I have just heard the news that cursive writing will no longer be taught in Ohio schools, making it the third state to abandon the skill (behind Indiana and Hawaii). The keyboard is king now, the thinking goes, making unnecessary a discipline that teaches manual dexterity at the fine motor level. In these modern times [...]
Filed under: Current Events, Opinion, Popular Culture, Writing, Writing Methods | Tagged: Current Events, Opinion, Popular Culture, Writing | 2 Comments »
Well, tomorrow it begins. All over the nation, nay, the world, word processors will fire up as literary aspirants everywhere prepare to do battle with themselves during NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month – the solitaire sporting event in which folks try to complete a 50,000 word novel during the 30 days of November. And [...]
Filed under: Opinion, The Novel, Writing | Tagged: Opinion, The Novel, Writing | 3 Comments »
I suppose every other blogger in the world is writing something about Michael Jackson right now, and why should I be any different. But I’d like to think that I’m taking a somewhat different approach. Rather than focusing on blah blah blah no matter what you thought he was an influential icon blah blah blah, [...]
Filed under: Opinion, Popular Culture | Tagged: Current Events, Opinion, Popular Culture | 5 Comments »
In related news, Oliver Stone announced that he will write and produce a new movie, “The Shadow President,” based on the faulty swearing-in. When reminded that President Obama was a Democrat, he suddenly announced that the film would be “something about Dick Cheney.”
Filed under: Humor, Opinion, Politics | Tagged: Humor, Politics | Leave a Comment »
On the radio station I wake up to, the morning show team was talking about the practicality of holding the election on a weekday, when people had to work. They pondered the idea of holding the election on a weekend or making voting day a holiday (The Junior Senator from Illinois advocated taking election day [...]
Filed under: JCFness, Observations, Opinion, Politics | Tagged: Essay, Opinion, Politics | Leave a Comment »
Barack Obama is promising to bring change if elected. Now you can experience Obama’s brand of change first-hand, before you vote, to see if you like his policies. All you need is a Monopoly game. It might not be easy or fun – but it will give you a real taste of things to come! [...]
Filed under: Current Events, Game Geekery, Humor, Opinion, Politics | Tagged: Humor, Opinion, Politics | Leave a Comment »
Prompted by my son, I have put up a John McCain yard sign on my Facebook page. I think I would have preferred one that said We’re Screwed ’08, because neither presumptive candidate really has me fired up. For the record, I haven’t been really excited about a Presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan, but we [...]
Filed under: Current Events, Observations, Opinion, Politics | Tagged: Current Events, Opinion, Politics | Leave a Comment »
First, watch this video, if you dare: Now here’s my take: This is all very interesting… but I’m not going to stop with the lemon slices because frankly, if this is true, my body could use the disease causing bacteria. Seriously. The immune systems of astronauts crash after so many days in space. It’s because [...]
Filed under: Creative Process, Current Events, Observations, Opinion, Science | Tagged: Creative Process, Current Events, Opinion, Science | 1 Comment »
It’s because Hillary has played the gender card more than Obama has played the race card. For that matter, Hillary has even played the race card more than Obama. Obama is running a smart race. The problem is, outside of beating Alan Keyes for the Illinois senate seat, he hasn’t done anything. All he did [...]
Filed under: Current Events, Opinion, Politics | Tagged: Current Events, Opinion, Politics | Leave a Comment »
There’s a moment in Apollo 13 where Tom Hanks is giving a tour of NASA to some visiting dignitaries. He takes them past a room that is filled with the components of a computer. “Look,” he says, “this computer now only takes up an entire room!”1 It’s a cloying line. It’s not the type of [...]
Filed under: Opinion, Popular Culture, Reviews, Television | Tagged: Opinion, Popular Culture, Television | Leave a Comment »
