groupons, William Shakespeare, Henry VI: I love a good liberal arts education … closing a discussion of wasted groupons with Shakespeare!
The way he said it made me think he might actually be in cahoots with the cockroaches. Sort of like Tony Soprano saying, “Hey, bada bing, bada bang!, I’d hate to see you use that other waste removal company and possibly have some sorta accident rolling your trash bin up to Grey Road.” Aaaargh!
…
Wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss,
But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.
William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III Act V, scene 4, line 1.
Malala, Advocacy Curriculum, George Washington University: A very impressive young woman!
George Washington University announced Monday that faculty members are creating multimedia curriculum tools to accompany a book recently released by the teen, Malala Yousafzai. Several faculty members will pilot the curriculum early next year for both college and high school instruction. Free of charge, it will focus on themes such as the importance of a woman\’s voice and political extremism, the university said.
The tools won\’t just look at the teen\’s story, but also how the same issues get reflected elsewhere, such as when girls face child marriage and pressures to leave school, said Mary Ellsberg, the director of the university\’s Global Women\’s Institute.
\”It\’s going to be really interactive and really encourage students to do … activities outside of school, it will encourage them to get engaged in the communities and as well to help the Malala Fund directly,\” Ellsberg said.
The university\’s Global Women\’s Institute is partnered with the Malala Fund, a nonprofit that seeks to ensure girls around the world have access to education.
via Malala Inspires Advocacy Curriculum At George Washington University.
college life, fraternity life, naked pictures, misogyny: Why naked pictures aren’t harmless – Salon.com.
Last week at Swarthmore College a pledge posted a photograph on Instagram of his offer to join a fraternity. The picture was of a booklet cover featuring a mosaic of hundreds of naked or nearly naked women. The website Total Frat Move lamented that it wasn’t deliverd with a note saying, “Enjoy the tits.” The fraternity has used this format for several years — but this year, a group of students led by senior Marian Firke protested the use of the photography. They created an alternative version of the composite image and asked the school to suspend the fraternity’s school-funded party budget.
Swarthmore’s dean of students agreed with protesters and took steps to address their concerns, including requiring members of the fraternity to attend yet-to-be-defined “special training sessions.” The speed with which the administration has responded may have something to do with the fact that the college is one of a growing list of schools, including Occidental, the University of North Carolina, Yale and Dartmouth, involved in very public complaints for their handling (or mishandling) of sexual assault cases. Emerson is the latest school to be investigated by the Department of Education for related Title IX violations. While the administration’s responsiveness is laudable, the truth is that given the scope of the problem at hand, entire swaths of our population need “special training sessions,” and before they even make it to college. What do we do about them?
faith, cultural v spiritual, Jewish identity:
All three embrace their Jewish identity — but this isn’t their parents’ Jewishness.
As underscored in a major new survey, they are among those navigating a period of historic flux in how American Jews view themselves, their religion, their culture, and how they affiliate with each other.
A growing minority of American Jews — including nearly a third of younger adults in particular — say they’re not religious but continue to identify themselves as Jewish, according to the survey, “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” released this month by the Pew Research Center.
Intermarriage rates also continue at high levels among younger Jews — 58 percent among Jews married this century.
And on the list of things that make someone Jewish, far more Jews chose such things as remembering the Holocaust, being moral and ethical, working for justice and even having a good sense of humor than such traditional markers as belonging to the Jewish community or observing religious law.
via American Jews carve out faith different than parents’ | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com.
Black Friday/Thanksgiving:
Add Macy’s to the list of retailers kicking off “Black Friday” and Thanksgiving Thursday.
Macy’s will open the doors at most of its 800 namesake department stores, at 8 p.m. on Nov. 28. The company said the shift was voluntary for workers and that the move was “consistent with what many rivals are doing.
Traditionally, retailers have waited until Black Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving, to start their end-of-the-year push for sales.
U.S. retailers have extended their hours on Black Friday, so named because it\’s when most stroes go into the black, in recent years to get a jump on the holiday season sales.
via Macy’s latest retailer to open holiday shopping season on Thanksgiving – chicagotribune.com.
William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying”, grammatically Incorrect, Mental Floss, Miley Cyrus, AMA Manual of Style, Bob Dylan (“Lay Lady Lay”), Eric Clapton (“Lay Down Sally”), lay/lie:
But did he? The comment links to a blog entry from the AMA Manual of Style on Faulkner’s use of “lay.” Though at first it may seem that the title of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is incorrect (what could be more intransitive than someone lying there dying?), the entry points out that here “lay” is actually the correct past tense of “lie.” (I know. Could these rules make it any more complicated?) So there is nothing wrong with the title.
What the article takes issue with is a sentence from the novel “you lay you down and rest you.” Obviously, this is in the vernacular and not to be taken as textbook grammatical, and yes, “the correct form of the sentence would use the intransitive verb: ‘You lie down.’” But here, even within the context of this non-standard dialect, Faulkner follows the rule. The verb “lay” does take an object in “you lay you down,” and the object is “you.” Not much different from “now I lay me down to sleep,” a sentence even the strictest red pen will pass over without a second glance.
So let’s leave Faulkner out of this. If you want, you can take it up with Bob Dylan (“Lay Lady Lay”) or Eric Clapton (“Lay Down Sally”). But it’s probably time we all just laid our tired bootys down and started focusing on more important matters, such as, what is the proper plural of “booty”?
via Is “As I Lay Dying” Grammatically Incorrect? | Mental Floss.
Einstein, “Combinatory Play”, secret of genius, Brain Pickings:
The concept, in fact, was perhaps best explained by Albert Einstein, who termed it “combinatory play.” (Einstein famously came up with some of his best scientific ideas during his violin breaks.) From his Ideas and Opinions (public library) — the same invaluable volume that gave us the beloved physicist’s timeless wisdom on kindness and our shared existence — comes Einstein’s single most succinct articulation of how his mind works, driven by this powerful combinatorial creativity. The 1945 letter was written in response to French mathematician Jacques S. Hadamard’s survey of the mental processes of famous scientists, inspired by polymath Henri Poincaré’s famous meditation on the subject and published as An Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field, with Einstein’s missive included as a “testimonial”:
via How Einstein Thought: Why “Combinatory Play” Is the Secret of Genius | Brain Pickings.
Dan Pink, lists, My 5 favorite talks on work, TED Playlists, TED: 5 more for me to watch …
Dan Pink: My 5 favorite talks on work
Popular business author Dan Pink picks his 5 favorite TED Talks on how to find greater success at work.
via Dan Pink: My 5 favorite talks on work | TED Playlists | TED.
clutter-clearing myths, The Happiness Project:
One of my great realizations about happiness (and a point oddly under-emphasized by positive psychologists) is that for most people, outer order contributes to inner calm. More, really, than it should. After all, in the context of a happy life, a crowded coat closet is trivial. And yet over and over, people tell me, and I certainly find this, myself, that creating order gives a huge boost in energy, cheer, and creativity.
But as much as most of us want to keep our home, office, car, etc. in reasonable order, it’s tough. Here’s a list of some myths of de-cluttering that make it harder to get rid of stuff.
via Do You Fall for Any of These Common Clutter-Clearing Myths? « The Happiness Project.
Dennard's Clipping Service 