June 2011
'Vettes
On this day in 1953, the first Chevy Corvette rolled off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan. At that time, it was an experiment, and only 300 cars were produced that year, all of them convertibles, all of them white, with a red interior and a black ragtop. The Corvette was made of fiberglass, and came with two options: an AM radio for $145, and a heater for $91. It wasn’t exactly a...
Attention Co-Workers
My horoscope today:
You might set yourself up for disappointment today because it seems like you’re willing to take care of everyone at work. However, you shouldn’t spread yourself too thin, even if you care about others a whole lot. Try weaving an invisible protective shell around you so you don’t get pulled off track. You’ll probably do fine in the long run, but your...
MySpace Sold
And you thought the value of your house has gone down. MySpace - which News Corp. bought in 2005 for $580 million - was sold to Specific Media for $35 million.
http://mashable.com/2011/06/29/myspace-sold/
Good opening stanza...
Siren by Robert Hass
Here is the poem I meant to write
But didn’t
Because you walked into my study
Without any clothes on…
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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
It’s the birthday of French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, born in Lyons, France in 1900. He was rather a poor student, and he failed his entrance exam to the naval academy, but he joined the French army in 1921, and that’s where he flew his first plane. He left the military five years later and began flying airmail routes into the Sahara Desert.
When the Nazis...
Bad Company →
Bad Company is the English rock that appeared in 1973. They were considered a “supergroup” because it combibed two former Free band members — singer Paul Rodgers and drummer…
Hacked
My Gmail got hacked yesterday. A first for me.
Looks like it tried to mail everyone in the contacts starting with A a message about “diversifying your life” and gave a link to some other buy pharmaceuticals overseas site.
Google told me to change my password because of “suspicious activity” - which I did though I was suspicious of THAT message too! Paranoia strikes...
Finding People on Twitter →
The Twitter search is lousy for finding people you want to follow. WeFollow has directories in categories and a search that helps you find big users (influential & by sheer numbers)
http://wefollow.com/
Summer Reads →
Nancy Pearl Presents 10 Terrific Summer Reads via NPR
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37 Years of Bar Codes
On this day in 1974, the first Universal Product Code was scanned at a supermarket cash register. The UPC bar code system was originally invented specifically for grocery stores, to speed check-out and help them keep better track of their inventory, but it proved so successful that it spread quickly to other retailers.
The first patent for a bar code went to N. Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver...
George Orwell
It’s the birthday of novelist and essayist George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair in Bengal, India (1903). He didn’t care for his birth name; he found “Eric” too Norse and “Blair” too Scottish. When he began writing in earnest, he adopted what he felt was a solidly English name; his surname comes from the River Orwell in East Anglia.
Best known for his...
DOE Guidelines for e-readers →
The U.S. Department of Education has released anew guide to laws and rules colleges
must follow to ensure e-reading devices and other emerging technologies are accessible to all students. …
Practice College Writing Exam Sessions →
The Writing Center will offer two “Mock CWE” sessions next week. In these workshops, students preparing for the CWE will get guidance in how to prepare, addressing the topics, and…
NJ Fails to Meet Its Obligations to Public...
“… the state and municipalities failed to meet its financial obligations. Since 2004, the state has not made $15.11 billion in required payments to the pension funds, while the municipalities have skipped $1.9 billion. Public employees, meanwhile, have fully paid their required contributions.
As a result, the state has a $54 billion shortfall in its pension system, among the highest...
Summer Solstice →
“In summer, the song sings itself.” — William Carlos Williams Summer in the Northern Hemisphere begins on June 21 with the summer solstice when the Sun is directly above that imaginary line 23.5°…
Haiku Workshop in NJ June 25 →
Poets Online is sponsoring a free haiku workshop this Saturday, June 25, at 7:00pm in North Plainfield, New Jersey. This is a free workshop with Ken Ronkowitz on both reading and writing…
Jerry Seinfeld →
a few clips each day (portion control is important) on http://jerryseinfeld.com
As Jerry says:
When I was ten years old, I started watching stand up comedians on TV. I fell in love with them and I’m just as fascinated with stand up comedy today. When I started doing TV, I saved every appearance on every show I did. I thought it might be fun to go through all of it and pick out...
“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your...”
– E.L. Doctorow
“Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.”
– E.L. Doctorow
“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other...”
– Thomas Mann
Fathers and Sons
An odd poem today from The Writers Almanac on this third Sunday in June honoring fathers. It’s a fairly recent holiday. The first bill to make it a national holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913, but in spite of encouragement by President Woodrow Wilson, it didn’t pass. In 1966, Lyndon Johnson issued a proclamation designating the third Sunday in June to honor fathers, and it...
“I want to live other lives. I’ve never quite believed that one chance is...”
– Anne Tyler
“Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is...”
– The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor
What gets you up in the morning?
Bandito
by Eleanor Lerman
What gets you up in the morning? For me it is the thought that someday, I will be as far away from here as I can get Watch me rubbing out the lines behind me I recommend it…
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