I was recently outed for the way I wrote a cursive Q. Cursive is a waning skill, as it is not part of the common core curriculum, and, thus, also on its way to becoming a class issue; If you know cursive you probably attended private, parochial school or a foreign school system. I went to parochial school during the learning-to-write period, and so, my uppercase Q’s resemble the child from a union between an upper case L and the number 2. The bottom loops like an L, with an air pocket to the left and a flourish to the right. The top is the top of a 2, with the hook facing left instead of the right of an L hook. Continue reading “Qareful with your ps and qs”
Amazeballs word noobs, especially for Scrabble-ites
Te, frenemie, bromance, selfie – those are just a few among the plethora of new words added to the latest edition of Merriam Webster’s Official Scrabble Dictionary. Added to that, among the 5,000 new words, were those of the digital age, such as hashtag, vlog, texter and geocache. Geocahe was apparently big-brothered in by voters this spring. Just as an update, ok is still not ok.
Continue reading “Amazeballs word noobs, especially for Scrabble-ites”
The Times Behind the Style
The New York Times has discovered that some women, of the Islamic faith, wear hijabs, head coverings. And not only that, but these women want to be stylish while decorous and modest as indicated by the constructs of their cultures. Which just goes to show, if it’s in the Times’ style coverage, it ain’t exactly breaking news. Just read any of New York Magazine’s coverage of this ‘style’ coverage. The Cut, NYMag’s fashion blog, slices and dices with sarcasm and irony that will curl your toes. Continue reading “The Times Behind the Style”
Primus inter pares
In September, Scots will vote whether or not to separate the United Kingdom. Currently, the full name of the largest sovereign state in Queen Elizabeth’s Commonwealth realm of 16 countries is: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Come October, it could be something like ‘The United Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland but not that place to the North’ with the secession of the nation of Scotland. A sovereign state is, in the condensed version, a geographic location under the authority of a centralized government recognized by international law and treaties. The UN recognizes 195 independent sovereign states. Continue reading “Primus inter pares”
One small step is basically standing still
In August, 2013, Nat Geo wrote that the rate for female genital mutilation in Egypt was dropping. (See The Eternal Sunshine of National Geographic.) Sadly, dropping means going from 97 percent to around 90 percent. In a culture where the practice is so embedded it is called “The Pharaonic Custom,” miraculously, this drop happened in only a decade. Continue reading “One small step is basically standing still”
azimuths compass 