Here are links to some of my favorite pieces, with a bit o' annotation. You can find a more comprehensive listing of my work here.

The sitcom that dares not speak its name (San Francisco Examiner 3/19/95)   In which I muse on how much funnier Ellen DeGeneres' sitcom "Ellen" becomes if you tune into the lesbian subtext.  DeGeneres hadn't come out yet at the time this piece was written, but she made her announcement not long after. See, Ellen - I told you that America would still love you!

Personal Best: Darkness on the Edge of Town (Salon, July 17-21, 1996)    For this Salon feature, staffers and guest writers paid tribute to their one favorite album of all time. I chose Bruce Springsteen's "Darkness on the Edge of Town."

Welcome back, Pee-wee (Salon, 10/28/96)     An appreciation of "Pee-wee's Playhouse" to coincide with its first release on home video.

Food fairyland (Salon, 3/26/97)   I watched cable's Food Network for many hours and got really hungry.

Toy Story (Salon, 6/25/97)   This first-person essay also appears in the anthology Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood .  Yes, that really is my son's stuffed tiger in the photo.

Cheerio, 'Seinfeld' (Salon, 5/4/98)   My fond farewell to "Seinfeld" when it ended its run. Be sure to click on the cool illustration by artist Jason Mecier for a closer look. Mecier made this portrait of Jerry Seinfeld especially for Salon. The artist's medium is foodstuff;  in honor of Jerry's obsession with breakfast cereal, the portrait is made entirely out of Froot Loops, Cheerios, Cap'n Crunch, etc.

Women are from Venus, men are from Vegas (Salon, 8/17/98)   Sometimes, serendipity happens. An article pairing a review of the premiere of the daytime TV hen party "The View" with a review of an HBO movie about the Rat Pack.

The great Pretender (Salon, 4/6/99)   An appreciation of Chrissie Hynde, written for the Salon section "Brilliant Careers,"  in which writers penned love letters to pop cultural icons. I still mean every word of this piece.

Brilliant Careers: Fred Rogers (Salon, 8/10/99)   Get out your handkerchiefs.

We are family (Salon, 1/14/00)   Of all the pieces I've written about "The Sopranos,"  this is my favorite.

The top 10 reasons David Letterman's heart bypass operation was a good thing (Salon, 3/20/2000)   I was reminded of this piece a few years later while watching Letterman's lovely, perfect  tribute to Johnny Carson. I think that show qualifies as reason 11.

Mother Ship (Salon, 1/31/01)   "The X-Files" turned me into a sci-fi fan. But my fandom was mainly centered on Scully, who was so tough and tender and cool and complicated and real and ... I could go on and on. I wrote many "X-Files" pieces, but this is my favorite -- an essay about the pregnant Scully's maternal longing and ambivalence and how it rejuvenated the show's penultimate season.

The death of Buffy's mom (Salon, 3/12/01)   I lost track of how many articles I've written about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." There was always more to say.

'Sex,' the city and the price of freedom (Salon, 8/21/01)   I'm still getting reprint requests for this "Sex and the City" essay, so here you go.  And to all the Aidan fans who sent angry emails when this piece first ran ... apologies accepted.

Cents and sensibility (Boston Phoenix, 1/24/03)    I think this is the best headline I ever wrote (and the piece isn't bad either).  I had a little fun at the expense of the cheeseball Fox reality show "Joe Millionaire," and I got to quote Jane Austen in the process. Sometimes, I love my job.

Masters class (The Age, 2/4/03)     An interview with James Marsters, who played Spike on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." 

Prime Jane (Boston Phoenix, 4/16/04)    It took me many reviews of PBS's "Prime Suspect" series to figure out what makes Helen Mirren's detective Jane Tennison tick. The sixth time was the charm.

When the boss became the Boss (Boston Phoenix, 12/9/05)   Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" revisited on the occasion of its 30th anniversary reissue.

To Sir, with Love (from Mapping the World of Harry Potter )   My essay about how Harry Potter fan fiction writers have transformed Professor Severus Snape from the "greasy git" of J.K. Rowling's series into a Byronic sex symbol. The link takes you to BenBella Books' SmartPop website, where you can download a free PDF copy of The Best of SmartPop Volume 2 sampler, in which "To Sir, with Love" appears.