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Writing Technology: Studies on the Materiality of Literacy
by Christina HaasAcademic and practitioner journals in fields from electronics to business to language studies, as well as the popular press, have for over a decade been proclaiming the arrival of the "computer revolution" and making far-reaching claims about the impact of computers on modern western culture. Implicit in many arguments about the revolutionary power of computers is the assumption that communication, language, and words are intimately tied to culture -- that the computer's transformation of communication means a transformation, a revolutionizing, of culture. Moving from a vague sense that writing is profoundly different with different material and technological tools to an understanding of how such tools can and will change writing, writers, written forms, and writing's functions is not a simple matter. Further, the question of whether -- and how -- changes in individual writers' experiences with new technologies translate into large-scale, cultural "revolutions" remains unresolved. This book is about the relationship of writing to its technologies. It uses history, theory and empirical research to argue that the effects of computer technologies on literacy are complex, always incomplete, and far from unitary -- despite a great deal of popular and even scholarly discourse about the inevitability of the computer revolution. The author argues that just as computers impact on discourse, discourse itself impacts technology and explains how technology is used in educational settings and beyond. The opening chapters argue that the relationship between writing and the material world is both inextricable and profound. Through writing, the physical, time-and-space world of tools and artifacts is joined to the symbolic world of language. The materiality of writing is both the central fact of literacy and its central puzzle -- a puzzle the author calls "The Technology Question" -- that asks: What does it mean for language to become material? and What is the effect of writing and other material literacy technologies on human thinking and human culture? The author also argues for an interdisciplinary approach to the technology question and lays out some of the tenets and goals of technology studies and its approach to literacy. The central chapters examine the relationship between writing and technology systematically, and take up the challenge of accounting for how writing -- defined as both a cognitive process and a cultural practice -- is tied to the material technologies that support and constrain it. Haas uses a wealth of methodologies including interviews, examination of writers' physical interactions with texts, think-aloud protocols, rhetorical analysis of discourse about technology, quasi-experimental studies of reading and writing, participant-observer studies of technology development, feature analysis of computer systems, and discourse analysis of written artifacts. Taken as a whole, the results of these studies paint a rich picture of material technologies shaping the activity of writing and discourse, in turn, shaping the development and use of technology. The book concludes with a detailed look at the history of literacy technologies and a theoretical exploration of the relationship between material tools and mental activity. The author argues that seeing writing as an embodied practice -- a practice based in culture, in mind, and in body -- can help to answer the "technology question." Indeed, the notion of embodiment can provide a necessary corrective to accounts of writing that emphasize the cultural at the expense of the cognitive, or that focus on writing as only an act of mind. Questions of technology, always and inescapably return to the material, embodied reality of literate practice. Further, because technologies are at once tools for individual use and culturally-constructed systems, the study of technology can provide a fertile site in which to examine the larger issue of the relationship of culture and cognition.
Writing Technology: Studies on the Materiality of Literacy
by Christina HaasAcademic and practitioner journals in fields from electronics to business to language studies, as well as the popular press, have for over a decade been proclaiming the arrival of the "computer revolution" and making far-reaching claims about the impact of computers on modern western culture. Implicit in many arguments about the revolutionary power of computers is the assumption that communication, language, and words are intimately tied to culture -- that the computer's transformation of communication means a transformation, a revolutionizing, of culture. Moving from a vague sense that writing is profoundly different with different material and technological tools to an understanding of how such tools can and will change writing, writers, written forms, and writing's functions is not a simple matter. Further, the question of whether -- and how -- changes in individual writers' experiences with new technologies translate into large-scale, cultural "revolutions" remains unresolved. This book is about the relationship of writing to its technologies. It uses history, theory and empirical research to argue that the effects of computer technologies on literacy are complex, always incomplete, and far from unitary -- despite a great deal of popular and even scholarly discourse about the inevitability of the computer revolution. The author argues that just as computers impact on discourse, discourse itself impacts technology and explains how technology is used in educational settings and beyond. The opening chapters argue that the relationship between writing and the material world is both inextricable and profound. Through writing, the physical, time-and-space world of tools and artifacts is joined to the symbolic world of language. The materiality of writing is both the central fact of literacy and its central puzzle -- a puzzle the author calls "The Technology Question" -- that asks: What does it mean for language to become material? and What is the effect of writing and other material literacy technologies on human thinking and human culture? The author also argues for an interdisciplinary approach to the technology question and lays out some of the tenets and goals of technology studies and its approach to literacy. The central chapters examine the relationship between writing and technology systematically, and take up the challenge of accounting for how writing -- defined as both a cognitive process and a cultural practice -- is tied to the material technologies that support and constrain it. Haas uses a wealth of methodologies including interviews, examination of writers' physical interactions with texts, think-aloud protocols, rhetorical analysis of discourse about technology, quasi-experimental studies of reading and writing, participant-observer studies of technology development, feature analysis of computer systems, and discourse analysis of written artifacts. Taken as a whole, the results of these studies paint a rich picture of material technologies shaping the activity of writing and discourse, in turn, shaping the development and use of technology. The book concludes with a detailed look at the history of literacy technologies and a theoretical exploration of the relationship between material tools and mental activity. The author argues that seeing writing as an embodied practice -- a practice based in culture, in mind, and in body -- can help to answer the "technology question." Indeed, the notion of embodiment can provide a necessary corrective to accounts of writing that emphasize the cultural at the expense of the cognitive, or that focus on writing as only an act of mind. Questions of technology, always and inescapably return to the material, embodied reality of literate practice. Further, because technologies are at once tools for individual use and culturally-constructed systems, the study of technology can provide a fertile site in which to examine the larger issue of the relationship of culture and cognition.
