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Category Archives: Satire
Joke’s on Me
I make up jokes and tell them to dead people, immigrant Galicians who once lived in the Western Pennsylvania coal mining town where I spent many formative weekends and summers. Here’s one: Me: What is responsible for the lack … Continue reading
Posted in Food and Drink, Satire
Tagged Celtic, Church Slovanic, Galicia, Galician, Greek Catholic, halupki, identity, pierogi, Revloc, thurible, Ukrainian, Western Pennsylvania
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An Appalachian almost in Paris
My wife tells me she has booked a flight for four to visit Paris, France, not Texas, although I understand that France is Texas-sized. She’s looking to make family memories before our two girls go off to college, and she … Continue reading
Posted in Food and Drink, Satire, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged American, Appalachian, architecture, autoroute, bohemian, campervan, cirque, college, Corbusier, family, France, French, Futurescope, Grenoble, microbrew, National Parks, Paris, Portland, Pyrenees, Renaissance, soleil, Texas, tourist, vacation
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Tipping Towards a Living Wage
I phone an order into my favorite neighborhood pizza joint and stop on my way home to pick up the pies. At the counter where I pay, I’m greeted by a chipper young woman, high voice, curly hair, and a smile … Continue reading
Posted in Business Communication, Food and Drink, Satire, Uncategorized
Tagged Baltimore, business, Chowhound.com, credit card, Drew Brees, Home Depot, living wage, low-wage, Steven Schultz, takeout, tip, tippinig, waiter, waitress, Wal-Mart
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Of Straight Men and Comics
“Talk low, talk slow, and don’t talk too much,” John Wayne famously said, eliminating the “big stick” that Teddy Roosevelt so fondly carried, although Wayne implicitly replaces the stick with a rifle. As a youth I was a Wayne fan, … Continue reading
Spring Break at Virginia Tech
My first spring living in Baltimore, late 80s, I had no friends in town, but I did have a record collection, a television set, and a Mazda 323. In my third-floor walkup near Mount Vernon Square, I’d collected every gourmet spaghetti sauce on the … Continue reading
Posted in Baltimore, Food and Drink, Satire, Uncategorized
Tagged architecture, Blacksburg, Cowgill Hall, Gillie’s, Virginia, Virginia Tech, writing
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How I Rate on ratemyprofessors.com
I teach writing to college students, and I’m always searching for ways to improve my teaching technique. I go out of my way to read articles about pedagogy, watch movies about good and bad teachers, and listen to my fellow … Continue reading
The Manipulation of Man
She approaches with a shy smile, a tender heart, and requests that her feelings be reciprocated. For whatever reason, you can’t do this, but you do enjoy the control that you have over her, and you worry that acknowledging her … Continue reading
Posted in Satire, Uncategorized
Tagged love, manipulation, men, passive-aggressive, polar bear, women, you
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Pidgins Take Flight: Campaign against Plain Language
The British Empire has been decaying for decades, but in 1979, English woman Chrissie Maher attempted to rally the troops and lead a resurgence. In that year, Maher stood in London’s Parliament Square and shredded hundreds of public documents in … Continue reading
Posted in Business Communication, Politics, Satire, Uncategorized
Tagged bureaucratese, Chrissie Maher, circumlocution, cliché, Esperanto, gobbledygook, jargon, Klingon, laissez-faire, legalese, lingua franca, pidgin, plain English, synergy, utilize, value-added
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The Absolutely Unbiased Algorithmic Job Interview
Some large enterprises like Fannie Mae, Bank of America, General Motors, or A.I.G. might occasionally be lax in their hiring processes. With such unwieldy organizations, a mistake or two in hiring can happen and isn’t always of much concern, especially … Continue reading
The Undercover Cover Letter
Like so many things related to the job search, cover letters are inconvenient formalities that should be done away with. I predict that someday, a business with enough clout will have the courage to stop asking for them and other … Continue reading
Charney's Life of Charney 