No spoilers here. (I managed to avoid all spoilers, and hadn’t even seen the trailer. I did see still pics of porgs, though, and I knew the name of the character the StarWars Bros were hating on, so thank you to everyone who did their part to keep the secrets.) No intellectual critical distance for…
In the bird-flight simulator at the Pittsburgh Aviary, the girl twists and turns, careening around buildings, dive-bombing alleyways, and comes to a perfect landing in the middle of the street just as her timer runs out. The boy immediately heads up to clear the buildings, then flies toward the horizon to see how far he…
Pope Francis recently addressed Italian journalists: Your voice, free and responsible, is fundamental for the growth of any society that wishes to be called democratic, so that the continuous exchange of ideas and a profitable debate based on real and correctly reported data can be guaranteed. In our time, often dominated by the anxiety of…
If you were this person’s attorney, you’d probably want this social media blurb phrased a little differently. The headline attached to the story is clearer. Yes, the social media blurb is shorter, but I’d rather cut the “Twp” and make room for the unambiguous “and.” Derry man accused of assaulting female witness and attorney jailed…
Right now, I’m teaching “American Lit 1915-Present” for the last time. It’s the companion course to “American Lit 1800-1915,” which I’ll also never teach again. They are required courses for English majors who need to cover American Lit, but they were also designed to serve as electives. My colleagues and I have trouble covering the depth that we know our English majors need, without overwhelming students who are just looking to sample a bit of AmLit to fulfill a course requirement. So we’ve revamped both these courses, starting next fall. One new course will be “American Lit 1776-Present,” which will obviously cover fewer works than we can fit into 2 terms, but the benefit is we can be confident that any student who’s taken the course will have a clearer understanding of the scope of American literature. Another new course will be “Topics in American Literature,” which will allow us to go into some depth, without needing to cover a little bit of everything. I’m thinking of picking the focus “Literature and Government,” which could include “Rip Van Winkle,” All the King’s Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Invisible Man (Ellison, not H.G. Wells) and Farhenheit 451.
“If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press… And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started.” — Republican Senator John McCain, in a Feb 2017 interview on…
The euphoria of getting my grades in Friday was short-lived. Similar:Dani Girl (Oct 1-3, 2015) at the Geyer Performing Arts CenterVinnie Tresco, Carolyn Jerz, Matthew Hom…CultureAnother lovely variation of a #steampunk control panel. #blender3dart #neovictorian #desig…AestheticsMy big brother and my son facing off at chess. I am outclassed! GamesWall display by the talented Jess Lohr,…
Similar:Colossal Cave: The Board Game by Arthur O'DwyerThe kids and I enjoy nerdy board games. …CultureBefore the haircut. PersonalNew CarWednesday morning my resourceful brother…BusinessKirk's manly, sensitive advice to young CharlieIn popular culture, Captain Kirk from th…CultureRepresenting the Humanities at Accepted Students Day.Representing the Humanities at Accepted …PersonalYahoo, You Nagged Me Too Many Times; Bye!I have…
Similar:Blank template details and a wider view of a 30cm x 30cm grid of brass and glass #neovicto…PersonalThis Is What Summer Vacation Is For: Designing a Steampunk Airsloop with Blender 3DSummer vacation means if I am telling my…AestheticsTalk with us about books! English as a minor or second major @setonhilluniversityAcademiaOur 2014 class banner was an…
Similar:IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE — Berkeley Rep audio productionSinclair Lewis’s 1935 anti-fascist novel…CultureBetween static hand-coded HTML pages and modern content-management systems, there used to …When I started my blog in 1999 (by addin…CybercultureTom Bissell writes a letter to Niko Bellic about Grand Theft Auto VI haven’t played GTAV, and probably neve…CultureAfter purchase of latest accessory,…
Similar:Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe. —Thomas JeffersonEducationCaptain Gearheart inspects progress on his #neovictorian #steampunk æther cruiser. Now fea…AestheticsUgh. Unmarked items waiting for me as I start to recover from an illness.PersonalSeeing the Barebones production of The Sound Inside. (Support the arts in your community!)PersonalThese chairs were…
Similar:Chess tournament final pairing. (He’s currently tied for 2nd.)PersonalWho is the more dramatic — my extroverted tween or my philosophical teen?Stoked from a morning show-choir perform…AmusingEnjoying a visit with an Austrian imperial commander (ahistorically but magnificently pres…Enjoying a visit with an Austrian imperi…PersonalSecret Mouthwash Dance Exposed as FraudRecently, while getting the kids ready f…AmusingAnother 10…
This clever freshman writing student created a project in Texture, which is designed for branching narratives (such as the Choose Your Own Adventure stories). In the next few screens, he put up nodes showing older and more recent writing samples, asked me to choose which one showed the better writing technique, and gave me feedback…
Peter looks forward to his Wednesday evening visits to the Monroeville Chess club. (Last one until mid-January.) Similar:Educated, uplifted, boosted, and fed. Block party celebrating August Wilson continues thro…CultureAmazing show. Young lovers, a witty (but often stupid) servant, speeches, rants, exaggerat… PersonalAt the airport, sending the daughter off to Ireland.At the airport, sending the daughter off…PersonalVirtual…
I haven’t taught a developmental course at SHU, but when I teach freshman writing, I often encounter students who struggle with the transition from high school to college writing. Those who were praised all their lives as good writers can tell good personal stories, and they can deploy accurate summaries of non-controversial, “correct” facts. I give…
Saturday, Donald Trump tweeted that he knew Flynn lied, and that’s why he “had to fire” him. Critics immediately raised concerns, noting that if Trump did in fact know Flynn had lied, then Trump’s request that FBI Director James Comey “let this go” amounts to an obstruction of justice. Sunday, Trump’s lawyer John Dowd told…
Pop quiz for public relations 101. Scenario 1: You run a wildly popular app that incorporates video with a live host. You learn that a reporter is writing a personality profile of your host. Do you offer some cheerful quotes and then make a note to get your host to sign a new contract that handles…
Similar:My precious is fifteen. PersonalGame night at our local library.GamesJumpsuit for a female mechanic in my #neovictorian #steampunk project. #blender3d #unity3dAestheticsAll three shows have been sold out for over a month. Opens tomorrow.DramaLonely Among Us (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 6) Crew-posessing spark roams and a droid …Conflict between two species who petitio…AestheticsI baked pools of…
Similar:Christmas 1970. I was feverish and it was unseasonably warm outside. One of my favorite pi…PersonalKeeping it classy. My 20yo son encounters the fruit-eating scene from the 1996 point-and-c…PersonalApparently I’m using boolean modifiers to carve out negative-space greebles for a texture …AestheticsA question I find myself thinking all the time.PersonalMy Memories of "Joseph…" [an original…
During the original run of Star Trek: The Next Generation, my college roommate and I invited our friends over to our duplex for Star Trek parties. Our local TV station ran the show at midnight Sunday, which was a terrible time, but we sometimes had 30 people over. Though we kept in touch virtually, I…