Culture Briefs

Mulling the mullet

“Is it just me or has the most hideous of hairstyles, the mullet, become popular in this country almost overnight?

“The mullet has seen a messiah-like revival, and I, for one, think it should remain six feet under. Let’s be blunt, this haircut is a monstrosity, so how did it become popular with the youth in Ireland?

“For some bizarre reason, 13- to 18-year-old boys have adopted these mullets.

“However, they wouldn’t like to think that they are sporting such a hick hairstyle, so they dye the fringe to disguise the fact that they do in fact have a mullet.

“Well, dye or no dye, short hair and shaved sides with feathers hanging from the back is a mullet, and there is no getting away from that fact.

“Mullets should not exist in the 21st century, and no one should ever be subjected to the sight of them.”

— Sean O’Brien, writing on “Irish Teens Keep Mullet Alive,” Saturday in the Independent

Hookup remorse

“After conducting a national college survey of over 2,500 students, I found that among those who reported ’hooking up’ — a range of sexually intimate acts, from kissing to intercourse, that occur outside a committed relationship — at Catholic and nonreligious private and public colleges and universities, 41 percent are profoundly upset about their behavior.

“The overwhelming majority of students interviewed in my study (78 percent) saw romance as virtually asexual. They listed ’just talking’ and ’talking for hours,’ often alongside some star-gazing, watching the sunset, or maybe a long walk. It’s no wonder, then, that college students fantasize about the restraints that certain models of religious identity place on sex and dating. These models tend to be chaste to the extreme — first kiss at the altar for some.

“The question remains, though, why students who feel bad about hooking up, who wish their peers would act less casual about sex and who dream of living with at least some restrictions on their sexual relationships then choose to act as they do. The answer lies in community. Most campuses do not provide an environment where acting on romantic desires, rather than sexual ones, is feasible. It takes a village to set standards for dating.”

— Donna Freitas, writing on “Sex Education,” Friday in the Wall Street Journal

Screen gems

“Before each summer, Hollywood crows about how its terrific upcoming movies are sure to reach new heights at the box office. This year, not so much. Sure, executives will talk a blue streak about individual films and slates, and as always there are some potential blockbusters set to unspool.

“But this is the first summer in some time in which firm predictions of box office records are harder to find than pure motives in a mob movie. And a new high in admissions?

“Fuhgeddaboudit.

“This time, the rhetoric is less Barnum & Bailey and more Alan Greenspan as major studio executives attempt to guard against any irrational exuberance over seasonal prospects.

” ’By definition, last summer offers a tough comparison because there were four movies that made more than $300 million,’ Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore says. ’It’s unlikely there will be four this year, but the question is how many $200 million movies will there be?’ ”

— Carl DiOrio, writing on “Can superheroes, sequels save box office?” Monday in the Hollywood Reporter