Most of the time when I return to the U.S. and attend a conference, a thread emerges some point about “the crisis of the humanities.” Sometimes it’s about Republicans defunding higher education, sometimes it’s about changing attitudes among undergraduates or university administrators, sometimes it’s about the publishing industry, sometimes it’s about curriculum, and sometimes it’s …
Continue reading “The Crisis of the Humanities; also, I’m entering “annoying Canadian” territory”
I’ll just write and say that I was a little disappointed that the Quebecois gangsters didn’t get a little more time on last night’s The Sopranos. But we’ll take what we can get. Commentary (and links to more) here.
not really, but older. Awhile back, I posted that we bought a radio to listen to Radio Canada in order to hear more French. The thing is, it’s above our level right now and hard to understand. TV and movies would be better. Anyway, Thursday night as we cooked, Carrie flipped on the English CBC …
1. I wrote a sentence in my book about how depending on what country you’re in, you get a totally different view of the psychoacoustic research leading up to mp3 coding (though the concepts — masking, critical bands, etc., are all the same). Then Lucent (the fools who closed Bell Labs) won a suit against …
Continue reading “Ten Things that happened or that I learned on our 8-day trip to Seattle”
I was pleased to see that the French language lobby stopped the Esso Corporation’s plan to give its depanneurs an English name — “On the Go,” and I am pleased to see that people are now starting to ask questions about the English-language signs for multinationals. Since Bill 101 the Quebec language police have been …
The first ad campaign for Montreal’s Metro. 1976, shot in the Atwater station. Check out the cool synth intro. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a TV ad for a subway before.
Locals will wonder what took us so long and everyone reading at a distance will have to file this under “what the hell?” We finally made it to Quincaillerie Dante yesterday while on some errands about town. What an amazing store. Much better prices on kitchen gadgetry and cookware than the fancy-pants cooking stores and …
Continue reading “Kitchenware and Ammo, Together as You’ve Always Wanted Them”
