Lackey's Class Links

Amid Family’s Quarrels, a Home Worthy of Gatsby Begins to Crumble
By BRUCE LAMBERT
NYTimes August 26, 2007
At the property believed to have inspired the fictional home of "The Great Gatsby," floors are rotting, windows are paneless and the grounds have become overgrown.

Ten Things to Do Before This Article Is Finished
By ALEX WILLIAMS
NYTimes August 26, 2007
Jay Gatsby had one . . . . Once the province of bird-watchers, mountain climbers and sufferers of obsessive-compulsive disorder, the life list has become widely popular with the harried masses, equal parts motivational self-help and escapist fantasy.

Posted by David at 06:54 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Posted by David at 10:56 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Flight - Sherman Alexie

On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

Big Bad Love - Larry Brown

A Miracle of Catfish: A Novel in Progress - Larry Brown

The Rabbit Factory - Larry Brown

The Pond Lovers - Gene Logsdon

Five Skies- Ron Carlson

The Maytrees - Annie Dillard

Posted by David at 09:18 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

(Answers)

Cultural Literacy PowerPoint

Heidi Cody's American Alphabet, 2000 at heidicody.com

Illegal Art Exhibit and Wired News: Artists Just Wanna Be Free

The Branding Alphabet at the Center for Media Literacy and Stay Free Magazine Media Literacy Curriculum

26 Things - The Photographic Scavenger Hunt:
26 Things I and 26 Things II

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
Edward Hirsch, Third Edition, 2002

According to Hirsch, real literacy depends on an "acquaintance with
one's national culture" -- thus the term "cultural literacy." He likens
cultural literacy to the kind of knowledge that allows a person to pick
up a newspaper and comprehend what he or she is reading. It is that shared
body of information about mainstream culture that every American must
possess to communicate efficiently and participate effectively in society.

From Knowledge of American Culture

Andy Warhol's Marilyn Prints

American Icons: Studio 360

Posted by David at 11:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Here's an excellent video that captures the experience of web 2.0:

From The Machine is Us/ing Us - Digital Ethnography YouTube project @ Kansas State University

See also: ALA TechSource | The Internet is for Use

Posted by David at 04:38 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In June, Science magazine published an article called “Domesticated Nature,” which noted that by 1995, “only 17% of the world’s land area had escaped direct influence by humans.” The article was accompanied by one map showing the enormous “human footprint” on Earth and another showing in a thicket of red lines the tangle of road networks and shipping lanes across the globe. That 17 percent figure is now certainly smaller, and that thicket of transport networks gets a little more tangled every day. The article takes as a working assumption what is obviously true: “There really is no such thing as nature untainted by people.”

From "The 17 Percent Problem and the Perils of Domestication"
Verlyn Klinkenborg
NYTimes 8-13-07

Interview with study author Peter Kareiva - The End of the Wild?

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". . . if you choose to get your recommended eight glasses a day from bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 annually. The same amount of tap water would cost about 49 cents."
In Praise of Tap Water
NYTimes August 2, 2007

The United States is the world's largest consumer of bottled water, purchasing 37 billion bottles in 2005. Our daily bottled water habit is bad for people and bad for the environment.
- foodandwaterwatch.org

International Bottled Water Association response to NYTimes editorial.

Water, Water Everywhere, But Guilt by Bottleful
NYTimes Sunday August 12, 2007

Posted by David at 10:45 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

For students starting college, August is the time to quit the summer job, dump the high school sweetheart and, finally, open the book their college has asked them to finish before classes start.

Nationwide, hundreds of colleges and universities, large and small, public and private, assign first-year students a book to read over the summer, hoping to create a sense of community and engage students intellectually.

Summer Reading Programs Gain Momentum for Students About to Enter College
NYTimes August 8, 2007

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Edward Picot is an English writer and critic who, this month, completed 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (www.edwardpicot.com/blackbird), a collection of animated pieces inspired by the Wallace Stevens poem of the same name. The original poem is broken into 13 short stanzas; likewise, Picot's project consists of 13 individual Flash animations. His very short films bring to life - new life - Stevens' startling images, such as "barbaric glass" and "the bawds of euphony."
From Still looking at blackbirdsby Katie Haegele
Philadelphia Inquirer 7/29/2007

Also check out billy collins action poetry

Posted by David at 09:59 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Charles Simic, "a writer who juxtaposes dark imagery with ironic humor," was named the country’s 15th Poet Laureate by the Librarian of Congress today.
NTImes August 2, 2007

Other noteworthy poets laureate include Robert Pinsky and Billy Collins.

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