Redux

Over the years, I’ve noticed some strange coincidences. If I buy, for example, a wine from a relatively unknown country or variety, then two days later, I’ll see a 2-page spread in the Sunday times about the up-and-coming wine industry of that country. Or maybe I suddenly get an old song stuck in my head, which is made even more annoying if I can’t remember the words after ten years of never hearing it. A day later, it will be played three times on the radio.

Now, it’s happening to me in blog form.

Here’s an example: over at educlaytion.com, we’ve been engaged in a Movie March Madness, following the college basketball tournament (may I ask at this time that we observe a moment of silence in morning for Florida’s defeat by Butler…amen). My entry – Four Weddings and a Funeral – was defeated after the first round, but as I pout, I am still keeping an eye on my other favorites. Within days of the contest’s start, Ghost, The Blues Brothers, Harry Potter, and The Empire Strikes Back were all being played on various cable stations. And just yesterday, I caught part of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, another contestant which is also one of my all-time favorite movies. Don’t judge me.

When this sort of fortuitous timing leads me to further information about a topic I’ve explored here, I will collect links or references and offer them up as follow-up tidbits for the edification of us all. Continue reading

Nimrod

Well, Part Deux has taken me on a much more intriguing and time-consuming journey than I’d thought. I am suddenly involved in a refresher course on the Sapir-Whorf theory and finally reading some Lev Vygotsky, Language and Thought. I didn’t mean to turn this into a treatise, but it’s been fun getting back into some linguistic study, so I’m going to keep reading for a bit and then finish my thoughts about my thoughts…how d’ya like them metacognitive apples?

In the meantime, I present to you my favorite word of the week: nincompoopery.

I swear it is a real word. Let me explain the twisted chain of events that brought this to my attention. Continue reading