“Vernacular (noun): Native or regional idiom, on nonstandard or substandard language, as opposed to the established, cultured language of a society; spoken, as opposed to literary, usage; everyday speech; a lingo. Adjective: vernacular; adverb: vernacularly; noun: vernacularity.”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.”
Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.
Posted in English Language Arts, New York City, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged humor, literary oddities, philosophy/religion
“A movement that began in the late 1930s and was led by William C. Bagley, a leading teacher educator and educational psychologist at Teachers College, Columbia University. Essentialism emphasized high-quality curriculum for all students, teachers as knowledgeable authorities in the classroom, and strong teaching profession rooted in high-quality teacher education. Bagley and other Essentialists opposed progressive ideas, such as child-centered classrooms and the assertion that problem solving should replace academic subject matter.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
“Kitsch: A strict dictionary definition describes kitsch as a ‘something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste.’ By the 1960s, pop artists were ushering in changed attitudes as they appropriated these once-denigrated mass-produced objects for use in their works. Contemporary artists like Jeff Koons continue to walk a fine line between the good taste of bad taste and outright bad taste.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Posted in Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“Verbal communication is the basis for everything that occurs in classrooms, whether this is the delivery of new information or the regulation of behavior. Although language skills are biologically primary, their development in children of the same age can be highly uneven, Further, a significant proportion of children in any class may have developmental language disorders, which may or may not have been formally diagnosed. Such disorders typically impact a student’s success with written or spoken language.”
Ashman, Greg, and Pamela Snow. “Oral Language Competence: How it Relates to Classroom Behavior.” American Educator Vol. 43, No. 2 (Summer 2019): 37-41.
“(Greek ‘back-timing’) In literature anachronisms may be used deliberately to distance events and to underline a universal sense of verisimilitude and timelessness—to prevent something being ‘dated.’ Shakespeare adopted this device several times. Two classic examples are the references to the clock in Julius Caesar and to billiards in Antony and Cleopatra. Shaw also does it Androcles and the Lion when the Emperor is referred to as ‘The Defender of the Faith.’”
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.
“Attorney, n. A person legally appointed to mismanage one’s affairs which one has not himself the skill to rightly mismanage.”
Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged humor, literary oddities
“James M. Cain’s novel The Postman Always Rings Twice stirred up something of a sensation when it was first published in 1934. It wasn’t about the postal service, it was about sex. Cain explained that he had given his book its odd title because before it was accepted for publication it was rejected many times, and each day that the postman brought a letter of rejection he rang twice.”
Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, literary oddities
This week’s Text is a pair of learning supports on using conjunctions.
Now it’s time to go swimming in the Connecticut River, in Putney, Vermont, with friends. I hope you’re enjoying your summer.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Vendemiaire (grape harvest) * Brumaire (fog) * Frimaire (frost) * Nivose (snowy) * Pluviose (rainy) * Ventose (Windy) * Germinal (germination) * Floreal (flower) * Prairial (pasture) * Messidor (Harvest) * Thermidor (heat) * Fructidor (fruit)
This calendar was part of a reform movement to make over the world into a rational yet poetic place. Its first month, Vendemiaire (from the Latin for ‘grape harvest) started the day after the autumn equinox, which was neat, for it was also the day after the abolition of the monarchy on Year 1 of the Republic, 22 September, 1792.
The poet-journalist Fabre d’Eglantine was called in to advise the calendar committee on the naming of the months. They were to be exactly thirty days long, composed of three ten-day long weeks, each ending with a decadi as the day of rest. Days were to be composed of just ten hours (so 144 of our current minutes) abnd each hour was divided into 100 minutes and each minute into 100 seconds. The whole reformed calendar lasted for twelve years, from 1793 to 1805, though the week and hour reforms never took off beyond the political periphery of Paris. It was revived for another eighteen days during the Paris Commune of 1871. It was ridiculed by the British, who nicknamed the Republican Calendar with its four formal seasons: Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Wheaty, Heaty and Sweety.”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
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