To wish this blog a “Happy 2nd Birthday,” I’ve added a “Popular Posts” section – you’ll see a link, above. Commemorating the blog’s first birthday, I posted a list of “Greatest Hits” from the first year.  This year, I would instead like to offer a glimpse into the future.  I have many more ideas for blog
In remembrance of a great university press, I’m posting: my essay, “‘You Say ‘Jelly,’ I Say ‘Jello’?: Harry Potter and the Transfiguration of Language,” and a full list of each difference between the Bloomsbury (UK) and Scholastic (US) editions of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books — well, to be accurate, the first three Harry Potter books, and
Though I often attempt to dispense advice from this blog, I now have a question of my own. How much is too much? There’s one request that I never turn down: when I am asked to write a letter on behalf of someone going up for tenure and/or promotion, I always say “yes.” Â I don’t
I sometimes feel that I should apologize to students who took earlier iterations of my courses. I know more now than I did then, and have crafted a much better syllabus than we used for that earlier class. That said, I also know that in a few years’ time, I will consider my current (new!
Need an antidote to pseudoscience (“creation science,” “intelligent design,” climate change denial)? Try a few pages from Munro Leaf’s Science Can Be Fun (1958). In its simplified, matter-of-fact approach, the book offers a model of scientific thinking, encouraging readers to observe, measure, and test hypotheses. Most importantly, it points out that science is based upon
There’s a new Facebook meme: “How to determine who to unfriend on Facebook.” Click on the link, and you get a list of “Friends who like Nickelback.” The joke depends upon pervasive dislike of the popular Canadian band. At best, I find the group’s music benign. I could imagine it being used to sell soda
Syd Hoff (1912-2004) would have been 100 this year. As readers of this blog will know, I corresponded with Syd (here’s one letter & here’s another) while researching my biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss (coming this September)! In commemoration of Hoff’s centennial, Sarah Lazarovic has created a wonderful cartoon, based on Dina Weinstein’s
Delightful remix of clips from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, in which (thanks to auto-tune) Fred Rogers extols the virtues of being curious. Â John Boswell (a.k.a. MelodySheep) has done a fine job here. Â If you’re interested in purchasing a copy of the song (“Garden of Your Mind”), it’s included on his album Remixes for the Soul. And
The critic who touts his ignorance as a virtue should not have a job as a critic. Â Any “news” publication that employs such a person in this capacity is shirking its responsibility to provide well-informed discourse. So, then. Â Why would Time magazine or the New York Times employ Joel Stein? In his “Adults Should Read
Maurice Sendak, Leo Dillon, Ellen Levine, Jean Craighead George, Peter D. Sieruta. During this past month, children’s literature has become a relentless parade of death. Or so it seems. This feeling could just be a function of age. The older we get, the more deaths we witness. The older we get, the more these deaths