Spelling

The Dean's Letter is really painful for me to read. I have gotten a number of memos at my school from people who have teaching credentials but don't know how to spell or use syntax properly. The admin staff (that is, secretaries) always spell things perfectly and have an idea on how to structure sentences despite some of these people not finishing a college degree. On the other hand, I've gotten a few memos from my site union rep (a credentialed teacher of many years experience) that I've wanted to mark up w/ my red pen and send back for revisions.

And as I went to post this, I got an email from my US representative that included this line, which probably was just part of an incomplete cut-and-paste job: "While it would appears that all these bills would aid in increasing renewable energy production, legislation often changes a great deal during the committee process."

Great idea: American Foreign Legion

It may be so silly that Stephen Colbert suggests it, but I think there is much merit to the idea of an American Foreign Legion. People do want to come to America to earn money but many American citizens don't want them to 'take our jobs'. By fighting for this country they'd earn the respect of most conservatives and liberals by proving they believe in both the cause of freedom and the need to emigrate legally. Hey, even let their sacrifice pay for their immediate family! I'm pleased to find that many agree with this idea so it may just be a matter of time. The fact that one of the first Iraq War casualties was not a citizen doesn't hurt, either.

And try as I might, I can't make a smooth transition to a reference to the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie Legionnaire.

Mother's Day

Hope you and yours had a happy one... while it may be run by the greeting card companies today, did you know it started as an anti-war demonstration? Tell folks about Mother's Day for Peace.

Goat report, 5/14/07

Rest easy: an errant and elusive goat has found a home.

In search of candidate

It looks like my favorite comedian has dropped out of the 2008 Presidential race, which he seemed to be taking seriously. I'm not a libertarian but would have given him a vote...

Watch a video

A friend passed this along and asked me to do the same: watch a video (and hey, you don't have to watch the thing, just let it play) and rich people donate some money to a cause (autism) that could use some.

Ask the A.V. Club

Recently discovered The Onion's Ask the A.V. Club feature and I'm quite impressed with its high quality of answers. I enjoyed seeing some scholarship when they addressed (halfway down the page) the great question of who originally wrote that 'Chinese music' melody?. I gave the full research project a once-over and was happy to see that Rush was not ignored.

A later entry tackles the question of whether American Idol is bad for music and fields it as well as I can imagine. One thing I like about AI is how it give exposure to those who want to be exposed, freeing serious musicians from falling into that trap. I've also noticed that it may be helping make cover bands more acceptable as people realize that a rock/pop canon has formed and it's not so bad to see non-original artists performing it.

Ronin movie?

Learned today at Ain't It Cool that Frank Miller's Ronin is on the way to becoming a movie. I just re-read this last month and couldn't help thinking that it would probably be in the pipeline soon. One of the things I like about the story is that it includes a character who doubts his identity, a plot-genre I recently realized I'm a big sucker for; Total Recall is a great example of this. Hopefully that won't be excised from the Ronin story, else it turns into just another sci-fi action flick.