I have no reason to trust Facebook to filter my news for me. However, so many people get their news by social media, maybe this will be an easy way for people to check whether a viral meme is a hoax. Maybe an option marked “Look up vetted news reports related to this post.” Yes,…
In general, I avoid clicking on any headline with the weasel words “can” or “might.” However, I did enjoy this reflection on the positive impact of literary reading. I’m teaching a compressed online literature course, so that involves re-reading the literary works I assigned, as well as engaging with what my students write about those…
Similar:She was a musical ingenue Sunday, filmed a slasher movie past midnight Monday, and was pre…AcademiaEquus. Powerful theatre.PersonalUpdated a handout on writing a process analysis. TechnologyAnother chess tournament with the boy.GamesStanford to offer new undergraduate majors integrating humanities, computer scienceTraining humanists who can code like a t…AcademiaA Beginner's Guide to HTML & CSSFiling this wonderful resource…
Similar:The reflection should show what's about 60 degrees above the shuttle, not what's in front …AestheticsThoroughly enjoying Company.PersonalHalf of my students have never read Hamlet. (I told them not to get too attached to any of…We focused just on Act I today — the ope…PersonalMy outward-bound editor's graduation cap.PersonalBreaking up with your favorite racist…
Similar:Has life in the age of casual magic made moviegoers numb to the amazing?This is one of the reasons I’ve become m…AestheticsMaking movie magic with my dueling gut-shot daughterAestheticsI rather like my instructional page on writing effective dialogue. I created this new grap…HumanitiesIn July 1999, I was blogging about Dante's ashes, Apollo 11, gender-neutral language,…
Working on the syllabus for my “Media and Culture” class on the history and future of the book. Similar:The Blood and the BlameMoments after Donald Trump was…CultureWhen students don't show up during office hours: I adjusted the cabinet and added a new (s…AestheticsLiking Everything He Saw on Facebook for 24 Hours Turned Him Into a Marketing MachineI…
I’m spending a few days visiting my parents in Northern Virginia. Similar:Summer Theater Camp Photos: "Patrice" in "13" My 11yo performed the part of “Patrice…Current_EventsAnime Treatment of Star WarsI am not particularly into anime, though…AestheticsStage Right's "The Secret Garden": Performing with My Talented Daughter This weekend has been magical. Frida…CultureA brief respite from grading. A…
Words, words, words. With the advent of the stream of consciousness in twentieth-century literature, it has come to seem that the self is very much a thing made of words, a verbal construction forever narrating itself and reconstituting itself in language. In line with the dominant, internalist view of consciousness, it is assumed that this…
Similar:Opening night. Support local artists in your community!PersonalSix rainbow-colored objects, arranged like THIS?These are shoe-holding racks at a local …AestheticsMore modeling in #blender3d. Very happy with reflections and lighting. (The teacup is a po…DesignI saw this Friday night. Great fight choreography, lighting & staging, adaptation of t…PersonalI’ll be seeing the final performance tomorrow. @bigstormpcI’ll…
A Google self-study found that its own most successful employees had soft skills, such as mentoring ability, empathy, and critical thinking and problem-solving. “Those traits sound more like what one gains as an English or theater major than as a programmer,” according to the Washington Post. [A]mong the eight most important qualities of Google’s top…
Instead of flagging links to questionable news items, Facebook will instead hide them. Which is nice, but it still means we have to trust the algorithm Facebook uses. (Don’t trust Facebook to filter your news for you.) False news undermines the unique value that Facebook offers: the ability for you to connect with family and…
“Dammit Mom, I’m a daughter, not a theoretician!” — the girl, responding to a pointed rhetorical question. Know Your Meme Similar:Only a Dad (Edgar Guest poem, read by Carolyn and Peter Jerz for WAOB Audio Theatre)Carolyn and Peter Jerz recite “Only a Da…CultureYouTube distortion after the same clip is re-uploaded 1000 timesIn theory, technology lets…
Similar:If I don’t stock the officers’ pub on my #steampunk #fantasy #CGI flagship, who will? (All…PersonalSeeing a different cast. Break all the legs!CultureThey've got magic to do. Carolyn is the Leading Player. (Pippin, Oct 21-29) AwesomeGetting in the Christmas spirit.PersonalStage Right's Alice in WonderlandMy daughter shared the role of Alice thi…CultureMore #blender3d #steampunk goodness. #design…
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:Shall we dance? The girl tries on her ball gown for The King and I. Her featured show is …DanceSoldiers and Sailors Memorial and Museum Another visit to Pittsburgh with my his…CultureThe girl is the Dew Drop Fairy in @laurelballetperformingco The Nutcracker Saturday evenin…PersonalCookies. That…