It was in Romania, while making a film about Ceausescu, that I first stumbled across the historical legacy of the communist joke. There I learned that a clerk from the Bucharest transport system, Calin Bogdan Stefanescu, had spent the last ten years of Ceausescu’s regime collecting political jokes. He noted down which joke he heard…
In Georgia this week, the campaign manager for a candidate for governor resigned amid allegations he doctored the Wikipedia biography of an opponent in the Democratic primary. Morton Brilliant was accused of revising the entry for Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor to add his son’s arrest last August in a drunken driving accident that left his…
Congressman John P. Murtha will be the keynote speaker at this year’s commencement, Saturday, May 13 at 11 in the Katherine Mabis McKenna Center on Seton Hill’s Greensburg campus. —Alexandra Nseir —Murtha to speak at May commencement (Setonian) I have heard both faculty and student grumblings about Murtha, who is, depending on who’s talking, either pro-labor…
When people drink they become totally different people and I do not feel that I should put myself in that situation because if something were to happen, I would mostly likely have no chance to protect myself from a 200 pound kid, who isn’t even thinking rationally. Next thing, I’ll wind up dead in a…
Agent Marks and I were uncertain how to end it, but thankfully, our undercover agents came to our rescue. They mounted a joke insurgence and effectively re-took the NJZ. It started off with each undercover agent coming into the zone, one after another, telling jokes in a town-crier fashion. —Guerilla Improv: No Joking Zone (Improv-Abilities) A…
“We cannot determine whether the addition to the letter was made by someone within the office or by someone with access to the office, but it is on my letterhead and the responsibility for it lies with me. A valuable lesson has been learned and new procedures will be adopted as a result.” —Lawmaker Puzzled…
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. —The Bill of Rights: Amendment I The First Amendment, among…
Yes, you did read that right. And also, yes, this eight-year period of temperature stasis did coincide with society’s continued power station and SUV-inspired pumping of yet more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In response to these facts, a global warming devotee will chuckle and say “how silly to judge climate change over such a…
The complex choices facing leaders in the Middle East have long confounded observers. But two graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University are hoping their video game based on the conflict will help players find solutions _ and raise capital for their new company. Asi Burak and Eric Brown, along with a team of fellowr students,…
Why Plagiarism Makes Sense in the Digital Age: Copying, Remixing, and Composing (CCCC 2006 Chicago — Day 2) This was a jam-packed, no-downtime, hardly-time-to-breathe presentation. I’m posting the notes that I took while the presenters were speaking, very lightedly edited afterwards in my hotel room. I hope whatever inadvertent remixing I did while taking these notes…
Using Genre to Help Students Envision Themselves as Writers (CCCC 2006 Chicago — Day 2) I volunteered to chair this session, so I wasn’t taking copious notes, just jotting down possible discussion prompts. Scott Whiddon, Louisiana State University, “From Cellblock to Center: Literacy, Identity and the Angolite.” The Angolite is an award-winning news magazine produced by…
The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just one in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms. —Study: Few Americans Know 1st AmendmentYahoo!|AP) I’m blogging this with my students in mind (*fake cough sounding like…
Tell your professors face to face every time you will be gone, I urged the baseball team, and express your eagerness to make up any missed work. Even more important, when you?re in class, show the professor that you are there to learn. Just as you know how to position yourselves on the diamond, learn…
Why is Cheney snowcloning ‘The House That Jack Built’? —Benjamin Zimmer —The nesting of clauses that lay in the sentence that Cheney said (Lanugage Log) Similar:Sorry, not sorry. I don't want such friends. Back in 2003, shortly after I moved …CultureAnother social media post attacks journalists for doing their jobs — Updated Elijah McCla…If you’ve been…
—Dick Cheney Quail Hunt Game File this under “What took you so long?” Similar:How Trigger Warnings Are Hurting Mental Health on CampusIt can be scary outside the box. A unive…AcademiaMedia Companies Are Getting Sick of FacebookAll of us with Facebook accounts do work…BusinessOn this date in 1999 I first added a date to the list…
Understanding the Abramoff pictures requires investigating the absurd Washington phenomenon known as the “glory wall.” Also called the “wall of fame,” “me wall,” and “ego wall,” the glory wall is where members of the establishment flaunt their connections by displaying photos of themselves with more famous people. —John Dickerson —”As I Was Saying to the…
Google has refused to comply with a White House subpoena first issued last summer, prompting U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this week to ask a federal judge in San Jose, California for an order to hand over the requested records. —Google Won’t Hand Over Files (Wired | AP) Similar:Superman Comic about Sympathy and HopeJust in case…
We [the class] have been talking a lot about Lara Croft on my blog the past couple of days and this is due largely in part to the fact that she is the topic of my term paper. I posted two very distinct pictures of Croft on my blog in order to get a general…
Having suffered a heart attack back in September, Allen had asked prison authorities to let him die if he went into cardiac arrest before his execution, a request prison officials said they would not honor. “At no point are we not going to value the sanctity of life,” said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon. “We would…
Revision 88 / Serial number 54892 Oval Office You are standing inside a White House, having just been elected to the presidency of the United States. You knew Scalia would pull through for you. There is a large desk here, along with a few chairs and couches. The presidential seal is in the middle of…