CULTURE

What Is The Truth About St. Patrick’s Day
CULTURE, TOP FOUR

What Is The Truth About St. Patrick’s Day

In 1997, my students and I traveled to Croagh Patrick, a mountain in County Mayo, as part of a study abroad program course on Irish literature I was teaching for the University of Dayton. I wanted my students to visit the place where, each July, thousands of pilgrims pay homage to St. Patrick, who, according to lore, fasted and prayed on the summit for 40 days. While there, our tour guide relayed the story of how St. Patrick, as he lay on his death bed on March 17 in A.D. 461, supposedly asked those gathered around him to toast his heavenly journey with a “wee drop of whiskey” to ease their pain. The mention of whiskey left me wondering if St. Patrick may have unintentionally influenced the way most of the world celebrates the holiday today: by drinking. It wasn’t always this way. The F...
St. Patrick’s Day: It’s Paddy, Not Patty!
CULTURE, TOP IMAGE

St. Patrick’s Day: It’s Paddy, Not Patty!

It's been maybe 10 and a half years since I last celebrated St. Patrick's Day in Ireland and through traveling around this fine world, I've had this conversation too many times to count: Someone: 'Where are you from?' Me: 'Ireland.' Someone: 'Oh, you're Irish! Me too.' Me: 'Really? What part of Ireland are you from?' Someone: 'Oh, I've never actually been to Ireland. My great-grandmother was Irish.' Me: 'So where in America are you from?' There's no day in the whole year that this conversation happens more than on March 17th... or the Saturday after if it falls on a weekday. There's also the whole rigmarole of me also having to prove I'm Irish on occasion due the fact that six years in England and four in Korea has led to my accent being a bit askew. Also living with a Canadia...
A Canvas To Be Seen And Heard
CULTURE, TOP FOUR

A Canvas To Be Seen And Heard

For graffiti artists, abandoned skyscrapers in Miami and Los Angeles become a canvas for regular people to be seen and heard. The three qualities that matter most in real estate also matter the most to graffiti artists: location, location, location. In Miami and Los Angeles, cities that contain some of the most expensive real estate in the U.S., graffiti artists have recently made sure their voices can be heard and seen, even from the sky. In what’s known as “graffiti bombing,” artists in both cities swiftly and extensively tagged downtown skyscrapers that had been abandoned. The efforts took place over the course of a few nights in December 2023 and late January 2024, with the results generating a mix of admiration and condemnation. KTLA 5 news highlights public outrage over a graff...
Where Did The Time Go?
CULTURE, SOCIETY, TOP FOUR

Where Did The Time Go?

Why is free time still so elusive? There have been massive gains in productivity over the past century. So why are people still working so hard for so long? Output per worker increased by almost 300% between 1950 and 2018 in the U.S. The standard American workweek, meanwhile, has remained unchanged, at about 40 hours. This paradox is especially notable in the U.S., where the average work year is 1,767 hours compared with 1,354 in Germany, a difference largely due to Americans’ lack of vacation time. Some might argue that Americans are just more hardworking. But shouldn’t more productive work be rewarded with more time free from work? This is the central theme of my new book, “Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal.” Keynes misses the mark Many economists see the status quo mostly as ...
For Some Nonreligious Americans Secular Congregations Fill A Need
CULTURE, JOURNALISMS, TOP FOUR

For Some Nonreligious Americans Secular Congregations Fill A Need

Church without God: How secular congregations fill a need for some nonreligious Americans. Shared testimonies, collective singing, silent meditation and baptism rituals – these are all activities you might find at a Christian church service on a Sunday morning in the United States. But what would it look like if atheists were gathering to do these rituals instead? Today, almost 30% of adults in the United States say they have no religious affiliation, and only half attend worship services regularly. But not all forms of church are on the decline – including “secular congregations,” or what many call “atheist churches.” As a sociologist of religion who has spent the past 10 years studying nonreligious communities, I have found that atheist churches serve many of the same purposes as religio...
The Latest Symbol Of Overconsumption: The Stanley Cup Craze
CULTURE, TOP FOUR

