Fun with Grammar!

Although I hardly ever do this, I called out one of my students the other day on a matter of word usage. (It happens to be one that really gets to me: the difference between uninterested and disinterested.)

But here's a website that should make us all feel better about ourselves when we slip up in our grammar or our usage: even celebrities make mistakes!

Archetype v. Stereotype

Here's a link to an earlier post from last semester.

A New Year Begins. . .

so how about "Auld Lang Syne" (courtesy of Guy Lombardo and his Royal Candians).

Here's a less traditional version.

I wonder how that would sound on a tuba?

Now it Can Be Told! The Series is Complete!

Who’s Smarter? -- Interclass Beatdown 7!

(The Seventh and Deciding Match!)

Both classes should be proud of the knowledge they displayed over the course of the competition. But unfortunately there can be only one winner.

Geography: What nationality is a Breton?

A Breton is from Bretagne, or the province of France we know as Brittany.

Advantage, Block 2.

Entertainment: What runs up and down on the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album?

A zipper. Which actually zipped.

(I'm sure you're parents will remember this one. Ask'em).

This question stumped both classes.

History: What organization was founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell?

Reverend Falwell recently passed away. He was the founder of "The Moral Majority".

His obituary for MSNBC here. Both classes might be interested, since neither was familiar with the Moral Majority.

Arts & Literature: What playwright was married to Marilyn Monroe?

Arthur Miller, author of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. (I could have shown you Arthur Miller, but both classes know who he is, anyway.)

Science & Nature: What non-working, stingless bee mates with the queen?

The Drone Bee

The drones are the male bees in the colony. Their sole function is reproduction. Drones who succeed in mating with a queen during her nuptial flight perish in the act.

Drones are larger and heavier than the workers, but not as long as the queen. It is easy to identify a drone by its large compound eyes that come together at the top of the head.

Usually several hundred to several thousand drones are present in a colony during the active foraging season. The young drones are fed by the workers; the older drones feed themselves honey directly from the storage cells. During the season, should the food supply diminish for any reason, workers waste no time in ejecting drones from the colony. After the first heavy frosts in the fall reduce the supply of nectar and pollen, the colony preparing for winter begins to drive the drones from the hive. They soon starve to death.

Kind of like those young people who come home after college and can't seem to find a job they like, so they decide to live at home for a few years (until they're driven from the hive and they starve to death). Neither class knows much about bees, apparently.

Sports & Leisure: What do Indianapolis 500 winners traditionally drink in the winner’s circle?

Does that look like champagne to you? No, it's milk. (Buttermilk, actually, but I will accept milk.) Why milk?

The tradition of the "500" winner drinking milk in "Victory Lane" began when Louis Meyer, the winner of the 1936 Race was photographed drinking his favorite beverage, buttermilk, after his victory. An executive of the Milk Foundation (now the American Dairy Association) saw the picture and, hoping to set a good example for kids, made sure that from that year on the winner of the Race received a bottle of milk to drink.

Children’s: What Ursula K. LeGuin novel tells of young Ged’s first
trip to the wizard’s school on Roke?

The Wizard of Earthsea, the first book in the Earthsea Trilogy.

(There's more in heaven and earth than Harry Potter, Horatio.)

Classics: What reclusive novelist published nine short stories in 1953 under the enigmatic title Nine Stories?

J. D. Salinger. (Advantage, Block 2)

Non-fiction: What best-selling Alex Comfort how-to guide includes sections on “Ingredients”, “Appetizers”, “Main Courses”, “Sauces”, and “Venues”?

Both classes went for The Joy of Cooking. Close! (I thought perhaps somebody's parents -- or grandparents -- had a copy hidden away somewhere.)

Book Club: Whose famed paintings of “Helga” inspired Larry Watson’s novel Orchard, about a Scandinavian immigrant who becomes the muse of a local artist?

Andrew Wyeth.

Authors: What Londoner, born Richard Patrick Russ, ditched his first wife and kids to reinvent himself as an “Irish” nautical novelist?

Patrick O'Brian, author of the wildly succesful Aubrey-Maturin series, set against the Napoleonic Wars. (Maybe you saw Rusell Crowe play "Lucky Jack" Aubrey in Master and Commander.

Book Bag: What government position did Jack Ryan hold at the start of Tom Clancy’s 1994 Debt of Honor?

National Secuirty Advisor. (Formerly Condoleezza Rice, now Stephen Hadley.)

In Case of a Tie

(The first correct, unmatched answer wins.)

