As the 2012 presidential race sweeps toward election day, President Obama can remind us what being presidential looks like.
Posts by Chris Maier:
Saul Bellow on having “two towns”
Just found this, buried in Saul Bellow’s collected letters — he’s writing from Chicago about one of his buddies who spent some time down in C-U: “What the hell is the idea of two towns …
I Was This Close to Seeing Obama’s Inauguration
Yesterday, former Smile Politely editor and current D.C. resident Chris Maier tried to witness President Obama’s inauguration. Here’s his first-person account of the madness.
The NFL’s Final Four
Our resident pro football expert sets the tables for Sunday’s clash of the Birds (and one Steeler).
The Polite Power Rankings: Week 16
The Titans appear beatable. The Giants look bored. The Colts are heating up. Must be Week 16 of our NFL Power Rankings.
The Polite Power Rankings: Week 15
A few years ago, there wasn’t a football fan in the land who wasn’t intimately familiar with the word “parity.” Everyone from John Madden and Chris Berman to the guy who worked at the sports …
The Polite Power Rankings: Week 14
Tennessee vs. Detroit. Dallas vs. Seattle. These were the two daytime games on Thanksgiving this year, and both games were built to stink. Dallas vs. Seattle might be forgivable — when the schedule was being …
The Polite Power Rankings: Week 13
The good poet Robert Browning gave us these prescient words: “Jove strikes the Titans down not when they set about their mountain-piling, but when another rock would crown the work.” Ok, maybe that’s a little …
The Polite Power Rankings: Week Twelve
Déjà vu, huh? This time last year football fans were placing bets on whether the New England Patriots would go undefeated and whether the Miami Dolphins would go completely defeated. This year, the saga is …
The Polite Power Rankings: Week 11
“Football players, like prostitutes, are in the business of ruining their bodies for the pleasure of strangers,” says writer Merle Kessler. Well, consider me one of those strangers. We’ve hit that time of year — …