Tuesday, March 8, 2011

International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day, a "major day of global celebration of women." Today, if you are so inclined, you can "inspire women and celebrate achievements," "make a difference , think globally and act locally !!", and "ensure that the future for girls is bright, equal, safe and rewarding." See the official site for more enthusiastic words.

I will spend today acting very locally, marking midterms in the endless effort to educate people (of both genders). I may take some time to work on ensuring my own future: research.

I hope you do something today that could be described in inspirational phrases.


This post's theme word is prosopography, "a study of the individuals in a group of people." I wish we focused on prosopography rather than generalizations. (Note: the OED agrees with my definition, above, but Wikipedia offers both this definition and its apparent opposite -- the word's meaning is subtle.)

Monday, March 7, 2011

Chicken on a raft on a Monday morning

Chicken? on a raft? on a Monday morning? Oh! what a terrible sight to see!

Why, you wonder, would a chicken on a raft be a terrible sight? I think this video (via The Scuttlefish) explains everything quite sufficiently:


I think a chicken on a raft would be cute. Especially on this Monday morning: I'm back to work and just as busy as before the weekend. However, now I have "chicken on a raft" stuck in my head. It's catchy! Hey-ho, chicken on a raft!

(Side note: my favorite site for ripping youtube videos to low-quality mp3s is gone. Do you have a recommendation to replace it?)


This post's theme word is tarn, "a small mountain lake, having no significant tributaries." I set my chicken free on her own custom-built raft; she wanted to be the first chicken across the tarn! (I tried to think of a barn/tarn joke, but failed.)