A not-so-secret obsession

For all my talk about Great Literature (I did, after all, just finish A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius–more on that later) I have a dirty secret. Harry Potter. Yes, I admit it! I have been psyched for Deathly Hallows for ages–almost since I finished book 6. I have been even more psyched for the … Continue Reading

Not Dead Yet

I feel like I could go for a walk! Life has been hectic. Good, but hectic. I have a lot of things planned for this blog and it’s a shame I haven’t been able to get them posted. Stay tuned. For now, here’s a gorgeous poem I found through a fellow Erie blogger: Hard Times … Continue Reading

Who loves Kurt Vonnegut most?

Apparently it’s US Airways Magazine, the inflight mag for the airline of the same name, whose June 2007 issue brags it contains Vonnegut’s last interview. Four times. Even though they did mention it four times, the bragging wasn’t as tacky as it could have been; I suppose if you’re a magazine and you did happen … Continue Reading

Verbal Energy

The Christian Science Monitor’s language blog, Verbal Energy, is pretty darn good. Just thought you’d like to know.

Horn-toot #2

Here’s a column on GoErie.com that riffs off an earlier blog post I made: Language to survive its purists The English language has been destroyed. That’s what language purists would want us to believe, anyway. And for a while, I was with them. Again, registration required.

Poem: Eye Rhyme

Eye Rhyme Apologies in advance for linking to such a terribly-designed web site. If the watermarks and iframes don’t crash your browser, though, “Eye Rhyme” is a fun read.

Poynter covers disabilities

Two recent posts on Poynter about writing about people with disabilites caught my attention recently: [1] [2] I think most of us have gotten past the poor high school girl’s quandary in #2:”I wanted to write a good story about overcoming obstacles,” she said. It’s important to write what happened, not try to fit notes … Continue Reading

LOLcat goes mainstream

A coworker pointed me in the direction of this Houston Chronicle piece about LOLcats. Yes, for real. It’s hard to be a twenty-something, cutting-edge Internet hipster and read about cutting-edge hip things written by People Who Just Don’t Get It, but Dwight Silverman is not one of those people. I remember when my sister and … Continue Reading