“If they don’t find a way to make the postal system more essential to people’s lives, there is only one direction this thing can go”: Tucker Nichols explains why he is campaigning to save the post office.
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February 15: From the Washington Post: Will social media help save the Postal Service and Saturday delivery?
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Saving the post office
By Michael Leddy at 3:22 PM comments: 3
C+ lawsuit continues
Says the judge, “I remain unconvinced the judiciary should be injecting itself in the academic process.” But the case goes on.
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February 15: It’s over.
A related post
Suing in academia
By Michael Leddy at 8:47 AM comments: 0
An on-screen desk
At Submitted for Your Perusal, Matt Thomas writes about the on-screen representation of “what is often referred to as knowledge work”: Zoe’s Desk.
By Michael Leddy at 8:35 AM comments: 2
For Valentine's Day
“Seventy years later I’m still in a daze”: cdza presents Our Wedding Song, four couples and their songs. Take a tissue or two.
[My daughter Rachel deems this “the PERFECT video for Valentine’s day.”]
By Michael Leddy at 7:59 AM comments: 1
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
From Naked City
O dialogue of television past:
“All he does when he gets home is drink beer and look at Old Rabbit Ears — that’s what I call his portable TV.”That’s from the Naked City episode “Go Fight City Hall,” first aired October 31, 1962.
Forty episodes from the series (though not this one) are now available in a ten-DVD set. Amazon has it for $24.99.
Other Naked City posts
Poetry and Naked City
A telephone exchange name: GRamercy
MUrray Hill
Another MUrray Hill
TWilight? TWinbrook? TWinoaks? TWining?
By Michael Leddy at 8:33 AM comments: 0
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Suing in academia
A former graduate student is suing the school where she received a C+ in a class. The damages asked: $1.3 million. And here’s more.
In other news, the Edwin Mellen Press and its founder are suing a blogging librarian and the university that employs him. The damages asked: $4.55 million. This news is sure to endear the Edwin Mellen Press to university librarians everywhere.
Thanks, Sara, for the C+ story.
By Michael Leddy at 8:10 PM comments: 1
Downton Abbey stuff
Elaine and I watched Episode 6 of you-know-what last night and noticed three little flurries of stuff:
Lady Edith Crawley: “Oh, just family stuff — an errand for my grandmother.”Stuff is an old, old noun. But the three young Crawleys are using the word in a new way. The Oxford English Dictionary has it:
Lady Mary Crawley: “Nothing. Women’s stuff.”
Matthew Crawley: “Nonsense, you had stuff to see to.”
Used loosely to denote any collection of things about which one is not able or willing to particularize . . . ; material, matter, business. colloq.The young Crawleys are a colloquial avant-garde. The OED’s first citation for this use of stuff is from 1922, from an American source, Radio News:
Take a look at S. M. Brown, Chief on the Mauretania, “doing his stuff” in the saloon.I can’t imagine that the influx of stuff in this episode is just coincidence: it’s one sign among many that the world is changing.
A related post
Word of the evening: hobbledehoy
[Other signs of change in this episode: new techniques in land-management, new roles for women, and jazz.]
By Michael Leddy at 3:33 PM comments: 0
How to succeed in college
without really trying
More specifically, how to get a perfect score on a final examination without taking it (Inside Higher Ed).
I’ll say what no one commenting on the article has said: the organizers should be ashamed of themselves, as should those who went along.
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Here’s a later post that explains why these students should not have received 100s.
By Michael Leddy at 11:14 AM comments: 9
Truman Capote?
In this scene from Mad Dog Coll (dir. Burt Balaban, 1961), who’s that walking down the hallway? Is it Truman Capote?
[Click each image for a larger view.]
Well, is it? Several IMDb readers also have wondered about the identity of this passerby. Jerry Orbach, John Davis Chandler, and Neil Nephew look like they’re wondering too.
A related post
John Davis Chandler and Steve Buscemi
By Michael Leddy at 9:18 AM comments: 2
Monday, February 11, 2013
Eberhard Faber’s Diamond Star
At Contrapuntalism, Sean penetrates the mystery of Eberhard Faber’s Diamond Star logo: Just what does the Diamond Star logo mean?
I too have wondered about that Diamond Star.
By Michael Leddy at 10:51 AM comments: 0