SCOTUS breaking up

News from Benjo:

The Supreme Court of the United States will break up at the end of the term, allowing front man and Chief Justice John Roberts to pursue a solo career, sources say.

"John has felt like the Court has really been holding him back creatively," said Edward Stapleton, a former clerk for Roberts who is close to the Chief Justice. "He does believe there are a lot of strong justices on the Court, don't get me wrong; but he is clearly the most talented. And he's definitely got the star power to make it as a solo justice."

The Supreme Court has been together for 220 years, and has had rotating lineups throughout that time. Indeed, the Court currently includes none of its founding members, but has nonetheless continued to adjudicate under the original Supreme Court name.

Benjo is a very funny guy. Read the (also funny) rest:

Chief Justice Roberts To Break Up Supreme Court, Pursue Solo Career (benjoblog)

"No, wait, thirty seconds"

Windows file copy dialog comedy from xkcd.

Love Is Like Park Avenue

When I asked about it in a bookstore last month, the snarky young people at the front desk made fun of the title. (Jerks.) I'm looking forward to this book's publication next month:

Alvin Levin, Love Is Like Park Avenue (New Directions)
Declan Spring, On Alvin Levin (Seminary Co-op Bookstore)

"Tech-free classrooms"

A study published in the April issue of British Educational Research Journal found that 59 percent of students in a new survey reported that at least half of their lectures were boring, and that PowerPoint was one of the dullest methods they saw. . . .

Students in the survey gave low marks not just to PowerPoint, but also to all kinds of computer-assisted classroom activities, even interactive exercises in computer labs. "The least boring teaching methods were found to be seminars, practical sessions, and group discussions," said the report. In other words, tech-free classrooms were the most engaging.

From a piece by Jeffrey R. Young on the role of technology in college classrooms. Read it all:

When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Little sponges

From the back of the Cheerios box:

Think of oats as sponges that can help soak up some cholesterol and naturally remove it from your body.

Appetizing! Not!

Fresh cookies, fresh ironing

Danny dug into the crock in the pantry and brought out two large, soft, still-warm cookies. He poured himself a glass of milk and sat down at the kitchen table.

"Mmm," he said, dreamily. "I love the smell of fresh cookies and the smell of fresh ironing. I guess you're right. We do have to learn some history. But it's so dull — all those names and dates."

Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin, Danny Dunn, Time Traveler (1963)

The sentence about cookies and ironing has stuck with me from childhood, which is why I got hold of the source text (in a dopey-looking 1979 edition) via interlibrary loan.

Danny Dunn grew up to write À la recherche du temps perdu.

Related reading
Danny Dunn (Wikipedia)
Out of the past (On reading books from childhood)

Walter Cronkite

[Walter Cronkite commenting on Richard Nixon's resignation speech, as seen on a Washington, D.C. television set, August 1974. Photograph by Gjon Mili (1904–1984). From the Life photo archive. Walter Cronkite died today at the age of 92.]

Amazon and Orwell

One more reason not to buy a Kindle: Amazon has erased copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from customers' Kindles. Granted, these were bootleg copies. But still. Amazon sold (rented?) them, and has now taken them back. One reader's story:

Justin Gawronski, a 17-year-old from the Detroit area, was reading 1984 on his Kindle for a summer assignment and lost all his notes and annotations when the file vanished. "They didn’t just take a book back, they stole my work," he said.

Read more:

Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle (New York Times)
Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others (New York Times)

A related post
No Kindle for me

Portrait of Billie Holiday and Mister

[Portrait of Billie Holiday and Mister, New York, c. February 1947. Photograph by William P. Gottlieb (1917–2006). Via American Memory, from the Library of Congress.]

"[T]hree days after Bastille day, yes"

It is 12:20 in New York a Friday
three days after Bastille day, yes
it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine

Frank O'Hara, lines from "The Day Lady Died"

Three days after Bastille Day, fifty years ago today, Billie Holiday died.

Things to do:

Read Frank O'Hara's poem. Read the New York Times obituary. Listen to Billie Holiday: "Fine and Mellow," "I Loves You, Porgy," "These Foolish Things," "Travelin' Light," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do."

[A note for the fan: "Travelin' Light" seems to be a very rare bit of film footage.]

A related post
On December 8