Recently on Facebook I made some of my friends go “hmm” when I corrected a meme that suggested the medieval church burned Copernicus at the stake for teaching that the sun is the center of the solar system. (“Contrary to popular belief, the Church accepted Copernicus’ heliocentric theory before a wave of Protestant opposition led…
As a college English teacher, I come to the table with a nuanced professional stance on the value of originality in writing. In a given discourse community, I can refer to common ideas without making it look like I am claiming original thinking. For example, when I was an undergrad with a work-study job in the…
My retired parents and bachelor engineer brother came from out of state so they could see Carolyn and me in the Latrobe Cabaret Theatre’s Midsummer. Mom says it was the first Shakespeare play she had ever seen. My family was sitting in the front row, so I could see their reactions from the stage. I’m…
Now imagine the resources required to simulate the brains of millions or billions of dead people. It’s possible that some future technology will allow for unlimited RAM and we’ll all get free service. The same way we’re arguing about health care now, future activists will chant, “The afterlife is a right, not a privilege!” But…
The lead roles in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” are being performed by a father and daughter. Dennis Jerz of Greensburg plays Oberon, king of the fairies, and his daughter, Carolyn Jerz, plays Puck, Oberon’s mischievous helper. As director, Mr. Carosella describes Carolyn, who will be a high school freshman this fall, as a “triple threat.”…
Among actors in Cabaret Theatre’s upcoming production of “Midsummer Night’s Dream” are a father-daughter duo and a husband-and-wife team. Dennis Jerz and daughter Carolyn Jerz, both of Greensburg, will play King Oberon and Puck, while Jerry and Jen Woodling of Export portray Theseus and Hippolyta. –Tribune Review
Supernatural pranksters! mismatched lovers! rude mechanicals! My daughter plays Puck and I play Oberon in Shakespeare’s popular comedy, July 13-16, and 20-22, 7:30pm, at the Cabaret Theatre (Latrobe).
A Midsummer castmate shared a link to this online memorization tool. I’ve been using it for a half hour. It really helps. You paste in the text, then it blanks out all but the first letter of each word. At the next stage, it shows just the first two words of each line. —Memorizer (Memorization Tool)
Would you like facts with that? English majors are statistically more likely to end up as CEOs, doctors or accountants than food service workers. The top occupations for English-degree holders ages 27 to 66 are elementary and middle school teachers, postsecondary teachers, and lawyers, judges, magistrates and other judicial workers. Indeed, English majors, who go…
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the…
The court documents, submitted as evidence in associate dean Nicole Eramo’s $10 million defamation lawsuit against the magazine, show how journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely deferred to a U-Va. junior named “Jackie” instead of digging deeper to verify the student’s claims. Source: ‘Our worst nightmare’: New legal filings detail reporting of Rolling Stone’s U-Va. gang rape…
I’ve never liked Instant Articles — Facebook’s Newspeak term for “We want to make it harder for users to leave Facebook even when they’ve chosen to follow a link to an article on a news source.” In The New Yorker, Om Malik writes about Facebook’s evolving interface. There are days when I look at my…
The song “No One Is Alone,” from the musical Into the Woods, always gives me chills. Last year when my daughter was learning it in her voice class, I helped her work through some of the words. While the whole musical has a dark tone that I find comes too close to nihilism, in the context of…
Seton Hill is revamping its freshman writing program, previously implemented as a pair of courses, “Basic Composition” and “Seminar in Thinking and Writing” (STW), and now called “Composition and Culture” (which students can take in one semester or stretch over two). The new design includes more focus on reading, and also seeks to erase what…