Monthly Archives: November 2010

The topic for this blog has been kicking around in my head – changing shape and meaning – since 2009, when Time Magazine contributor, Lev Grossman commented on the pop-culture zombie craze of that year in his brief piece, “Zombies … Continue reading →

A number of commentators have noted in the past week that Sarah Palin’s political strategy is pretty darn smart — and that we shouldn’t be surprised if it actually works in 2012 to secure her the Presidency. Her brilliance — … Continue reading →

As a child growing up near the “snow belt” in northeastern Ohio, I loved snow days. Whenever my favorite meteorologist (Dick Goddard – look him up) would say, “get out your yard stick, this one will be a doozie,” I … Continue reading →

The first thing I do in the morning when I wake up is turn on the T.V. This morning, I became struck by the ad for a product I always keep in my house: SmartWater. The ad shows an image … Continue reading →

A few weeks ago we discussed Elizabeth’s Eisenstein’s book and came to a class consensus that the printing press was not just a neat-o invention (although, yes, it was also clearly neat-o). For starters, it changed readers’ interactions with the … Continue reading →

The above advertisement is scanned from a recent issue of Harper’s Magazine. “The Teaching Company” sells a variety of courses, mostly in the humanities but also in science and mathematics. The format is basically: the company hires a professor of … Continue reading →