We're Struck Dumb

washingtonpost.com: "The strikes by Broadway stagehands and Hollywood writers are cutting into our consumption of entertainment that doesn't require brain activity. In a complicated, multilayered world, we need simplistic, linear storytelling, jokes that call out for a rimshot and one-liners that require no sense of irony or familiarity with world events. There is a place for silliness that splashes across the surface and provides easy, painless amusement. And there is something cozy and reassuring about entertainment that can be summed up in a tiny, simple word: fun."