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Rusty Evans, with his Martin guitar and a book full of self penned country rock tunes made the rounds in new York City's famous Brill Building. He connected with a small record label, who said they would record him if he could come up with the right songs. Six weeks later he was at Bell Sound recording "I Lived, I Loved and Lost" and "When I'm Alone With You." These masters were licensed to Coral/Brunswick, the same label that Buddy Holly made famous.

The Dulcinea Effect is the strange compulsion many male heroes have to champion, quest for, or even die for, girls they met five minutes ago. Dulcinea is the name Don Quixote gives to the (blissfully unaware) woman he has made himself the champion of, for whom he is willing to risk his life.

Any tropes that predate the election of John F. Kennedy to the U.S. Presidency (November 1960), divided by periods

"Right now the fate of health care reform seems to rest in the hands of relatively conservative Democrats — mainly members of the Blue Dog Coalition, created in 1995."

"The This American Life crew has a segment in this weekend’s episode on rescission of health insurance policies – insurers’ established practice of looking for ways to invalidate policies once it turns out that the insured actually needs significant medical care."

And people like Joss Whedon wonder in public why there aren't more hot chicks at Comic-con. Possibly because women don't enjoy getting assaulted for prizes, Joss.

Aggregating the best of socially and grammatically challenged Craigslist ads for your entertainment needs.

The Bechdel Rule is this: Only go see a movie if it satisfies 3 basic requirements – 1) It has to have at least two women in it. 2) The two women talk to each other. 3) They're talking about something besides a man.

Melissa takes out Judd Apatow and his whole sexist Dudebro phenomenon.

I have nothing against princesses. I have nothing against movies with princesses. But don't the Disney princesses pretty much have us covered? If we had to wait for your thirteenth movie for you to make one with a girl at the center, couldn't you have chosen something — something — for her to be that could compete with plucky robots and adventurous space toys?

Because men raping women is systemic, and cultural, and yes it is the patriarchy and it is misogyny and it is men thinking they are entitled to women's bodies. "Well, what did she expect, getting drunk like that?" isn't salt in the wound, it is the foundation of the problem. The idea that if a woman is not actively preventing a man from sticking his penis into her (and even then, if she's an enemy), he is doing nothing wrong, and hey, who can blame him, IS THE PROBLEM.

The idea seems rather silly, until you actually look at the nice workmanship. He does a nice job.

The Second Pass is an exclusively online publication devoted to reviews, essays, and blog posts about books new and old. It is updated every weekday.

Below is a list of ten books that will be pressed into your hands by ardent fans. Resist these people. Life may not be too short (I’m only in my mid-30s, and already pretty bored), but it’s not endless.

"Publishers and other content providers make a grave error when they ensure that legitimately purchasing their products involves more hassle and uncertainty than simply pirating them." – one of the comments. Very true.

Really amazing photos of the Apollo 11 space flight. My great uncle is somewhere in picture number 12.

I get it. Okay.

Okay, fine. I'll start the damned book. Sheesh.

"Divine right went out with the American Revolution and doesn't belong to White House aides," the speaker said. "What meat do they eat that makes them grow so great? I am not willing to elevate them to a position above the great mass of the American people. I don't think we have any such thing as royalty or nobility that exempts them. I'm not going to let anybody come down at night like Nicodemus* and whisper something in my ear that no one else can hear. That is not Executive privilege. It is Executive poppycock." — Sen. Sam Ervin

READ THIS. — "The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates."

The chart would have to be modified for me – the first step would be "fly to New York…"