Do The Aftermath

Over at The A.V. Club, we decided to quiz a few experts in various fields and ask them about the plausibility of various apocalyptic scenarios made famous by movies. My entries are the ones on Armageddon, War Of The Worlds, and The Day After. Talk about a fun project; not only did I get to interview, among others, Seth Shostak of SETI and Phil "The Bad Astronomer" Plait, I finally had a good reason to rewatch The Day After, the made-for-TV, pants-shittingly scary, nuclear-paranoia film from 1983 that horrified me at the age of 11. Maybe it's just the lingering trauma, but it still packs a horrifying punch--despite, or maybe because of, the crude, graphic special effects. (Seriously, when I was a kid I had numerous nightmares fully stocked with those iridesent skeletons.)

You make every man feel like a child

When I was in sixth grade in 1984, I had a crush on a girl named Michelle. She had Velcro sneakers, feathered bangs, and a Def Leppard Pyromania T-shirt. Hipster girls of 2010: No matter how hard you try to look like her, you'll never be as cool as Michelle.