by Nick Kolakowski | Jan 5, 2022 | Pop Culture
When I was a teenager, I read a lot of serial killer literature. In the 1990s, such novels dominated the bestseller lists; you couldn’t walk into a bookstore without spying titles by Dean Koontz, Thomas Harris, Patricia Cornwell, and their contemporaries on the front...
by Nick Kolakowski | Jan 4, 2022 | Pop Culture
Cities are super-organisms; and like any living thing, they grow under the right circumstances, at the right time —or they don’t grow at all. Many cities spring up at the nexus of trade routes, or spots that offer the locals some defensive or economic advantage. For...
by Nick Kolakowski | Jan 3, 2022 | Pop Culture
With the new year upon us, there’s no better time to explore how one of our most famous presidents might have drifted into the orbit of one of our most famous (mythical?) beasts. Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), who emerged on the American landscape as a symbol of...
by Nick Kolakowski | Dec 27, 2021 | Pop Culture
Even quick fires can change cities forever. London, Chicago and San Francisco all burned to their foundations, only to have more modern versions rise from the ashes. Baltimore underwent its own less-famous fire over a century ago, a 30-hour inferno that...
by Nick Kolakowski | Dec 20, 2021 | Pop Culture
A few years ago, along with a bunch of other folks, I became mildly obsessed with the AMC series The Terror, which follows two 19th century British ships attempting to navigate the Northwest Passage. Within two episodes, the ships are stuck in winter ice, and the crew...
by Nick Kolakowski | Dec 13, 2021 | Pop Culture
Vampires, it seems, will never lose their popularity. Just witness the recent (and very public) burst of grief over the death of Anne Rice, famous for writing “Interview with the Vampire.” Movie studios and streaming companies continue to pump out lots of vampire...