Monthly Archives: May 2015
Wordplay II
Originally posted on ACADEME BLOG:
It has been a while since I made the initial post in what I intended to become a series. These are not headlines from The Onion or another satiric site. They are, instead, simply very clever, unusual, or sometimes tortured headlines from actual news stories: ? Back, with New Wrinkles…
A Precocious Start to an Academic and Literary Career
Originally posted on ACADEME BLOG:
In one of my posts yesterday, I gave a plug to Mental Floss, highlighting three items that I found of interest that were posted on a single day in February. In another post to that site on that same day, “Famous Novelists on Symbolism in Their Work and Whether It…
Why No One Will Ever Completely Master the English Language
Originally posted on ACADEME BLOG:
Ahead of this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, Business Insider published this list of the twelve most difficult winning words in the history of the contest. No doubt, the selections have become somewhat arbitrary: that is, I am certain that there are some equally obscure and difficult alternatives available from…
America Re-Imagined, in Retrospect: Fifty Notable American Novels about the “West”: 47-48.
Originally posted on ACADEME BLOG:
? Tidyman, Ernest. High Plains Drifter. New York: Bantam, 1973. An award-winning screenwriter, Ernest Tidyman won an Academy Award, and Edgar Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award for the screenplay of The French Connection. He also wrote the screenplays for the film adaptations of the series of novels…
Start the Day on an Unusual Note
Originally posted on ACADEME BLOG:
I have always been a trivia buff. This interest has had some professional usefulness. For almost a decade, I have written the questions for the annual middle-school and high-school scholastic bowls held at our campus. I wish that I could also say that some bit of trivia has inspired a…
Sometimes English Seems like a Foreign Language
Originally posted on ACADEME BLOG:
Today’s HuffPost Hill news brief has this headline: “Buzzkill McPartyfoul Transitions to Skadden.” I believe that this is the news item that explains the headline: “WALL STREET FATCATS FOILED BY SCRAPPY STREET BAND – From the internal Skadden Arps email obtained by Above the Law this week: ‘As many of you are aware,…
Affluence and Influence Are Always Relative
Originally posted on ACADEME BLOG:
Curbed.com is a website specializing in interior design, décor, and real estate. You can receive a daily newsletter that typically features an expensive residence with some sort of unusual overall design or notable features or some intriguing aspects to its history. Yesterday, that daily newsletter featured this Long Island residence:…
America Re-Imagined, in Retrospect: Fifty Notable American Novels about the “West”: 45-46.
Originally posted on ACADEME BLOG:
? Swarthout, Glendon. The Shootist. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975. Glendon Swartout’s achievement has been recognized with a number of prestigious awards: the Theatre Guild Playwriting Award in 1947; the Hopwood Award in Fiction in 1948; the O. Henry Prize for the Short Story in 1960; the National Society of…
Who Is Illustrating the Saying “Too Ridiculous for Words” This Week?
Originally posted on ACADEME BLOG:
Those who insist that “Deflategate” as a news story of national importance. Those who speculate with any level of seriousness whether it is possible that George Zimmerman may be simply a victim of repeated ill will or bad luck. Those who wonder out loud whether Bruce Jenner’s coming out as…
America Re-Imagined, in Retrospect: Fifty Notable American Novels about the “West”: 43-44.
Originally posted on ACADEME BLOG:
? Smiley, Jane. The All-True Travels and Adventures of Liddie Newton. New York: Knopf, 1998. Much of Jane Smiley’s growing reputation has derived from her penetrating depictions of contemporary life in the rural Midwest. But she has also written several well-received historical novels, including The All-True Travels and Adventures of…
Stuff for a Slow Day 
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