A stranger approached me today. I was actually kind of terrified at first, since the last time a stranger approached me it was a security guard telling me I had overstayed my welcome in a mall that was closing for the night. (I was trying to get work done while waiting for a family member…
Today is my last official day teaching a compressed winter term “Special Topics in American Literature” course devoted to August Wilson’s Century Cycle. Last night I had a dream that Wilson wrote an eleventh play that I didn’t know about; or that I somehow missed covering one of his ten cycle plays. In my dream,…
August Wilson’s Century Cycle > Spoiler-free scene breakdown. Premiere: 2003 Setting: Aunt Ester’s parlor, 1839 Wylie, Pittsburgh. 1904. Prologue (late at night) Troubled Citizen Barlow arrives, seeking Aunt Ester. Eli (handyman and “gatekeeper”) tells him to come back Tuesday. Citizen tries to push past him; they tussle, upsetting a lamp. Ester picks up Citizen’s hat…
Similar:Facebook’s Instant Articles restore subscription options they previously strippedThe ability to serve content faster than…BusinessUnvaccinated dad records days of regret in hospital — and makes heartbreaking request for…Between difficult breaths of supplementa…Current_EventsUrsula K. Le Guin: A Personal Take on Go Set a Watchman Before Watchman was published, I…BooksWhy I Left Academe to Become a Science…
I really never paid much attention to Schwarzenegger’s time as governor of California, but because I was in living in Wisconsin during part of former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura’s time as governor of Minnesota, I guess I expected bluster and bravado. Yes, waving the Conan sword certainly provided manly spectacle for the groundlings, but the…
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is scaling back its print edition to two days a week as part of the 235-year-old newspaper’s transition to an all-digital news operation, documents show. The plan is to eliminate its Friday print edition beginning Feb. 27, according to a letter from Post-Gazette’s human resources manager provided by the newsroom’s employee union.…
Journalists face a unique threat when covering events, especially the upcoming inauguration where there have been posts on message boards saying reporters are soft targets and free game. The aim of this guide is to give a few broad tips on how to react and survive in a situation that could result in a mass…
Traditional journalism values a focus on news reporting that is fair and impartial, guided by principles like truth, verification and accuracy. But those standards are not observed across the board in the “news” content that people consume. Tim Groeling, a communications professor at the University of California Los Angeles, said some consumers take too much…
Rewatching ST:TNG After discovering that the crew on a missing science vessel has met grisly deaths, the Enterprise crew gets stuck in a Space Thing of the Week, and everyone starts getting unusually irritable. Meanwhile, Troi has recurring nightmares about being suspended in a flying harness. On my rewatch it seemed contrived that the Space…
Similar:Oh the Overthinks You Can Overthink: Horton the Elephant, the Wickersham Brothers, and Mas…Yesterday, I performed in a school matin…AcademiaYahoo, You Nagged Me Too Many Times; Bye!I have a Yahoo account that I use when a…BusinessOnce on This Island (Stage Right! Greensburg; May 11 & 12 Promo Video)The girl plays Ti Moune in “Once on…
Bryson Gray, a 29-year-old rapper and Donald Trump superfan from North Carolina, wants to make one thing clear: It was a group of the president’s most loyal supporters that rioted in the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday, and nobody else. When I spoke with Gray yesterday, he said he had been “too late” to get…
Apple Inc has threatened to remove the Parler social networking service from its App Store unless the company changes its content moderation policies, Parler Chief Executive John Matze told Reuters on Friday. Parler is a social network where many supporters of President Donald Trump have migrated after being banned from services such as Twitter Inc.…
Twitter suspended Donald Trump’s account on the site Friday evening in the latest escalation by social media companies against a president they accuse of spreading misinformation and inciting violence. —Yahoo! News Similar:The world's population is lopsided.AwesomeWhat Each Side of the COVID-19 Debate Should Understand About the OtherI’m very conscious that my lockdown expe…CultureParallels (#StarTrek…
Similar:SCUBA Diving at the PoolBecause a beautiful sunny day at the poo…CultureSafety is a good thing.PersonalLiving Room PhysicsI’ve blogged before about my eight-year-…EducationParty Like a Jerz My dad just made us root beer floats.PersonalDid you put enough donuts in the elevator shaft of your #steampunk #neovictorian cruiser t…https://youtu.be/lSgv5L0sXtc &nbs…AestheticsMy wife Leigh will direct the small-cast drama…
This is not just an issue of a double standard between BLM protesters and white, Republican rioters. It is an issue of safety and justice. Black people asking for accountability when police are violent were met with violence from police. White people attempting to stop an election by force is met with sympathy and seemingly…
I was honored to play Alquist in Artistic Prosperity’s virtual production of RUR over the summer. I’m glad to see Čapek’s play is getting some attention in the Guardian. Not many plays introduce a new word to the language. One that did was Karel Čapek’s RUR: Rossum’s Universal Robots that had its premiere in Prague…
According to the Internet Archive, this is a story NPR posted at 9:33 this morning. As events developed, and the story changed, NPR updated this page — drastically. As you can see, the headline and the picture are different; though the date the page was first created is still there, the page now also includes…
Similar:Overview of the Forward Ops station, one deck below the main bridge of the fantasy #steamp…PersonalThe girl is rehearsing for Hello DollyPersonalMuch Ado About Nothing (Beatrice is my literary crush.)PersonalUpdating a villain's lair in #Blender3D. Still a work in progress.AestheticsDuet (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 18) Kira is convinced an ailing Cardassian…Rewatching ST:DS9 Kira…
Similar:Checkmate. Crushed again.Games2001: Stanley Kubrick’s Exasperating MasterpiecePosting this mostly to prove that I can …AestheticsHeard any good stories lately?My daughter has a terrible time settling…BooksUnmarked assignments in my queue: 0This app, which sports a little red noti…AcademiaYour Students Learn by Doing, Not by ListeningToday one of my students gave a final pr…AcademiaRussian Grand Ballet Swan…
I noticed this meme a few days ago. I recognized the “friend of a friend who has insider knowledge” formula that makes people want to share a memes. I know better than to trust anonymous online sources that claim to have special knowledge, so I just re-read what the CDC says and moved on. Here…