Writing The War On Terrorism: Language, Politics And Counter-terrorism (New Approaches To Conflict Analysis Ser. (PDF))
by Richard JacksonPublishers blurb: In a comparatively short timespan, the war on terrorism has become the most extensive counter-terrorist campaign in history; its scope and expenditure of resources could soon rival the Cold War. The enactment of such a large-scale political and military project requires a significant degree of political and social consensus, and such consensus is not possible without language. This book examines the public language of the war on terrorism, and the way that rhetoric has been deployed to justify and normalise a global counter-terrorist campaign. More specifically, it explains how the political and cultural meaning of the September 11, 2001 attacks came to be dominated by a single war-based interpretation; how the abuse of prisoners in Iraq was normalised through language and practice; how the language of counter-terrorism constructs American identity; how officials deliberately manipulate public anxiety about terrorist threats; and how popular political and cultural narratives are deployed to gain public consent for official counter-terrorism policies. The book explores how the war on terrorism has been reproduced and amplified by key social actors and how it has become the dominant political narrative in America today, enjoying widespread bipartisan and popular support. The author argues that the normalisation and institutionalisation of the administration's current counter-terrorism approach is damaging to society's ethical values and to democratic political participation.
Writing with Pleasure (Skills for Scholars)
by Helen SwordAn essential guide to cultivating joy in your professional and personal writingWriting should be a pleasurable challenge, not a painful chore. Writing with Pleasure empowers academic, professional, and creative writers to reframe their negative emotions about writing and reclaim their positive ones. By learning how to cast light on the shadows, you will soon find yourself bringing passion and pleasure to everything you write.Acclaimed international writing expert Helen Sword invites you to step into your “WriteSPACE”—a space of pleasurable writing that is socially balanced, physically engaged, aesthetically nourishing, creatively challenging, and emotionally uplifting. Sword weaves together cutting-edge findings in the sciences and social sciences with compelling narratives gathered from nearly six hundred faculty members and graduate students from across the disciplines and around the world. She provides research-based principles, hands-on strategies, and creative “pleasure prompts” designed to help you ramp up your productivity and enhance the personal rewards of your writing practice. Whether you’re writing a scholarly article, an administrative email, or a love letter, this book will inspire you to find delight in even the most mundane writing tasks and a richer, deeper pleasure in those you already enjoy.Exuberantly illustrated by prizewinning graphic memoirist Selina Tusitala Marsh, Writing with Pleasure is an indispensable resource for academics, students, professionals, and anyone for whom writing has come to feel like a burden rather than a joy.
