While riding my bike last Tuesday morning, a car hit me. It was 7:45 am, I was cycling uphill and due west. A car coming due east – blinded by the sun, the driver later told me – took a left turn and hit my bicycle on its (and my) left side. Fortunately, neither of us were
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