John McCoy

Never the same game twice My last essay was a critique of nostalgia, and so to mix things up this post will be a discussion of something from my youth for which I have a great deal of affection, and that is Parker Brothers …

The games of my childhood may not have been better than today’s, but their design was #patheticfallacy #parkerbrothers #groovy johnmccoy.org/2026/03/05/n...

"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman (Sophomore Lit 186) First-time co-host Daniel Heddendorf joins in to discuss clocks and jellybeans in Harlan Ellison’s short story, “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” (1965).

This time on my podcast: jelly beans! www.theincomparable.com/sophomorelit...

We hear the playback and it seems so long ago I suppose I should mention here that this is a comic essay and I am exaggerating for, you know, effect. I grew up in a podunk town in the middle of bupkis, so that no doubt is reflected here. If yo…

This time in my blog: hot takes on the 80’s, four decades too late: johnmccoy.org/2026/02/26/w... Share and subscribe with the grumpy Gen-Xer in your life!

Most of us have gears we never use My junior and senior years of college I spent my summers working on a grant to develop the Whitewater Gorge in Richmond, Indiana into a public space. This meant that for the first time in my life I…

Back on my blog! A meditation on competence in which I reveal how little I know about cars. As always, please share and subscribe (it's free) johnmccoy.org/2026/02/12/m...

Pathetic Fallacy Blog

May I offer you some dumb jokes in these trying times? johnmccoy.org/2026/01/08/d...

Sophomore Lit John McCoy and a guest host read books you might have been assigned in high school, or college, or other stuff you might have read when you were a kid. The theming is loose!

Another resolution for 2026 is to publish my podcast episodes on a 2-week schedule. To that end, I am once again asking you for topic suggestions or for guest host volunteers! I am still looking for a native Japanese reader for an episode about Bashō's haiku. www.theincomparable.com/sophomorelit/

Although it’s been said many times, many ways, Feliz Navidad Traveling with a large, active dog means forgoing air travel, and instead committing to road tripping, however long it might take. This year, as with the previous two Christmases, my wife, our dog,…

One of my resolutions this year is to up my blogging game. I Am going to try to post on Pathetic Fallacy twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Fridays. So if you're not subscribed, or if you know someone who might like to read what goes on in my strange head, now's the time!
johnmccoy.org/2025/12/30/a...

Christmas Special: "A Christmas Turkey" (Sophomore Lit 183) What, the one as big as me? Marina McCoy makes her holiday return to discuss Mário de Andrade’s sweet-and-salty “A Christmas Turkey” (1956).

Marina and I discuss this charmingly sly Christmas story by Mário de Andrade #turkeys #brazil #happyholidays www.theincomparable.com/sophomorelit...

I saw three ships come sailing in,
On Christmas Day in the morning.
They all sailed into Bethlehem,
On Christmas Day in the morning.
And this was very strange because,
Bethlehem is a landlocked city high in the mountains
(On Christmas Day in the morning).

A Rankin-Bass Retrospective 3: The Cricket on the Hearth Previously: Long, long ago, in the pre-Web age of Usenet (i.e. the early 90s), I began a series of silly newsposts about Rankin-Bass Christmas specials, with the intention of making my way through …

What better way to celebrate the season than by over-analyzing the most forgettable Rankin-Bass special! johnmccoy.org/2016/12/20/a...

the glories of Christmases long, long ago

the glories of Christmases long, long ago

the glories of Christmases long, long ago

someone needs to tell grandpa here that no one wants to hear his Tales of the Glories of Christmases Long, Long Ago

Check out one of your General Witchfinders hosts discuss a spooky book he read at school over on Sophomore Lit

Hang in there Note: this is another companion essay to an episode of podcast, Sophomore Lit. Maybe listen to it before reading this? Shortly after recording the most recent Sophomore Lit episode about Robert Wes…

In an accompanying essay on Pathetic Fallacy, my blog, I ramble on about magic lanterns and Victorian life saving! Obsessive as only a middle-aged autistic can be! johnmccoy.org/2025/12/09/h...

The Watch House (Sophomore Lit 182) Who watches the Watch House? Not us, the book is better. Ross Cleaver returns to discuss Robert Westall’s The Watch House (1977).

Ross Cleaver of @generalwitch.bsky.social returns to Sophomore Lit to discuss another book of his UK youth, The Watch House by Robert Westall. #sophomorelit #watchhouses #g-g-g-ghosts www.theincomparable.com/sophomorelit...

