We find a lot of annoying things in our inboxes. Spam, of course, is probably the worst. And then there are those "Urgent! Warning" e-mails about the latest paranoid urban myth, or the equally annoying "LOLZ" photos and stories.
But those at least never hurt my eyes.
In my e-mail account, along with the subject line, I can see the first few lines from each e-mail, which makes them easier to identify and prioritise. And generally, it works ou…
Although media seem dedicated to portraying men as oblivious to anything outside of sports, tools, and sex, the truth is that until a few decades ago any self-respecting man was expected to have a wide range of knowledge. “I have taken all knowledge to be my province,” says Bacon, while Marlowe encourages us to have “aspiring minds” and to climb “after knowledge infinite.”
To this end, we offer one book for each of ten categories with…
Every so often I like to count the number of times impact is used as a verb in the daily news. (I suffer from low blood pressure and this always has the effect of raising it to a significant degree.)
Here's today's count:
While every instance of impact as a verb jars in the ears of educated readers, some writers appear to have gone out of their way to be offensive.
In …
This week I've been urging my students to be more like Stan Marsh and not take "facts" for granted.
In episode #1009 (air date, Oct. 11, 2006), Stan Marsh is drawn into the world of conspiracy nut-jobbery by a man who claims that George Bush was behind the 911 attacks. Initially skeptical, Stan is presented with increasing evidence right up to a confession by George Bush himself. Throughout it all, Stan keeps tilting his head to one side and say…
Granted, the English language is not one of the world's more logical languages.
We’ll begin with box, and the plural is boxes.
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese.
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
To add to the complications, when speaking metaphorically we often use the "wrong" form of the plural. For instance, we would say, "Those two dancers are bumbling around like a …
While our educators have been working hard for years on such tasks as “strategizing thematic applications,” “deploying school-to-work critical thinking,” and “embracing visionary assessments,” it seems that some parents, and at least one trustee, have been silently fuming at the incomprehensible jargon.
Especially when it appears on report cards.
Teachers, however, are saying that they’re not to blame.
“The comments they write,” say…
We received a copy of B Magazine: Celebrity Edition.
Clever title: B Magazine. Very original.
That is, so long as you don’t confuse it with the beauty journal B Magazine, the Bollywood B Magazine, the Boomer B Magazine, the bridal B Magazine, or Gibraltar’s B Magazine.
This particular B Magazine is published by Browns. It’s slick, glossy, superbly photographed, and its only purpose is to promote Browns’ shoes.
“Every season,” th…
Recently, Trever James Wearmouth and Thomas Anthony Bryce-Hartmen sneaked into the Calgary zoo after hours, engaged in a little playful banter with a Siberian tiger, and ended up in hospital.
In his capacity as Calgary Police acting Staff Sergeant and Spokesperson for the Department of the Obvious, Rick Halford noted that both 27-year-old men had been drinking.
The story itself, of course, is fairly amusing on its own since neither was seriou…
One of the top stories in Canada right now is about the New Democratic Party failing to change their name to the Democratic Party at a weekend convention in Halifax. For some time the NDP, which has been losing ground in recent years, has contemplated the bold strategy employed by many brands which have fallen out of favour with the public: ignore the issues and change the name. In their latest attempt, they’d placed the name-change resolution on…
In general, I get my news from newspapers, which are still the most reliable and comprehensive sources around. Those who denigrate newspapers and praise the Internet are generally just getting stories online that originated with a traditional news service. In times of crisis, social networking platforms sometimes provide information unavailable to regular journalists, but at their best, these sources tend to be unreliable and intensely subjective…
There are many elements to making a good commercial, but none are as important as insulting the consumer in just the right fashion. To the untrained eye it may seem as though ads belittle, insult, and put down consumers without rhyme or reason, but in reality, there is a strict set of protocols to b…
An article by theatre critic Richard Ouzounian in Tuesday’s Toronto Star, (Time in a Mad Men World) travels the well-tread ground of blaming Madison Avenue for pretty well every ill confronting the modern world.
Having attended “a scholarship Jesuit boys’ pre…
No, really. She does all her makeup herself, and only uses Cover Girl. ("Nothing covers bruises like Cover Girl.")
I must have been around eight years old when I saw a Candid Camera spot that taught me almost everything I needed to know about “man on the street” testimonials.
It involved a resta…
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