The Writer's Poke

Here's another sign that the world will soon end -- no later than 2012 (especially if McCain/Palin steal the election). A farmer in Ohio commissioned aliens to carve a 16 acre picture of Sarah Palin in his cornfield. Starving people around the world applaud at the waste of corn -- all for America's corniest politician. Of course, if you've ever wondered what Palin would look like with cornrows, now's your chance. http://www.whitehousecornmaze.com/

First, why did McCain go to the debate? Isn't his campaign suspended? There's been no deal made in Washington, and yet McCain shows up at the Ole Miss debate... anyway, I'm glad he did. Second, why wouldn't McCain look at Obama? Jim Lehrer, the debate moderator, tried to get the candidates to interact with each other. Both seemed very reluctant to do so, but only Obama would look at McCain. Third, if McCain is so good at working with people, especially people across party lines, why did he keep belittling Obama? He kept calling Obama naive, and it was pretty obvious that he didn't think he should be on the same stage with Obama. Obama, on the other hand, always gave credit to McCain when he agreed with him or thought he was right on an issue. Does McCain really believe that Obama is never right? Fourth, even when the candidates shook hands after the debate, McCain clearly didn't want anything to do with Obama. Final thoughts: there probably wasn't a clear wi...

Some might think that Palin is a witch, but actually, she is not. She is protected from witches by her pastor: a man who once ran a witch out of his village in Africa. So this man knows witches, and if he blesses Palin, that's good enough proof for me... What a fun world we live in.

For Writers: When I was a small boy, I used to think it would be really cool to work highway construction. I wondered if the person that held the "Slow/Stop" sign was paid as much as the person jackhammering the concrete or laying the asphalt. I had no real interest in just being a sign holder, but it never occurred to me that crews might rotate duties. I also thought it might be fun to be a manager of a fancy hotel; at the time, I think I assumed that the manager lived in the hotel. And undoubtedly, the manager had one of the fancy suites on the top floor. But it wasn't just the glamor of living in a hotel that attracted me; I loved the idea of being in charge. And as shy as I sometimes was, I still liked the idea of being out in front of people -- or at the very least having some sort of fame. Did I value fame or power more? I don't know, but I often pretended that I was a DJ, I tried to write a play in third grade, and I didn't see any reason why I couldn't...

For Writers: I was seven years old when Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election. Like most kids my age, I'm sure, I followed the election very closely. Even though I was only in first grade, this was the first election that I got to vote in, thanks to Weekly Reader . And when the results came back, grade schoolers across the nation gave Reagan a clear mandate. Actually, most kids probably did not follow the election as closely as I did, but they heard who their parents supported, and the Weekly Reader results turned out to be a good indicator of how adults would vote on the "real" election day. On election night, it became clear pretty early in the evening that Carter was going to be defeated. And after Carter's concession speech, his own band played Happy Days Are Here Again . Even then I found it odd that Carter didn't have a more appropriate (at least from his perspective) song lined up, but maybe he never thought an old Hollywood...

http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/archive/pearls-20080921.html Yes, I have a Ph.D. in English, but this cartoon captures why I almost didn't finish my Ph.D. :)

For Writers: In his book The Purpose-Driven Life , Rick Warren suggests that we all have a metaphor for life. It is this metaphor that shapes our perspectives and determines how we live. For example, people that believe “life is a game of cards” (chance) probably live much differently than people that think “life is a mission” (purpose). Metaphors are a kind of shorthand; they connect one “thing” with another “thing.” In the case of life, our understanding of life theoretically should grow when we see it in the context of a race, a journey, etc. As shorthand, however, metaphors also open themselves up to clichéd thinking. Who hasn’t heard that life is a rollercoaster, or a prison, or a mountain climb? Is how you live your life no better than a cliché? Consider your metaphor for life. Do you naturally migrate to one of the clichés noted above? Spend some time developing a fresh metaphor that better captures how you approach your life. “The greatest thing in style is to have command of m...