i had an idea today

As long as we’re having name tag ribbons, I think we should also make a sash. The sash should be given as a great honor, worn by a different person each day. We can decide who gets it through a series of competitions. One of the competitions should be at the scatterplot party, and the [...]

adventures in new york

So this morning I’m calling to set up an appointment to get my hair cut.
Shamus: I need a hair cut.
Salon: Great! [Details...] Oh! And we’re having a special right now. With a hair cut you get a free make-up consult.
Shamus: Um… I’m single. [Meaning: there's no one in my life who could use [...]

we hit our 100,000th view today

Next stop, 1,000,000!

lyrics of the day:

“Sometimes you’re the windshield. Sometimes you’re the bug.”
~ Mary Chapin Carpenter, “The Bug”
’nuff said.

nutter about nuther

I can’t stand how the phrase “a whole nother” has slipped into our language (447,000 hits on Google, the variant in the title produces a mere 25,500 hits).  I’m hearing it everywhere these days–even news anchors are saying it now!  The worst part, it’s so ubiquitous it is coming out of MY mouth.  This madness [...]

another oratorical misadventure

I spoke at Northwestern’s proseminar for first-year graduate students yesterday. You know that family dinner scene in Say Anything where Lloyd Dobbler realizes he’s started off badly and tries to talk his way out of it and comes across worse and then tries to talk his way out of that and comes across worse [...]