By CJ Tiernan You ever stop and look around the English-language landscape? It’s wild out there. We have words that sound the same but are spelled differently. We have words that mean multiple, palpably different things. We, the denizens of the melting pot, have words inherited from seemingly every other language under the stars. It can be a lot to handle. Worse yet, we often ignore the available words with imbued pizazz and lean on the rudimentary and familiar (unforgivabl

By CJ Tiernan We’ve all heard of the one-hit wonder. A band has a huge hit that everyone loves and follows that single up with…nothing. They never recapture the glory of that one hit. It must be an odd existence to dedicate an entire career to music and only be known for one hit. Meanwhile, John Williams is out here getting nominated for an Oscar every year or two (seriously, he’s been nominated 54 times for scoring films). Well, this list is dedicated to the music artists

By CJ Tiernan Creating something new is hard. To conjure something from nothing takes time and effort. This is a list showcasing people braggadociously showing off their skills. They have created something new, inside of something they created. My list, drawn from books, movies, and TV shows, illustrates invention within creation. Hat tip to all you intrepid writers. This is my Top 11 List of the Greatest Fictional Games in the history of fiction. 1. Jumanji – Jumanji - M

By CJ Tiernan Over the years, my vernacular has become heavily populated with movie lines. There are certain circumstances that arise that you can more or less set your timepiece to me delivering a line from a movie, like Woody with a pull string. Off the dome, I’m remembering “Reach for the sky,” “This town ain’t big enough for the two of us,” “There’s a snake in my boot,” and “Somebody poisoned the waterhole.” In that sense, I'm a walking if-then statement. One’s youth is

By CJ Tiernan Canada has exported an incredible number of actors. Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Michael J. Fox, Keanu Reeves, John Candy, both Ryans Gosling and Reynolds, and Donald Sutherland are some of the laundry list of Canadian actors we've had the pleasure of being entertained by. Rachel McAdams belongs on the list. She has been nominated for an Academy Award and has starred in some of the best movies of the last two-plus decades. Below is a list of my Top 11 Favorite Movies

By CJ Tiernan A song has the power to hit you in the face; to bowl you over. It can strike an emotional chord that plucks your heartstrings like a harp. Or, sometimes it’s just really funny. Either way, when you hear a song like that, you will often seek that song out to discover more songs by the artist. Unfortunately, sometimes that song is by an artist that doesn’t exist. They have no sprawling oeuvre because they are simply a character in a TV Show or Movie. Alas, you can

By CJ Tiernan Formed in Chicago in the early '70s, Styx is an American rock band with maximum style. They deliver positive vibes and hope through the power of sound. Comprised of original members Dennis DeYoung, James "J.Y." Young (no relation), John "J.C." Curulewski, Chuck Panozzo, and John Panozzo (brothers), these guys rocked through the '70s and '80s with long hair and musical attitude (Tommy Shaw would go on to shred in place of J.C. by 1976). I love Styx. They are my g

By CJ Tiernan Video games have become so much more than a way to pass the time or a device over which to bond. People make money, have careers even, based around the playing of video games. Isn't it wonderful? I'm not actually particularly good at playing them, and as I get older I find myself distancing more and more from playing, but I sure do enjoy it. My favorite games are largely multiplayer games. I don't play many solo games anymore. I find a little voice in the back o

By CJ Tiernan The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was one of the largest undertakings a studio has ever taken. At the time of my publishing this list, there are 37 movies that have been released so far, earning more than 32 billion dollars at the box office (Achoo! Sorry, that number is nothing to sneeze at). It is kind of big deal. This particular list is focused on the beginning stages of the MCU (Phases 1 through 3), ranging from the first movie (Iron Man) to the epic conc

By CJ Tiernan Laughter is famously the very best medicine. It adds some levity and perspective to life. Life is too short to push through day in and day out without stopping to laugh at the absurd things all around us. In my opinion, stand-up comedy is best when the comedian taps into something we all see and experience and subverts it or looks at in a way that none of us have thought about. It is a satisfying thing to hear because not only are we Rolling On The Floor Laughin

By CJ Tiernan When you watch the Pilot episode of a TV Show, you get to see the foundation. You are given some sense of who the players are and where the story is headed. However, many shows have their characters evolve and grow as the show goes on. This leads to the need for new characters. Anytime a TV Show can introduce a new member into the established cast in a manner that is additive is impressive. It requires great writing to establish a need for the character and grea

By CJ Tiernan Adages, Idioms, Axioms and Proverbs. These are phrases that we use, some almost daily, to convey our thoughts and our meanings. They're often things we've heard from others over and over again and they serve as a shortcut (our brain is always down to clown with a shortcut) to deliver our message or an opportunity to avoid answering the truly daunting questions like "How are you" and "How have you been?" I am always positively smitten when I encounter a character

By CJ Tiernan When you think of parodies, you think SNL on TV, Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker for movies (Airplane!, The Naked Gun, Hot Shots!) and "Weird Al" Yankovic for music. He has managed to lampoon the hit music of the day for preposterously long time. Listening to "Weird Al" is a joy, a delight, and fun for the whole family. Here is a list of my 11 favorite studio albums by "Weird Al." Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/lice