1. Scare quotes. Yeah, I know they're there to set off the discourse you would reject or want to parody, but they're overused, and there's something just so timid, weak, frumpy, and middlebrow about them. I think a lot of people use them in a lazy way, as if to say, "That's not the word I would have used..." How about instead, you just use the word you would have used, mmkay? Maybe we could do some experimentation with setting off the discourse we would reject, perhaps with the use of the more dismissive strikethrough. With desktop publishing affordances nowadays, why not?

2. The word writings. No, no. Writing is not a count noun, or shouldn't be, anyway: Gee whiz, I did three writings yesterday! Even if you don't want to commit to a genre by substituting the word essays, or poems, plays, stories, or papers, writing -- the singular -- will do just fine. Observe: I was disturbed by his writing. You can use it as a collective noun without losing the meaning, and it sounds far less awkward.

This little cardinal family is right outside our kitchen window. Here I was able to catch the babies while mama and papa were out getting food:

Via Timna:

Calling Planet Drupal and other experts -- Sharon could use a little help. I'll admit that I don't know how to install or upgrade Drupal myself; other people do it for me. I say that if Sharon actually installed Drupal herself, she's plenty tech savvy, and I'm impressed. From her post:

Perhaps the answers to my questions could be summed up with "People who aren't tech savvy ought not to be using Drupal," but I'm going to ask anyway. Does anyone have suggestions for ways to simplify the use of Drupal.

I'd like to add modules for wysiwyg text editing and other user-friendly options. I've found the Drupal handbooks and the Drupal discussion groups and reviews of various add-ons. The instructions themselves are not all that intuitive, though, and they seem to presume that they don't have to list all of the necessary steps in the process because anyone using this software would only need a brief prompt in the right direction.

About the wysiwyg text editor, I know Kairosnews used to have that, but I looked in the modules and couldn't find it. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough or wasn't looking in the right place, though. Did something happen to that feature? (Cross-posted)

Call for Papers

The 2007 Feminism(s) & Rhetoric(s) conference invites proposals on civic discourse, feminisms, and rhetorics. The conference draws inspiration from the 50th anniversary of Little Rock’s Central High School integration, the Clinton Presidential Library, Heifer Project International & the Clinton School for Public Service.

For conference information, go to http://femrhet.cwshrc.org

NEW EXTENDED DEADLINE: April 27, 2007

Submit your abstracts online—http://femrhet.cwshrc.org/submissions.php

Register for the conference online—http://femrhet.cwshrc.org and click Conference Registration

-------------

Confirmed Keynote Speaker: Krista Ratcliffe

Invitation Pending Keynote Speaker/not confirmed: Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton

Featured Speakers: Hui Wu, Shirley Wilson Logan, Malea Powell, Carol Mattingly, Jessica Reyman, and more.

-------------

This conference asks us to explore civic discourse and how civic discourse, feminism(s) and rhetoric(s) interact with, for, and against each other.

What is civic discourse? What counts as civic discourse?

How has civic discourse changed over the years for women? For feminism?

How can we expand the definition of civic discourse?

What does it mean to participate in civic discourse in the 21st century?

How do women participate in civic discourse?

How has the internet/electronic discourse affected civic discourse?

How has civic discourse become corporatized?

How has globalization impacted civic discourse?

What does it mean to be a feminist and/or rhetorician participating in civic discourse?

-----------

We look forward to reading proposals from a wide variety of disciplines, including, but not limited to, history, ethics, new media, political science, social justice, pedagogy, law, literature, art and art theory, queer theory, international studies, cultural studies, race studies, economics, environmental studies, science, social activism, communication studies, technical communication, visual design, philosophy, and engineering.

Questions--contact Barbara L’Eplattenier (bleplatt@ualr.edu) or Marcia Smith (mmsmith@ualr.edu).

The random ten follows. It really doesn't represent the full dorkiness of my music collection. I expected at least one Air Supply song in there, for example, or something else horrid. I was fully prepared to make the Belle Waring "What if I wish to use it to illustrate a point sometime?" defense. I probably ought to do that with the Streisand song, which is nowhere near one of her best.

1. Jolene -- Dolly Parton
2. Sensuality (Techno Remix) -- Bjork
3. Just Like Heaven -- The Cure
4. Baby's Got Sauce -- G.Love and Special Sauce
5. Digging in the Dirt -- Peter Gabriel
6. The Emperor's New Clothes -- Sinead O'Connor
7. The Ascent of Stan -- Ben Folds
8. Another Sunny Day -- Belle and Sebastian
9. Oscillate Wildly -- The Smiths
10. Woman in Love -- Barbra Streisand

---

Today I've been trying to join up the issues in composition studies that are most important to me and the scholars with whom I want to align myself. I want to try to connect these in some meaningful way.

By the "academic discourse" bubble, I am acknowledging the very real responsibilities we have as composition teachers -- teaching citation practices, genres, etc. The bubbles that overlap are the issues I see as grouped closely together.