My bookmarks overflow with things to share, since real life has kept me from blogging over the weekend...
Economics items of the week: Try this funny but sad article from a real estate agent, or this random post from D.T. about the state of things in the stimulus-rich state of Indiana. And while this is not exactly about the economy, it is about the current state of politics.
Literary items of the week: Here is a fascinating article about one of my favorite poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins. And I had to laugh at this "celebration" of the 50th anniversary of the publishing of Strunk and White. Ben and I had a very similar discussion of it over spring break; I still find it useful, but not as an absolute rule book! I enjoyed this article on the 20 most-used cliches in book reviews. Try to write a review without any of these.... The Atlantic Online posted this list of excerpts from their original reviews of great literature over the years-- very interesting! And finally, how about a glimpse of interesting book stores around the world? It is a feast for the eyes of bilbiophiles!
Items from around the world: Just a few reminders that things are happening outside of the US... How about this back-firing of China's one child policy? Or this depressing look at the moral decline in Great Britain? Or here are some beautiful and sobering photos from the on-going war in Afghanistan.
2 comments:
Re: Strunk and White: Count me among those taken with this little book. I now feel scolded! Not that I'm a grammar expert. I have an ear for what is correct tuned from countless hours of reading, but very little grammar instruction.
Re: interesting book stores: I could spend hours and hours exploring some of those wonderful places!
Re: China's one child policy: My folks were in China about 8 years ago and even then it was becoming very obvious that young men outnumbered women. It has ominous ramifications for their society, their force as a military power, and their future demographic lop-sidedness, adding to the problem of too few youth to care for their aged.
Thanks for the links!
Amy-
No scolding intended regarding Strunk and White. I used it with my kids, and I have my high school composition class read it as well. After they read it, though, we do imitation of Washington Irving's sentence structure using a wonderful OOP text by F. Donnelly called Imitation and Analysis, so they get the opposite in practice. :-)
Chris
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