Eats, Shoots & Leaves

What’s your comma IQ? Mine just so happens to be awesome. Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Similar:My big acting moment in this scene is declining a drink. #indie #filmAmusingAmLit Rescue — Scratch GameA student in my “American Literature: 19…AcademiaIn discord with its own rules, the AP refers to an 18yo mass-shooting suspect as a "teenag…The AP’s…

4 Copy Editors Killed In Ongoing AP Style, Chicago Manual Gang Violence

I’m particularly tickled by the MLA reference. 4 Copy Editors Killed In Ongoing AP Style, Chicago Manual Gang Violence | The Onion Similar:We Had No Idea What Alexander Graham Bell Sounded Like. Until Now | History & Archaeology”Hear my voice. Alexander Graham Bell.” …CultureShatner's live, extemporaneous post-touchdown monologue on mortality was better than Kirk'… After…

Pheromone – A hormonal substance secreted by an individual.

Really helpful definition from a “Pinkalicous” children’s theater study guide. That’ll clear everything right up for the kiddos, won’t it? Similar:12 Mistakes Nearly Everyone Who Writes About Grammar Mistakes MakesDescriptive grammarians rejoice. Formal…CultureAn English professor tries to help ChatGPT write and revise a sonnetShortly after my online AmLit survey beg…AcademiaIn 2019, I have a college…

Study shows college students think they’re more special than ever…even those that can’t read or write and barely study

A hype-heavy treatment of a recent study (named vaguely as the “American Freshman Survey,” in the article, but not actually cited or dated… I found a copy of a 2011 report). While students are much more likely to call themselves gifted in writing abilities, objective test scores actually show that their writing abilities are far…

Wikipedia hoax about a war that never happened deleted after 5 years

My first-year writing students generally know they aren’t supposed to use Wikipedia as a source in a research paper, but many can’t quite articulate why. A willingness to trace a citation to its source and evaluate the source, rather than accept the source uncritically, is crucial to intellectual competence in the Information Age. An article…

BBC Four – Shakespeare Uncovered

I’m slated to teach Shakespeare this fall… blogging this for future reference. Six Shakespearean actors and directors go in search of the greatest dramatist who ever lived by revealing the stories behind and the wonders within some of his greatest plays BBC Four – Shakespeare Uncovered. Similar:The Pointlessness of UnpluggingWhat sex was for the Puritans,…

Neil Gaiman’s Journal

This is great advice for everybody. I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something. So…

How To Gain or Lose 30 Minutes of Life Every Day

If you smoke two cigarettes, you lose 30 minutes of your life. Exercise for 20 minutes, and you gain two units of microlife. Over time bad habits accelerate your aging, and good habits slow it down… — Scientific American. Similar:Boosting the Signal: Peaceful Protesters in Baltimore are the NormVideo of people throwing rocks or burnin…CultureDigital literacy…

Lost Treasures of Infocom Review [Mobile App]

Someone’s put a lot of time into ensuring the games play exceptionally well on mobile. The on-screen keyboard is a necessary evil, one that’s ameliorated by a great little auto-complete feature. It’s context-sensitive, so if you want to whip something from your inventory out in a pinch, the game will probably predict it by the…

Explore – Laconic history of the world in a typographic map…

Explore – Laconic history of the world in a typographic map…. Similar:Original Mickey Mouse Character Enters Public Domain in 2024As a grad student in the 1990s, I chose …AcademiaTeaching the First Amendment FreedomsIn an opening lecture, I briefly listed …CultureName-calling and ad hominem attacks don't provide anyone with reasons to change their mind…AcademiaPerspective | Whoops…

Tenth Grade Tech Trends

My high school experience was very analog. I had been word-processing most of my school papers and doing some recreational coding/hacking since I was in middle school (around 1982), but didn’t start using email until I went to college (1986), and then only sparingly until I left the country for grad school. So it was…