Gear Patrol

Psychology was the easy way to learn in college — sorry, psych majors — and Maria Konnikova’s Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes ($16) is the fun way to bone up your brain skills as an adult. In our age of lean diets and expensive gym memberships, we do often forget about that pink, fleshy master and commander of ourselves: our brains, that is. Ahem.

During the Olympics the geopolitical world seems relatively simple, cultural stereotypes prove true, and we’re all basically friends if the teevee is tuned in to an NBC affiliate. It’s the USA v. China in the medal count. Great Britain’s pommel horse savant looks like a DJ. Kazakhstan wins gold in weightlifting. Cherish these simple times….

Last December, Robert Downey Jr. proved to the world that he didn’t need the help of special robotic armor to hold his own in a big budget blockbuster. Then again, it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that Jr. fit right in as Holmes, who was characterized by Arthur Conan Doyle as a brilliant, substance abusing man,…

For some, film is religion, and no temple is more sacred than the art house cinema around the corner. Serving as a calm voice of reason in a sea of neon megaplexes, the art house is the perfect refuge for discovering that gem of a specialty film. However, in a world this connected – via…