It's almost a new year, let the embarrassing work Christmas parties commence and the Auld Lang Synes ring! For my part, I'd like to say farewell to 2012 and herald 2013 with a list of favorite things I discovered or enjoyed this past year, for the most part online. Hopefully you'll agree that this collection…
Category: Opinion
Back to the Future: a Coping Mechanism for the Apocalypse
Worried about the world collapsing in on itself this Saturday? How about believing in something that'll give you a 300-year grace period on Armageddon instead? Blame it on the weatherman. Bad news: you were 297 years premature when you partied like it was 1999. Silver lining: you'll survive the end of days.…
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Catcher in the Rye To Be Dropped from Curriculum? Puh-lease
New Common Core Standards drop classic novels in favor of "informational texts." The US school system will undergo some big changes within the next two years, chiefly due to a decision to remove a good deal of classic novels from the curriculum, or so the recent media reports would have you think. The idea behind…
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Some Take-Aways from Twitter’s Fiction Festival
As promised in last week's post on Twitter's Fiction Festival, here's a round up of a few standouts of the online event, which finished this past Sunday. Four things I took away from the festival, besides learning how to read from the ground up: 1. My personal favorite was Andrew Pyper's sinister adaptation of Thomas…
Hmmm… Seems to be a Book! Ten Gift Suggestions for Christmas Reading
Among my friends, (who, let's face it, often regard sunlight as the enemy) there can never be a better Christmas present than a coveted book. Most of our friends, family members, and colleagues know we love to read. However, what to get your favorite bibliophile can be daunting: "Hmmmm... well, Diana sorta likes cats. How about this…
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No More Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room: Tracking Chips On the Rise for Junior High and High School Students
I have a child in junior high and a child in high school. Every day, both of them must wear their school-issued identification card on a lanyard around their necks at all times. The doors to their schools are locked at 8:30 a.m. After being checked out on a video camera and buzzed in, parents…
2002 Has No Idea What You’re Talking About, 2012!
A couple of years ago, my then 10-year-old son declared that "everything is the best it could ever be." He was quite sure that, new iPhone in hand, nothing could surpass the (then) current marvels of the Modern World. I was just as sure that everything could and would be surpassed. Twenty-five years ago, if you told…
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Life of Pi: the Book and the Movie
"Which story do you prefer?"
Have you been following the trailers for Life of Pi? After months of anticipation, I was fortunate enough to attend a screening of it last night. The new movie is the cinematic adaptation of Yann Martel's celebrated 2001 novel, is directed by Ang Lee, and has been generating Oscar buzz…