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Archive for April, 2008

Story Time!

Posted in Language and Literature, tagged , , , on April 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Introducing a new page (seen on the menu above, next to “Home” and “About”), wherein our beleaguered hero, abashed at his dearth of success in publishing fiction, valiantly posts his stories on the Internet for free… Story the First: a semi-autobiographical bit of catharsis…

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Rebuttal To A Snide Swipe At Religion

Posted in Religion, tagged , , , on April 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

As is so fashionable these days, a British article I came across this morning breezily dismissed religion as, shall we say, “the effect of a frenzied mind” and “silly traditions” (Alma 30:16, 31).  Here’s a quote: People say they believe in life after death but still grieve when people die. Christians try to get rich [...]

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Parodies By Literary Giants

Posted in Education, Humor, Language and Literature, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 29, 2008 | 2 Comments »

As the year winds down, I like to have my classes review the things we’ve read–and the elements of style employed by great authors–by having them write parodies of things as if they were done by literary giants.  We start by reading these examples, done up by yours truly.  Enjoy!   The Empire Strikes Back, [...]

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Teaching With The Simpsons Vindicated!

Posted in Education, Humor, Language and Literature, tagged , , , , on April 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

This one could also go under “serendipity.”  A couple of weeks ago I was perusing the website of English Journal, an official magazine of the National Council of Teachers of English.  I was surprised to find this abstract: http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/ej/articles/129317.htm. Sadly, the whole article isn’t available online.  Luckily, yours truly works at UNLV on Saturday afternoons [...]

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Seven Underutilized Words

Posted in Humor, Language and Literature, tagged , , on April 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »

In a world awash with shallow rhetoric and irrational vitriol, I invite you to stand with me and reintroduce these great lost words into our daily lexicon.  Use them freely, friends, for a society in peril needs to hear them, and hear them often! Balderdash! Poppycock! Nonsense! Rot! Rubbish! Bunk! Hogwash! These words are both [...]

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Serendipity In Action!

Posted in Arts, Language and Literature, Living well, tagged on April 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

I find that life is sweeter when we actively court simple joys by looking out for them and then appreciating them with the honor of being recorded.  Two recent instances of sublime, blissful, fortuitous coincidences: 1.  A woman in Las Vegas moves temporarily to Australia.  She has her mail forwarded to a friend here.  One [...]

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The End Of Music?

Posted in Politics and Society, tagged , on April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Think of music from the 50′s.  Now think of music from the 60′s.  Now the 70′s.  Now the 80′s.  Chances are you had a pretty solid idea of a distinct sound for each decade.  After all, what could be more different than Chuck Berry to the Beatles to Kiss to the Cure? OK, now think [...]

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Back And Forth With A Critic Of My Church

Posted in Religion, tagged , , on April 25, 2008 | 1 Comment »

On the opinion page of today’s Las Vegas Review-Journal, a reader named “Joe” posted a comment very critical of my church.  I responded by correcting some factual errors in his piece, which sparked a bit of a warm debate.  Follow this link and scroll to the bottom, then read the posts by “Joe” and “Huston” [...]

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Lost Thought

Posted in Humor, tagged on April 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Lost is undeniably one of the most literate shows on television, but I’m always impressed by just how sadistically they seem to enjoy teasing their own fans, dragging out the resolution of any minor plot line until the last minute, when the climax only sets up more torture. Poor Lost fans are like people who [...]

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Repeal Mandatory School Attendance

Posted in Education, tagged , , , on April 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Today, a disruptive young man who has chosen to miss school more often than not this year came to class, saying that “the court” was forcing him to come back.  Many kids now want out of school, but find themselves trapped there; many others come and go as they please, knowing that it makes very little difference [...]

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Fun With Words

Posted in Humor, Language and Literature, tagged , , on April 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

As the school district curriculum requires English classes to review prefixes, roots, and suffixes during first quarter each year, I do the following each September: I give students a list of common word stems, and have them combine a bunch in new ways; then, based on the meanings of those parts, they must come up [...]

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On Popular Educational Philosophy: Presenting The Modern Gym!

Posted in Education, Humor, tagged , , , on April 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

For hundreds of years, Western Civilization produced literate societies by immersing their young in its intellectual heritage. Students practiced rigorous routines of reading, writing, and arithmetic. They memorized classic poetry and important dates in history. They solved math problem without calculators. They understood the Constitution. In the 20th century, we changed that. As we’ve experimented [...]

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Sarcastic Post About Education On Newspaper Web Site

Posted in Education, Humor, tagged , , on April 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Today, the Las Vegas Review-Journal bemoaned the abject lack of math achievement in our middle schools: http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/17998509.html In that editorial, they noted that one middle school–Sig Rogich–performed very well.  They suggested that we find out what they do different from everybody else and copy it.  I posted the following comment on that page; so far it [...]

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Letter To A News Columnist About The Book Of Mormon

Posted in Religion, tagged , , on April 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »

I sent the following this afternoon:   Dear ___________: After several years of enjoying your column in _______, I’m sorry that my first email to you is to quibble. In your current piece, about the Texas child-seizure debacle, you begin by dismissing The Book of Mormon as “the literary and religious equivalent of L. Ron [...]

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Recommended dining: Yassou Greek Grill Cafe

Posted in Living well, tagged , , on April 19, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Yassou Greek Grill 7871 W. Charleston (at Buffalo next to McDonalds) • 702-798-8989 My wife and I have eaten here twice now, and liked it even more the second time.  The depth of choices on the menu is complemented by reasonable prices, and the atmosphere is a sweet icing on this Mediterranean cake.  (Last time we were [...]

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