T.J. Eckleburg, Author at Postcards from The Pug Bus

Customer service becomes performance art as theatrical agents stage apologies, transfers, delays, and surveys while bewildered customers wait for solutions.

Wait. Was my problem solved, or did I just see a show?

Signs That Customer Service Is Becoming Performance Art

Customer service was created to solve problems. Increasingly, however, it has come to resemble performance art, an elaborate theatrical production in which solving problems would… Read More

Is Rhetoric Dead? A satirical funeral scene mourns the art of persuasion as Ethos, Pathos, Logos and Irony gather beside Rhetoric’s open casket.

Rhetoric’s funeral was well attended.

Culture

Is Rhetoric Dead? A Rhetorical Question

T.J. Eckleburg cultural commentary 4 weeks

Is rhetoric dead? Early reports indicate that the ancient art of persuading people with language rather than simply shouting at them until somebody leaves died… Read More

Arthur surveys driveway clutter while rearranging the garage, convinced every box, broken tool and useless relic has found its perfect place.

After four hours, Arthur successfully reorganized the garage into the exact mess it had been before.

Culture

Local Man Rearranging the Garage Achieves Total Equilibrium

T.J. Eckleburg cultural commentary 1 month

Arthur Monroe, a sixty-two-year-old retired metric conversion consultant, stepped into his single-car garage at seven on Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and a… Read More

Stagehand Greg Ostrowski backstage, tracking Ella Langley's wardrobe to predict her setlists by jacket choice.

Music

Stagehand Insists Ella Langley’s Wardrobe Is a Coded Setlist Signal

T.J. Eckleburg music 1 month

Greg Ostrowski, 34, a union stagehand from Coatesville, Pennsylvania, spent the summer tracking Ella Langley’s wardrobe across her run of stadium dates opening for Morgan… Read More

Illustration asking who wrote the Bible, depicting a bearded AI alien on a heavenly cloud with scripture, stone tablets, binary code, and a glowing halo.

And on the seventh day, the server was down.

Technology

Pangram Makes Bombshell Reveal About Who Wrote the Bible

T.J. Eckleburg tech satire 1 month

In a press conference that began on time and ended in disbelief, Pangram Technologies announced that it had discovered who wrote the Bible. It was… Read More

Editorial cartoon illustrating the Digital Fallacy: a man ignores a perfectly cooked steak while inspecting a restaurant oven with a flashlight and clipboard as a puzzled chef looks on.

A textbook case of the Digital Fallacy: confusing the recipe with the meal."

Technology

No Digital Fallacy Allowed

T.J. Eckleburg tech satire 1 month

The digital fallacy is the error of judging a work primarily by the method of its production rather than by the qualities of the work… Read More

"Sourdough starter custody dispute: two Chester County homeowners tug-of-war over a jar of starter on a suburban front lawn"

Neither party disputes the starter's authenticity. Both dispute everything else."

News

Sourdough Starter Custody Dispute Divides Chester County Couple

T.J. Eckleburg news 1 month

A custody dispute over a thirty-five-year-old sourdough starter has entered its third week of township mediation, with both parties citing conflicting notarized feeding schedules and… Read More

Morgan Wallen repeats himself as identical country songs roll down an assembly line of guitars, truck keys, and lyric sheets in a satirical recording studio scene.

When the formula works, innovation is just unnecessary paperwork.

Music

Morgan Wallen Repeats Himself: Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One

T.J. Eckleburg music 1 month

Morgan Wallen repeats himself. That is his singular gift. Perhaps even his superpower. He releases thirty-plus-song albums and somehow recycles the same emotional weather report without… Read More