Is anybody else having fun with the new gmail themes? I am really impressed with some of them, especially the retro “Terminal.” On a related note, is anyone using the gmail video or voice chat? How does it compare to Skype?

Of Exactitude in Science

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Until recently, when middle and high school English teachers would ask me to recommend a good book for teaching grammar, I’d direct them to Constance Weaver’s Teaching Grammar in…

A vampire that drinks animal blood, and resists human blood.

The Cullens from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight are vegetarian vampires.

John Judis, the last Old Social Democrat at the New Republic, does a great job of explaining the problems with the world financial system. Meanwhile, my flight to NCA was canceled 2 hours before it was scheduled to leave, and I also discovered that paying my American Express card down to zero last month led them to cut my credit limit as well. Anyone else having this happen?

Greetings. We are conducting a preliminary online survey aimed at assessing the role of open source software in the scholarly and pedagogical practices of the Rhetoric & Composition and English Studies community. As a scholar and teacher of Rhetoric & Composition and/or of English Studies, you are being invited to participate in this survey. Please take a few moments to respond to this very brief ten-question survey on the subject at the link provided below.

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Attempting to just have a couple drinks in the spirit of simply pre-gaming, but instead getting completely shitfaced before even leaving for the bars.

"Oh man, we all went to Rob’s house to just hang out and have a couple beers but Mark was pre-wasted before we even called for a cab."

And the first issue is out! Jim “Aughneigh” is the first President of F*NCA, too.

As I continue to grit my teeth about getting ready for NCA, the news comes from graduate students that *four* tenure-track rhetoric searches in Comm have been suspended within the last few weeks, due to hiring freezes at their institutions. The University of Nevada system has appealed for the equivalent of a federal bailout. Other economic news from academe you readers know about? Here’s a pretty good article from the Boston Globe on what a depression might look like now.

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Scott Rettberg posted this link on FB to a cool net art piece by Michael Takeo Magruder about Obama’s election night speech.

Our thanks to the readers, bloggers, marketers, and (on occasion) inmates who pass along news about innovations in the English language. Here are a few of the items that…

Deriving far too much satisfaction from glibly berating another with sarcasm.

"Oh, thanks a lot for drinking my last beer! No, it’s my fault… if I wanted it for myself, I shouldn’t have put it in the fridge!"

"Dude, don’t have a sargasm."

A lovely meditation on justice, fortitude, and women, among other things. A belated mazel tov. . . .

The energy required to write a text.

Forget it, I don’t have the thumb strength to text him. Guess I’ll just call.

Your good company and attempts at influencing bad behavior reminded me how much I like you.

Meredith Bagley, Deanna Matthews and I finished a final program for the UNconvention at the Embassy Suites during NCA. The program may be found at

https://webspace.utexas.edu/clouddl/UNconvention%20last%20best%20final%2…

Please circulate widely to all of your division and caucus lists and to friends and colleagues.

We still need volunteers to make 100 copies (front to back, stapled) and
bring them to Hennessy’s Gaslamp Thursday night for distribution. Party details:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=34810643182&ref=mf

Newly co-published by Furtherfield and The Hyperliterature Exchange: an appreciation of David Daniels, the great shape-poet, who died in May 2008.

“Daniels is one of those figures who straddles the divide between digital and pre-digital art and literature… His art is about liberation, uninhibited outpouring, spontaneity and fun.”

To read the whole article, go to http://www.hyperex.co.uk/reviewdaniels.php .

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I just found a link to Between, an interesting-sounding game published by Esquire. Here’s the snip:

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In his autobiography, British novelist William Somerset Maugham attributed his success to an ability to accept his inadequacies as a writer. Once he had done that, Maugham said, he…

When an audience grows weary of clapping, either at a ceremony or musical performance.

"That graduation ceremony was so long, I got clapathetic!"

"I was clapping at the beginning of the song, but I quit when I got clapathy."

