It was a big year for the word "They". The word was chosen by Merriam-Webster as the word of the year for 2019 and by the American Dialect Society as word of the decade. Ben Zimmer, chair of the American Dialect Society’s New Words Committee and language columnist for the Wall Street Journal, noted a growing … Continue reading A Clean Sweep for “They”
It's been a tradition where I grew up, in the Philly suburbs, for a local radio station, WMGK, to play a list of the top 500 songs, as voted by listeners, over the Memorial Day weekend. This year the station replayed the list for the New Year, and I was surprised to hear that Stairway … Continue reading Music Monday: Comparing Top 500 Song Countdowns Across the U.S.A. (and the World)
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Grace Hauck, a reporter for USA Today, put together an interesting story that looked at 20 predictions that were supposed to have taken place by 2020. I won't go over each one since you can read the full article for that. I thought I'd just take a look at a few of the more interesting … Continue reading So How Did These Predictions for 2020 Work Out?
If so, then why am I not one of the most productive people I know? A story in this week's WSJ tells about the work of Prof. Jennifer Ragsdale, a University of Tulsa industrial-organizational psychologist, and her research team who are studying whether surfing the internet for cute baby-animal pictures makes you more productive at … Continue reading Is Mindless Web Surfing the Key to Increasing Productivity?
Sayre's Law states: "In any dispute, the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake." By way of corollary, it adds: "That is why academic politics are so bitter." Sayre's law is named after Wallace Stanley Sayre (1905–1972), U.S. political scientist and professor at Columbia University. The quote is often attributed to … Continue reading Who Knew There Was a Law to Explain My Obsession with WordPress Stats
It's been a humbling way to start the New Year. Last week, on Christmas Eve, I decided to deactivate my Facebook account. I put a lot of thought into the decision, wondering if I would miss reading my friends' updates, if they would miss mine, and what impact it might have on my blog stats. … Continue reading If I Deactivated My Facebook Account, and No One Cared, Did It Really Happen?
I was watching the Eagles-Giants football game the other day and it struck me how incredibly difficult the quarterback's job is. There are only 32 NFL starting quarterbacks in the world, giving you a sense of the rarefied position they hold. Here are some of the challenges associated with the position: The quarterback has to … Continue reading The Toughest Position in Sports?
Serendipity strikes again. I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Nashville Noise by Coti Howell, and she had a post about Pandora announcing its country artists to watch for 2020. There are 15 artists on the list, and I started checking out each one by going to YouTube and looking for some of their … Continue reading Music Monday: Song Suffragettes
It's that time of the year when people are starting to set goals for the New Year. One popular goal is to be healthier, so I thought I'd share some information on one initiative that focuses not only on being healthier, but also more compassionate, and more environmentally friendly. Veganuary is a UK-based non-profit organization … Continue reading Veganuary Can Be a Game Changer
Borden's Blather 