Posted in Humor, Random, tagged Family Feud, television, TV shows on April 24, 2013 |
Every round of this show says that the answers came from a survey of 100 people. Wikipedia says that there have been at least 8000 episodes. Say there’s five rounds in each game (a pretty conservative estimate): that makes 40,000 of these surveys.
And at 100 people per survey, that makes 400,000 people. Or one out of every 750 people in America.
I’ve never been called by their show with questions. I don’t know anybody who has been. Do you? Sounds fishy to me.
Posted in Humor, tagged comedy, Desi Arnaz, Long Long Trailer, Lucille Ball, movies, slapstick on April 17, 2013 |
I haven’t ever seen this full movie yet. I just remembered my parents watching it when I was a kid, so I’ve now put it on my hold list at the library. God bless my parents’ good taste.
Posted in Humor, Religion, tagged Bloggernacle, faithfulness, General Conference, loyalty, subversion on April 15, 2013 |
Imagine a general conference that hypothetically includes a discussion between the general authorities delivering the addresses, and “the bloggernacle” as an entity hearing them.
GA: Church members should be loyal to the church.
B: Absolutely. Church members should definitely focus on minor doubts that are only tangential to the major tenets of faith and discipleship, and use them to publicly undermine the church.
GA: What? No, that’s not at all what we said. Church members should be visibly loyal to the church, striving to be part of the mainstream body of belief and service.
B: Yes! Finally, someone came out and said it. Church members need to be encouraged in striking out on their own and forging their own path to salvation, whatever that means for them.
Posted in Humor, tagged Dean Koontz, Kids in the Hall, preternaturally, writing on April 3, 2013 |
I’ve often told students that one of the most glaring scars in amateur writing is the tendency to use their favorite words too frequently. It’s not unusual for young writers to put something like “obviously” or “perhaps” three or four times in the same paragraph, or even the same sentence.
But the problem is far worse when the word is more obscure and the writer is more experienced.
I haven’t read that many Dean Koontz books, but he clearly loves the word “preternaturally.” He seems to use it near the beginning of every one of his books that I’ve seen.
Is he just trying to see if anyone notices? Did he lose a bet?
Part of me wants to go to the library and take all of his books off the shelf one at a time, scanning the first two chapters, just looking for that word.
Has anyone else picked up on this, or is it just me?
It reminds me of this great Kids in the Hall skit:
Posted in Education, Humor, Living well, tagged academic achievement, effort, life lessons, motivation, personal responsibility, student achievement, The Simpsons on April 1, 2013 |
A valuable life lesson
An analogy I came up with last week to help enlighten my students, far too many of whom have tried to slide by, giving the minimal amount of effort they could and still pass the class, and who (shockingly!) failed my class for the last grading period:
There’s a classic episode of The Simpsons where Lisa is doing a science experiment at home. She puts a food pellet in a hamster cage, but attaches it to a little wire that’s hooked up to a battery. The hamster nibbles at the pellet, gets a bit of a shock, and quickly gets as far away from it as he can.
Lisa notes in her journal that the hamster has learned a lesson.
Then she puts a cupcake in the kitchen, and likewise puts an electrified wire in the back. Bart comes by and grabs for the cupcake. It zaps him but, unlike the hamster, Bart does not learn his lesson. He keeps grabbing the cupcake, and keeps getting zapped. He’s immediately addicted to a pointless cycle of self-destruction.
Here’s the application:
Bart is like too many students who, seeing how delicious that cupcake is, keep letting their hunger for it overcome their common sense.
The cupcake is the elusive goal of getting by in a class without having to work very hard.
The wire and battery represent the inevitable failure that follows this course of action.
After all, as Einstein said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. How many kids must be thinking, “THIS time my plan to goof off and somehow be just good enough will surely work like a charm!”
Now, when I see students slacking off, or otherwise doing things that will hurt their chances for success, I tell them, “Stop grabbing the electric cupcake.” They’re already sick of it.
If only I could get them to strive for the huge chocolate cake of well-earned achievement!
Posted in Arts, Humor, tagged AV Club, television, The Simpsons on April 1, 2013 |
I’ve been enjoying Nathan Rabin’s loving analyses of classic Simpsons episodes over at the AV Club. Right now he’s in the middle of season 5, and his musings are making me realize that that one might be the best season overall. Just wall to wall perfection. Looking forward to more of these.
From yesterday’s brilliant summary of “Bart Gets An Elephant:”
Later, Bill and Marty, the premiere chatter-monkeys of KBBL, face down their greatest threat in the form of DJ 3000, a computer that plays CDs and boasts three different kinds of inane chatter and consequently represents a grave challenge to their jobs after the gabby twosome end up in hot water with management when Bart shocks everyone by taking the crazy gag gift offered in a radio contest (a free elephant) rather than ten thousand dollars.
Posted in Humor, tagged comedy, Donald O'Connor, Make 'Em Laugh, Singin in the Rain on March 27, 2013 |
Cute idea, cleverly executed; but the flawless physical comedy here steals the show. Great number!
Posted in Humor, Politics and Society, tagged Daily Show, hypocrisy, intolerance, liberalism, tolerance on March 16, 2013 |
“I would never call a redneck a name.” Love it.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-5-2012/hope-and-change-2—the-party-of-inclusion
Posted in Humor, Language and Literature, tagged American Literature, Boy Scouts, Henry David Thoreau, hippie, Jedi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, transcendentalist on March 13, 2013 |
Hey there, would-be American Lit mongers! Is “transcendentalists” too much of a mouthful? Here’s what I tell people to help them picture who these mid 19th century whackadoos were.
Think of a Jedi: empowered by spiritual communion with a nebulous universal essence. Then, think of a hippie: an iconoclastic rebel who wants only to be at peace with all. Finally, add a Boy Scout: an innocent survivalist with unbounded reverence for nature.
That pretty much adds up to Emerson and Thoreau!
We’ve recently had movies come out called Zero Dark Thirty and Dark Skies. Later this year there will be Dark Circles, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Thor: The Dark Worlds.
I think I see a trend. And I think I could make a hit movie if I just called it Dark Darky McDarkdark.
Posted in Education, Humor, tagged reading, teenagers on March 5, 2013 |
Tell a class of teens that they need to read a 90 page book, and they’ll relax at how short and easy that is.
Tell them that they need to read a 30 page short story, and they’ll go into shock over how unfairly and infinitely long that is!
Sometimes students say this when a class starts a new unit. It’s cute. The implication is, “I got everything it’s possible to get out of Romeo and Juliet in that 7th grade class.” Not likely.
So you’ve read it once before? That’s great. I’ve read it 30 times before. And I’m still getting new stuff out of it.
This complaint is like someone going to a gym and, when their trainer says to do a push up, responding, “I already did one of those in 7th grade once. So I’m good.”
Posted in Humor, tagged cultural criticism, hypocrisy, music, satire, Talkin Seattle Grunge Rock Blues, Todd Snider on February 5, 2013 |
Twenty years later, this joke still works!
Posted in Humor, tagged Angus T. Jones, Charlie Sheen, television, Two and a Half Men on November 27, 2012 |
The kid on Two and a Half Men has been over 18 for a while now. When are they going to change the name of the show to Three Men?
Posted in Humor, tagged movie reviews, Rotten Tomatoes, humor, Alone in the Dark on November 21, 2012 |
Still my all-time favorite insult in a movie review, about 2005′s Alone in the Dark: “Anyone who spends 10 bucks seeing it ought to get 11 bucks change and a written apology from the director.”
