intertext

Let's start with the delightful "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks. Along with the proliferation of apostrophes where no apostrophe needs to be, we see "quotation marks" all over the place. Someone is keeping track and commenting dryly on them.

I find this one fascinating: The Book Depository Live. Watch in real time as people all over the world buy books. Why I should be mesmerized by seeing someone buying Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys in Sweden, I don't really know. It's the magic of the WWW.

And a link for Shakespeare buffs to add to their bookmarks: Shakespeare and Film: A Microblog. Great source of news on new and old movie versions, dvd releases (including David!! Tennant's!! Hamlet!!!), and useful YouTube clips.


(crossposted on College English)

I handed this out to my 2nd year class on Medieval and Renaissance Literature. I wish it were not necessary!

Beware of the following:

Lust: your sinful desire for a good grade leads you to the ever-so-tempting paper mills.

Gluttony: overindulgence in the works of others.

Greed: desire for a better grade than you deserve.

Sloth: sheer laziness either in failure to do your own thinking and writing, or thinking that you don’t need to follow instructions or cite according to the required format.

Wrath: inappropriate feeling of hatred, revenge or even denial towards your instructor or the institution for imposing what you feel are unjust rules.

Envy: resentment of others for their hard work and careful attention to detail.

Pride: thinking you are above the law, too clever to get caught, or too “artistic” to need to follow the required format for citation.

(cross-posted)

Come courtesy of a student (bless 'im), here's this wonderful Fry and Laurie sketch about language. Stephen Fry nails the pretentious talking head...

Oh god... Chaucerian super heroes! What will that mad medieval blogger think of next!!!

I just have to share this surreal, bizarre and strangely touching video from YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETQ0urHjSIk


Enjoy!

No, not those cartoons, but twenty pages of cartoons about those cartoons and related topics. And rather good they are, too.