The Colin McEnroe Show

The Trump Administration continues to  downplay  the pandemic, Vice-President Mike Pence  campaigns  even as staff members in his inner circle test positive for SARS-CoV-2, and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," that the Administration is no longer going to control the pandemic. Some Americans are beginning to  fear  a dark post-ele...

It has come to The Nose's attention that  you can rent an entire movie theater out for just $99  and have yourself a slightly less pandemic-panicky moviegoing experience. Which got us thinking about, just, going to the movies. Remember going to the movies? And then: "Which of the Hollywood Chrises is the worst Hollywood Chris?" is a question the internet has been grappling with recently....

Secession is in the air. Britain withdrew from the European Union, Scotland wants out of the U.K., Catalonia from Spain, and, wait for it, California from the U.S. Yes, the days of our country's states being united may soon come to an end. In fact, not only is California home to active secessionist and separatist movements, but so are Texas, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska, Vermont, and several other s...

In the 1990's, the  Southport Sockmen , otherwise known as Steven Bain and Steven Gawthrop, paid drunk people in Liverpool bars and clubs to give them the socks they were wearing. The Sockmen took photos of each “donor,” before placing each sock and its matching donor photo in a plastic bag. The police found 4,000 pairs of socks piled 18 inches deep when they arrived to arrest the...

Our ancestors viewed sleep as a highly sensual and transcendent experience. Today, about a third of adults have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or feeling rested. We're becoming a nation of insomniacs. We live in what Rubin Naiman calls, a " wake-centric era ,” where sleeping and dreaming are viewed as less important than being awake and on the go. It's hard to come down from the hype...

Donald Trump asked journalist Tony Schwartz to ghostwrite his memoir, "The Art of the Deal," because Trump liked the unflattering story Schwartz wrote for  New York  magazine, about Trump's effort to evict rent-controlled tenants from his Manhattan apartment building. Schwartz agreed and has been  atoning for that decision  ever since.  Also this hour:  The Covid Trac...

Bill Burr hosted  Saturday Night Live  last weekend, and his monologue -- which included bits about wearing masks, cancel culture, white women in the "woke" movement, Pride Month, and more -- has  drawn some criticism . It has The Nose thinking about " How President Trump Ruined Political Comedy ." And:  The West Wing  ran for seven seasons and 156 episodes and ended more...

The pandemic, coupled with Black Lives Matter protests, and incendiary rhetoric from President Trump, has riled up anti-government militias across the US, most evident in the recent foiled plot by militia groups in Michigan, to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer.  Anti-government movements emerged in the 1990's, in response to the government's deadly siege at  Ruby Ridge,  the  W...

Undoubtedly, the thing that will most be remembered from Wednesday night's vice presidential debate is the fly that landed on Mike Pence's hair...  and then stay there for more than two minutes . The Nose isn't sure what to make of that, exactly, but  things are definitely   being made of it . And:  Fargo  is an anthology that premiered on FX in 2014. It's inspired by the...

The  populist backlash  that led to the election of President Trump was decades in the making.  Like other populist leaders around the world, Trump gave voice to the resentment directed toward “elites” who devalue the hard work and dignity of workers without college degrees. Ronald Reagan was the first president to tell every American they could "go just as far as their...

For decades, we didn't take television seriously. We saw it as ephemeral, as " chewing gum for the eyes ," as, literally, furniture. And then, around the turn of the century, things started to change. There was  The Sopranos .  The Wire . And, at the same time, shows like  Big Brother  and  The Amazing Race . For Emily Nussbaum, it was  Buffy the Vampire Slayer  ...

President Trump was quick to downplay the pandemic upon his return from Walter Reed in a tweeted video encouraging people not to let the virus dominate or scare them. He said they would beat the virus, just as he's convinced himself that he's got his licked. The president's attitude reflects a reality that denies the 209,000 (and counting) people who have already died from the virus and a stunning...

It's been over 100 years since the first cartoons were drawn by hand. Since then, the form has delved into everything from sex and drugs to racial inequality and war crimes. Even the tamest, G-rated cartoons have often found ways of slipping in adult humor past the eyes of younger viewers. Cartoons have been the vehicle for government propaganda, social change, and political satire. Some have been...

