drupagliassotti @ December 31, 2008 # No Comment Yet
As I sit here on the evening of December 31, thinking back on 2008, my first inclination is to say, “I didn’t do very much.” That’s strange, because in fact I did quite a lot. However, when I try to figure out why I want to summarize the year in such a negative fashion, I [...]
drupagliassotti @ December 27, 2008 # One Comment
I’m an introvert, so of course I picked up Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life is Your Hidden Strength by Helgoe when I saw it on the library shelves. I’d seen a book or two about dealing with one’s introverted children, but I’d never seen anything addressed to adult introverts before. Despite the weak title [...]
drupagliassotti @ December 23, 2008 # One Comment
For the last decade or so I’ve been going to my sister’s apartment for Christmas, two counties away. It’s just her, her son, and me, and over the years we’ve pared down our Christmas to only the parts we enjoy the most, leaving behind anything excessive or onerous. We cling to some traditions we enjoyed [...]
drupagliassotti @ December 22, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Today I heard an ad for Royal Caribbean’s ship Mariner of the Seas that inspired me to make this post. Get it? Mariner of the Seas. Of the Seas. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary: Marine (adj.) c.1420, from M.Fr. marin (fem. marine), from O.Fr. marin, from L. marinus (fem. marina) “of the sea,” from [...]
drupagliassotti @ December 18, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Here’s a fascinating video associated with an article posted Dec. 12, 2008 in New Scientist on a reconstruction of Archimedes’ Antikythera mechanism, “a hand-wound clockwork device used to calculate the motions of the sun, moon and planets as seen from Earth, as well as to predict solar and lunar eclipses.” Clockpunk.
drupagliassotti @ December 15, 2008 # No Comment Yet
I have this saying, “some days it’s all you can do to survive.” I usually trot it out when the day’s been particularly stressful and I feel like all I’ve done is keep up, rather than get ahead. Today, however, I mean it a bit more literally. It’s Monday and raining in Southern California, so [...]
drupagliassotti @ December 12, 2008 # 2 Comments
I don’t decorate much for Christmas. The two Christmas celebrations I attend — Christmas Eve & Day with my sister and nephew, and a second January Christmas with the whole family — are all at other people’s houses, which means I’m not decorating for anybody but myself. And I don’t like clutter. Nevertheless, it’s about [...]
drupagliassotti @ December 11, 2008 # No Comment Yet
The Harrow is suffering technical difficulties as a result of a server reboot. We’re working to get it back to you as soon as possible!
drupagliassotti @ December 10, 2008 # 3 Comments
My paper “Reading Boys’ Love in the West” is now online, published in Participations 5(2). I will be happy to answer questions in the comments section here. Abstract: “Boys’ love” is used to refer to male/male homoerotic texts, particularly manga, created by women for women. Originally developed in Japan, boys’ love is now a [...]
drupagliassotti @ December 7, 2008 # No Comment Yet
CNN’s usage of “begging the question” in this paragraph is incorrect. “Begging the question” is not a fancy way of saying “raising the question.” To beg the question is to put forward an argument that uses faulty premises and/or circular reasoning as “support.” For example, let’s take this argument: Because about two-thirds of the U.S. [...]