Title Comment Comment Date Comment Link
Collection: Mnemonic aids

Those were actually common knowledge in my grade school, but I did make this one up for the all-but-impossible to recall Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: Ghosts Haunt Stone Towers More Cautiously Lately -->
Great Pyramid of Giza
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
Colossus of Rhodes
Lighthouse at Alexandria

4/15/2005 View
Collection: Mnemonic aids

Please excuse my dear aunt Sally. --> parentheses, exponents, divide, add, subtract

King Philip cut open five green snakes. --> kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species

4/14/2005 View
Jim's Current Addictions

That doesn’t sound so bad. I wonder if MLA would accept a study (or panel) on Peeps in the works of Oscar Wilde, which, like Dorian’s decadent bible, Against the Grain, can be had in a rainbow of colors? Odysseus, I don’t know if you have any background in this area, but you are obviously a Peeps scholar and can write your way around history and literature. Why don’t you contact me if you have any ideas?

3/26/2005 View
Jim's Current Addictions

Thank you for the acknowledgement Johnny! I look forward to reading it. I'll be sure and let you know if I hear of any upcoming conferences on Peeps, the semiotics of holiday-themed candy, or sweets and the marketplace.

3/25/2005 View
Jim's Current Addictions

Peeps in Pepys? I think we have the beginning of a conference paper title. But Odysseus, I am a little uneasy about your allusion to the story (long considered apocryphal) that Peeps started the legendary Great Fire – or indeed, were anywhere near it. Peeps are far too easily melted themselves to be capable of arson. I suspect you are on sturdier ground with the Decaramelization, although you will have to prove that Peeps had an interest in religion.

3/25/2005 View
Jim's Current Addictions

Possibly, but you'd best back off from the peeps libel, or you might have to contend with something worse than a lawyer: a fearsomely enlarged peep.

3/24/2005 View
Jim's Current Addictions

Yeah, I can see how Dickens’ saccharine sentimentality might be a metaphorical expression of an underlying sweet-tooth. Twain, by contrast, sought refuge in humor that was a jejune attempt to avoid sentiment, later falling into bitter misanthropy in The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson in a blatant denial of the inspirational role that sweets played in his work. We should also note the varieties of consumption so conspicuous in Dickens’ novels (and so absent in Twain's), from the tubercular death of Little Nell, to the pitiful feast at the Cratchitt’s Christmas table, to the wretched excess of the ancien regime in A Tale of Two Cities – each a marker of preoccupation with consuming sweets that contrasts sharply with Victorian moralists' warnings against them.

By the way, can anyone remember if there are any chickens in Dickens?

3/24/2005 View
Jim's Current Addictions

Peeps is actually the name for the genus. The species are subdivided into bunnies and baby chicks.

But don't you have a dissertation to be working on? Does your advisor know you spend this much time on the psychology of Peeps?

3/24/2005 View
Jim's Current Addictions

Peeps are not carcinogenic. They are sugar-coated marshmallows.

You will be hearing from the Just Born Corporation's lawyers very shortly.

3/23/2005 View
Books Read in 2005, Part I

I was considering reading that. How did it not live up to the title? Was it things that aren't crucial that everyone know? Things that are not proven scientific knowledge? Not really 1001 things?

1/19/2005 View
Movies that Love Movies

No problem. Reading through your plot summaries, I wonder why it is that so many movies about movies end in chaos?

12/8/2004 View
Some Of My Favorite TV Shows

What do you think of Gilmore Girls this season? I'm thinking about firing it if it doesn't improve. What I loved about it--the unexpectedly affecting dramatic moments and clever lines--are in short supply right now.

On the up-side, Jess is out of the picture.

12/6/2004 View
All-Time Favourite TV Shows - UPDATED

Fawlty Towers never gets old. I love John Cleese's rants: "May I ask what you were hoping to see outside of a Torquay window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeests sweeping majestically across the plains?"

Curious fact about Jeannie: you never see her belly-button.

12/6/2004 View
20 Favorite Bands

I listen to many of these myself pretty regularly. Brit-pop has so much energy and life, even when it's whiny (e.g. the Smiths, whom I never get tired of). Do you have any recommendations for where to start with St. Etienne? I heard one song I really like on a sampler, but haven't bought a CD yet.

12/4/2004 View
My favorite... Films... a work in progress: Sorted By Year

Your welcome. Sorry, I somehow missed seeing that you already had [i]Take the Money and Run[/i]. Do you have any general guidelines for your 100 point rating system?

12/4/2004 View