The Nose had planned to discuss  The Danish Girl  star Eddie Redmayne standing up for J.K. Rowling  and  Rolling Stone  updating their " 500 Greatest Albums of All Time " list. But then  some news broke overnight . Perhaps fittingly, though, The Nose watched Showtime's new miniseries,  The Comey Rule , this week. GUESTS: Lucy Gellman  - Editor of  The A...

A 2019  YouGov survey  says that 20 percent of American adults "definitely" believe in ghosts; another twenty-five percent believe they "probably exist." And, while no data yet proves it, there's a good chance that  quarantining at home  during the pandemic has led more people to wonder where those nighttime creaks and groans are coming from.   Some skeptics&nbsp...

Nietzsche called Richard Wagner "a volcanic eruption of the total undivided artistic capacity of nature itself," and Thomas Mann said he was "probably the greatest talent in the entire history of art." More than a thousand movies have Wagner on their soundtracks, including classic scenes from  Apocalypse Now ,  The Blues Brothers ,  Bugs Bunny cartoons , and  Charlie Chaplin ....

We tend to focus on the physical ailments that can arise from being fat more than how  fat shaming  can affect the mental health of people who are fat. Nor do we think of how our culture (and the media) perpetuate the notion that fat people aren't desirable enough for love and intimacy. That's flat-out wrong. Sex is a physical act that is deeply influenced by how our mind perceives desir...

At a news briefing last week, President Trump  refused  to commit to a peaceful transition. Now, we're all talking about it.  Atlantic  writer Barton Gellman, gamed out  worst case scenarios , the  military discussed  how they would deal  with his refusal, and Republican colleagues  pushed back  on his comments. Has anyone told the President that&n...

Listen live Friday at 1 p.m. The Nose has been contemplating covering the controversy around the  The Ellen DeGeneres Show  literally for months now. The show returned with a new season of new episodes this week, and  Ellen addressed allegations of a toxic work environment in her monologue . And: The CBC series  Schitt's Creek  has been endorsed on any number of Noses over...

One of the few silver linings of the pandemic has been a resurgence of interest in motels and RV life from a diverse group of millennials who want safe and less expensive options to travel and work during a pandemic. And motels and RV companies are trying to meet the demand with upgrades and amenities like flat-screen TVs, memory-foam mattresses, and free Wi-Fi. Some are turning to RV life permane...

Kurt Andersen's last book,  Fantasyland , looks at America's "centuries-old weakness for the untrue and irrational, and its spontaneous and dangerous flowering since the 1960s" and how it got us where we are today. His new book,  Evil Geniuses , is a kind of sequel, a companion. It's a parallel history, really, that looks more closely at "the quite deliberate reengineering of our economy...

Bill Murray has starred in some of our favorite movies of the last few decades:  Caddyshack ,  Stripes ,  Tootsie ,  Ghostbusters ,  Scrooged ,  What About Bob? ,  Groundhog Day ,  Ed Wood ,  Space Jam ,  Lost in Translation , all the Wes Anderson films, and so many more. He doesn't like managers or agents, and, rumor has it, he once agreed to play...

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday evening,  breaking the hearts  of generations of women -- and men -- who have benefited from her work guaranteeing our rights to  equal treatment  under the law. That same evening, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that a Trump nominee to replace Ginsburg  would receive a vote  on the floor of the Senate. By Satur...

Kim Kardashian and other celebrities "froze" their Facebook and Instagram accounts for one day this week " to protest the spread of hate speech and misinformation on those platforms ." Meanwhile, Kardashian's husband had the strange sort of week that we've maybe grown to expect from him, but seemingly with  more public peeing in it than we're maybe used to . And:  Cuties  ( Mignonne...

We produced our first show on masks in the spring of 2020. It was when most of us were isolated at home to sidestep the life-threatening illness we've come to call "COVID." The show was about how rapidly masks had become a statement of political identity. The intensity of the mask battles has begun to calm as we've acclimated to the pervasiveness of masks in our lives. Like them or not, they're he...