Writing with Pleasure (Skills for Scholars)
by Helen SwordAn essential guide to cultivating joy in your professional and personal writingWriting should be a pleasurable challenge, not a painful chore. Writing with Pleasure empowers academic, professional, and creative writers to reframe their negative emotions about writing and reclaim their positive ones. By learning how to cast light on the shadows, you will soon find yourself bringing passion and pleasure to everything you write.Acclaimed international writing expert Helen Sword invites you to step into your “WriteSPACE”—a space of pleasurable writing that is socially balanced, physically engaged, aesthetically nourishing, creatively challenging, and emotionally uplifting. Sword weaves together cutting-edge findings in the sciences and social sciences with compelling narratives gathered from nearly six hundred faculty members and graduate students from across the disciplines and around the world. She provides research-based principles, hands-on strategies, and creative “pleasure prompts” designed to help you ramp up your productivity and enhance the personal rewards of your writing practice. Whether you’re writing a scholarly article, an administrative email, or a love letter, this book will inspire you to find delight in even the most mundane writing tasks and a richer, deeper pleasure in those you already enjoy.Exuberantly illustrated by prizewinning graphic memoirist Selina Tusitala Marsh, Writing with Pleasure is an indispensable resource for academics, students, professionals, and anyone for whom writing has come to feel like a burden rather than a joy.
Written Communication in Family Medicine: By the Task Force on Professional Communication Skills of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine
by Katharine A. Munning Robert B. TaylorThis work presents the knowledge and skills necessary for successful written communication in family medicine. It is intended for use by teachers of family medicine who, as part of their academic responsibilities, are called upon to produce written documents in a wide variety of areas. The book has also been written to serve as a resource for leaders presenting faculty development activities in various aspects of written communication, including writing for publication, administrative and educational communication, and other topics of interest to academicians. The Task Force on Professional Communication Skills was formed in 1981 as an initiative of the Board of Directors and the Communications Committee of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM). In early meetings, the Task Force defined its goal as improvement of the communication skills-both written and oral-of STFM members. A survey of Task Force members revealed that the greatest challenges lay in the area of written communication skills, although the needs are not confined to medical article and book writing, but extend to the full range of academic communication. The Task Force set as its first task the creation of a monograph on written communication in family medicine.
Written on Bamboo and Silk: The Beginnings of Chinese Books and Inscriptions, Second Edition
by Tsuen-Hsuin TsienPaleography, which often overlaps with archaeology, deciphers ancient inscriptions and modes of writing to reveal the knowledge and workings of earlier societies. In this now-classic paleographic study of China, Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien traces the development of Chinese writing from the earliest inscriptions to the advent of printing, with specific attention to the tools and media used. This edition includes material that treats the many major documents and ancient Chinese artifacts uncovered over the forty years since the book’s first publication, as well as an afterword by Edward L. Shaughnessy. Written on Bamboo and Silk has long been considered a landmark in its field. Critical in this regard is the excavation of numerous sites throughout China, where hundreds of thousands of documents written on bamboo and silk—as well as other media—were found, including some of the earliest copies of historical, medical, astronomical, military, and religious texts that are now essential to the study of early Chinese literature, history, and philosophy. Discoveries such as these have made the amount of material evidence on the origins and evolution of communication throughout Chinese history exceedingly broad and rich, and yet Tsien succeeds in tackling it all and building on the earlier classic work that changed
Xenolinguistics: Towards a Science of Extraterrestrial Language
by Douglas A. Vakoch Jeffrey PunskeXenolinguistics brings together biologists, anthropologists, linguists, and other experts specializing in language and communication to explore what non-human, non-Earthbound language might look like. The 18 chapters examine what is known about human language and animal communication systems to provide reasonable hypotheses about what we may find if we encounter non-Earth intelligence. Showcasing an interdisciplinary dialogue between a set of highly established scholars, this volume: Clarifies what is and is not known about human language and animal communication systems Presents speculative arguments as a philosophical exercise to help define the boundaries of what our current science can tell us about non-speculative areas of investigation Provides readers with a clearer sense of the how our knowledge about language is better informed through a cross-disciplinary investigation Offers a better understanding of future avenues of research on language This rich interdisciplinary collection will be of interest to researchers and students studying non-human communication, astrobiology, and language invention.
Xenolinguistics: Towards a Science of Extraterrestrial Language
by Douglas A. Vakoch Jeffrey PunskeXenolinguistics brings together biologists, anthropologists, linguists, and other experts specializing in language and communication to explore what non-human, non-Earthbound language might look like. The 18 chapters examine what is known about human language and animal communication systems to provide reasonable hypotheses about what we may find if we encounter non-Earth intelligence. Showcasing an interdisciplinary dialogue between a set of highly established scholars, this volume: Clarifies what is and is not known about human language and animal communication systems Presents speculative arguments as a philosophical exercise to help define the boundaries of what our current science can tell us about non-speculative areas of investigation Provides readers with a clearer sense of the how our knowledge about language is better informed through a cross-disciplinary investigation Offers a better understanding of future avenues of research on language This rich interdisciplinary collection will be of interest to researchers and students studying non-human communication, astrobiology, and language invention.
