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May 25, 2008

Eurovision 2008 comes to an end

I first became acquainted with the Eurovision song contest while I was in Greece in May 2006. Astute readers will remember the winner being Lordi's Hard Rock Hallelujah which I described as a "Finnish ... Spinal Tap revival band."

Unfortunately, Eurovision has reverted to form and designated an unmemorable Russian entry as its winner. I will not bother you with the details of this year's winner. However, for your amusement, I present you with Finland's entry, the heavy metal band Teräsbetoni and their song Missä miehet ratsastaa ("Where the Men Ride") (lyrics):

as well as Latvia's pirate-themed entry "Wolves of the Sea":

Both get points for originally as well as providing more evidence that parts of Europe exist in a 10-20 year pop-culture lag.

Posted by Dean at 6:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 17, 2008

Things to keep in mind when nitpicking about language

The author of the blog Stuff White People Like seems to have run into me on a bad day and decided to hit at me personally. At least, he must have, because entry 99 is dedicated to grammar:

White people love rules. It explains why so they get upset when people cut in line, why they tip so religiously and why they become lawyers. But without a doubt, the rule system that white people love the most is grammar. It is in their blood not only to use perfect grammar but also to spend significant portions of time pointing out the errors of others.

When asking someone about their biggest annoyances in life, you might expect responses like “hunger,” “being poor,” or “getting shot.” If you ask a white person, the most common response will likely be “people who use ‘their’ when they mean ‘there.’ Maybe comma splices, I’m not sure but it’s definitely one of the two.”

Ouch. The grammarians among us must always remember this truism, however:
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” - James D. Nicoll

Posted by Dean at 10:36 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 7, 2008

Deep thoughts in Comics Subversion

Via the comments of Ezra Klein's weblog:

an amazing proportion of New Yorker cartoons are improved if you replace the caption with "Geez, what an a-hole."
Check out some cartoons and see that it works!

Posted by Dean at 10:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 5, 2008

Dropped off the face of the earth

Lately I just haven't felt like posting much and haven't had much material to post about, anyway.

However, while I was at MIT over the weekend, a guy I know sought me out and told me how much he liked the post I made last year about Marilee Jones's departure from MIT and that he referred lots of other people to it for a good summary of the issues. It made me feel better that people read this every so often and occasionally find things they consider interesting. It's inspired me to at least make an attempt at getting back to a semi-regular posting schedule.

Posted by Dean at 7:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack