Similar:An afternoon with Ben Franklin. CultureNutcracker dress rehearsal montage. Carolyn plays the Dew Drop Fairy Saturday at 7.PersonalI rather like my camera. Bought a new zoom lens a few months ago.PersonalRossum's Universal Robots (Act 1) Artistic ProsperityThe first act of Artistic Prosperity’s v…CultureWhat blogging wasI’ve maintained this blog since the spri…CybercultureTwo classes will turn in…
A good exploration, in the light of current interest in “fake news,” of the troubled relationship between conservative Christianity’s understanding of truth and secular experts’ understanding of facts. (Mainstream Protestantism and Catholicism have negotiated this difference much more smoothly.) But it wasn’t Christianity, or religious faith itself in general, that helped make Republican voters more likely…
Analyzing humor, as E.B. White famously said, is like dissecting a frog; few people are interested and the frog dies of it. Nonetheless, writing humor is a highly logical exercise — fit idea X into form Y for humorous result Z — and can therefore be broken down in ways that more slippery kinds of…
Similar:Justice (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 7) When Wes trips on a fence, joggers' god gets in…In which Wesley commits a crime on the L…CultureMisSpelled: Premiering Oct 1In this podcast series, I voice a mage w…AmusingYes, Duolingo is free and I’ve learned a lot. No, I don’t like the psychological manipulat…Yes, Duolingo is free…
Art conveys significance; however, much of that significance is constructed by the receiver. That’s why I care less about what a work of art “means” and more about what it “does.” Understanding what a work of art does requires interpretation. The context of a work of art can contribute to the significance of the artwork in surprising…
Similar:I had already created the little utility craft on the lower left, but this weekend I expan…PersonalSo peaceful and majestic. Another outing with my son.PersonalMy parents doing their daily brain treasers in a coffee shop.PersonalLiving Room PhysicsI’ve blogged before about my eight-year-…Education“Thank you for being kind.” —Friday afternoon email from a student who’d been…
Similar:Showing vs. Telling (Example: "I like to win.")I just wrote these examples on a student…Aesthetics7 ways for teachers to beat the Sunday bluesTell yourself, I am rejecting these thou…EducationBurgh to Burg, episode 2.AcademiaCopy Of The Scarlet Letter Can't Believe The Notes High Schooler Writing In MarginsBaffled that the young reader for some r…AmusingWe're enjoying the…
Phllip Lopate writes a good essay on the challenges of writing a celebrity profile. My take: Just as Plato argued that ideal leaders would be so well-balanced that they would not desire to lead (and thus would not have the power-lust that would enable them to rise above their competitors), it follows that ideal celebrity profile writers would be…
“Doctor dragged off United flight was felon who traded prescription drugs for secret gay sex with patient half his age and took them himself – and he needed anger management, was ‘not forthright’ and had control issues, psychiatrist found,” wrote The Daily Mail this week of Dr David Dao, in probably the longest headline ever…
The language in the official United response to the “re-accommodation” incident deserves some analysis . Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation. If you “refuse…
Slate has a good article about William “Captain Kirk” Shatner’s involvement with a Twitter incident that involved Autism Speaks, the alleged connection between vaccines and autism, and the ready availability of easily Googled but unreliable “information.” Shatner is a celebrity, which means that he has outsized influence. That he would use his platform to lend…
Similar:The girl as Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn and Thorin. #proudofthegirl #notentirelysurewhy #still…AestheticsThe girl's modern dance choreography workshopAestheticsHappy Father’s Day One of my favorite pictures of my fa…Current_EventsTo DoTo Do (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) 5: …AcademiaSon took out trash w/o being asked; daughter wore papercraft tophat to grocery store. Life…I took my daughter to an Alice-in-Wonder…ArtNext up for the…
Similar:Children of Eden (Stage Right, April 2014)My wife and I in Biblical costumes for C…CultureGirlhood 2014They don’t even seem to want to watch Fr…CultureRefreshing my memory of working with reel-to-reel tape as a radio news intern (c. 1989).HistoryOur family has seen David Whalen in the persona of Sherlock in five or six different shows…Our…
Peter was the lowest-ranked player to enter the tournament, but ended up tied for second place. Similar:At Computers and Writing #cwcon for the weekend.Am I wise now? At an event for encouragi…AcademiaAcademics want to preserve video games. The game industry is fighting them in court.For decades, champions of the video game…BusinessFrozen (Greensburg Civic Theatre, Greasepaint…
Similar:No, Prince Philip did not dress as a palace guard to prank the queenI didn’t share this miscaptioned photo, …AmusingAn apology to Donald Trump, from the "fake news" mediaA good example of the power of satire. …CultureHappy St. Crispin's DayHere’s my rendition of the famous “band …CultureRude mechanical sighting! Shakespearing it up with @newrentheatreco.PersonalJesus Christ…
This short film reminds us why art matters. Spend 8 minutes watching it. Two heart-wrenching twists, at 5:26 and 5;48 (and the story continues during the closing credits). Similar:Toasting Shakespeare at the Bard's Birthday BashOrganized by Pittsburgh Shakespeare in t…CultureOut & About: Cabaret Theatre presents its 'Cabbie Awards'You can just make out Carolyn, Leigh, an…CultureHow…
A letter, published a few weeks ago, in which the inventor of the World Wide Web discusses personal security, fake news, and political transparency. Today marks 28 years since I submitted my original proposal for the world wide web. I imagined the web as an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information,…
Similar:Who left these on my office door? *fake cough sounds like “Betsy”*PersonalBird flight simulator. The boy goes for altitude and distance, the girl does stunts.In the bird-flight simulator at the Pitt…CybercultureWhat About “The Breakfast Club”?I made three movies with John Hughes; wh…CultureUnnatural Selection (ST:TNG Rewatch Season 2, Episode 7)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…MediaKatie Couric…
Facebook wants you to spend more time on Facebook, so why should they promote links pointing to content that exists outside of Facebook? Facebook’s approach to content control means that communities that use Facebook have to play by Facebook’s rules. Users have limited ability to communicate with Facebook’s administrators when there’s a problem, as we’ve seen…
I am definitely on team revise-to-avoid-using-“they”-as-a-singular-pronoun, but the 2017 edition of the AP Stylebook (the industry standard writing guide for journalists) acknowledges the limited use of “they” as a singular pronoun. As always, the goal is clarity, not rigid adherence to a rule. They/them/their is acceptable in limited cases as a singular and-or gender-neutral pronoun, when…