singing come from?  Why do we do it?  What's the story with bursting into song? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/05/why-do-we-sing/ Everybody's got a mother, and everybody knows yo mama jokes. They're classics but they're also fight-starters -- yeah, it's just a joke, but you better not talk about my momma, etc. Why are the reactions to these jokes so complicated? What makes yo mama jokes funny, and what makes ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/04/whats-the-deal-with-yo-mama-jokes/ Humans seem to like to give advice. Some more than others (Mary Worth, we salute you), but at the base of it it seems more or less universal. It's also free, in theory, and valued accordingly. But! But sometimes advice isn't just as good as you paid for ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/03/03/advice-thats-worse-than-worthless/ Been pretty quiet around the BBQ this week. How the heck are you, anyway? What're you up to, lately? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/02/29/metapost-how-yall-doing/ Comic books!  The historical dismissal was that they were for kids -- badly drawn, badly written pulp.  Over time, there's been a lot of attention paid (by readers at least) to the growth of non-superhero comics, to graphic novels and the counter-description of "sequential art", but we've still got Spiderman ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/02/28/comic-books-kids-stuff-still/ Lent (for those who aren't in the loop) is a forty-day-long period prior to Easter, for most Christian denoms of which I'm aware -- and while there's a lot more going on that just this, the big Lent hook is giving something up for the duration, as a sort of ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/02/27/lent-for-heathens-what-would-you-give-up/ What thing should everyone own, but most people don't? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/02/26/an-expensive-thread/ It's a bad cliche and a weekly truth for folks working on a M-F schedule: nobody likes Monday. The weekend is over, the workweek recommences; things left dangling on Friday have to be caught back up with; next weekend could literally not be further away. But is the notion of ... http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/02/25/we-hate-mondays-value-in-shared-suffering/