The Door Game

This is kind of interesting. This game involves choosing from three doors. Unlike the Simpsons, there's not a hungry animal behind any of the doors. I'll let the host site explain the rules of the game. Make sure you stick around for the evaluation at the end.

Movies from Novels

You can make film from fiction? That's a crazy idea, but it might just be crazy enough to work! Here's an article about recent films and their adherence to their novelistic origins. Who'd have known that all of these movies were first novels? But what about Transformers?

Rejection

In the unlikely event that you receive a grade that you'd rather not see, the sort of grade that ought to be reserved for the truly mediocre and inept people who populate this world, you might find a bit of solace in this little video. Or maybe not.

Weirdest Book Titles of '07

I couldn't improve on this, so here's an entire brief article from the NY Times.

The polls are open in the annual balloting for the Diagram Prize, honoring the world’s oddest book title, Agence France-Presse reported. Conducted by The Bookseller, a British trade magazine, the vote at www.thebookseller.com asks participants to choose from six mostly nonfiction titles on the shortlist, culled from titles submitted by publishers, bookstore workers and librarians around the world. The nominees are “I Was Tortured by the Pygmy Love Queen” by Jasper McCutcheon; “How to Write a How to Write Book” by Brian Paddock; “Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues” by Catharine A. MacKinnon; “Cheese Problems Solved” edited by P. L. H. McSweeney; “If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs” by Big Boom; and “People Who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Doctor Feelgood” by Dee Gordon. The winner is to be announced on March 28. The prize has been offered since 1978, when the winner was “Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/books/25arts-BOOKTITLESEA_BRF.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin

Literature vs. literature -- John Grisham

If you've taken a literature class from me, then you know that one of the big questions I like to continue to dangle in front of the eyes of my students is the difference between capital-L Literature and small-l literature. In other words, what makes something worthy of being treated with respect, printed in literature anthologies, and so forth. John Grisham, it seems, doesn't place himself in the upper-case category.

“I’m not sure where that line goes between literature and popular fiction,”
the mega-selling author says. “I can assure you I don’t take myself serious
enough to think I’m writing literary fiction and stuff that’s going to be
remembered in 50 years. I’m not going to be here in 50 years; I don’t care
if I’m remembered or not. It’s pure entertainment.”

Consider the Source?

What a strange morning. I awoke this wintery morning and, before getting completely dressed, performed the sensible task of looking to see if JCCC had cancelled due to the weather. According to KC's channel 5, we were open.
After spending a half hour in my office and speaking to several colleagues, I received a peculiar phone call from Penny, my wife.
"Are you at school?" she asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"You're closed," she continued.
"No we're not."
"Channel 9 says you're closed."
If Channel 9 says we're closed, then I guess we must be closed. After all, they're on TV and we're not. Never mind that classes are in session, the parking lot is filling up, and the Writing Center is buzzing. Channel 9 says we're closed.
When I notified our public information czar about this tidbit, expressing my outrage at her for withholding this information from us, she registered surprise. "I knew that KFKF said we were closed, but this is news to me."
News. Yeah, that's what Channel 9 is all about. They're so late-breaking in their news coverage that they announce us as closed before we close. I'm impressed.
The czar explained that the last time she had called a TV station directly to register a closing, they had simply accepted the news without asking who she was or whether she had the authority to make such a pronouncement. Interesting.
There's a point to this little rant. My point is that you should always check all available sources for school closings so that you get out as often as possible! Also, it is important to be skeptical of sources. Channel 9 either wasn't skeptical about whoever called in with the news on JCCC's closing or they simply made a mistake, perhaps confusing Johnson County Country Club for Johnson County Community College. Either way, a smart student will recognize that these things happen.
Had a person gone directly to the JCCC website, they'd have seen--straight from the horse's mouth--that the school is open.
Taking this idea a bit further, maybe I should be more skeptical. I didn't see Channel 9's error myself. It's not on their web listing now (although it might have been removed in the last few minutes), so maybe Penny made a mistake and I shouldn't trust her. I'm so confused!

Ninja Advice on Research Papers

It’s that time in the semester when you start wondering about term papers. Who better to help you out on that topic than me? I’ll tell you who’s better: Ask-A-Ninja! He’s got some wonderful insight on the matter.