Snow, dirt, paint

A bit of yellow — road paint — in the February greys.

[Photograph by Michael Leddy.]

Another college president plagiarizing

Gary W. Streit, president of Malone University in Canton, Ohio, has resigned. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that “concerns surfaced” about Streit’s use of “unatttributed materials in some of his speeches.” Among Streit’s sources: a Wikipedia article on Janus and “a portion of Enotes.com’s summary of the Robert Frost poem ‘Birches.’”

You might try listening to this January 2010 address and doing a Google search or two as it plays. The first bit that I typed in — even your grandmother has a digital camera — led to an article on Streit’s copying and pasting. That article led me to the AP article that furnished much else in Streit’s text. A search for Mordecai became distressed that all his people would be killed brought up this account of the biblical story of Esther.

The Chronicle notes that because Streit has resigned, there will be no investigation of plagiarism.

Malone U. President Steps Down Amid Plagiarism Accusations (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Other presidential plagiarism posts
Boening, Meehan, plagiarism
“Local Norms” and “‘organic’ attribution”
What plagiarism looks like

Margaret Atwood’s rules for writers

Rule no. 1:

Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.

Margaret Atwood’s rules for writers (Guardian)

The Guardian has further rules from five more writers.

Red marks, blue marks (J.D. Salinger)

Is there work from J.D. Salinger to come? His daughter, writing of her father’s house:

Though I’ve visited his house for more than thirty years now, I’ve never seen his closet or his bathroom. His bedroom, bath, and study are in an L off the kitchen. The door is kept locked. I’ve been invited inside maybe two or three times in my life when he wanted to show me something in his study. Once it was some new bookshelves he was thrilled with. Another time to show me a new filing system he had thought up for the material in one of his safes. A red mark meant, if I die before I finish my work, publish this “as is,” blue meant publish but edit first, and so on.

Margaret A. Salinger, Dream Catcher: A Memoir (New York: Washington Square Press, 2000), 307.

Overheard

Before a concert:

“They’re old lady clothes, and I’m not an old lady yet.”

Elaine and I guessed that the speaker was at least seventy. More power to her.

Related reading
All “Overheard” posts

End of the U.S. sardine industry

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a can of sardines that wasn’t marked Product of Morocco (or Norway or Portugal). But now the American sardine industry is no more:

Sardine cannery closure marks the end of a U.S. industry (WCSH)

Thelonious Monk in Weehawken

Thelonious Monk spent his final years in Weehawken, New Jersey, living in the house of his friend Pannonica de Koenigswarter. He took an occasional walk in the neighborhood and a very occasional trip into the city. But most of the time he was lying in bed like Brian Wilson did:

His daily routine rarely varied. He would wake up, shower, don some of his finest threads only to lie back in bed to nap, stare at the ceiling, or watch TV — he developed a fondness for game shows like The Price Is Right.

Robin D.G. Kelley, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (New York: Free Press, 2009), 443.

Kelley’s biography is an exhaustive trek through the itinerary of Monk’s life as a performing musician. At times Monk gets lost in the blur of dates, place names, and changes in personnel. But Kelley offers genuine revelations — about Monk’s family life, his familiarity with the classical piano repertoire, his interest in getting a hit (“Ruby, My Dear” was one such effort), and the craven practices of the record business.

[“Lying in bed like Brian Wilson did”: from the Barenaked Ladies song “Brian Wilson.”]

Joseph Stack’s website?

Joseph Stack, the man who flew a plane into a building in Austin, Texas, today, appears to have been the owner of the website Embedded Art.


[From a “whois” domain-name lookup.]

Embedded Art offered firmware and software development.

[The website has been taken down. Stack’s statement is available at The Smoking Gun.]

“Proffessional Centre”

[Photograph by Michael Leddy.]

A piece of local signage, with what must be two British spellings. Yipes.

Other posts on signage and misspellings
“Collage”
Debri
“Iceburg Lettuce”
No job too small

“The Essay Writing Song”

One morning last week, I somehow imagined Fred Rogers singing to college students:

The Essay Writing Song

Work hard on your essay, so it will be good.
Work hard on your essay, for it’s understood
That writing in college takes plenty of time.
Work hard on your essay, and things will be fine.

[Johnny Costa plays a half-chorus piano solo while Mister Rogers feeds the fish.]

For writing an essay takes plenty of time.
Work hard on your essay, for your sake and mine.

Thanks, Mister Rogers.

Other Mister Rogers posts
Blaming Mister Rogers
Going backward
Lady Elaine’s can