Category: humor

Friday Five: snow day edition

OK, so it isn’t a snow day for everyone. Some of us had to stick around to alert the media and students, faculty and staff that classes were canceled for most of the morning. But because Thursday’s weather shut down much of the Missouri Ozarks, it seems like a snow day. At least it’s a slow day. Which means I can get caught up on some bloggables. Here are five for your Friday:

  1. After a full November of writing the Great American NaNoWriMo Novel, Morgan Davis returns to his blog, erelevant, without missing a beat. Welcome back!
  2. But enough about other economic news, let’s talk about us. Via Romenesko, a column by William Powers of the National Journal about how the news media’s narcissicistic reporting. “From Los Angeles to Philadelphia, newspapers are flailing — read all about it, in exquisite detail, in those papers themselves and everywhere else. … Of course, you’re reading one of the symptoms of this disorder — a regular column of media commentary, devoted today to questioning the idea of media narcissism. Next week we’ll discuss the media as simulacra of semiotic hyperstructuralism.” Paging Jacques Derrida.
  3. Speaking of media coverage of media: Bad news for old news — and seven more dire predictions for the media for 2007. Includes such shocking revelations as: “Technology will make it easier to find, access, and manage content.” Hat tip: I Want Media.
  4. Why didn’t my journalism profs tell me this? From Slate, by way of CyberJournalist: the newspaper industry knew it was doomed 30 years ago. Seems that in 1976, LA Times media reporter David Shaw wrote a page one feature that posed this question in its lead (lede): “Are you now holding an endangered species in your hands?” And then proposed some remedies, many of which the media have already tries. Interesting story for news junkies.
  5. Prospective college student Sam Jackson has narrowed his college choices to 15, and now he wants to know the dirt on them. ” I don’t want slurs, I don’t want attacks, but if you have a compelling reason for me to not go to one of the fifteen schools on my list, please tell me.”

Post-Thanksgiving leftovers

A few things we missed while we were busy OD’ing on food and football during the long weekend.

  • She lost on Jeopardy!, baby. Margaret Spellings, the U.S. secretary of education, finished second in her round of Celebrity Jeopardy! last week. She lost to the guy who played Lenny on the ’70s sitcom Laverne and Shirley.
  • College leaders take to blogging. A New York Times article about how college presidents are using blogs to communicate with students and alumni.
  • Spamalot, the college edition. What happens when Brown University sends an email to Wesleyan students asking them to fill out a survey on academic advising? “The e-mail stirred up Isaac Levy, a sophomore, who was not happy that spam from Brown administrators was filtering over onto his campus’s listserv for students.”

Ms. Dewey: search goddess or time-wasting temptress?

I’ve just discovered the Ms. Dewey search engine (thanks to Gideon Strauss, who calls the site the anti-Google), and I can’t decide whether I like her or not. Ms. Dewey is certainly more entertaining than those other plain vanilla search engine interfaces.

Ms. Dewey, Search Goddess

In the words of Adrants:

She’s saucy, she’s sexy, she even poses provocatively from time to time with a cute little notepad – but beware, like most hot chicks she is chatty as hell and gets a little needy when neglected (along the lines of “Hel-loooo? Type something here!”). Also, sometimes she sings. We don’t get embarrassed often, but we got embarrassed then.

In the end, Ms. Dewey is yet another Internet black hole to suck away your time. Not as highly addictive as the ultrainteractive kung fu remixer (thank goodness), but a nice diversion when you’re needing a break from ignoring all those media queries.

Update: fellow blogger brownpau suggests we see what happens when we ask Ms. Dewey about Janina Gavankar.