There is a strange stretch of road on Interstate I-85 between exits 57 and 62 that is like no other that I have ever experienced. Rather than being utilized as a high-speed connector for traveling long distances, this five mile section of asphalt is instead used by locals to travel between the adjacent towns of Auburn and Opelika. Now there is nothing conceptually wrong with that of course; the problem is that they actually treat it as a local surface road: traveling in the left hand lane …

This is Karen. She runs the show on the morning shift at the on-campus Starbucks. Every morning she welcomes me by name and alerts the barista on duty as to my regular order (Cinnamon Scone with a Venti Black Tea Latte) without even asking. Sometimes I wonder if she is just showing off – I think she is trying to rub in her superior mnemonic abilities. Then again, I know it is really just that she is required to do it as part of her job – …

Today I was chatting with two other southern boys (David Hill and Josh Emig) when the topic of regional colloquialisms came up. This in turn caused me to think of my father and all of the great advice and wisdom he has given me throughout the years. Some of the best has to be when I was in thenth grade and signed up for a typing class (now rumored to be called “keyboarding”). He told me, “Boy” (his best advice always starts with “Boy”), “Boy,” he said, …

Lord of the Rings meets Fantasia, meets Aliens, meets Terminator meets Smurfs meets The Keebler Elves on steroids meets every Earth vs. Aliens-movie-except-in-reverse, meets ten years in the making, meets $500 million dollar overruns, meets giant goofy glasses equals a better-than-nothing way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon with good friends. For better or worse, science fiction nerds now have (yet another) species with which they are never going to have sex with. I heard there was a message “subtly” buried in the movie – I don’t …