Blog du Constitution
Mood:  rushed
The US Constitution is a legal written document outlining
the basic rights afforded to the citizens of the United States.
These basic rights were thought to be fair, just, and free of repression
and tyranny when they were originally written and they are still
in effect. Lawyers study these basic rights and learn how to negotiate
with people in courtrooms when these rights are compromised , eliminated or misconstrued.
There is still moral and ethical argument and debate going on about
interpretation of these rights because they were expressed in a most
economical manner ? with few words ? and thus open to many hidden assumptions
that are not agreed upon.
The Constitution, in the framework of seven Articles, puts forth the form of our government as three branches ? legislative, executive and judicial -- and how they are to operate. There is an outline of how politicians and president are elected and judges selected. There are ten original Amendments and an additional seventeen ratified over the years to bring the total number of Amendments to twenty-seven.
Interestingly, when this ?freedom? form of government and it?s constitution were
created, Africans were slaves with no human rights and no rights to vote nor did women
have the right to vote. The abolition of slavery came about in 1865, the right of African-American men to vote came about in 1870 and the right of women to vote was deemed
lawful and right in 1920.
This Constitution has served the country well over several centuries and appears to be a good working model of a successful and enduring society.

Blog du Unit 1
Mood:  d'oh
There was an unforeseen surprise in Unit 1?s content. While diligently
Attempting to write a critique on a short excerpt of an essay, I fell prey
To curiosity. It all started with a conclusionary sentence that made no sense
To me. Feeling rather miffed upon failing to understand the references and the
Joke being made by the writer of said essay, I feverishly resorted to web searches
In order to find out what the references were. Does this have anything to do with
Learning about the use of argument and counter argument in expository writing?
No. Does it have anything to do with figurative writing? Maybe. Does it have
Anything to do about writing a critique? Perhaps!
One may find humor in the fact that I spent enormous amounts of time
Glued to my web search findings, reading for hours bits of information that I
Did not know existed previous to that oblique comment in the essay.
One must also know about my predilection for becoming a fan of various obscure TV shows, especially British, in order to ascertain the amount
Of excitement that was the result of the research - namely the discovery of an English TV serial that has quite a cult following called Absolutely Fabulous. My susceptibility to TV shows all started back in the 60?s when Star Trek first appeared. Fast forward 20 years and you would have known me as a big devotee of Dr. Who for a number of years, and more recently of Red Dwarf. I now can attest to the fact that I have read the synopsis of every single episode of Absolutely Fabulous without having watched a single show. Oh frabjous day, caloo, calay.
So what was the reference? Geoff Nunberg writes this: ?After all, Alistair Cooke is a small price to pay for ?absolutely fabulous? and Emma Peel.?
It turns out Emma Peel is the name of the female heroine character in the show The Avengers. She was very sexy and very smart. Diana Rigg (later Dame Diana Rigg) was the actress who portrayed this daring young woman. Later Diana Rigg took over as
Commentator on Master Piece Theatre after Alistair Cooke, who had held that position For many years, died. Absolutely Fabulous is a comedy about two middle-aged liberal hippy
Women friends, Eddy and Pats (short for Edwina and Patsy). These two women push envelopes with their aging antics, liberalism, alcohol and pot imbibing habits and outrageous clothing styles. The jist of Nunberg?s reference is that enduring Mr. Alistair Cooke?s stodgy personality in the popular show Master Piece Theatre is worth putting up with in order to be rewarded with the beautiful Diana Riggs playing Emma Peel, comedienne Jennifer Saunders portraying Eddy and beautiful and funny Joanna Lumley acting the role of Pats.
Well, it is English . . . triple pun intended. :)

blog du Figurative Fun . . .
Mood:  on fire
All was motion as he blew hard into the horn
Bwwaaaap! Tweeeerp, Squeedilee, Do Da Dap
Thunderclaps and raindrops of storming notes
Cascading over my head, rushing and running
down my body dribbling into my ears, down
down into the recesses, nooks and crannies
Of my reptilian brain, Take cover and delight
The do waps, du vas, do be do bees of melodie
And crazy happenin? out-o-sight wall of sounds.
Dum dum da dum, chink a chink, spang -a- lang,
The thunder of the drums booted him in the butt
Go man Go, Go sky Go, pour your heart out baby,
Cry and wail and go go go Screeeaaammmming
And Jamming and Playing that stuff so hot and cool.
Makes me wanna drink it all up, drink in more, fill up
To the top, Over the top, I gotta say It?s too much, baby.

Sweat drops poured off his head, the horn in his hand
Drooled out of the bell the aspiration of his breaths
That had blown those notes so hard the sky cracked.
But don?t give me no umbrella, OK, coz it?s all good.

Blog du Culture and Language
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Eng 126
The personal and social interests and the environment of a group of people living together ( a culture) create a working language. This working language is malleable and quickly reflects new words, pronunciation, accenting and phrases to adequately describe (or not) new experiences, attitudes and experiences as suggested by Kirk Johnson?s short essay ?Today?s Kids Are, Like, Killing the English language,. Yeah, right.?(p 689). Ironically, the language may also keep out-dated words and their connotation, which is brought to light in ?The Quare Gene? by Tony Early (p 684). Language is a direct response to shared beliefs, customs, behavior, attitudes and survival techniques, and as such is a function of the culture. The culture shapes language -- it has to, because culture comes first.
Many academic professionals believe that the relationship between language and culture is the other way around. They feel that the language itself defines the culture. This is demonstrated by the archeological approach. In ?Reconstructing the Lost Tribe? (p 42) WLTC textbook, the author/editors ask us to describe an unknown, historic culture merely from a sampling of some findings about their language and the words themselves. With this approach it is easy to assume that language created the culture but this is not really the case as the culture itself created and used the language to verbally define and express what they knew and cared about.
The process is continual, much to the delight of humans who love to create new words and connotations to describe new information and new histories. For those of us who feel we cannot keep up with the constant changes and updates, there are plenty of books written by great authors like Honore de Balzac and of course William Shakespeare to keep us happy with the old and familiar. . . or is it?

Blog du Eng #2
Mood:  spacey
This is a test drive...so far so good.

Blog du Voice of the Writer/Reader
Mood:  lyrical
Topic: Eng 126

I?m thinking of taking a vacation this coming summer. It?s going to be the best vacation ever. I will fly on a plane. I will ride animals. I will sweat a lot but stay perfectly comfy
in the water. I will get lots of exercise and fall asleep instantly with exhaustion and a happy smile on my face.

You may never know exactly what this perfect 10 vacation is but you, as the reader, may have had many images come to mind as you read the above. Notice the lack of details, but . . . perhaps, your inner voice and imagination created the details. Maybe you lexia-d in your own amazing mind and pulled in images and ideas of where YOUR perfect vacation is and what you would do simultaneously while trying to figure out what mine is. All in a 9 second read.

The distinction between the voice of the writer and reader can be quite immense. The writer supplies the verbs and nouns and the reader supplies the rounding out of the full contents of each noun and verb context. The writer can manipulate this difference and use it as a writing tool. There can be a delicate balance: too little information and the reader is uninterested and stops reading; too much information and the reader is bogged down in minute detail that can stop her own creative reading voice.

In Thomas Lux?s poem ?the Voice You Hear When You Read Silently,? (p. 658) he delightfully expresses this difference by his use of the word barn and says ? . . . the voice in your head, speaking as you read, never says anything neutrally -- some people hated the barn they knew, some people love the barn they know. . .?