Alphabet in Motion: How Letters Get Their Shape: pop-up book by Kelli Anderson

A fascinating concept. (Thanks for the suggestion, Mom!) Ever wonder how we ended up with so many different styles of letters? Open any text editor, email client or design app and you will immediately be bombarded with a buffet of typographic choices. Serif or sans serif? Display or text? Classical or contemporary? Formal or casual?…

The daughter introduced me to this wonderful Martin Freeman comedy. Kind of like School of Rock, but with an elementary school Christmas play. Painfully funny. The kids were so authentic.

Similar:Night Terrors (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 17) Trapped crew grows paranoi…Rewatching ST:TNG After discovering t…PersonalI baked about 12 million vertices of steampunk control panel geometry into a flat plane wi…PersonalPrime Stage Theatre Makes A Statement With Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”  For Carolyn Jerz, who plays Viol…Culture"The Nightmare of Prince Prezelsky"Leigh, Peter, Carolyn and I…

Gil Gerard (1943-2025)

I built a model of the two-pronged Starfighter (a really sleek and elegant vehicle that deserved a better name) and the one-engined Draconian fighter. I recall being impressed by the two-hour pilot I knew the series that followed was silly fluff. I was 11, so perhaps at the time I didn’t quite appreciate Erin Grey…

Fall 2025 Grades Submitted!

Similar:I may have mentioned that I have a daughter who does things. @frontporchtheatricalsI may have mentioned that I have a daugh…CultureI both like and hate that Canvas tracks the number of unmarked assignments that await me. …I both like and hate that Canvas tracks …PersonalSunny but cool. Great day for a long walk with my…

The daughter is home from London.

Similar:Did you see that guy’s license plate?Did you see that guy’s license plate? …AmusingGirlhood 2014They don’t even seem to want to watch Fr…CultureModular components to mix and match. The upper storeys are next. #blender3d #medievalyork …Modular components to mix and match. The…AestheticsBack in the groove. I should be able to keep this number headed in…

Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class.

Twelfth-grade reading scores are at historic lows, and college professors, even at elite schools, are increasingly reporting difficulties in getting students to engage with lengthy or complex texts. Perhaps that is to be expected in the era of TikTok and A.I. Some education experts believe that in the near future, even the most sophisticated stories and…

The Moral Authority Of Animals

Chimpanzees in Arnhem’s Royal Burgers’ Zoo in the Netherlands had learned zookeepers’ rule that meals wouldn’t be served until all had assembled. But one day, as reported by Time magazine in 2007, two teenage chimps were more interested in staying out to play than coming in to eat. The others had to wait for hours,…

Serving at Christmas on the Hill 2025

Similar:Slicing up a massively detailed trimsheet to simulate reflections and geometry for four va…PersonalA student who had often been frustrated during my class used this poem in her final reflec… PersonalLast night I dreamed I was a stagehand during a metatheatrical number called “Butts in Sea…I saw Seton Hill’s production of The Dro…DramaSlow flyby of a…

A lost generation of news consumers? Survey shows how teenagers dislike the news media

More than half of the teens surveyed believe journalists regularly engage in unethical behaviors like making up details or quotes in stories, paying sources, taking visual images out of context or doing favors for advertisers. Less than a third believe reporters correct their errors, confirm facts before reporting them, gather information from multiple sources or…

Here are some real statements from Pope Leo that many people who have been sharing fake memes seem to have been looking for.

Pope Leo XIV, who has made peace and unity priorities of his pontificate, emphasized that “the more we are reconciled, the more we Christians can bear credible witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is a proclamation of hope for all” and, in the words of Pope Francis, “a message of peace and universal…

Pie, anyone?

Similar:Ushering for a school matinee. Love seeing the kids excited about @prime_stage Frankenstei… CultureInterior Detail of Steampunk Convertible Gazebo Spent much of Tuesday wrestling with co…AestheticsStage Right's production of 'Secret Garden' is heart-tugging showIn the Stage Right production, the role …Current_EventsCEO’s brutalist office, for a Zoom-based production of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots)….AestheticsMy 14yo Helps Teach…

A student who is writing her research paper on Taylor Swift made a passing reference to Kanye West and offered to explain herself. Her jaw dropped when I showed her this meme I created around 15 years ago.

Similar:Laying out our anti-socialization defenses & cleaning out the penitence shack for anot…Visiting Fort Ligonier. When the girl…CultureStuffed planet Venus, made for me by my dear mother, around 1974.AestheticsI create five color variations of each #blender3d building I #design, and each of those ha…I create five color variations of each #…Aesthetics"Ill met by moonlight, proud…

I Set A Trap To Catch Students Cheating With AI. The Result Was Deflating

My classes are generally small enough that I have time to get to know each student’s writing. When a student who confuses “bias” and “biased” in a hand-written response later that day sends me an email later that day that uses “whom” and “betwixt,” I notice. I can’t prove a student is abusing AI, but…

‘History has treated her badly’: Hamnet and the 400-year-old mystery around Shakespeare’s wife and son

Anyone seen “Hamnet”? I was not too impressed by “Shakespeare in Love,” which perpetuated the biographical fallacy — that the key to unlocking the one, true meaning of a literary work is listing how each detail in a literary work “could represent” some detail in the author’s life, and that once you’ve constructed that list,…

Connecting the Dots…

Madeline Cash reflects on her boomer mother’s use of ellipses. When I texted to thank her, she responded, ‘Enjoy . . .’ Why not Enjoy period or Enjoy exclamation point? Did she resent the gift? Are the treats poisoned? There’s an extensive online discourse on the Baby Boomer generation’s penchant for ellipses. ‘OK . . .’ ‘Thanks…