Xenophobia in the Media: Critical Global Perspectives (Routledge Studies in Media, Communication, and Politics)
by Senthan Selvarajah Nesrin Kenar Ibrahim Seaga Shaw Pradeep DhakalThrough its global and critical perspectives, this book brings together knowledge, ideas, and tools to understand the problems and identify effective solutions, best practices and alternative approaches to combat xenophobia in the media and build tolerance and social cohesion. Although various studies have been conducted on the extent to which the media construct xenophobic discourse against immigrants and refugees and how they represent immigrants, there exists a research lacuna as to the dynamics of the xenophobia construction in the media, the effect of xenophobic discourse of the media and its function, the nexus between xenophobia construction of the media and the social, economic and political conditions, and the impact of the xenophobic discourse of the media on immigrants and host communities. This book adds knowledge and empirical evidence to fill this research gap. This book will be an important resource for journalists, scholars and students of media and communication studies, journalism, political science, sociology, and anyone covering issues of race and racism, human rights, immigration and refugees.
Xenophobia in the Media: Critical Global Perspectives (Routledge Studies in Media, Communication, and Politics)
Through its global and critical perspectives, this book brings together knowledge, ideas, and tools to understand the problems and identify effective solutions, best practices and alternative approaches to combat xenophobia in the media and build tolerance and social cohesion. Although various studies have been conducted on the extent to which the media construct xenophobic discourse against immigrants and refugees and how they represent immigrants, there exists a research lacuna as to the dynamics of the xenophobia construction in the media, the effect of xenophobic discourse of the media and its function, the nexus between xenophobia construction of the media and the social, economic and political conditions, and the impact of the xenophobic discourse of the media on immigrants and host communities. This book adds knowledge and empirical evidence to fill this research gap. This book will be an important resource for journalists, scholars and students of media and communication studies, journalism, political science, sociology, and anyone covering issues of race and racism, human rights, immigration and refugees.
Year 1 Spelling Targeted Practice Workbook: Ideal For Use At Home
by Collins Ks1Level: KS1Subject: SpellingTargeted practice for every topic taught at school!When it comes to getting the best results, practice really does bring progress! Matched to the National Curriculum, this Collins Year 1 Spelling workbook is designed to improve spelling skills. This book contains fun and varied practice activities to develop understanding of spelling rules and fluency in applying them.Using a repeated practice method that is proven to work, this book improves performance in school, as well as in tests and assessments. Questions are organised into levels of increasing difficulty while progress tests throughout check children's understanding along the way. Children can record their own results too, supporting awareness and boosting confidence. A handy answer section is also included to ensure every child can succeed in Year 1. We've got a Year 1 English Targeted Practice Workbook (9780008201647) available as well.
Year 2 Spelling Targeted Practice Workbook: Ideal For Use At Home
by Collins Ks1Level: KS1Subject: SpellingTargeted practice for every topic taught at school!When it comes to getting the best results, practice really does bring progress! Matched to the National Curriculum, this Collins Year 2 Spelling workbook is designed to improve spelling skills. This book contains fun and varied practice activities to develop understanding of spelling rules and fluency in applying them.Using a repeated practice method that is proven to work, this book improves performance in school, as well as in tests and assessments. Questions are organised into levels of increasing difficulty while progress tests throughout check children's understanding along the way. Children can record their own results too, supporting awareness and boosting confidence. A handy answer section is also included to ensure every child can succeed in Year 2. We've got a Year 2 English Targeted Practice Workbook (9780008125172) available as well.
Year 2000 and Mental Retardation (Current Topics in Mental Health)
by Stanley C. PlogThe future is exciting-frightening-and demanding! As social and eco nomic change accelerates at an ever-increasing rate, we look with awe and wonder at the way in which unanticipated events impact on our lives and change the way we live. We are also frightened about how well we will adapt to the demands of a world that may be structured quite differently from the familiar environment of today. If we are to handle our own futures with some degree of skill and adap tiveness, we need to begin planning today for the dawn of the next century. Otherwise, we may find that events have overrun our capacity to cope. Those of us in the social and helping sectors of the economy have a responsibility for the future welfare of persons who are less able to look out for their own needs or to protect themselves from the vagaries of economic fluctuations or major dislocations in the social fabric of the land. The President's Committee on Mental Retardation is proud of its deci sion to look at the year 2000 and its impact on the mentally retarded. Our goals were straightforward-to understand how unfolding events can affect the lives of the mentally retarded, for good or ill, a generation from now.
