I’ve added a new category to weeklyrob blog posts: Personal I never intended to write about anything more personal than my opinions, and each time I’ve posted something about my actual life, I’ve thought of it as an exception. But I guess I should just accept that every now and then I want to put […]
Pain
Some time in the last year or two, I read about a study showing that men tend to report less pain when there’s a woman in the room. Not that they feel less pain, but that they keep a stiff upper lip for the female nurses. When it’s just guys, they admit that it really […]
Yummy
I remember a restaurant where you’d order your meal through one of the phones attached to every table. Then someone would bring the food out. It was a gimmick, the food was ordinary, and the restaurant failed in a jiffy. Germany, the land of efficiency, takes the idea to its logical conclusion. I like it! […]
Beatles and Bad Grammar
I recently saw Across the Universe. As most people know, the movie updates a bunch of Beatles songs, and uses them to tell a story. It’s pretty good, and part of the fun is seeing how the movie-makers adapt the lyrics to their purpose. The one I bring you today is especially interesting to me, […]
Open Dictionary
The Britannica Blog points to Merriam-Webster’s Open Dictionary. If the word’s not already in the dictionary, you can help put it there. Or if not “there,” at least somewhere. Some of the submissions are clearly wannabes, but some are words I’ve used or heard used many times (like “za” for “pizza”; or “A-game,” as in […]
Preface
In the middle of Volume III, Chapter 19, Shandy (the narrator) gives the general position of the characters he’s introduced so far, noting that they’re all taken care of for the moment. Then he says: “’tis the first time I have had a moment to spare, and I’ll make use of it, and write my […]
Poor
According to the article I’m about to link to: “… the poor are disproportionately likely to drop out of school, to have children while in their teens, to abuse drugs, to commit crimes, to not save when extra money comes their way, to not work.” In other words, they seem to be likely to behave […]
Penis
I just want to see if my Web views go up with that subject. But, it happens to be appropriate. The Penis restaurant: “A specialist penis and testicle emporium.” I think maybe this restaurant has already made the rounds on one of the crazy food shows, but I bring it to you here as well. […]
Odysseus Journeys Home
Robert Fagles (who was approvingly quoted in a weeklyrob post about translation) has died. Obit.
Congress
Maybe everyone knows this. After Bono said, “This is fucking brilliant” on live TV, the P.I.C. (“People in Charge”) decided that the network couldn’t be punished because the word “fucking” in that sentence wasn’t actually talking about sex, so broke none of the current rules. So a resolution was introduced to the House, explicitly (and […]