Hoorah for the pumpkin pie This post is a companion piece to this year’s Thanksgiving Special episode of Sophomore Lit. If you’re not a listener, why not give it a try? But if podcasts aren’t your thing, go…

And in a companion post on my blog, Pathetic Fallacy, I discuss podcasts and Thanksgivings past. johnmccoy.org/2025/11/26/h...

Thanksgiving Special: Protest Songs (Sophomore Lit 181) The answer, my friend…is not a lyric in the any of the songs the McCoy Brothers discuss. For this annual drunk Thanksgiving Special, Rob, Dan, and John talk about Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, One...

Time for another Thanksgiving episode of #sophomorelit featuring my bros @rmccoy.bsky.social and @dankmccoy.bsky.social! This time we grouse about protest songs of yore. www.theincomparable.com/sophomorelit...

Roque & roll In the summer of 1981 my family took a cross-country trip from our tiny college town of Eureka, Illinois to spend the summer Claremont, California, where we would live in a loaner house that was pa…

A heartbreaking story of shame and glory. Also, subscribe to my blog (please). johnmccoy.org/2025/11/20/r...

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Sophomore Lit 180) Podcasts could happen to anyone. David Loehr discusses exits and entrances in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (first performed 1966, published 1967).

In this episode, @djl.bsky.social and I discuss Stoppard, existentialism, and the joys of black box theater www.theincomparable.com/sophomorelit...

American Gothic, et al. Content warning: this post contains nothing but digressions. Typography is a mess. Or at least, its argot is a mess. In an earlier post I discussed the various meanings of the word font. An even mo…

More obsessive typography talk on my blog: johnmccoy.org/2025/11/11/a... But if that’s not your jam, check out my other posts about comics, literature, politics, dogs, autism, and nutty anecdotes! Subscribe and get all this free by Email.

The Radical Left City Mouse & the Very Good Country Mouse A City Mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country. For lunch the Country Mouse took his elite East Coast cousin to the local Cracker Barrel for Country Fried Steak with a side of Onion …

An ancient Greek fable with absolutely no relevance to the present day: johnmccoy.org/2025/11/06/t...

Yeah, it’s called a disability I got my autism diagnosis at a weird time: about a month and a half before the Global Pandemic. One day I was learning why I isolate myself, the next day the whole world was isolating right along w…

In which I add yet another drop in the ocean of online autism discourse! {If that's not your thing, check out other posts on my bog. Some are even funny!) johnmccoy.org/2025/10/30/y...

Bonus: I blog about the earworm that is the theme song for the 1982 movie adaptation johnmccoy.org/2025/10/08/i...

The Last Unicorn (Sophomore Lit 179) Don’t it allways seem to go, you don’t know what unicorns you got til they’re gone. Kathy Campbell discusses Peter S. Beagle’s 1968 The Last Unicorn.

Pick up some more unicorns on the way home, we’re down to our last. @kathycampbell.com discusses butterflies and bulls. #sophomorelit #unicorns #entropy www.theincomparable.com/sophomorelit...

YouTube video by mcmullen museum Introduction to "Martin Karplus: Moments & Monuments" by Curator John McCoy (Oct 1, 2025)

I was honored to have the opportunity of curating an exhibition of the photographs of Martin Karplus, currently on view at the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, until December 7. This link is to a lecture I gave last night as an introduction to the exhibition: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JRI...

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale When, as a kid, I learned the word raconteur, I thought that the role wasn’t simply a matter of one being good with stories; I thought it was a career one could have, and even be paid for. I&…

Get to know me through a series of anecdotes, an alarming number of which involving serious injury: johnmccoy.org/2025/09/28/j...

R.U.R. (Sophomore Lit 178) BEEP boop what is… love? Well, we don’t figure this out, but John Siracusa does return to Sophomore Lit to discuss Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. (1920), the origin of the word “robot.”

@siracusa.social returns to Sophomore Lit to answer once and for all, are the robots from R.U.R, the play that originated the word "robots," robots...or not? #r.u.r #sophomorelit #endoftheworldasweknowit www.theincomparable.com/sophomorelit...

Out of touch Getting a psychiatric diagnosis affects everyone differently. For many, it’s a catharsis, a key to self-discovery and self-acceptance. For others, it can be a troubling albatross, a confirmat…

Wow, there sure is a lot of autism discourse on the net these days. So anyway, here's more of mine: #autism #doggos #patheticfallacy johnmccoy.org/2025/09/23/o...