Year 3 Spelling Targeted Practice Workbook: Ideal For Use At Home
by Collins Ks2Level: KS2Subject: SpellingTargeted practice for every topic taught at school!When it comes to getting the best results, practice really does bring progress! Matched to the National Curriculum, this Collins Year 3 Spelling workbook is designed to improve spelling skills. This book contains fun and varied practice activities to develop understanding of spelling rules and fluency in applying them.Using a repeated practice method that is proven to work, this book improves performance in school, as well as in tests and assessments. Questions are organised into levels of increasing difficulty while progress tests throughout check children's understanding along the way. Children can record their own results too, supporting awareness and boosting confidence. A handy answer section is also included to ensure every child can succeed in Year 3. We've got a Year 3 English Targeted Practice Workbook (9780008201654) available as well.
Year 4 Spelling Targeted Practice Workbook: Ideal For Use At Home
by Collins Ks2Level: KS2Subject: SpellingTargeted practice for every topic taught at school!When it comes to getting the best results, practice really does bring progress! Matched to the National Curriculum, this Collins Year 4 Spelling workbook is designed to improve spelling skills. This book contains fun and varied practice activities to develop understanding of spelling rules and fluency in applying them.Using a repeated practice method that is proven to work, this book improves performance in school, as well as in tests and assessments. Questions are organised into levels of increasing difficulty while progress tests throughout check children's understanding along the way. Children can record their own results too, supporting awareness and boosting confidence. A handy answer section is also included to ensure every child can succeed in Year 4. We've got a Year 4 English Targeted Practice Workbook (9780008201661) available as well.
The Year of the End: A Memoir of Marriage, Truth and Fiction
by Anne Theroux'Brave, honest, sad, funny, truthful and a striking insight into the reality of the literary life.' Nicholas Rankin, Writer and Broadcaster 18TH JANUARY 1990 Paul left today at 8am. We had been married just over 22 years. The previous evening we had gone out to eat at a local restaurant, where we drank champagne and reminisced. In a short story which he wrote about that final evening of a marriage, the central characters talk wittily and poignantly about the explorer Sir Richard Burton and the sad, misunderstood wife who burnt his books. The reality was different. ‘This memoir is based on the diary I kept during 1990, the year that my first marriage came to an end.’ After 22 years, spent across four continents, with two children – Louis and Marcel – in 1990 Anne and Paul Theroux decided to separate. For that year, Anne – later a professional relationship therapist herself – kept a diary, noting not only her day-to-day experiences as a busy freelance journalist and broadcaster, but the contrasts in her feelings between despairing grief and hope for a new future. With reflections on truth and fiction, literature and art, and the nature of marriage, alongside commentary on notable political and cultural events, and interviews with prominent writers of the time, including Kingsley Amis and Barbara Cartland, The Year of the End offers a unique insight into the unravelling of a relationship and the attempt to rebuild a life.
The Year That Defined American Journalism: 1897 and the Clash of Paradigms
by W. Joseph CampbellThe Year that Defined American Journalism explores the succession of remarkable and decisive moments in American journalism during 1897 – a year of significant transition that helped redefine the profession and shape its modern contours. This defining year featured a momentous clash of paradigms pitting the activism of William Randolph Hearst's participatory 'journalism of action' against the detached, fact-based antithesis of activist journalism, as represented by Adolph Ochs of the New York Times, and an eccentric experiment in literary journalism pursued by Lincoln Steffens at the New York Commercial-Advertiser. Resolution of the three-sided clash of paradigms would take years and result ultimately in the ascendancy of the Times' counter-activist model, which remains the defining standard for mainstream American journalism. The Year That Defined American Journalism introduces the year-study methodology to mass communications research and enriches our understanding of a pivotal moment in media history.
