What would make a person with a rigid set of principles suddenly change? The presence of Andrew Undershaft, apparently. The women in George Bernard Shaw’s play, Major Barbara are first introduced as strong women who are a force to be reckoned with. However, Shaw makes the women less powerful as the play goes on. We … Continue reading
Category Archives: Writings
The gypsy woman in The Monk
The Bible tells us “do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them” (Leviticus 19:31). Ironically, the medium, or gypsy woman, in Matthew Lewis’s The Monk is one of the most honest characters, as compared to other devout characters of the Christian faith, who should … Continue reading
The Etymology of Conlang
An introduction to the word conlang Merriam-Webster: CONLANG, N. an invented language intended for human communication that has planned and cohesive phonological, grammatical, and syntactical system. The word conlang serves as a compound of the words constructed and language; it was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in February of 2017. A conlang is an artificial … Continue reading
Comedy has changed, Chappelle hasn’t
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Kenneth Koch’s parody of “This is Just to Say”
Occasionally, we befriend a person we should not have—the kind that borrows a shirt and never returns it, never seems to remember to bring a wallet to dinner, or never offers to drive or give gas money. This type of friend resembles the speaker of Kenneth Koch’s “Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams.” … Continue reading
The History of the Word Pants
A brief introduction to the word pants Oxford English Dictionary: PANTS, N. Originally (colloq.): pantaloons. Later: trousers of any kind (in early use applied to men’s trousers, but in the 20th cent. extended to include those worn by both men and women). Continue reading
