MALAPROPING THROUGH THE AGES
WHICH CAME FIRST: the malaprop, a humorous misuse of similar sounding words, or Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1775 play The Rivals? The French language gives a … Continue reading
SKOOL IS BACK
NOW THAT KIDS ARE returning, sorta, to traditional schooling, maybe it’s time to bring some humor, er… humour to the educational process. I do this in vintage fashion, by examining … Continue reading
BUT HE WENT, LIKE, WHATEVER….
OLIVER GOLDSMITH, ANGLO-IRISH playwright, went, like, “The true use of speech is not to express our wants as to conceal them.” Whatever. How facile this evasive English rolls off the … Continue reading
ONLINE LEARNING PART 2
YESTERDAY, PROFESSOR WILLIAM DAVIES discussed plagiarism, identifying such literary treachery with TurnItIn software, and obscuring it by means of Artificial Intelligence. Today, his article in London Review of Books continues … Continue reading
ONLINE LEARNING PART 1
I ENJOYED THE PROCESS of lecturing on mathematics. And, apparently, so did my students (if their anonymous surveys were to be believed). Even though I am computer-friendly, I’m not sure … Continue reading
ON BOOKS
AS MENTIONED EARLIER here at SimanaitisSays, Wife Dottie and I accumulated books in anticipation of eventually opening a secondhand shop. Also cited, we gave up that dream when a nice … Continue reading
HOUSEHOLD DISCOVERIES AND MRS. CURTIS’S COOK BOOK—1909 PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE EXAMINED the Discoveries portion of Household Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis’s Cook Book. Today in Part 2, we see what Mrs. Curtis is cooking up. The Author/Cook Speaks. “Ten … Continue reading
HOUSEHOLD DISCOVERIES AND MRS. CURTIS’S COOK BOOK—1909 PART 1
WELL, IT’S CLEAR why I bought this particular 1909 1024-page tome: “The main object of this book is economy,” its Preface says. “If rightly used, it will save a great … Continue reading
FAUX (AND FUN) BIOS
BIOGRAPHIES, LITERALLY “PICTURES OF LIFE,” are assumed to be truthful narratives. Unless, of course, they’re written by or for scoundrels. Or written with a firmly placed tongue in cheek. I … Continue reading
DOWN EAST CHATTEH PART 2
THIS CONTINUES SHARING MY favorite New England expressions and phrases, as compiled by Charles Fry Haywood in his Yankee Dictionary. Parson’s Nose. Haywood is both succinct and technical on this … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 