One of the skills tested by the various state-level high school English Language Arts exams - previously, in Texas, the TAKS tests; now, the STAAR tests and end-of-course exams - is the ability to identify the main character of a written story or excerpt. I don't think it's too strong to say that if you can't do that, then you probably shouldn't ( Read more... )

Ganked from scarfman:

Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a non-same-sex marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

Ganked from wyldraven, with gratuitous profanity removed:

Copy this sentence into your journal if you believe the government should keep its nose out of the estate of " ( Read more... )

Happy National Coming Out Day, everyone!

Man, I got so caught up in the grading (two and a half stacks down, four and a half yet to go, but two of them should be relatively quick) and the political nastiness that I almost forgot.

First of all, I didn't realize that British ads ever emphasized the 'foreignness' of any foods, with the possible exception of curry. Between the legendary blandness of the English palate (at least the Minnesotans have some Scandinavian dishes in their mix), and their annoyance at the US in general, I wouldn't have thought that an ad for a New- ( Read more... )

Three cheers for the old men and women in the big black robes in California! It's long past damned time.

*does the "suck it, bigots" happy dance*

Hopefully, this is just the next brick in a larger edifice.