Entertainment: What was “another sleepy, dusty delta day” in “Ode to Billy Joe”?

June 3rd. Here are the lyrics. Here's Bobbie herself , apparently from The Smothers Brother's Comedy Hour.

Check out some of the comments:

You don't see any Bobbie Gentry's around these days in the music industry. ALL WOMAN with REAL TALENT!
If you don't get chills listening to this song, check for a pulse. Still a classic.

Arts & Literature: What was the name of Captain Bligh’s ship?

The Bounty, as in Mutiny on the Bounty. Charles Laughton played Bligh to Clark Gables's Fletcher Christian (1935); Trevor Howard was Bligh to Marlon Brando's Christian in 1962, and our old friend Anthony Hopkins was Captain Bligh to Mel Gibson as Christian in 1984. Of course, it's all based on a true story.

Non-fiction: Who penned the bestseller Undaunted Courage about the Lewis and Clark Expedition?

Stephen Ambrose. (I know for a fact that some of your parents have this on your shelves at home -- I know I do.)

Authors: What San Francisco novelist insists his name is real, despite its suspicious anagram “is a man I dreamt up”?

You'd have to be a pretty good anagrammist to come up with Armistead Maupin. Maupin has been called "the gay Charles Dickens". (Well, sort of.)

Why It's Sometimes Called "The Scottish Play"

Here's one version. (It's kind of amateurish, but has some interesting material).

This should be a more reputable source. (You can compare.)

The curse is still apparently alive and well.

Five-Minute Shakespeare

For you guys in Block 2, here's a link to the "Five-Minute Shakespeare" website. We already looked at Henry V; you might want to take a look at Romeo and Juliet, also.

By the way, I would give Henry an "A", R & J only a "C'. Whereas Lea Frost hits a lot of key points in Henry, "Aragorngirl" just seems interested in outlining plot in a silly manner.

Driving (to the hoop) While Black

You'd think that if there's any place in the United States where African-American have attained equality (if not superiority), it would be the National Basketball Association. And if you look at rosters, and all-star teams, that would certainly seem to be so.

But what happens when we look at fouls?

A coming paper by a University of Pennsylvania professor and a CornellUniversity graduate student says that, during the 13 seasons from 1991 through 2004, white referees called fouls at a greater rate against black players than against white players.

Justin Wolfers, an assistant professor of business and public policy at the Wharton School, and Joseph Price, a Cornell graduate student in economics, found a corresponding bias in which black officials called fouls more frequently against white players, though that tendency was not as strong. They went on to claim that the different rates at which fouls are called "is large enough that the probability of a team winning is noticeably affected by the racial composition of the refereeing crew assigned to the game."

Now Benjamin Disraeli said "You can prove anything with statistics." Mark Twain said "there are lies, damned lies -- and statistics." So I will acknowledge that statistical data can be misleading. Then again, sometimes statistics will contradict the things that we think we see, that things that we have just come to accept as true. (Memes, really.)

Here's a link to the whole paper, if you'd rather.

Now, a quick Google News search indicates that this is not the first bombshell dropped by Professor Wolfers. Maybe I just missed it, but this one didn't seem to make so much noise.

Jared Luce

In Block 2, we've been reading "The War Poets" -- particulary Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sasson, two British poets of World War I. We're now moving on to Doug Anderson, a poet and Vietnam veteran who is now teaching at UConn (as far as I can tell).



One of Owen's poems is called "Disabled" about a soldier who loses both legs (and at least one arm). One of my former students, Jared Luce, is an Iraq war veteran who lost both of his legs (from the knees down). Fortunately, his story seems to be turning out much better than the young man in Owen'd poem. Still, it's a high price to pay.

What Do You Mean "What Do I Mean 'What's a Meme?'?'?

In Block 2 (I think it was Block 2) the other day, I brought up the word "meme". It's a fairly recent concept, but one that makes a lot of sense. Let me give you a couple of links to it.

First, a general definition from Wikipedia.

The term "meme" (IPA: /miːm/, rhyming with "theme"; commonly pronounced in the US as /mɛm/, rhyming with "gem"), coined/popularized in 1976[1] by the biologist Richard Dawkins, refers to a "unit of cultural information" which can propagate from one mind to another in a manner analogous to genes (i.e., the units of genetic information).
Dawkins gave as examples of memes: tunes, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothes fashions, ways of making pots, or of building arches. A meme, he said, propagates itself as a unit of cultural
evolution and diffusion — analogous in many ways to the behavior of the gene.