The Latest Symbol Of Overconsumption: The Stanley Cup Craze

The Stanley craze: How a reusable cup became the latest symbol of overconsumption. A dad and his daughter recently staked out a Target overnight, hoping to score the limited-edition reusable Starbucks x Stanley cup. As the dad documented on TikTok, they were able to secure one of just 40 cups released that day after leading a line that stretched the length of the store when doors opened. At other Targets across the United States, the scenes were more chaotic, with women rushing displays to grab the special Stanley produced with the coffee chain in what have been dubbed Stanley “stampedes.” Another such stampede recently ensued over limited-edition Valentine’s Day Stanley cups. The tumblers, known as the Stanley Quencher and first released in 2016, aren't much different from the myriad reu...
A Closer Look At Britain’s Obsession With The Hot Water Bottle
CULTURE, TOP FOUR

A Closer Look At Britain’s Obsession With The Hot Water Bottle

A brief history of Britain’s obsession with the hot water bottle. Last winter, UK retailers reported record sales of water bottles as consumers look to cut their heating costs as the average household energy bills soared. Boiling a kettle to fill a hot water bottle uses less energy than an electric blanket or turning on the heating and so is the cheapest option to keep you warm, according to consumer insights publication Which?. This year, bottles have been spotted on the London runway as even luxury brands are cashing in on their popularity. Feeling the chill ourselves, we have dug into the history of the hot water bottle as part of a large research project on the global history of Boots The Chemists. The first hot water bottles Hot water bottles have been around in various forms for ce...
‘The Exorcist’ Hollywood’s Imagination, And Our Obsession With Evil
CELEBRITY NEWS, CULTURE, MOVIES, SUPERNATURAL

‘The Exorcist’ Hollywood’s Imagination, And Our Obsession With Evil

50 years later, ‘The Exorcist’ continues to possess Hollywood’s imagination, reflecting our obsession with evil. When the “The Exorcist” premiered 50 years ago, in December 1973, some theatergoers fainted or broke down in tears. A few even vomited. The film, which cast a young Linda Blair as a girl claiming to be possessed by the devil, was an almost instant success, with moviegoers waiting in line for hours to secure tickets. It went on to gross over US$440 million worldwide. The horror film eventually received two Oscars, for Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay. In the 50 years since, the cultural fascination with Satan has persisted. But as religiosity has waned, popular portrayals of Satan have also changed. Rather than embody pure evil, Luciferian characters that are complicated – ...
Why Emoji Can Be Even More Powerful Than Words — Is It A Sign of our times
CULTURE, MONEY, TOP FOUR

Why Emoji Can Be Even More Powerful Than Words — Is It A Sign of our times

Signs of our times: why emoji can be even more powerful than words. Each year, Oxford Dictionaries – one of the world’s leading arbiters on the English language – selects a word that has risen to prominence over the past 12 months as its “Word of the Year”. The word is carefully chosen, based on a close analysis of how often it is used and what it reveals about the times we live in. Past examples include such classics as “vape”, “selfie” and “omnishambles”. But the 2015 word of the year is not a word at all. It’s an emoji – the “face with tears of joy” emoji, to be precise. Formerly regarded with disdain as the textual equivalent of an adolescent grunt, it appears that emoji has now gone mainstream. Even if it’s not a fully-fledged language, then it is – at the very least – something that ...
As Their Meanings Change Terms Of Address Such As Ladies And Gentlemen, Guys And Dudes Can Be A Minefield
CULTURE, LGBTQ, LIFESTYLE, TOP FOUR

As Their Meanings Change Terms Of Address Such As Ladies And Gentlemen, Guys And Dudes Can Be A Minefield

Listen up, ladies and gentlemen, guys and dudes: Terms of address can be a minefield, especially as their meanings change. A male colleague could be forgiven for not knowing if using “guys” to refer to female co-workers is acceptable in the modern workplace. But should he address them as “ladies,” he risks a trip to HR, or at the very least being labeled a condescending creep. So what in the name of Messrs Merriam and Webster is going on with what us linguists call “address terms” – that is, the words we use to address individuals – and their gender? All languages have such terms, with the most common being “you,” or the second-person pronoun. But we have a host of alternative address terms commonly in use in the English language: “you guys,” “bro,” “dude,” “y'all” and “mate” – depending...