If you’ve not already seen Matt Rogers‘ brilliant kinetic typography video of Stephen Fry‘s critique of linguistic pedantry, then you’ll want to watch it. Â And if you have already seen it, then you’ll want to watch it again. Before my fellow teachers raise an objection to Stephen Fry’s injunction that writers be less constrained by
And now, it’s part IV of my Halloween mix series – to be followed in short order by V through VII! Â Judas Priest, Belle & Sebastian, Old 97’s, the Puppini Sisters, Sammy Davis Jr., Echo & the Bunnymen, and more! Â Enjoy! 1. Living After Midnight Judas Priest (1980) Â Â Â 3:27 From the band‘s album
I’m surprised by the extent of the kerfuffle over the use of a single word in Lane Smith’s It’s a Book. In her Amazon.com review, librarian Margaret Burke writes, “I usually love Lane Smith’s books but was disappointed with the word jackass in the first page. I will NOT put this book in my library
104 years ago, David Johnson Leisk was born in New York City. Â For his pseudonym, he would later add his childhood nickname “Crockett” to his middle name… becoming “Crockett Johnson.” Â Below is an ad for the second collection of the comic strip that made him famous: Barnaby (1942-1952). After this volume (published 1944), Johnson planned
Welcome to the third Halloween Mix!  Some more by artists from previous Halloween mixes (the Clash, Robyn Hitchcock, Squirrel Nut Zippers, They Might Be Giants), plus plenty that appear here for the first time: Laurie Anderson, Cozy Cole, Garbage, Hoodoo Gurus, Rockwell, Spike Jones, Swan Dive, and many more. 1.     This is Halloween Panic! at the
Not That Kind of Doctor‘s delightful post on “The Five Stages of Grading” prompts me to share my own grading method: Procrastigrading. Â While the word is a portmanteau of “procrastinating” and “grading,” I do not mean “put off grading indefinitely.” Â Instead, give yourself a one-week deadline for each assignment (quizzes, exams, papers, anything), and begin
On last week’s mix, I felt obliged to include many of the songs people expect on a Halloween mix. Â You’ll hear more such songs in the coming weeks (“Zombie Jamboree,” included on this mix, is one). Â But you’ll also hear other songs, such as Roybn Hitchcock’s “The Devil’s Coachman,” Eyeball Skeleton’s “Eyeball Skeleton,” and the
The New York Times reports a rise in visual illiteracy among parents. Only, that’s not quite the way the article puts it: instead, it notes that parents are pushing their children to read “big-kid” books earlier, steering them away from picture books, on the grounds that picture books are somehow lesser or easier. As a
Lissa Paul talks about our new book, Keywords for Children’s Literature, forthcoming from NYU Press in the Spring of 2011. Â I say “our” new book, but we are merely the editors. Â We did each contribute an essay of our own (Lissa wrote on “Literacy,” I wrote on “Postmodernism”), but other experts wrote the other 47
If you enjoy maxims or reflecting on how to sustain healthy friendships, then Timothy Billings’ translation of Matteo Ricci’s On Friendship: One Hundred Maxims for a Chinese Prince (Columbia UP, 2009) will appeal to you. Written in 1595, the book helped Ricci – a native of Macerata, Italy – make friends and (as Billings says in his extensive and