Author: Chad
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The Holy Sanctuary of Public Libraries
As a reference librarian at a suburban public library, I sit at the information desk, waiting to answer patrons’ many different questions. On Friday evenings, the foot traffic slows and a soothing silence descends on my area. Save the soft clattering of the keyboards in the computer lab, it is mercifully quiet. It’s in these…
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Destiny of the Republic
In Assassination Vacation, one of my all-time favorite books, Sarah Vowell calls the circumstances surrounding the Garfield assassination “an opera of arrogance, a spectacle of greed, a galling, appalling epic of egomania dramatizing the lust for pure power, shameless and raw.” After reading Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic, which details said circumstances, Vowell’s characterization now almost…
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The Leftovers
As we approach Sunday’s season finale of The Leftovers, HBO’s new series about a Rapture-like occurrence and its aftermath in a small New York town, let’s consider a Gospel story: Jesus said to his disciples, “Compare me to something and tell me what I am like.” Thomas said to him, “Teacher, my mouth is utterly…
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Football is Fun
I love reading Ask Vic, the daily Q&A column from Packers.com writer Vic Ketchman. He’s a self-proclaimed “dinosaur” of football, accustomed to the old ways of the game but trying to adjust to the new ones. One of his responses on Monday stuck out as essential reading for football fans everywhere, but especially the fanatics whose…
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Fishing for Failure: On Writing’s Pain and Gain
“Writing and fishing are both art forms built for optimists.” So says Nick Ripatrazone in a wonderful essay at The Millions. I’m inclined to disagree. Writing and fishing, though art forms indeed, feel more often like science projects built for masochists. Writing and fishing are laborious. They take a lot of time, most of which is spent…
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Deep & The Divine Milieu
At one point in Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, Mason asks his father if there’s magic in the world. Probably not literal magic, his dad replies. But then he asks the boy: if you didn’t know what a whale was and someone told you there was a giant mammal that lived underwater with a heart as big…
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DDC 430-439: Polyglöts Ünite
A Teach Me How To Dewey production This Is How We Dewey: 430 Germanic languages; German 431 German writing system & phonology 432 German etymology 433 German dictionaries 434 Not assigned or no longer used 435 German grammar 436 Not assigned or no longer used 437 German language variations 438 Standard German usage 439 Other…
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Pit Bull Power
Flower Power, a photo series from photographer Sophie Gamand, aims to portray pit bulls in a different light and captures the sweet, loving dog beneath the oft-misunderstood exterior: Victims of prejudices, uneducated laws and urban tales that associate them with ultra violence, they are probably the most misunderstood dogs. Pit bulls, like any terrier dogs, are…
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DDC 420-429: Nouns and Pronounce
A Teach Me How To Dewey production This Is How We Dewey: While I know a little Spanish, English is (obvs) my primary language. And what a weird language it is. I’m so glad I didn’t have to learn it later in life, because in some ways it makes no sense. Especially pronunciation: this well-known…
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DDC 410-419: Linguistics alfredo
A Teach Me How To Dewey production This Is How We Dewey: 410 Linguistics 411 Writing systems 412 Etymology 413 Dictionaries 414 Phonology 415 Structural systems (Grammar) 416 No longer used—formerly Prosody (linguistics) 417 Dialectology & historical linguistics 418 Standard usage; Applied linguistics 419 Verbal language not spoken or written Regarding the post title: what…
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Calvary
The Master of death will come soon enough—and perhaps we can already hear His footsteps. There is no need to forestall His hour nor to fear it. When He enters into us to destroy, as it seems, the virtues and the forces that we have distilled with so much loving care out of the sap…
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DDC 400-409: Learn ALL THE WORDS
A Teach Me How To Dewey production This Is How We Dewey: Gotta admit this up front: I friggin’ love words. As an English major, a writer, a reader—pick the reason. I love them so much that I keep a list of cool words I’ve encountered that I want to remember. (*pushes up glasses*) So…
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Jane Eyre: Live Blog
I watched the 2011 film version of Jane Eyre and instantaneously documented my unvarnished initial thoughts and reactions. I’ve never read the original book, nor know anything about the story, so it’s entirely fresh to me. “What is hell?” the headmaster asks Jane. A pit of fire, she replies. But she really knew, as others…
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DDC 390-399: Emily Post-Its
A Teach Me How To Dewey production This Is How We Dewey: This section is a bit of a grab-bag. I suppose customs, etiquette, and folklore fit together under the broad category of culture, but on the shelves this looks like that one drawer in the kitchen where you throw all that miscellaneous crap that…
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DDC 380-389: We built this city on rock and roads
A Teach Me How To Dewey production This Is How We Dewey: 380 Commerce, communications, transport 381 Internal commerce (Domestic trade) 382 International commerce (Foreign trade) 383 Postal communication 384 Communications; Telecommunication 385 Railroad transportation 386 Inland waterway & ferry transportation 387 Water, air, space transportation 388 Transportation; Ground transportation 389 Metrology & standardization Honestly,…
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Encountering Robin
I was an intern at a large advertising agency last summer. One day I was at my desk when a fellow intern stopped by. “Robin Williams is here,” he said. Ha ha, I thought. Probably just trying to prank others interns. “No really,” he said. “He’s on the next floor up.” We had heard that he was there…
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DDC 370-379: Trigger warning – School
A Teach Me How To Dewey production This Is How We Dewey: A fitting section to happen upon as we approach back-to-school season. It’s a time of year that is bittersweet for me: while I do miss the camaraderie and intellectual rigor of being in school, I don’t miss BSing papers, having to take math,…