This Week’s Writings

At EntertainmentTell, I reviewed “The Great Gatsby.”

For GadgetTell, I write about a new study on airline passengers leaving their phones are.

And at Philly Post, I wrote about Al Gore being “Romney-rich.”

Tony Stark and Frank Luntz

Two new pieces of note this week: I reviewed “Iron Man 3″ for EntertainmentTell, and wrote about the Frank Luntz/Penn controversy for the Philly Post.

Highlights of this Week’s Writings

I had quite a prolific week of new writings.

For the Philly Post, I wrote about the FCC’s correct decision to not pursue fines after David Ortiz cursed on the air before the first post-bombing Red Sox game.

At EntertainmentTell, a ton of stuff: My essay on the Coexist sticker flap- with an Adam Carolla angle to fit the Entertainment part of the site, is here.

I also reviewed Michael Bay’s odious new movie “Pain & Gain,” as well as the documentary “Koch,” and I interviewed the director of the latter film (not, thankfully, the former.)

In addition, I wrote about the renewal of Parenthood, a particularly funny old Facts of Life clip, and the arrival of the complete Saturday Night Live archive on Yahoo.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

No, the Hijacked Mercedes Did Not Have a “Coexist” Sticker

The meme got out there, at some point early on Friday, that the Boston Marathon bombers, during their overnight theft and shooting spree, had hijacked a car with one of those “coexist” stickers. The implication being that the owners of the car were stupid hippie liberals who believe in equality, oppose prejudice, and are generally dismissive of the notion that all Muslims are evil.

The origin seems to be this screen cap, from local news coverage in Boston:

A great story, that seems to validate the right-wing view of things. But it’s not true.

The car the bombers hijacked was a Mercedes SUV. I’m not sure if the car above is a Mercedes, but it’s most assuredly not an SUV. It also doesn’t appear to have any bullet holes. Here’s the actual car, as photographed by ABC News later that day:

It’s very clearly not the same car- it’s taller, the back window appears to have been shot out and- most importantly- there’s no “Coexist” sticker.

Sounds like a lot of conservative leading lights fell for this one, however… 

UPDATE: It sounds like the suspects were driving two separate cars for part of the night, including a Honda. However, according to ABC News, the Honda was the younger brother’s own car, and was not hijacked from some clueless hippie. And once again, we have no idea if the car above was ever driven by either of the brothers.

Last Week’s Leftover Writings

Last week I reviewed two different “mind-bender”-type movies, “Trance” and “To the Wonder.” I also wrote about a local professor who is putting a playable version of Pong on the side of a building, and wrote an essay about just how weird “Wayne’s World” was.

Great Moments in Suburban Multitasking

Last night marked my first, ultimately successful attempt at a two-hour, elliptical machine/Game of Thrones/Mad Men/iPad/Verizon FiOS Live TV streaming app parlay. I even got two loads of laundry done at the same time. Nothing like finishing a long workout to the strains of “Just a Gigolo…”

On “42″

The long-awaited Jackie Robinson movie “42″ is here at last, and I wrote not one but two pieces about it this week. Here’s my review of the movie itself, for EntertainmentTell, and here’s my Philly Post column on the Philly connection.