Aug

31

Get Schooled.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment

When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder I can think at all.
-Paul Simon, Kodachrome
When school budgets are cut the humanities, particularly the arts and music, are always the first things to go, along with languages and sometimes even history. The reason is obvious: these things are really [...]

Aug

29

Word Of The Week: August 29th, 2009.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 29, 2009 | 2 Comments

How does a word’s meaning change? With the proliferation of technology it’s easier to track not just a new word’s first entry into the lexicon but sometimes even an older word’s shift in meaning. With older shifts, though, particularly when it comes to slang, the best we can do is speculate. Take, for example, the [...]

Aug

28

Tattoos Are Forever.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 28, 2009 | 2 Comments

Or are they? I’m pretty sure that advances in laser technology mean that most tattoos can be removed, but the process is painful and expensive–apparently more painful and more expensive than getting a tattoo in the first place. But, hey, you wouldn’t get a tattoo unless it was a really good idea, right? Sometimes I [...]

Aug

22

Word Of The Week: August 22nd, 2009.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 22, 2009 | 1 Comment

Certain words seem to carry an inherently negative connotation. I thought of this when someone recommended the word ilk as a Word Of The Week. I’ve never heard this word used positively, and, in fact, I think I’ve only heard it used in the phrase “I’d never associate with someone of your ilk”, or something [...]

Aug

21

Slinking Back To Work.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 21, 2009 | 1 Comment

When someone sends you something like this and says, “Hey, this made me think of you!” should you laugh or be insulted?

Aug

19

Historical Nourishment.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 19, 2009 | 1 Comment

When I heard about a James Ensor exhibit at the MoMA, I was both excited and confused. I was also annoyed that the exhibit won’t be travelling and I can’t get to New York to see it, but that’s another story. I was excited because I’m familiar with Ensor’s paintings, but also confused. If you’ve [...]

Aug

17

Book ‘Em: Back To School.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 17, 2009 | 1 Comment

Even though I read primarily science fiction and fantasy as a kid, I loved Judy Blume’s books mainly because there was a sense that she got it, that, even though she was an adult, she remembered and understood what it was like to be young. The fact that her books were often assigned to us [...]

Aug

15

Word Of The Week: August 15th, 2009.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 15, 2009 | 1 Comment

“I’m so hip I can’t see over my pelvis.”–Douglas Adams
Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, it seemed only too appropriate to look at the word hippie. The definition I think most of us are familiar with is one that can be found in McGraw-Hill’s Dictionary of American Slang And Colloquial Expressions:
a long-haired drug-using youth of [...]

Aug

14

What Would You Forget?

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 14, 2009 | 1 Comment

A librarian friend recently sent me an article called The First Time. It’s by a librarian who noticed a kid holding Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. She asked him if he’d read it before. He hadn’t. She asked him if anyone had told him how it ended. No one had. She goes on,
At that [...]

Aug

13

Can Shrews Be Tamed?

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 13, 2009 | 1 Comment

The Nashville Shakespeare Festival is putting on The Taming of The Shrew this year for their 22nd annual Shakespeare In The Park. Now, I’ll go ahead and say there are spoilers here, although the play’s title itself is pretty much a spoiler. If you don’t know Katherina gets tamed in the end you either haven’t [...]

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