Tweet Roundup: #NewnitedStates

McSweeney's is celebrating the release of its new anthology, The McSweeney's Book of Politics & Musicals, by starting a hashtag game to think of a new name for the United States. Here's a roundup of the best ones…

Manifest Destiny’s Child #NewnitedStates

— Pantse Macabre (@giromide) June 25, 2012

Republic of Britneys #NewnitedStates

— Brad Vaughan (@pbradv) June 25, 2012

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New Broadway Musical Tops Off Some Delightsome Times for Mormons

Not since Brigham Young founded the the state of Deseret (later to be renamed "Utah") in the mid-19th Century — with the possible exception of the three-year run of ABC's Donny and Marie television show — has The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints been so ascendant.

First of all, we've got Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, both Mormons, looking to be top-tier candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. Add to that a Mormon Senate Majority Leader, a Mormon infotainment prophet/rodeo clown dominating conservative airwaves, and Mormon created-and-backed political juggernaut influencing social issue policy nationwide. What more could you ask for as a Mormon?

How about a hit Broadway musical created by South Park's Trey Parker & Matt Stone and Avenue Q's Robert Lopez?

Performances begin at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City on February 24, 2011. Tickets are available now!

Ronald Reagan and James Dean in the Not-Performances of Their Careers

I have to say, this episode of General Electric Theater from 1954 featuring future-president Ronald Reagan and future-mysteriously-iconic-dead-guy James Dean isn't half bad. It's a little cheesy, a little over-act-y, a little did-any-teenager-ever-actually-behave-like-that-y, but entertaining…

See what I mean? It's good. But, it's no 1965 off-Broadway, black-box theater run of Edward Albee's Zoo Story with Richard Milhous Nixon and Richard Dreyfuss. I don't know, but Nixon was somehow remarkably convincing as a sad awkward man who would feed a hamburger full of rat poison to neighbor's dog. Unfortunately — though the six-week run was extensively recorded — most of the tapes of the show have huge gaps of silence, making them effectively worthless. Too bad.

Still, the most memorable Republican president/popular actor team-up was 1865's Our American Cousin with Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. They only did it the one time, though. Not sure why.