(for Dana Cloud, in thanks for that conversation on Barry Brummett’s porch):

Marianne Moore’s

“Nevertheless”

you’ve seen a strawberry
that’s had a struggle; yet
was, where the fragments met,

a hedgehog or a star-
fish for the multitude
of seeds. What better food

than apple seeds - the fruit
within the fruit - locked in
like counter-curved twin

hazelnuts? Frost that kills
the little rubber-plant -
leaves of kok-sagyyz-stalks, can’t

harm the roots; they still grow
in frozen ground. Once where
there was a prickley-pear -

leaf clinging to a barbed wire,

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” . . . and conceive the better state as one in which people could be different without fear.” –Minima Moralia

Boards of Canada’s “Dayvan Cowboy”

Acronym. Stands for "If you know what I mean". Mainly used in instant messaging conversations. Can also be used in conjunction with "AITYD" (and I think you do).

"I could really go for a tossed salad for lunch."

"Oh, I’ve got a salad for you to toss, IYKWIM…AITYD."

A extremely rare word, Agelastic is enjoying a mini-burst of popularity.

A potential new fuel, dubbed Mycodiesel, has been found, of all places, in a Patagonian fungus.

Review of Damp Squid: The English language laid bare, by Jeremy Butterfield.

(noun) The side of a body where a gigantic purse or messenger bag is carried, and an awkward barrier preventing others from walking comfortably alongside is often created.

I would hold your hand, baby, but I don’t want to get on your bagside.

President-elect Obama will hire the first Chief Technology Officer of the United States, and ObamaCTO.org asks people to suggest what the priorities of that CTO should be. Clearly, these are just suggestions, and the CTO will not be checking with “the crowd” before making decisions. But it’s nice to see the incoming administration asking for input.

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Some of the most popular pages at About Grammar & Composition concern the figures of speech–described by Henry Peacham in 1577 as words “made new by Art, and removed from…

The codename of legendary Secret Service Agent, James Bond

And please double ough seven, try not to destroy this one car.

what a great favor his writers have done us….

The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Chronicle Review
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i08/08a03501.htm
From the issue dated October 17, 2008

Is Campus Activism Dead — or Just Misguided?
A President Wonders Where the Campus Radicals Are Now

By GRAHAM SPANIER

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I continue to wonder what a continuation of the Obama “movement” will look like. This Slate story asks whether Obama can continue the participatory ethic of his campaign when he moves into the White House:

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A woman who is beard or disquise for a gay man that has not come out.

Tad doesn’t want his boss to know that he is gay, so Julie is totally being his walk-in closet.

I’m afraid that the season of dubious annual honors is again upon us, and blogs will soon be clogged with top-ten lists of the best and worst of the year–movies,…

The "echo effect" is when a slogan or jingle get’s into everyday talk. Advertisers love to get people to incorporate slogans into regular conversation.

Echo effect examples: Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” or Miller Beer’s “I love you man!” Nike’s "Just do it!" These brand slogan reverberated in pop culture and infiltrated our everyday conversations.

Today’s New York Times features a story and photos about vets and their “battle buddies.”

from The Cure at Troy, by Seamus Heaney:

Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
can fully right a wrong
inflicted or endured.

The innocent in gaols
beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker’s father
stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
faints at the funeral home.

History says, Don’t hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.

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James Wood, a very fine literary critic, analyzes the eloquence of Obama’s victory speech. (Snarky aside to Jim B: Judith Butler wouldn’t know what eloquence was if it came up and bit her.)

Rich Beckman, the new Knight Chair of Visual Journalism at the School of Communication at the University of Miami, started a series of multimedia workshops at his former institution, University of North Carolina. He’s relaunching them at UM. While the main focus is on journalism, these intensive courses also look interesting for computers & writing folk, so here’s the link for the website describing them and giving registration information. Also, what could be better than Miami in January?

Well, it’s that time of the semester again. It’s the time when I turn down the allure of posting to my pedagogy blog and cut back on the amount of studying and posting I do for my doctoral comps and return to the great drawing board of life….i.e. this blog.
I gave up a great paper [...]

English:

Seton Hill University seeks published novelist of popular fiction (preferably mystery/suspense), to teach and to mentor novel-length theses in the graduate low-residency Writing Popular Fiction program (half-load), and to teach undergraduate courses in creative writing and first-year composition.

Candidates should hold a Ph.D. in English, MFA considered. Background in journalism, publishing, and/or editing a plus. Teaching experience/potential at undergraduate level desirable.

Composition:

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To tell the world what they should be doing and what you think by plastering your car with bumper stickers to that effect.

Jim: That "Keep Tahoe Blue" sticker is really making me wonder how to keep Tahoe blue.

