More Hardcore

A little while ago, I plugged Dan Carlin’s excellent Hardcore History podcast. I thought I’d bring it up again because he just released a sort of “interim” episode (all too short!) in which he interviews James Burke, writer and host of a few of my all-time favorite documentary series: Connections and The Day the Universe Changed. In this interview, Burke … 

The Year in Buzzwords.

The New York Times “Week in Review” writes up its take on the state of English lingo in Buzzwords 2007: All We Are Saying. What follows is by no means a complete list of the words that took our attention this year, but rather a sampling from the thousands that endured long enough to find a place in the national … 

Spidora!

Wow. I should have done my homework. (Frankly, it never even occurred to me to search for such a thing. I should have known better. ;-)) Remember our Very Old Man? You know, the one with the Enormous Wings? Behold, his nemesis! (If he cared, that is.) And if you’d like to make a few bucks, you can have someone set one … 

Limericks & Pi

Here are a quick couple of links relating to curiosities we glanced at in class: You can find The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form here Mike Keith’s story, “Cadaeic Cadenza,” based on the first 3,000 or so digits of pi is here. Enjoy!

You Rite Liek A Theef

I just took the McAffee SiteAdvisor Phishing Quiz. I got an 8 out of 10— go give it a try yourself! If you’re not familiar with the term yet, phishing is when crooks send people to bogus web pages disguised as banks, or credit card companies, or whatever, hoping to collect valuable information from them. Anyway, as I reviewed the answers, … 

On Writing Well

Columnist and editor John Leo gave a speech at Ursinus College last year in which he addresses inflated bureaucratic and academic language, the notion of “correctness,” and clarity of voice and style. He covers such a wide range of subjects that it’s hard to pick a good teaser, but here’s a short excerpt: When you write, how will you sound? Many … 

The Reader as Musician

I ran across the following quote from author Zadie Smith on Steven Schenkenberg’s blog this weekend, and had to post it here, so you guys could see it. Her insight about the reading process is nicely put, and proves that I’m not the only one who can’t help using musical analogies to talk about reading and writing, which certainly doesn’t hurt. …