Queen Me

by Akim Reinhardt I have lived my entire life, all 54 years of it, in the United States. Not once have I ever met anyone who cares about the British monarchy. I mean really cares, beyond the fleeting and shallow passions of celebrity gossip, and even that has been rare. This is not to say…

The Center is the Enemy of the Good

by Akim Reinhardt The perfect, so the saying goes, is the enemy of the good. Don’t deny yourself real progress by refusing to compromise. Be realistic. Pragmatic. Patient. Don’t waste resources and energy on lofty but ultimately unobtainable goals, no matter how noble they might be; that will only lead to frustration, and worse, hold…

Fetus Fetish on the Firing Line: A Conversation

by Akim Reinhardt and Jennifer Ballengee First Discussant: For anti-abortion extremists, abortion is a fetish. It’s a symptom that covers a repressed, secret, and socially unacceptable desire. What desire? I’m not sure; it’s their fetish, not mine. But whatever it may be, it drives anti-abortion protestors to scream about saving lives, to hold up posters…

The Long Fight: Hierarchies of Power and the Soft, Slow Motion Coup

by Akim Reinhardt The United States has always faced a fundamental tension. On one side are those who champion, enforce, and/or profit from hierarchies of power: white supremacist racism, sexist patriarchy, Christian fundamentalism, and capital concentrations chief among them. Arrayed against these hierarchies of power are people who promote and work for racial equality, gender…

The King of Pop, The Emperor’s New Clothes, and Modern Propaganda

by Akim Reinhardt Over the course of more than a decade, Michael Jackson transformed from a handsome young man with typical African American features into a ghostly apparition of a human being. Some of the changes were casual and common, such as straightening his hair. Others were the product of sophisticated surgical and medical procedures;…

Why Today’s Republicans Hate the New York Times So Much

by Akim Reinhardt When I was growing up during the 1970s, America still had a vibrant and thriving newspaper culture. My hometown New York City boasted a half-dozen dailies to choose from, plus countless neighborhood newspapers. Me and other kids started reading newspapers in about the 5th grade. Sports sections, comics, and movie listings mostly,…

Modern American Extremism

by Akim Reinhardt There’s a lot we can learn about today’s America by observing the Mormon Church. Last month the Church of Latter Day Saints, as its officially known, issued a strong, positive directive to its 16.5 million members. Vaccines had been proven safe and effective, it reminded them. And please wear a mask in…

The Millions of Christs of America

by Akim Reinhardt As an undergraduate History major, I reluctantly dug up a halfway natural science class to fulfill my college’s general education requirement. It was called Psychology as a Natural Science.  However, the massive textbook assigned to us turned out to be chock full of interesting tidbits ranging from optical illusions to odd tales.…

I Haven’t Settled on a Title Yet

The succinct, topical, and obvious choice is Review: Tom Lutz’s Aimlessness. It works just fine. But I am not taken with it. I shall come back to this. * by Akim Reinhardt * I don’t know how well Abbas knows me. Of course one can never really know how well someone else knows them. It’s…

Is this a Dagger and Fork I See Before Me: Menu Items from Shakespeare’s Diner

by Akim Reinhardt, Executive Chef (Marilyn Reinhardt, Megan Golden, Sous Chefs) Truly, Thou Art Damned Like an Ill-Roasted Egg: Breakfast All the World’s a Cage Free Omelet 10.99 Get Thee to a Buttery Croissant 8.99 Brevity is the Soul of Grits 5.99 If Muesli Be the Food of Love, Play On 5.99 What a Piece…

Deeming the Streaming

by Akim Reinhardt 3QD editor Abbas was desperate. After more than a year of pandemic life, much of it spent in a state of semi-lockdown, he and his partner had run out of shows to watch. So he did what any abject and forlorn person in his situation would do: he solicited recommendations via social…

The Persistence of Pyramids

by Akim Reinhardt ^ Royalty Aristocracy Church Officials The Merchant Class Skilled Crafts Workers The Goddamned Peasants The Unbelieving Under Class Criminals to Be Caged & Tortured Those Whom We Will Publicly Execute ^ WASPS White Catholics White-Skinned Jews Model Minority Asians White-Skinned, Anglo-Latinx American Indians as they are Imagined Dark-Skinned Hispanic Latinos and Latinas…