So we all know that boredom can lead to a lot of bad things: eating, online shopping, texting the ex BF and telling him that you still love him (OK, maybe that’s just me). But did you know boredom can actually kill you? Yeah, that’s what scientists in London are saying. And if that’s the truth, there are quite a few things out there that should be eradicated before they’re put on trial for murder.

The Treadmill.
Running on a treadmill is good for you, my ass. Running in place for 45 minutes is basically running yourself into the ground. 6 feet into the ground, to be exact.

Professors who lecture for the entire class without. stopping. once.
These scary germs of people only have one tone of voice, and it’s a horrible monotone that appears to only exist for the purpose of putting those who hear it into a boring coma.  These teachers just drone on and on about the importance of supply and demand or whatever, not even stopping for breath, and not realizing that half of their audience is either on Facebook or dead asleep. Or, apparently, dead.

Family functions where no one is your age.
There are only so many old people stories about your parents/grandparents/aunts/uncle/weird cousins you can take before you keel over and die. Read More »

This is a good one for anyone who’s totally suffered through the stuffy, Britannic eons of fussing and formality in Jane Austen novels, just to get to the juicy parts (ooh, Mr. Darcy): according to British screenwriter Andrew Davies, who is practically single-handedly responsible for the PBS “Masterpiece Theater” genre of television adaptation (i.e. video Cliff’s Notes), Ms. Austen was just as into sex as the rest of us girls.

“Sex,” says Davies, who has adapted, like, every single Jane Austen novel for the silver screen, “is in the air.”

It’s just that in Austen’s time, it was was more about what wasn’t shown, than what was. Read More »

Sesame Street is no longer safe for kids.In a hilarious New York Times article, Virginia Heffernan jokes about the very real warning on the DVD for volumes 1 and 2 of Sesame Street: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

After subjecting herself and friends to an “all-ages” screening of the 1970’s version of the kids show, Heffernan bemoaned the “damage” the show’s gritty early years caused her psyche.

“The show rolled, and the sweet trauma came flooding back. What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.”

Even though I was nothing but a faraway dream in the 70’s, I remember tuning into Sesame Street during my early years, somewhere around 1986. While I’m pretty sure Elmo had been ‘born’ by then, the images my pre-school eyes witnessed were not the saccharin filled pictures that flood PBS today. Read More »