Some examples, also from Wikipedia.

Proverbs and aphorisms: for example: "You can't keep a good man down".
Nursery rhymes: propagated from parent to child over many generations (thus keeping otherwise obsolete words such as "tuffet" "pail" and "chamber" in use), sometimes with associated actions and movements.
Children's culture: games, activities and chants (such as taunts) typical for different age-groups.
Conspiracy theories.
Fashions.
Medical and safety advice: "Don't swim for an hour after eating" or "Steer in the direction of a skid".
The material of video technology: very memetic given its mass replication — people tend to imitate scenes or repeat popular catch phrases such as "You can't handle the truth!" from A Few Good Men or "Alllllllrighty then!" from Ace Ventura, even if they have not seen a film or a television broadcast themselves.
Popular concepts: these include Freedom, Justice, Ownership, Open Source, Egoism, or Altruism.
Group-based biases: everything from anti-semitism and racism to cargo cults.

For more information (again, thanks Wikipedia).

Interclass Smackdown -- Round 2!

Q1: What overalls are named for Dungri, a suburb of Bombay (Mumbai)?

A: Dungarees. While we (Americans) thing of them as synonymous with blue jeans, in England they apparently refer to overalls. (George Bernard Shaw characterized the English and Americans as "two peoples separated by a common language".)
[Both classes got this one right.]

Q2. What actor was stung in The Sting?

A: Robert Shaw. Maybe you remember him as "Quint" in the Steven Spielberg classic Jaws.
[Neither class was able to get this one. Block II thought "Henry Fonda"; Block IV, "Robert Redford (who at least was in The Sting.) Actually, Kristin LeBel came up with the name Shaw, but nobody paid her any heed).]

Q3. What did Peter Minuit buy for the equivalent of $24?

A: Manhattan Island. I was surprised that Block II was stumped by this. (They ended up going with "Sri Lanka".) When I was in school, this was one of those bits of Americana that everyone learned by 5th grade. Back in the day, we were all pretty proud of Mr. Minuit for making such a shrewd deal. Nowadays, I guess it's not something that we brag about.
[Advantage: Block IV]

Q4. What’s the name of Dr. Seuss’s egg-hatching elephant?

A: Horton!
[Both classes knew this.]

Q5. What’s a row of crows called?

A: A murder. (If you think that's fun. . .)
[Both classes knew this.]

Q6. Who was world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949?

A: Joe Louis. They called him "The Brown Bomber." (It was a simpler, more racist, time.) Nevertheless, Americans of all colors were proud when, on the eve of World War II, Louis defeated the German Max Schmeling, avenging an earlier loss. (Louis originally had taken the world title from James J. Braddock. )
[Advantage: Block IV.]

Q7. What Robert McCloskey favorite is honored by nine bronze ducks in Boston’s Public Gardens?

A: Make Way for Ducklings.
[Both classes knew this.]

Q8. What 1866 novel, written in only three days, was based on the author’s recurring nightmares of a double life?

A: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Both classes got this one, but I have to admit that I thought you both got it wrong. I was thinking of Fyodor Dostoevesky's The Double. But here's my excuse. The question is wrong! Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote Dr. J in 1886, not 1866. That was right in the middle of Dostoevsky's career. And Dostoevsky wrote The Gambler in less than a month (still much more than three days).


Q9. What jailed Sioux militant was the subject of Peter Matthiessen’s In the Spirit of Crazy Horse?

A: Leonard Pelletier. (I bet most classes in other schools wouldn't get that one. See what happens when you can offer your students lots and lots of classes?)
[Both classes knew this.]

Q10. What Aussie author copped the Booker Prize for his debut novel Vernon God Little, a dark comedy about a Texas high school massacre?

A: D. B. C. Pierre?? Neither class knew this, and neither did I. Come to think of it, I know hardly anything about Australia. A few actors, but not authors. Oh, and the Crocodile Hunter.
Oh, and Pierre? It turns out he's a "self-confessed serial 'conniving bastard' ".

Q11. What author of 80-plus romance novels opened an art gallery near her San Francisco mansion in 2003?

A: Danielle Steele
[Advantage: Block IV]

Q12. What Australian author penned The Touch, about a miner who swaps a trunk of gold for his 16 year-old Scottish cousin?

A: Colleen McCullough. (One of the two Australian authors -- Nevil Shute is the other -- that I do know.) Both classes were stumped by this one, and I don't blame them.


And, the winner of the second Interclass Smackdown: Block IV!