Mike: Yeah, Berkeley is full of bumper sticker activism. Too bad the sticker’s on a Ford Expedition, since keeping Tahoe blue involves reducing emissions.

In today’s NYT, Stanley Fish serves up some blame in the torture blame game, and guess where he goes: rhetoric. “The emphasis is not on what is true, but on what works, what gets results even if the results are obtained by torture. If the testimony you are citing has been elicited by torture, just say that ‘it was in order to discover the truth that our ancestors wished to make use of torture’ (‘Rhetorica ad Herennium‘).”

It’s time to pay another visit to the Grammar & Composition Forum–where readers post straightforward questions, and I provide the often baffling replies.

Play It As It Lays and Lies
Question:
I…

(merf) noun. acronym for Mom I’d Run From. The opposite of a MILF. A mom you definitely would not want to do.

"I don’t know where she gets her good looks, her mom is a

MIRF!"

"Your momma’s so ugly she’s not a MILF she’s a MIRF!"

Not surprisingly, Judth Butler’s warnings against uncritical exuberance about Obama are dead on:

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1. One who feels an increased sense of bravery over texting, as opposed to in person.

2. One who will often only say what they really feel over text messages.

Kelly: "So how’d the conversation go with Bill last night?"

Wendy: "Ah he’s such a textrovert. We didn’t make any progress until I went home and he spilled his guts over texts."

An email from my dearest friend, John McKenzie:

Go read this website. It was the advertisement across the top of the DrudgeReport tonight, and it’s completely insane. It’s a petition for conservatives to sign to “Join the Resistance” against the Obama presidency.

http://www.grassfire.org/111/petition.asp?pid=18651528

Just had to show this to someone before my head explodes…

-John

A technique for improving fuel consumption, Hypermiling began in the US but is now becoming known more widely.

Mansuetude is an extremely rare word meaning gentleness; it has links to the idea of taming an animal.

Deep concerns over the need to reduce global warming by controlling carbon emissions has led to the creation of Carborexia.

The idiom A flea in one’s ear has many equivalents in other languages, often with different meanings.

I had a perfectly good day at work today, and then I had to find out that our Republican hack of a president at Texas A&M has invited George W. to be the commencement speaker this spring. I’m ready to start a Facebook group on it (not to get her to withdraw the invitation, but to organize a protest). Anyone want to help?

Your bare fingers

Person A: "Dude, I don’t have any forks."

Person B responds: "Just use your flesh forks."

UT player removed for racial slur

“Buck Burnette was removed from the UT Longhorns for “unspecifiied reasons.” The now former Texas backup lineman Buck Burnette apologized Thursday for posting a racial slur on his Facebook page about Barack Obama being elected president.”

Weird….where was this response with the ghetto fab party?

Check out this sleight of hand:

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well, anyway, a great critic. and community organizer.

rest in words, john. good words. and peace.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Obit-Leonard.html

First and foremost, I hope and trust that each and every one of you shares my basic and fundamental belief that needlessly repetitive and redundant word pairs, in any shape…

Post-Election-Withdrawl-Syndrome:

The feeling of general depletion and emptiness in the few days after a presidential election. Caused by the sudden withdrawal of any campaign coverage, sound bites, or pictures of babies being kissed. May be accompanied by aimless clicking on news websites looking for something to read.

*NOTE: This condition has been observed in people whether their chosen candidate won or not.

Wife, to her Doctor: "I’m worried about my husband. Ever since the 4th, he’s just been sitting at home wandering the New York Times and CNN for hours on end."

Doctor: "I wouldn’t worry about it. He probably just has an acute case of PEWS. He should be back on his feet by the end of the week."

One pivotal moment in my political consciousness occurred at Penn State in Fall 2008, when I realized that most of the graduate students agitating for TA union recognition were supporting Nader. It seemed self-indulgent to me then. (He had already proclaimed support for gay rights to be “gonadal politics” he wasn’t interested in. But people I knew following the progressive “line” at the time didn’t care.) Now he continues to show his true colors.

According to Wikipedia, Rahm Emanuel has an Master’s degree in Comm Studies from Northwestern. Can anyone confirm? (1985, it says.)(And he belongs to a Modern Orthodox shul–Axelrod signed the ketubah at his wedding–I could just plotz. . . Omri, feeling any better yet?) Meanwhile, you can apply for jobs in the new administration here.

