KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
CONTEXT
IS OMNIPOTENCE.
JOHN THE
OBSCURE ™
By John Ruch
©
2010
AN
INDEX OF PAST COLUMNS:
Stuck in the Past:
The Sick History of Trapping Birds with Glue
N
Triskaidekaphilia: Horror Fiction’s First ‘Friday the 13th’
N
N
Obscure
Origins: Hidden Writings about Turtles Hiding
N
Mystical
Beasts: Elusive Creatures of the Pen
N
Divorced Parental
Advisory: Contains Gore Inappropriate for Children
N
The First in Line:
Memories of Dio
N
N
How I
Whipped Myself with a Belt and Got No Closer to Jesus
N
Clumsy Haikus on
the Night of Belatedly Realizing a Painful Truth
N
N
Let’s Start
a Band: Free One-Line Lyrics
N
Canals of Mars:
The Sharks of Lake Nicaragua and the Río San Juan
N
The
Leprosy-Experiment Advertisements of the Falsehood Swamp
N
12 Signs of the
Zodiac’s Bullshit
N
Sometimes a Szczerbiec Is Just a Szczerbiec:
Real-Life Swords with Names
N
Support Our Troops
or We’ll Run Out of Murderers
N
N
Don’t Drop
the Soap, Just the Nominee: The US Secretary of Hilarious Prison Rape
N
N
N
Washington Mutual
Assured Destruction
N
America’s
Saving Throw: Why McCain’s D&D-Bashing Matters
N
N
N
Gorillas and
Guerillas: Illegal Charcoal and the Burning of an Ape
N
Who You Gonna Call?: The Presidential
Obsession with 3 a.m.
N
A Bunch of Hot
Air: Tourmaline Hair Dryers, Silver Brushes and Other Dubious Hair-Care
Treasures
N
Mad, Bad and
Dangerous to Knowledge: Scientific Anomalies in Byron
N
An
Open Letter to Would-Be School Shooters
N
Note
to Self: Become a Phony Corporate Moron
N
Tales
Told Out of School IV: Roe v. Itself
and Other Supreme Secrets of Constitutional Law
N
Massive
Norwegian Study Shows My IQ Is Higher Than Boston.com’s
N
The
Full 200: Sympathy Beatings in Fact and Fiction
N
Empathy
for the Devil: Where the Right Is Right
N
N
‘Interactivity’:
The New ‘Jungle Music’
N
From
‘MLB 2K7’ to MMORPG: The First Pitch in a Whole New Ball (Make That Video) Game
N
Plato’s
Orc Cave: The Paranoid
Ultimate Reality of Video Games
N
Straight
from the Saurus’ Mouth: Obscuranta
(And Dentata) from My Field Field
Trip
N
The
Vietnam Syndrome Kicks Back
N
N
N
Toy
Story: Back-of-the-Box Mythologies of Commercial Playtime
N
Tales
Told Out of School III: UMass Amherst Dresses Its Students as Whiskey Bottles
N
Tales
Told Out of School II: Studio Noise as Folk Authenticity in Punk Rock Albums
N
N
Anything
You Quote May Be Used Against You: Supposedly Sophoclean
Police Wanted Posters
N
N
N
Four
Percent Chance of Satyriasis: Great Dungeons & Dragons Dice-Roll Tables
N
The
Moral Crisis of a Cat-vs.-Mantis Death Match
N
Projekt:
Ghostmaker: Forbidden Experiments, Anti-Semitic
Costumes and Other Halloween Curiosities
N
The
Mask of Dionysus: Optical Illusions in Ancient Roman Mosaics—And
Everywhere Else
N
Episodes
in Bad Video Game Journalism
N
Observations
While Attempting to Lurk
N
Dr.
No (Gays): Bond, James Bond vs. Phobia, Homophobia
N
N
The
White House Sword: Sharp Thoughts on Impulsive Acquisitions
N
Cherche l’homme:
‘La Femme Nikita’ and Macho Drag
N
Why
Are You Working for Free?: Asking for Yahoo! Answers
N
The
Pen Is Mightier Than the Bacteria, And Other Ways to Write Dubious Ads
N
‘Stupid
Question’ Resurrection: Questioning the Answer-Men and Why Poor People Wear
Barrels
N
Your
Ciphertext Is My Plaintext: Ignorance as Pseudo-Code
and Pop Culture’s Fake Eurekas
N
The
Bumblebee’s Shiver: Secret Sonic Powers of the Other Buzz
N
The
Leprosy-Experiment Armadillos of the Fakahatchee
Swamp
N
On
Getting Away With It: The History and Theory of Criminal Statutes of
Limitations
N
They
Have Buried Talu: Ethnic Theme Parks and Chinese
Utopia
N
Did
I Kill id1g1t?, And Other Sticky Strands of the Web
N
No,
Get Off My Ass: Swearing Off
Corporate Culture
N
Further
Notes on Video Game Criticism
N
Toward
a Critical Theory of Video Games
N
Effecto
2000: The Y2K Bug Really Did Almost Destroy the World
N
N
Walton
Ford and the Temple of Doom: Or, Judging Books by Their Covers
N
Please
Pass the Umami, And Can I Get Some Kokumi on That?
N
Star
Wars: Revenge of the…Fairies?!
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1998-2010 by John Ruch. All rights reserved.
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Question ™ are
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