Editor didn’t understand this joke - and I’m not 100% on it either, to be honest - but let me keep it.
Glen Weldon
@ghweldon.bsky.social
Author, THE CAPED CRUSADE, NPR’s PODCAST START UP GUIDE. Unauthor, SUPERMAN: THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY. Host, POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR.
A bad day at the dog park. HOUSE OF THE DRAGON S3 E7 www.npr.org/2026/08/02/n...
'House of the Dragon,' Season 3, Episode 7: Red in tooth and claw (and wing and tail)
Dragon-on-dragon violence!
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My grandfather had a garden; he would take me out to it every time I visited and god I was so bored. Dirt and zucchini or whatever. Woo. But we’re doing tomatoes and basil and sage and cilantro and he didn’t tell me you can like rub the leaves between your fingers and it’s fucking magic.
I use m-dashes a lot which I’ve learned is an AI thing so I guess I should be worried that people will think I use it but then I remember how many labored sweaty effortful jokes I make; no algorithm would do a cost-benefit efficiency analysis & still make them. Bad jokes are the new Voight-Kampff.
We had a 4th of July party and there were storms and we lost power but people stayed (we had sparklers) and I worry that some of them assumed we were just taking the gay hatred of overhead lighting to its logical extreme.
The full review has a few cheap shots at Bruce Willis - years before his condition was public - that I can’t stand by. But this is a solid joke that I stand by and I stand by it hard. I stand by it like I’m Wil Wheaton & the night has come & the land is dark & the moon is the only light we’ll see.
BRAND NEW DAY focuses on the “great responsibility” bit, not so much the “great power.” Which makes it the kind of superhero movie that a lot of people have been saying they want for years now. A lot of people … who aren’t me. www.npr.org/2026/07/31/n...
'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' grounds Spidey — and much of the fun
His Spidey senses are evolving and he misses his friends.
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In which Gwayne’s gwayness SAVES LIVES. And we say goodbye to a tiresome trifling fuckboi. www.npr.org/2026/07/26/n...
'House of the Dragon,' Season 3, Episode 6: Assassination nation
In which Gwayne has a good eye.
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Last night the friends we are here with found an egregiously heterosexual piano bar, a thing that should not exist. It was all Bon Jovi and Journey and Whitesnake and not nearly enough showtunes and jazz hands and key changes. It was colonization. It was the culture of the oppressors.
Here’s that deep dive into Fezziwig lore you’ve all been clamoring for since 1843 Who is he? Where does he come from? What does he want? Who caters his parties? Does he have like a go-to events planner or does he mix it up, depending on the occasion? Does he offer guests a choice of chicken or fish
So we saw &Juliet in Chicago, and it was a lot of fun, and the cast had great voices, and the Nurse is a star. My main takeaway, though? “Since U Been Gone” is maybe the perfect pop song. Nay, the perfect song. You can bounce a quarter off it. It is inviable. The pinnacle of human achievement.
Oh man that look on Thor’s face when he confronts Doom. You can tell he recognizes him. It’s a big moment. Huge. He knows he was in the Amazon with Thor’s mom when she was researching spiders just before she died.
Don’t let Ormund be the banker. He’ll keep slipping himself money every time your back is turned. HOUSE OF THE DRAGON S3 E5 www.npr.org/2026/07/19/n...
April 19, 1986. My senior year. I was working at the front desk of a racquetball center. (1986!) Handing out towels and locker keys, laundering sweaty towels. That night, I knew Laurie Anderson was the SNL musical guest. The only TV was in the club’s nursery. I watched history being made there.
If you framed the “backlash” to THE ODYSSEY as if it was anything but the tiny tiresome bubble of racists that it was, you are hurting us. This would be true even absent its impressive box office. Had it bombed, you would still be giving voice to those whose ignorance should deny them a voice.
The “soldier returns home, dog recognizes them” meme is 3,000 years old.
It’s not an epic poem, it’s an action movie. So it’s not Homer’s ODYSSEY. It’s really more McBain’s ODYSSEY. And it’s pretty terrific. www.npr.org/2026/07/17/n...
'The Odyssey' is the epic only Christopher Nolan could make — and thank Zeus he did
It's old-school, swords-and-sandals cinema, yet still modern and richly satisfying.
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Some actors chew the scenery. James Norton hews the scenery. HOUSE OF THE DRAGON S3 E4. www.npr.org/2026/07/12/n...
'House of the Dragon,' Season 3, Episode 4: "Now we begin?" It's Season 3!
Will the real Daeron please stand up?
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Ladybug ladybug fly away home no look I’m sorry but it was my head and I had to let it out
THE CLOSET: Okay, he’s dead, so I’m just gonna kick him out now. Wait. What do you mean “no?” Are you serious? Do you have any idea how many sad sick performatively homophobic self-hating dudes are in here? I need the room! Fine. FINE. GENTLEMEN IT’S GONNA GET STINKY IN HERE. MORE THAN BASELINE.
Watching Pacific Rim, and wondering if we covered it on the show, and it turns out I reviewed its sequel and took the time to address the performative snobbery that films like Pacific Rim and its sequel and superhero movies are subject to, and indont hate it.
PCHH just got its learner’s permit and now it’s borrowing the car and staying out late doing donuts in the Exton Mall parking lot and hanging outside the beer distributor with its dirtbag friends.
Linda Holmes@lindaholmes.bsky.social · 4w agoHappy 16th anniversary to this Facebook post, which was about the recording of the very first PCHH.
We’re doing plants for the first time. ME: Researches extensively, fixates on one person saying that too many people overwater in summer; parsimoniously mists the bases, fretting all the while, certain I’m doing too much and they will die. The plants struggle, but endure. Barely.
Just hopped off a great 20-minute call with my belief in humanity. We spoke about a wide range of topics - the radical nature of hope, how things are absolutely fine and are gonna stay that way forever, the fact that absolutely none of our leaders deserve to have rabid badgers feast on their livers
Had to explain this Buffy joke to my editor. But it made t through. For the six people who’ll get it.
It’s bad when you have absolute power because occasionally you must pretend to listen to commoners. www.npr.org/2026/07/05/n...
'House of the Dragon,' Season 3, Episode 3: Heavy hangs the head that wears the wig
Rhaenyra serves nobles grilled rat and the Greens deploy a decoy.
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