March 2010

Traditionalism v. Individualism: The Struggle of the Conservative Youth.

Cahn and Carbone explore the challenges a conservative-minded youth face in an liberal-acting world.

Wikipedia: Write First, Ask Questions Later

Dennis Baron looks at Wikipedia.

Dietary Blindness: The Many Ways We Cannot See

An excerpt from Blindspots: The May Ways We Cannont See.

Happy Birthday Philip Roth!

An excerpt in honor of Philip Roth’s birthday.

Unpleasant People
Part 3: Swindler

For the third part of his Unpleasant People series, Anatoly Liberman discusses the recent origins of the word swindler.

Shakespeare, sex, and love: Recording sexual behaviour in the sixteenth century

By Stanley Wells

It is in the nature of things that sexual behaviour that does not offend agreed norms makes no special stir. Even so it may be revealing. People masturbate, woo, marry, copulate, and give birth. Of these events the law requires only that marriages and, in Shakespeare’s time, baptisms rather than births be recorded. Analysis of such records may in itself illuminate the sexual mores of the period and, indeed, of Shakespeare and his family.

Should Everybody Write?
Or is There Enough Junk on the Internet Already?

Dennis Baron looks at the destabilizing technologies of communication.