Archive: Arts & Entertainment

SMART TALK

by Dr. Ced Riley


FOREWARN: At the Center for English as a First Language, patients are taught how to test for redundancies: Do a term's opposites or alternatives make sense?

If postwarn is as silly as postpone until earlier, then maybe the term should stand on its own, prefix-free. I mean, doesn't warn mean to tell someone about a danger before it happens? Yes? Then why not say warn?

Saying forewarn is a symptom of Temporal Retentive Syndrome. Here's another example: Some of our patients like to preplan their actions. Why can't they plan anything? Maybe we should call hindsight postplanning?

After treatment in the Edwin Newman Clinic for Temporal Retentives, patients begin to listen better and clean up their language. The sharp ones even see the absurdity in preregister - do you ever postregister? - and apply elsewhere if a school asks them to preregister in advance.

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SMART TALK

by Dr. Shirley Glibb


CURVE THE SCORE: In a recent issue of the Underbelly Prerecorder, our Lengua Loco County Superintendent of Schools was talking about the standardized tests the kids have to spend most of their time preparing for, thanks to the No Teacher Left Ahead government edicts.

"Some years, most of the kids score really low, so we curve the scores up so a realistic proportion can pass," he said.

Just to make sure of what I'm about to say, I consulted Mr. Tudor A. Lott, math teacher at Wesson High School, here in Underbelly, Texas.

"Aaargh!" began Mr. Lott. "That's not a curve; that's inflating all grades! Sorry. I've been so busy compiling data for the state and the feds that I can't keep up with my students' homework or plan lessons well. Give me a minute, would you?"

He collected his thoughts and began. "When you grade on a curve, you use basic statistical methods to process all the scores with a few formulas. The effect is that top scores may increase by very little; but gradually, more points may be added as scores drop. Sometimes, points added may decrease again, and by the lowest score, maybe nothing is added. You don't know until you apply the algebra. That's why it's called a curve: No set number gets added to everybody's score. That would simply be grade inflation."

I thought so. Curving up and curving down are terms that give away the speaker as ignorant thanks to with poor teacher training, little or no classroom experience, or both. Or maybe mathphobia.

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Spring is finally here, and what a great time for a musical in the Kitchen! Veteran Kitchen Theatre artistic collaborators Rachel Lampert & Larry Pressgrove’s 'Waiting for Spring' is an expansion of Act 2 of their well-received Comfort Food. The production boasts a cast of Broadway veterans. Previews are May 30th, 31st, and June 1st, and Opening Night is Saturday, June 2nd.  It runs for three weeks, closing June 17th, 2012.

It’s a snowy day a few days after New Year’s Eve 2006, and Estelle is preparing a perfect dinner. It’s been three years since Estelle’s husband Joe passed away, and every year since, she and her old best friend Stephanie have gotten together on the anniversary to reminisce, laugh and maybe cry a little.

Bits and shards of the history of Ithaca Pottery will be reviewed at a talk at The History Center on June 7, 2012, 5.30pm.

Ezra Cornell's father, Elijah, owned a pottery works on the South side of E. Lincoln St. at the corner of Lake St. at the bottom of Gun Shop Hill. Pieces of this fascinating history have been recovered and examined by Carol Griggs and Ted Sobel.

Read more ...

SMART TALK

by Dr. Will S. Sert


WAYS AND MEANS: Here at the Center for English as a First Language, we have a collection of the most outrageous kind of redundancy. In case English is not our first language, the speaker condescendingly uses synonyms, as if we had no idea what the first word means.

Actually, it's usually the speaker who has such a loose grip on the thought process that he or she thinks it's smart to flaunt their knowledge of basic words.

Politicians, for instance. Who else could have thought Ways and Means was a smart name for a congressional committee? Maybe Methods and Techniques sounded just too complicated.

Politicians are also fond of insisting that "it is only right and proper" to pass whatever self-serving bill they are enacting.

Assuming they can produce the ways and means.

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On Saturday, April 28, Kitchen Theatre Company (KTC) hosted Dance the Night Away, the theatre's 21st anniversary celebration. Local celebrities and members of the KTC staff participated in a friendly dance competition. Performing the Cha-Cha with Dr. Kristna Kapur, dancer Dr. Luis Mauleon raised the most money, winning the competition and a weekend trip to New York City for two. Dance the Night Away raised a grand total of $40,000 for the Kitchen Theatre Company—the most successful fundraising event in KTC history.

From May 4th through the 6th, the Community Arts Partnership (CAP) will present Spring Writes, the 2012 Finger Lakes Literary Festival. During this year's weekend-long festival of all things written, CAP will be collaborating with the Family Reading Partnership of Tompkins County(delete) for a special celebration of this year's "The Big Family Read." 

On Saturday, May 5th, from 10 am to 1 pm, E.B. White's classic, Charlotte's Web, will get the marathon treatment, as guest readers drop in to read the book aloud from beginning to end. The whole family is welcome to join the fun at the Thaler/Howell Program Room at the Tompkins County Public Library.

SMART TALK

by Dr. Will S. Sert


NULL AND VOID: At the Center for English as a First Language, we have a collection of the world's most flagrant redundancies, those that include a pair of synonyms.

The legal profession just loves these. That is, the lawyers with poorer thinking or language skills love them. They must thereby get a feeling of self-importance. The very brightest jurists tend to write and speak with clear, tight usage.

Cease and desist, one of legalese's greatest hits, just means stop and stop. So why not say stop? The document might sound even more forceful.

Are fraud and deceit any different, really? Why don't the lawyers say theft and stealing? Oops, now that I've suggested it...

And then we have null and void. Why not null, void, invalid, vacant, forceless, not viable, and nugatory while you're at it? Why stop at just two synonyms? Why not throw the whole thesaurus at everything you say? We promise to try not to laugh.

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