So if recessionista and fembot are not really puns, what are they? They’re neolexic portmanteaus, in which root words are brutally slammed together with cavalier lack of wit. “Neolexic portmanteau” is a mouthful, so instead we shall choose a simpler handle. Sherry-manteau, catastrounity, misceg-formation, piss-poortmanteau, and poor-man’s-toes all proffer themselves as alternatives, but they are…
Gaming ledends Dave Lebling and Mark Blank honored for their pioneering work in text-adventure games, at Infocom. (Clips from Jason Scott’s GET LAMP documentary follow Dave Lebling’s introduction, around 1:35 or so. Welcome to the Official D.I.C.E. Summit Website. Similar:Addressing Our Biases: Medieval BathingDid medieval people bathe? If you alr…CultureThe girl performed musical commercials for…
Great advice. [I]t is common to hear students applying for college or a job say before doing so, they plan to take down their online profiles or change their name to something unidentifiable. Innovative educators know this is not the best strategy. Instead our job is to support young people in creating a responsible digital…
Playing games which require children to follow fast-moving events, track moving objects and pay attention to all areas of the screen teaches them to draw meaning from written words, researchers explained. Dr Andrea Facoetti of the University of Padua in Italy, who led the study, said: “Action video games enhance many aspects of visual attention,…
One might argue that the new emphasis on sociability is precisely what autistic spectrum students require. Don’t they, more than anyone else, need to develop their communication and collaborative skills? And in our increasingly social 21st century, aren’t these skills more important than ever before — both for life in general, and for jobs in…
I’d like this article better if it weren’t divided up into four ad-generating chunks, but here’s the payoff: It’s not all about colossal caves and twisty little passages any more. Here are a few IF highlights that show off how varied the genre can be, from card-based trips to the ‘Neath to hunts for lost…
Three weeks ago tonight, I got an email from the director saying he thought he could use me in the cast. A whirlwind of rehearsals, a week of run-throughs, three performances, and we’re done. Wow! The first act of Godspell is almost entirely fun and games, but the second act quickly moves through the confrontation…
When I finally found a way to contact Verizon through “email” (really a form to fill out), I typed out my complaint. I have separate internet and telephone accounts; for some reason, the payments I try to make to one account are being applied to the other account, so one account is overdue and the…
PROUSTZAC Enhances and enriches remembrance of things past. Can lead to increased carbohydrate consumption. McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Banned Performance Enhancing Substances in Literary Competitions.. Similar:Clicking, collaborating, and talking in the libraryOur local paper did a story on how libra…AcademiaThe Printed Word in Peril: The age of Homo virtualis is upon usWho, I thought, besides a…
The talented and insightful scholar Matt Kirschenbaum tells a wonderful story. Deighton stood outside his Georgian terrace home and watched as workers removed a window so that a 200-pound unit could be hoisted inside with a crane. The machine was IBM’s MTST (Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter), sold in the European market as the MT72. “Standing in…
That’s me in the white shirt, with a tie around my head. The show opens tonight. Anthony Marino, artistic director for the performing arts group and professional theater company Stage Right! in Greensburg, has played the role of Judas in the classical musical, “Godspell” eight times. He is about to take stage for the ninth…
But when I do, it’s because they are this adorable. Saving this for the next time my daughter is crabby and needs some comfort. Similar:It's Friday night in July, and I'm jamming with my fall course preps.The dean sends me an email at 9:07pm. In…AcademiaThe 1982 Tron Holiday SpecialSides: split. Gut: busted. Milk droplets…AmusingIronic QuotesAmusingDoctor…
The article is short, but I particularly like the links that show the wording of the questions and the survey methodology. Bear in mind that this survey does not check o see which form of news is more accurate, comprehensive, unbiased, timely, profitable, etc. The survey just asks for personal preference. More Americans turn to…
The Tribune-Review is very dependable in its coverage of the local arts. (That’s me kneeling in the white shirt, with a tie around my head.) It’s not always the adults who are the teachers. In Stage Right’s production of the Broadway musical “Godspell,” director Anthony Marino says it’s the youngest performers who spread the word…
Here’s a great article I’m asking all my journalism students and all my lit-crit students to read. Words do more than just describe the world. They literally define it. They shape and frame it. “Most people don’t understand this,” says linguist George Lakoff of the University of California, Berkeley. “Most people think that words just…
Is higher education ready for the switch to mobile technology? It’s kinda cool to be working at a university where the Luddites are the ones who are attached to their laptops, but I’m conscious of our need to do more. When I put a ton of work into a website for a performing arts school…
While competing in the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest Saturday, contestant Gerald Green reportedly incorporated characters, dialogue, and set design from 16th-century English playwright Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus into his elaborately choreographed dunk routine. “Lo, Mephistophilis, for love of thee/Faustus hath cut his arm, and with his…
Lessard pushes back in useful ways against the notion that modern computer games emerged fullly-formed from the coding experiments of Will Crowther — a notion I’ve helped to promote (though of course I’m exaggerating as I present it here). I’ll want to read through the essay again in more detail, but here is part of…
Apparently these are two famous and physically attractive celebrities who are popular enough that lots of people will wade through lots of words in order to look at pictures of them doing things that celebrities do. Which presumably does not usually include talking about the federal budget. Kate Upton and Ryan Gosling Explain the Sequester.…
The ways that the informal speech of women impacts the language is soooo underexplored. For the past five years, Sali Tagliamonte, a linguist at the University of Toronto, has been gathering digital-communications data from students. In analyzing nearly 4 million words, she’s found some interesting patterns. “This reduplication of letters, it’s not all crazy,” she told…