Dowbrigade

For
years the Dowbrigade has been using the Harper’s Index with his advanced
ESL students.  The Harpers Index is a monthly list of surprising
or unexpected or counterintuitive statistical
facts, written in a strange hybrid form expressing equivalency, but
gramatically neither statement nor question. Here are some examples from last
month’s list:

Percentage by which the Defense Department proposed cutting its budget
this year by closing its Peacekeeping Institute: 0.001

Ratio of the institute’s budget to the estimated price ofJennifer Lopez’s
engagement ring: 3:4

First year in which the definition of "turkey" in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary went beyond fowl: 1949

Grams by which the amount of fat in McDonald’s fattiest salad exceeds that
in its fattiest burger: 3

First the students were instructed to rewrite the items as gramatically correct statements
– for example, "McDonald’s fattiest salad has three grams of fat more than
its fattiest burger."

Next they would rewrite them again as questions and answers. Q: "How many
more grams of fat does McDonalds fattiest salad have than its fattiest burger?"
A: Three grams

Finally, and here is where the higher order language functions kick in,
they had to answer the question "And the point is?" (Salads can have more
grease and fat than burgers, at least at MickyD’s)

Students love figuring out what the point is, and pursuing the subsequent
conversational strands ("What could they possibly put in their salads to
make them greasier than their burgers?")

However I remember lamenting several years ago that the monthly lists
were unavailable on the Harpers magazine web site. No more. Now, they have
an archive of past indexes, and on the first of each month post the previous
month’s list.  The items are even linked to Harper’s stories and other
resources! Great resource for teachers.

from Harpers

Cool little quiz over at quizilla.com, called "What kind of post-modernist
are you?" I’m not really sure what a post-modernist is, except that I
think it has something to do with deconstructionism.

Thanks to Ryan
Overbey for the tip. Here are our results….

You are a Cyberculture Floozie. The theoretical aspects of postmodernism
interest you only insofar as they can be used to make cool blinky things.
You probably take psychedelics and know at least one programming language
(HTML counts!). Other postmodernists call you a corporate whore. They’re
probably just jealous because you make more money than them.

They were doing pretty good until the money part….

from Quizilla

The holiday spirit was dampened and Christmas dinner ruined at Buckingham Palace by a combination dog fignt / cat fight involving The Queen of England, her daughter Princess Anne, a bull terrier named Dottie and the Queen’s favorite Corgi, name of Pharos. Note the gratuitous use of Latin. American papers should do more of that, lends a note of class to a tawdry genre…

THE Queen was last night heartbroken over the death of her beloved corgi
Pharos, savaged by Princess Anne’s danger dog Dottie.

The lethal attack by the English bull terrier was the last straw for
Her Majesty at the end of another "annus horribilis"
.

It happened on Monday afternoon as the Royal Family gathered for Christmas
at Sandringham in Norfolk.

Anne arrived with Dottie – the dog that mauled two children last year,
leading to the prosecution of the princess and her other bull terrier
Eglantyne. Princess Anne is said to be distraught at incident.

As the door was opened by a servant, the Queen’s corgis raced down the
main staircase to greet Anne.
But Dottie went for Pharos – the Queen’s oldest corgi – savaging its
hind legs and breaking one in three places.

Growls and yelps were heard through the corridors as the attack went
on. The Queen, who is recovering from a knee operation, heard the commotion
and hobbled downstairs. But Pharos – for whom she had already made up
a Christmas stocking packed with treats like doggy doughnuts and chocolate
drops – was terribly injured.

He was treated by Royal vets and kept in intensive care but had to be
put down yesterday.

A Royal insider said the 77-year-old Queen, who has had Pharos for more
than a decade, was "absolutely devastated"

SIDEBAR:

Dogs so like their owners

By MEL HUNTER

PSYCHOLOGIST Dr Glenn Wilson claimed that pets can reflect the personality
of the owner.He said: "To some degree you do choose a pet which connects
with your personality.

"For example, a psychopath might go for a rottweiler. That may be a stereotype
but I am sure there is some truth in it.

"A timid-minded person is far more likely to go for a kitten than a big
dog."

Dr Wilson, of the University of London, said a dog could almost be a
substitute child. He went on: "Just like a naughty child, you can’t just
let a dog go because it is badly behaved. In fact, naughtiness is somehow
endearing.

"The connection between royals and their pets may be even stronger because
the animals can’t answer back " and they don’t tell tales."

Top pet shrink Dr Roger Mugford said: "Bull terriers are not a breed
known to be aggressive to humans but if you have one that’s bad it will
hit the headlines.Fights can start if one dog looks at another the wrong
way, just like with humans. All dogs enjoy fighting but bull terriers
are good at it."

from the
Sun

As
the top prize gets closer and closer, The Remaking of Howard Dean is
reaching a fevered pitch. What with Michael Jackson embracing the Nation
of Islam, hearing that Dean is embracing his Christian roots is all part
of a heart-warmingly fashionable "Rush to Religion" this holiday season.
Makes the Dowbrigade want to rush out and embrace some Old Tyme Religious
Values like ritual human sacrifice
and temple prostitution.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Presidential contender Howard B. Dean, who has said
little about religion while campaigning except to emphasize the separation
of church and state, described himself in an interview with the Globe
as a committed believer in Jesus Christ and said he expects to increasingly
include references to Jesus and God in his speeches as he stumps in
the South.

Dean, 55, who practices Congregationalism but does not often attend
church and whose wife and children are Jewish, explained the move as
a desire
to share his beliefs with audiences willing to listen. In the Globe interview,
Dean said that Jesus was an important influence in his life and that
he would probably share with some voters the model Jesus has served for
him.

He acknowledged that he was raised in the "Northeast" tradition
of not discussing religious beliefs in public, and said he held back
in New Hampshire, where that is the practice. But in other areas, such
as the South, he said, he would discuss his beliefs more openly.

While attending Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, he
met his wife, Judith Steinberg, who is Jewish. The two were married by
a judge, and neither opted to convert, Dean said, because both felt strongly
about their respective religions.

"We considered becoming Unitarian as sort of a compromise that wasn’t
going to respect either person’s tradition," Dean said. "But
you know, our religions mattered enough that we didn’t really want to
change."

The couple’s two children, Anne, a sophomore at Yale University, and
Paul, a high school senior in Burlington, were given their choice of
religion. Both chose Judaism.

from the Boston Globe