Growing up, I remember my mom always warning my sister and me about Black Widows. She made it out that they were under every dark spot in my backyard. I was made to believe that they were out to get my sister and me and that they wanted to come and attack us. Coupled with their inhuman-like appearance and eight legs, this led to me developing a legit fear of spiders. I would tell people at my elementary school, “Yeah, I'm afraid of spiders,” and I always felt a little proud o

Karl Kautsky with the Georgian Social-Democrats, Tbilisi, 1920. In the first row: S. Devdariani, Noe Ramishvili, Noe Zhordania, Karl Kautsky and his wife Luise Kautsky, S. Jibladze, R. Arsenidze; in the second row: Kautsky's secretary Paul Olberg, V. Tevzaia, K. Gvarjaladze, K. Sabakhtarashvili, S. Tevzadze, A. Urushadze, G. Tsintsabadze Ideological competition can flatten out the complexities of history, and likewise, the flattening of history’s complexities can contribute

What makes movies like The Thing so horrifying? What is it about something trying to look like us that causes such intense anxiety? John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), remains an iconic piece of horror history due to how it uses our fear of pretenders and isolation to invade our minds. The Isolation The film is set on an American base in Antarctica, one of the most isolated places for humans to be. The cast is effectively grounded in that location, and they have no real mean

When I was quite young, I thought the clouds were created by the billowing smoke drifting out of factories, supplying the world with all sorts of things. These plumes looked like clouds and acted like clouds, so why would they not be clouds? A similarly misinformed conclusion, I was confident for some time that the world existed in black and white up to about 1960, informed by my only insight of the period being through black and white movies. One more: before I knew that fac

Tutor fears are here. Once a year, brave English tutors confess their fears to me, and the result is a rediculous story. Enjoy, and be unafraid. Be very unafraid. Carl secured the last restraint on the kiddy roller coaster, walked over to the control panel, and dispatched The Sloth on an empty test-run before the park’s gates opened. The animal clicked and crawled along the tracks, conserving energy before the guests arrived. Such a moody beast, Carl thought. Remembering th

“Oh, it’s nice to see that your generation is not as lazy as we thought.” I’ve got to ask, “What is with people nowadays?” . . . I am sorry, but please explain to me why people think they can come up to you and say things like that. If you are wondering where my example comes from, it was the old lady at the Vons in Clovis . . . Like, really, I'm over here picking out deodorant, and you decide that was the perfect time to tell me. Like, come on, lady, there is a time and plac