When you're teaching, it often helps to give an example (or several), rather than merely trying to explain things abstractly. For example (ha, self-reference), if I'm talking about rondo form (ABACA), I start by playing a song in rondo form and pointing out the recurring section. Then I explain the structure, how the first part keeps coming back ( Read more... )

In 1492, any educated person knew the Earth was round, and had a decent idea of the size of it. Christopher Columbus differed from the scholarly consensus, believe the Earth was much smaller, and Eurasia much bigger, than they actually are, and that he could therefore reach Asia with the ships available at the time ( Read more... )

Chekhov's Gun: A gun hanging on the mantle in Act 1 must be fired by Act 3. To ignore this rule is often considered a sign of poor writing ( Read more... )

You find interesting things reading big chunks of scripture. For example, the Israelites accused Moses of leading them into the desert to die three times (Exodus 14:11, 16:3, and 17:3) in the first three lunar months after leaving Egypt (Exodus 19:1). Each complaint is answered by a miracle, which somehow doesn't stop them from complaining again ( Read more... )

So hey, I'm married now ( Read more... )

From an allegedly science article in Newsweek: "From its inception, evolutionary psychology had warned that behaviors that were evolutionarily advantageous 100,000 years ago (a sweet tooth, say) might be bad for survival today (causing obesity and thence infertility), so there was no point in measuring whether that trait makes people more ( Read more... )

There are about a dozen movies I would rent on iTunes if I could, but they're either only available for purchase or not available at all. I am too lazy to go register at a rental store (or, for that matter, drive to one in the first place), and too law-abiding (and also lazy) to search for pirated versions. Some of them I might buy, or at least ( Read more... )

Dear assorted ancestors, great-to-the-nth aunts and uncles, cousins n times removed, and other relatives throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries:

STOP REUSING THE SAME SIX NAMES! It makes genealogy very confusing.

For any Arlington grads who haven't heard -- Mr. Sweeney's daughter says it's "nearing the time to say good-bye."

http://www.billsweeney.typepad.com/

In addition to the updates, there's a message board where you can leave a note for him.

Carly Sigelbaum, my principal's daughter, died on Friday. She was nine years old and her only child.

Her husband is in good condition, and sounds like he'll be okay, but this is going to be a rough time for them, and for the school community. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.