The Year That Defined American Journalism: 1897 and the Clash of Paradigms
by W. Joseph CampbellThe Year that Defined American Journalism explores the succession of remarkable and decisive moments in American journalism during 1897 – a year of significant transition that helped redefine the profession and shape its modern contours. This defining year featured a momentous clash of paradigms pitting the activism of William Randolph Hearst's participatory 'journalism of action' against the detached, fact-based antithesis of activist journalism, as represented by Adolph Ochs of the New York Times, and an eccentric experiment in literary journalism pursued by Lincoln Steffens at the New York Commercial-Advertiser. Resolution of the three-sided clash of paradigms would take years and result ultimately in the ascendancy of the Times' counter-activist model, which remains the defining standard for mainstream American journalism. The Year That Defined American Journalism introduces the year-study methodology to mass communications research and enriches our understanding of a pivotal moment in media history.
Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 2015: Current Approaches to Discourse and Translation Studies (Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics #3)
by Jesús Romero-TrilloThe present volume, Current Approaches to Discourse and Translation Studies, presents innovative theoretical models and applications of the two disciplines in intercultural contexts.The Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics offers a platform to scholars who carry out rigorous and interdisciplinary research on language in real use. Corpus linguistics and Pragmatics have traditionally represented two paths of scientific research, parallel but often mutually exclusive and excluding. Corpus Linguistics can offer a meticulous methodology based on mathematics and statistics while Pragmatics strives to interpret intended meaning in real language. This series will give readers insight into how pragmatics can be used to explain real corpus data, and how corpora can illustrate pragmatic intuitions.
Years of Minutes: The Best of Rooney from 60 Minutes
by Andy RooneyAndy Rooney has been at it for twenty-five years. It's time to celebrate. So here's the ultimate gift for every Rooney fan: an illustrated collection of Rooney's very best pieces from a quarter centur
Years of Minutes: The Best of Rooney from 60 Minutes
by Andy RooneyAndy Rooney has been at it for twenty-five years. It's time to celebrate. So here's the ultimate gift for every Rooney fan: an illustrated collection of Rooney's very best pieces from a quarter centur
The Yes Book: The Art of Better Negotiation
by Clive RichNegotiation is fundamental to our lives; whether it’s getting your kids to eat their greens, making your case for a pay rise, or trying to secure a multi-million pound deal for your company. However, negotiation has changed. It's no longer about confrontation where there are winners and losers. Collaboration is now the name of the game. YouGov research commissioned for this book shows UK PLC is losing £9 million per hour from poor negotiating – £17 billion per year. Can you afford to be without a modern framework for deal-making?In The Yes Book, Clive Rich provides a method for generating success based on years of experience working for or with major organisations and super brands including Sony, Yahoo, Apple, the BBC, Tesco, and Simon Cowell's Syco, during a negotiating career in which he has brokered more than £10 billion worth of deals. By breaking negotiation into its three key elements of Attitude, Behaviour and Process, he helps you learn how to shape, create and close deals. You will discover what your negotiating style is, and how you can apply it to influence others and give yourself the edge.This is the ultimate guide to using the power of negotiation to get more of what you want, in both business and life outside the office.
Yiddish with Dick and Jane
by Ellis Weiner Barbara DavilmanJane is in real estate. Today is Saturday. Jane has an open house. She must schlep the Open House signs to the car. See Jane schlep. Schlep, Jane. Schlep. Schlep, schlep, schlep. In text that captures the unque rhythms of the original Dick and Jane readers, and in 35 all-new illustrations, a story unfolds in which Dick and Jane -- hero and heroine of the classic books for children that generations of Americans have used when learning to read -- manage to express shades of feeling and nuances of meaning that ordinary English just can't deliver. How? By speaking Yiddish, employing terms that convey an attitude -- part plucky self-assertion, part ironic fatalism. When Dick schmoozes, when Jane kvetches, when their children fress noodles at a Chinese restaurant, the clash of cultures produces genuine hilarity.
Yiddish with George and Laura
by Barbara Davilman Ellis WeinerWhat do George and Laura Bush have in common with Dick and Jane? Well, both hail from prototypical WASP families. And, perhaps more to the point, both exhibit a natural resistance to moral complexity (i.e., reality). That's the premise of this hilarious new primer-style book in which George, Laura, and the entire Bush family communicate with uncharacteristic expressiveness, conveying shades of of feeling and nuances of meaning that plain old English can't deliver -- by peppering their conversatuon with Yiddishisms. See George's mother. Her name is Bar. She wears a lot of pearls and is a farbisseneh. "You are late, George," Bar says. "Of course I am late," George says. "I am the President of the United States. I am a big macher." Like all good primers, Yiddish with George and Laura tells a simple story -- and, in the end, important life lessons are imparted.