I’ve chauffeured the girl into Pittsburgh for the first rehearsal for PICT’s Jane Eyre. She’ll be playing Leah (Mr. Rochester’s servant at Thornfield Hall), Barbara (a different servant at Lowood school), Georgiana (one of Jane’s girlhood tormentors in the Reed household), and “Girl 1″ (maybe one of the adult Jane’s pupils, or perhaps a classmate…
I enjoyed watching this chess-themed coming-of-age, based-on-a-true-story movie with my son today. Good storytelling and cinematography. I liked the bit during the closing credits when we saw the real people alongside the actors who portrayed them. Similar:Lysistrata live.Current_EventsProgress.PersonalShare a Coke with "Pepsi"AestheticsFair use prevails as Supreme Court rejects Google Books copyright caseFair use is a…
My office door feels more complete now. Similar:My new inspiration as I work on my syllabuses I applaud you, person who, halfway …AcademiaHarvard revokes admission of several students for posting "offensive" memesThe First Amendment of the constitution …AcademiaCrabby 9yo Constructs a Head-mounted Frump-amplification Isolation CubeMy 9yo was ordered not to leave the kitc…DesignI'm not a…
Forty-seven minutes after news broke of a high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the posters on the anonymous chat board 8chan had devised a plan to bend the public narrative to their own designs: “Start looking for [Jewish] numerology and crisis actors.” The voices from this dark corner of the Internet quickly coalesced around a plan…
A few weeks ago, I had students in my upper-level media class collaborate on a Google Docs study guide for The Name of the Rose. In my freshman writing class yesterday, I did something else with Google Docs… I created a page with three columns, and asked students to type their preliminary thesis statements on…
Today was the last day of the manuscript unit in my “History and Future of the Book” course. I wish I had come across this article a little sooner! “As calligraphers, we feel like we’re playing an integral role. The invitation sets the stage for the whole event. Calligraphers are helping, simply, to set the…
I ran into this problem several times in the last set of student papers, so it’s time for another illustration. When you’re talking about making a change, you mean the verb “affect,” and when you’re talking about something that results from a cause, you mean the noun “effect.” It’s rare to encounter “effect” as a…
I needed this prayer yesterday. I checked the source today. Quote Investigator The frequent ascription to Mother Teresa stems from the misreading of a book about the famous Catholic charity worker called “A Simple Path” that was compiled by Lucinda Vardey and released in 1995. The page preceding the appendices was titled “ANYWAY”, and it…
When I was in middle school, I developed a permanent red bump on my right middle finger, usually stained with the blue ink from a PaperMate erasable pen. Though I shifted to typing when I was in high school, I still wrote with a pen enough to turn that bump into a permanent feature on…
Another fun show! Great job, cast and crew. Similar:Why Marlon Brando’s Streetcar Co-Stars Couldn’t Stand Him Williams’ last play, The Glass Me…CultureShort-range #neovictorian excursion craft, now with glowing power orbs! Over the past year…https://youtu.be/-cJp-kelrL8 AestheticsPICT Classic Theatre presents a gritty version of Charles Dickens’ classicPost-Gazette.com – Homer, Shakespeare, C…BooksPanic, confusion aboard sinking cruise chip – CNN.com…
I’ve given an in-class presentation on “The Shape of an Academic Paper” enough times that I’m ready to turn it into a stand-alone web page, which I’ll ask my students to read for homework, in order to save more class time for writing workshops. Musical friends, I’d welcome your feedback on point #5, “Think of…
I don’t particularly miss the splash landing pages, rotating animated logos, and “click here” web design of the 1990s. But one of the great things about it was that people experimented, sometimes doing crazy things. Rob LoCascio, who in 1995 “came up with the technology for those chat windows that pop up on websites,” notes…
Thanks(?) to social media, it’s very easy for us to learn, in a personal context, all about bad things happening far away from us. And the impressions left by people grieving and pointing fingers at each other leaves a toll. And when we do not know, or when we do not know enough, we tend always…
When I’m looking for a picture I’m going to use in an academic project, I typically search Creative Commons; however, Google’s image search is quite useful. The interface is changing to make it easier to view a picture in context (and a little harder to download an image without visiting the source page). The the…
Every Friday since Columbine, one schoolteacher has asked her students to to submit a list. Who would they like to sit next to next week? Who has been an exceptional classroom citizen this week? Chase’s teacher is not looking for a new seating chart or “exceptional citizens.” Chase’s teacher is looking for lonely children. She’s…
Don’t use that “18 school shootings since Jan 1” meme. It’s misleading. I’ve lost track of how many times this image has popped up on my social media feeds. The 18 “school shootings” marked on that map include an instance in which a third-grader accidentally pulled the trigger of a police officer’s holstered gun (nobody…
I announced that my 300-level Media and Culture class would spend an hour in monastic silence, collaborating on a Google Doc. I expected the students would understand I was helping them get into the mood to appreciate the 14th century setting of The Name of the Rose. What I didn’t expect was an awesome drum…
Okay, on closer inspection I see the red hearts, but the sentiment is clear. Similar:The Hut Where the Internet Began – Atlantic MobileLet’s start at the end point: what you’r…CyberculturePlease use the microphone at public events (I have an auditory processing disorder and can… Still recovering from this morning’s t…AcademiaIt's Friday night in July, and…
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Those who remember Jane Eyre solely as required reading in high-school English class likely recall most vividly its over-the-top Gothic tropes: a childhood banishment to a death-haunted room, a mysterious presence in the attic, a Byronic hero, and a cold mansion going up in flames. It’s more seemingly the stuff of Lifetime television, not revolutions. But as…