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Postcards from The Pug Bus

Lifting a satirical leg on pop culture since 2004

Persons in the Ether

Question of the Week

Clowns or Mimes?

Marjorie Finkelstein, 64, retired dental hygienist

318 Willow Street, Scranton, PA

Mimes. At least they have the decency to suffer in silence. A clown wants you to participate in his emotional problems while he honks a horn and falls down. I spent thirty-seven years looking into people's mouths. I have had enough forced entertainment.

Raymond Bickford, 51, commercial refrigeration technician

76 Chestnut Lane, Akron, OH

Clowns. You know where you stand with a clown. He has enormous shoes, a drinking problem, and a car full of accomplices. A mime pretends to be trapped in an invisible box and expects applause. My brother-in-law has been doing that at Thanksgiving for twenty years. Nobody pays him.

Sheila Lattimore, 47, assistant county tax assessor

142 Birch Road, Des Moines, IA

Mimes, provided they remain outdoors. I once hired a clown for my daughter's birthday party. He arrived forty minutes late, smelled like gasoline, and asked whether we had a ladder. The children still talk about it. My daughter is twenty-three.

Anonymous Redditor hunched over a laptop in a cluttered room, flannel shirt and sports cap visible, embodying the unnamed online source now cited as authority.

Trusted source. Unknown name. Unknown experience. Laptop crumbs speak for themselves.

Blog

The Rise of the Anonymous Redditor: A Modern Authority Figure?

philmaggitti blog 10 months

Journalism used to rely on sources before the rise of the anonymous Redditor. Those sources had credentials. They had expertise. They occasionally returned phone calls.… Read More

Ten 2026 New Year's Resolutions guaranteed not to last until February, featuring an image of a man sitting in his underwear on a bare hardwood floor eating a slice of pizza and watching a large screen TV.

I will throw away every object in my house that does not spark joy.

Blog

Ten 2026 New Year’s Resolutions Guaranteed Not to Last Until February

philmaggitti blog, top ten lists 10 months

We stand in the kitchen on New Year’s Eve, smelling like cheap champagne and regret, promising the universe that we will suddenly stop being the disasters… Read More

Cartoon image of a bucket reading from a list symbolizing satirical life advice in Buck-It List 4.0.

Before you kick the bucket.

Blog

The Buck-It List 4.0, Satirical Life Advice

philmaggitti blog 11 months

Ten more things you should quit doing while not going gently into that good night. Satirical Life Advice for seniors. If you have already renounced… Read More

A dog rides in a car with his head out the rear passenger window, eyes closed and ears pinned by the breeze, capturing the joyful sensory overload behind Why Does My Dog Hang His Head Out the Car Window.

Because enlightenment travels at 45 miles per hour.

Blog

The Astonishing Truth: Why Does My Dog Hang His Head Out the Car Window?

philmaggitti blog, dog 12 months

Veterinary science insists there is “no definitive explanation” for “Why Does My Dog Hang His Head Out the Car Window?” That is the polite scientific… Read More

Vintage-style editorial cartoon illustrating the concept of fair game, showing distressed people being metaphorically hunted by photographers, critics, and online mobs in a sepia-toned ink drawing.

When everyone is a hunter, everyone becomes the hunted.

Blog

Fair Game: The Sport of Being Hunted

philmaggitti blog 1 year

There was a time when “fair game” meant exactly that–something you could shoot legally without a game warden lecturing you about ethics. Deer, pheasants, and… Read More

A row of vintage typewriters faces a firing squad of sharpened pencils in a bright, white studio, illustrating the Grammar Prick’s war on the worst clichés in English.

The Grammar Prick convenes the firing squad for crimes against language. Justice prepares to proofread.

Blog

The Ten Worst Clichés in English Should Be Capital Crimes

philmaggitti grammar grump, top ten lists 1 year

Cliches are the herpes of human speech–once contracted, they flare up whenever people try to sound thoughtful. You hear them at brunches, board meetings, and… Read More

A bearded man in a trucker hat stands before the rusted gates of Country Music Heaven, holding a steaming mug and a clipboard, embodying the self-serious gatekeeper spirit of Saving Country Music.

Triggerman, awaiting divine confirmation that pedal steel still matters.

Blog Music

An Open Letter to Trigger of Saving Country Music

philmaggitti blog, music 1 year

Because Saving Country Music needs to be saved from the fool who claims to be its savior. Triggerman, Congratulations, T-man. You are the only man… Read More