The Globe and Mail - Russell Smith Columns

Is Mulroney being fulsome?

Wed, 20 May 2009 14:39 EDT

More to the point, does he want to be? It's not necessarily a good thing

Great guy gams required for this look

Sat, 16 May 2009 00:00 EDT

style@globeandmail.comDear Mr. Smith: What do you think of blazers with shorts?That's a pressing question indeed, as the first festive weekend of summer demands summery clothes no matter how painfully unsummery the actual weather. Canadians' greatest skill: denial.

Sex as a weapon: It's as old as Aristophanes

Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00 EDT

rsmith@globeandmail.comParents, don't stop your kid from studying classics in university! The most apparently impractical discipline of all the humanities, aside from perhaps philosophy, or maybe art history, turns out to be useful for understanding contemporary culture. A play by the ancient Greek Aristophanes is relevant to no fewer than three current news stories.

Sex as a weapon: It's as old as Aristophanes

Wed, 13 May 2009 15:03 EDT

The classics still have something to teach us about contemporary issues

Does your belt hang low?

Sat, 9 May 2009 00:00 EDT

style@globeandmail.comDear Mr. Smith:Does it matter which way a man threads his belt? In keeping with the left-over-right closures on men's pants, shirts and coats, clockwise seen from above seems to be implied. But most of us (right-handed) men seem to do the opposite.

I threw the M-word, and it wasn't brave

Thu, 7 May 2009 00:00 EDT

rsmith@globeandmail.comWhat is a misogynist? I was called that once, in an essay by an aspiring academic who should have been thinking more carefully about his language, and I got mad.

Skip the stag if you don't want to go

Sat, 2 May 2009 00:00 EDT

style@globeandmail.comDear Mr. Smith:An old friend of mine is getting married. I am happy to go to the wedding, but I'm not so keen on the stag. A bunch of guys are going to a casino town. There will be hotels, gambling, probably a strip club. I love my friends, but this is going to cost a lot of money, and I'm not keen on the frat-boy frolics. What are my obligations?

The hip game of mocking the hipsters

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:48 EDT

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The hip game of mocking the hipsters

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00 EDT

rsmith@globeandmail.comHipsters are taking a great bashing on the Internet these days, and it's hard not to join in the uncharitable fun - contemporary urban fashion is at its most ridiculous point since at least the late 1960s, and there is something so cleverly smug about the skinny-jeans artist brigade that they cannot help but annoy. You have probably seen the ''Hipster Olympics'' video on YouTube, a fake contest in the spirit of Monty Python's ''Upper Class Twit of the Year,'' in which young New Yorkers compete in choosing ironic T-shirts, photographing themselves for MySpace and criticizing a jock. So now I encourage you to check out my current favourite hipster-mocking site, the rudely named ''Look at This [Expletive] Hipster,'' which is a collection of candid photos of real people on the blog site Tumblr.