Ahhh the holidays! For lots of us, a few days off means lazing in bed and catching up on some reading and movie-watching. You may be tempted to do a bit of both by renting or buying a film based on a book. Some are wonderful, some are...well... stinkers. Here are five films you should avoid…
Looking for some great Christmas stories to listen to as you cook or wrap gifts? Here are some of the best, both modern and traditional, to make your holiday tasks fly by! "The Santaland Diaries" made humorist David Sedaris famous in 1997. The story recounts the exploits of a 30-something under-employed author who finds a temporary…
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Teachers. They do so much for our kids all year, often for very little money. The holidays offer all of us the opportunity to show them our gratitude and appreciation. Here at eNotes, we posted a question on our Discussion Board, asking teachers themselves what gifts they would most like to receive from students and…
Christmas is a wonderful time for lovers of literature. You can finally get someone to read a book you love, request one (or more) from friends and family, or even give or receive a book-themed item. Here are ten suggestions sure to make bibliophiles smile. 1. Banned Books Bracelet. A beautiful way to show off…
This week, The Chronicle of Higher Education published a lengthy confession of a man who works for a custom essay writing service. It is a growing industry, as plagiarism detectors, like turnitin.com, are increasingly being used to catch cheating in both high schools and universities. Even though the price for a customized essay is high,…
Read More "Dante’s Confession and a New Circle of Hell for Professors"
Adopt a word. Save our language. Why save a word? Well, as the website savethewords.org argues, "90% of everything we write is communicated by only 7,000 words," yet there are "old words, wise words, [and] hard-working words...that once led meaningful lives [but] now lie, unused, unloved, and unwanted." The site draws you in with a…
Read More "We Must Obarmate Against the Loss of Words…To Let Them Go Would be Venalia"
Does more equal better? When it concerns students' essay scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SATs), that may well be the case. Milo Beckman, a fourteen-year-old student at Stuyvesant High School in New York conducted a study among his peers after becoming frustrated with the scores he received on the exam. Beckman took the exam…
It's been since about 500 B.C. that Babylonian and Assyrian were widely spoken. Those languages, closely related to Arabic and Hebrew, were assimilated into Akkadian, the primary speech of what is now Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Later, Aramaic, the language of Jesus, eventually became the preferred way of speaking in those regions. It wasn't until…
Read More "Asking Utnapishtim for Directions to the Bathroom"
