(no subject)

Questions (and non-questions) T. has asked me:

(background: T. is 14 years old. He is as 14-years-old as it is possible to be).

Do you have a book on street gangs?
[No, but we can order it for you.]
How long will it take?
[Three, four days.]
That's too long. I'll walk to Garner.
Why did you move to America?
Do you hate America?
Can I have some candy? Please? Please? Please? Please?
Can I have a computer reservation? Please? Please? Please? Please?
I know where you keep your money.
Are we best friends?
I thought librarians were supposed to be everyone's friend.
Are you married?
Do you have a boyfriend?
Why not?
Do you have a girlfriend?
Do you want one?

I wonder whether he'll give up on me once he realizes that my buttons are not so easily pushed. I mean, seriously, what? Is he attempting to blackmail me by getting to admit that I'm secretly an anti-American commie lesbian, in order to get me to grant him extra computer privileges? (Incidentally: he does not know where I keep my money).
He'll need to ask better questions if he wants to get any real dirt on me.

A generic post

flemmingstook a stab at the difference between Genre and Literature, and I did too, and I've been thinking on it since then...

(Disclaimer: I think that everything, or nearly everything, has a genre. So I'm not saying that James Patterson is a better writer than your favorite fantasy writer. I'm trying to grope at some of the ways that genre expectations can help you or constrain you, is all.)

( Read more... )

From the linguablogs

Dalai LOLma

Birding-forum profanity filter disconcerts birders.

Quite a thoughtful bit on spelling reform -- I'm not there yet, and I doubt I'll ever be, but I look at Japanese and I'm so glad they reformed their orthography...