As a child, I pictured college as something that came right after high school, lasted about four years and then ended. I never imagined older students attending college, so I was surprised to encounter a middle-aged student in one of my classes freshman year. With each passing semester, I met greater numbers of older students, and when I worked in the writing center [...]
I remember two things about the Harry Potter novels—besides the fantastic writing—from my youth. First, they were a great way for me to remain entertained during my older brother’s hockey practices, much to the delight of my father. Second, I recall the colorful cover art that drew me into reading each of the books I owned. What I did not realize was that [...]
Have you ever seen someone throw out a dish after eating only half of the food on it? It could be at a restaurant, in the park, or back when you were in school, but I’m sure we’ve all seen it or been a part of it—I know I haven’t always eaten 100 percent of the food in front of me. According to [...]
Take a look at this video. Did you get the first question right? How many times did the players in white pass the ball? Now, how about that second question? The video, done by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, is a replication of Ulric Neisser’s study from the 1970s representing selective attention, the tendency not to “see” major changes in the environment. A person’s attention [...]
As a longtime employee at PSG, I harbored a deep, dark secret—one I kept from all my pun-loving (get it?) coworkers: I hate puns. I’m not usually one to withhold my opinions (Prefer cats? No way; dogs are superior in every way.), but I’m embarrassed to admit I felt intimidated by the overwhelming adoration of all things pun by literally every other staff [...]
One morning, I emailed Colleen Joyce, Publishing Solutions Group’s senior project manager, a list of nearly a dozen puns. I hoped that they would make her laugh, but sadly, no pun in ten did. I can already picture her reaction as she reads the opening lines of this blog post: eyes rolling, head shaking and groan internal, because she knows that any reaction, negative or [...]
One sweltering Monday in the third week of July, I stood in a parking lot with a hundred other students in lines exactly five yards apart—the outline of a football field had been painted in white over the yellow parking lines. One of my band directors stood on the scaffolding built at the side of the parking lot on the top of the [...]
When I took my first yoga class, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I knew it would be a fairly quiet experience. Or so I had heard. If my instructor had told the class to lie on the floor and laugh for 20 minutes, I’m not sure what I would’ve done. (To be honest, I probably would’ve left the room.) However, when [...]
Have you ever tried “astronaut” ice cream? It’s a freeze-dried treat most commonly found in museum gift shops. However, the name is something of a misnomer. Astronaut ice cream has only flown to space once since its creation, aboard Apollo 7. According to NASA, the foil-wrapped snack is too crumbly to enjoy in zero gravity, so the astronauts never request it! Us earthlings [...]
After a lively discussion in the office about how the sounds of certain words make us cringe (moist anyone?) and others are music to our ears (my personal favorite: tabernacle; other office suggestions: mellifluous, resplendent and epiphany), I decided to investigate more examples. In doing so, I hit the jackpot: a word about words! As a language lover, I’ve always delighted in discovering new terms. But there’s something extra [...]