Delusions of Mediocrity

Schadenfreude, making me glad I'm not you

Jason Feifer of the Morning News explains the concept of schadenfreude, and why we have it in spades for upper class teen plagiarist Kaavya Viswanathan.

"The one thing we haven’t done...is fully bring the word into our daily language. If that’s out of a lack of familiarity, Kaavya Viswanathan may have done wonders to fix it. This word shouldn’t be considered on loan from Germany, it should be used commonly and widely, fully integrated into the way we express ourselves. We’d be more honest that way. Its very existence forces us to confront something dark and unflattering—because really, how can you argue with language, a tool built specifically to express what’s inside us?"

Language

At the risk of losing whatever liberal cred I may have, I am going to agree with a columnist for NewsMax, specifically Barry Farber¹:

Learn a foreign language before you die.

This is important. Americans have a reputation, not undeserved, for being insular and provincial (I don't think those are the same thing). Don't support the stereotype. Arabic is obviously important, Spanish is important, but the point is to do it. Do it to keep up on the news from a world perspective. Do it to speak to your neighbors. Do it as an act of political protest -- more and more states are enacting English-only provisions. Do it because, in one way or another, it'll help you get laid. I don't care. Learn a foreign language. I cannot stress this enough. Learn a foreign language.

In days to come, you may see refernces to blogs in Italian. My girlfriend got me a set of CDs from an Italian self-study course, and I'm trying to augment that by reading blogs in the language -- Technorati includes Italian among the dozen or so languages it tracks blogs in. I'm hoping that will help me acquire a fluency in Italian. Once that happens, I will be a better person because I'm flent in two languages.

Even though Italian isn't considered a threat to American hegemony. And even though my neighbors don't speak Italian. I think my best bets there would be Arabic or Bengali or Russian. The important thing is that I do it.

Ciao.

¹Actually, aside from his belief that peace is a Commie plot, he doesn't seem too crazy by NewsMax standards.

John Ritter turns in his grave

Oftentimes, books are pulled from school libraries when they have some content someone finds objectionable. Now Redneck Mother brings us the sad and astounding tale of books banned because no one finds them unobjectionable.

Possibly because no one read them. It's Clifford, FFS, and the only problem, according to the LA Daily News story, is that the person responsible for vetting books didn't know what was in them. I've never been responsible for a five-year-old, but I know what's in the Clifford books. The school officials responsible don't though:

"I don't know if it's upholding 'Character Counts.' I want to be sure its promoting what we are upholding. I approved books that I'm familiar with the content," Greene said.

I'm not even sure what "character" means, although apparently books with "warlock" in the title work against it. I always think of it as "having a spine," which is not something schools generally encourage. I'm fairly sure it includes pet care. And reading.