5/28/09

HUMOR LEXICON MARGINALIA

MARGINALIA: The stuff written in margins of books, often by way of sly commentary - or criticism, such as, "In case of fire, throw this in."

This is taken from an article in CALIFORNIA magazine March/April 2009 had a brief alphabetical Humor Lexicon, author doesn't appear.

5/26/09

SPELLING BEE'S FOR REALLY COOL NERDS

When I was a kid it was honored that boys were good in math while girls were good in spelling... Sexism like this was totally acceptable. Who can say how many girls were afraid to be good in math because it might mean (horrors!) being thought of as not feminine? Here's breaking Yahoo News "I LOVE NERDS."

5/20/09

READING FICTION versus NONFICTION (AND MY BLOG COMMENTARIES)

READING FICTION versus NONFICTION
by Christine Trzyna


I've been reading more non-fiction than fiction. But I do love fiction. I write less about fiction in this blog because I have focused on excerpting passages from books that I think illustrate interesting language, or information that is thought provoking, or which stood out when I was reading. For the purposes of the usually brief commentary in the blog - on line journal - format, I find it much more difficult to "star" a passage from fiction. I also feel it is difficult to illustrate through an excerpt or quote an important element of fiction, and that is the plot.

I often treat myself to reading an author who I've never read before, especially if a friend has referred me to a book or it appears on the library New Book Shelf or in the LA TIMES BOOK REVIEW. This year I have read a couple fiction stories that I have not commented upon but enjoyed for one reason or another. I recently read and enjoyed SAIL by James Patterson and Howard Rougan, C 2008 by James Patterson only, and put out by Little, Brown, and Company. NY. It falls into a category that I really enjoy SEA TALES.




5/14/09

From MISQUOTING JESUS by BART D. EHRMAN

MISQUOTING JESUS
The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
by Bard D. Ehrman C 2005
Harper/SanFrancisco publishers

page 38... "As it turns out, even defining what it means to read and write is a very complicated business. Many people can read but are unable to compose a sentence, for example. And what does it mean to read? Are people literate if they can manage to make sense of the comic strips but not the editorial page? Can people be said to be able to write if they can sign their name but cannot copy a page of a text?...'

"Throughout most of antiquity, since most people could not write, there were local "readers" and "writers" who hired out their services to the people who needed to conduct business that required written texts; tax receipts, legal contracts, licenses, personal letters, and the like...'

5/13/09

PULITZER PRIZE

Ever wonder how the Pulitzer Prize is determined? Here's the link...

5/9/09

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ON LINE

THE MAIN LIBRARY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA... they have a copy of everything ever written by an American !

5/8/09

WRITERS ALMANAC

Here's the link for WRITERS ALMANAC... Today is Gary Snyder's birthday.. hear his poetry...

5/1/09

From TONY HILLERMAN SELDOM DISAPPOINTED

Tony Hillerman
Seldom Disappointed - a Memoir

C 2001 author
Harper Colins Publishers
page 233


"Friedman taught a writing course that focused on the essay. He was himself an author, which impressed me, and he saw promise in my work - which impressed me even more. Early in this course he asked me why I never wrote in the first person. I told him journalists are conditioned to be invisible, to be what Walter Lippmann called "the fly on the wall," seeing everything and feeling nothing. Try it, he said. Do me a memoir bit... I proposed a thousand words on something that had happened last months. No, he said."

Dr. Morris Friedman taught Tony Hillerman at the University of New Mexico, English department in winter 1963...