Vocabulary lesson
January 7, 2024
Y a un tas de mots que je ne comprends pas quand je lis Proust. Je me déspère un peu en pensant que je ne parlerai jamais le français comme un vrai
Iris and I had an interesting discussion with Google Bard this morning.
January 4, 2024
Dear statistician Bard, off the top of your head, how many male babies born in the US in 1942 are still alive today? I understand your curiosity
Discussion on the Pomona College class of 1964 listserv
December 22, 2023
On pp 31-32 of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision barring Trump from appearing on the ballot or being counted as a write-in (PDF), they cite a
I’m illiterate
December 4, 2023
In the late 60s and early 70s I had a small student office in the Linguistic Department at the University of Texas at Austin. That’s where I wrote
Elon Musk
December 2, 2023
A friend of mine sent me this link to an article by Albert Burneko, who tried, not entirely successfully, to mock Elon Musk. Musk may be a
I love photographing the artists at Wildacres
November 16, 2023
Eating a Mouse
October 31, 2023
In honor of the great god, Ganesh, who hates mice, I had to eat a mouse so that Ganesh would bless my brother Rich, who will be having surgery in
It Really is a Fascist Flag (at least to some Americans)
September 21, 2023
Even in elementary school, I found it strange to pledge allegiance to a flag. Being loyal to my country, fine, but a piece of cloth? I’m also old
I love the New York Times Metropolitan Diary
September 19, 2023
It was published here. It’s rare that jokes and cartoons make me laugh out loud, but this story from The Metropolitan Diary, one of my favorite
Watching The Ten Commandments in Gafsa, Tunisia, in the sixtes
September 12, 2023
Back in the 60s, the cinema in Gafsa showed The Ten Commandments. About a half dozen of my girl students recruited me to chaperone them. Afterwards,
I wanna be like these guys when I’m their age!
September 7, 2023
Wait! I am their age! (Of course the videos were made when they were younger and then really well dubbed.)
The insignificance of photography
September 2, 2023
Found at The New Yorker
Enough
September 2, 2023
I remember hearing or reading some form of this story long ago. I associated it with John C Bogle, the man who enabled Iris and me to retire in
photos from our trip to Japan
August 19, 2023
This is our first rough selection of photos from our trip to Japan. There are few comments at this point. We have been kept busy. In fact, I’m
MoveOn wants to amend the Constitution?
August 1, 2023
Ben & Jerry used their platform to encourage everyone to mark their money with a rubber stamp: This is a terrible idea! Can you just imagine what a
Google Sheet Number Formatting
July 30, 2023
Google Sheets has fairly good formatting for displaying numbers and dates. But I often use Google Sheets to create data for exporting to TSV files
Summer Brake
July 29, 2023
A friend of mine (not a native speaker of English) (not that native speakers or even spelling correctors know any better) sent out this message: «
Romantic technologies and ideologies
July 29, 2023
I’m intrigued by this article “That Deep Romantic Chasm”: Libertarianism, Neoliberalism, and the Computer Culture because it reminds me of the old
PITY THE NATION
July 26, 2023
Pity the nation whose people are sheep And whose shepherds mislead them Pity the nation whose leaders are liars Whose sages are silenced And
Basho’s poem, Even in Kyoto
July 15, 2023
I believe that Haas’s translation is far from literal since the last line simply simply names the cuckoo, but it is far and away the most beautiful
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