Dylan: You went over to the McCain side of the porch?

Siddhartha: I just wanted to see what it was like!

Eli: Traitor!

Siddhartha: But they were giving out more candy over there!

Dylan: Traitor!

http://www.slate.com/id/2203667/

Reminder — Proposals Due November 30th
http://digitalcelt.com/CFP_Metamorphosis.pdf

Call for Essays on Graduate Student Professional Development

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This map from the NYT (via Sullivan) illustrates the geographical limits of McCain support. As thoughtful conservatives debate the future of their movement, it’s also time for the rest of us to consider what these red counties and states want. Once upon a time, most of them were part of the New Deal coalition, and before that were populists. Obviously, we need to give up on gun control. What else?

“Urizen is trapped by his own laws. He no longer truly believes in anything outside himself. His only way of relating to the outside world is either to fear it or to steal something from it. He has turned the infinite possibilities of the human heart into a little machine of self-interest. And because of that, his life is a life without hope.”

In search of Dora’s box, the children find their way right to the heart of Urizen’s headquarters, and discover something entirely different from what they were expecting.

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My top two reforms that Obama needs to get passed quickly–what are yours?:

1. National voter registration (given the GOP obsession with faulty voter registration, it might be possible to build a bipartisan consensus).
2. Card check, of course. The Fox bobbleheads were already obsessing about this on election night.

RedState has a new campaign (the Right just loves disease metaphors, doesn’t it?).

Where’s Ann Coulter lately?

<a href=”http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_win_causes_obsessive?utm_source=em

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Have you ever wondered how Barack Obama does it?

I mean, how the President-elect uses words, for the most part simple words, to stir a crowd the way he did in…

Given the disappointment a number of states have been over same-sex marriage (Arizona, Florida, and now California), I thought some of our Blogora readers (especially those at UT) may be interested in the following petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/dpbforut/petition.html

“Domestic partner benefits are among the most tangible ways that an employer chooses to express the value it holds for a loyal employee. Without domestic partner benefits, gay and lesbian employees will forever remain a separate and unequal group of workers.”

— Human Rights Campaign

e⋅lec⋅tion e⋅rec⋅tion ĭ-lěk’shən ĭ-rěk’shən

-noun

1. the general euphoria experienced when your candidate of choice wins by a landslide.

2. the sexual arousal and excitement caused by same.

"Dude, when I saw the final tally of votes on Nov. 4, I got a total election erection!"

"You may have a first-time voter boner, but when Obama won I got a total election erection."

Here’s information on some (I think non-controversial) constitutional changes for RSA. If you are interested in rhetorical studies and are a regular reader of this Blog, but are not yet a member, please consider joining. Membership information is here. Student memberships are only $30 a year! And a big nudge to my COMM 651 students!

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From Newsweek:

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This New York Times article is interesting. If you don’t have time to read the full story, here are some excerpts I randomly selected:

Berlin: Others gave grudging respect to the American people’s intent, if not their celebrated president-elect. “Even though he doesn’t stand for change, I guess it’s a sign of change that people vote for him,” said Laura Weidinger, 17.

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I still remain humbled by this story.

It’s immensely enjoyable reading National Review Online, the Weekly Standard, and Drudge today. Barack Obama is a much better man than I am, but after having been called a traitor, a Communist, a Christian-hater/secularist, among other things, for the last eight years, I’m not ready. Let them stew in their wretched cultural backwaters. They produce no art, no literature, no science–nothing life-affirming, beautiful, or true.

According to a report from BBC News, several local councils in Britain have discouraged their employees from using Latin words and abbreviations in official correspondence. Because Latin is no longer…

The 44th President.

you are the country … you are the nation .. you will survive

http://youtube.com/?v=ti_JALcmMaw

virginia was just called….

Nick is up late doing the laundry. He walks by my chair periodically, muttering, “McCain Sucks!” “No McCain!”

A child conceived after Obama was proclaimed President by way of celebratory sex, or any baby born under Barack Obama’s term(s).

I was born July 2009. I’m an Obama baby!

I’ve spent the better part of my academic career puzzling about the relationship of the “social” to the “rhetorical,” mostly social class and status. The rise of the professional-managerial class as a “new class” requires rethinking some classical Marxist assumptions. Obama is the ca