Category Archives: education

Savoury Flavor of Mythical Beasts

Student: What is your favorite food?

Teacher: My favorite food is unicorn. They are delicious.

Class (now paying attention): What?!

Student: You can’t eat unicorn! You can’t even buy unicorn meat!

Teacher: Yes you can and they are yummy. Just go to your local butcher and ask for the special.

Student: I don’t believe you.

Teacher: Well you’re missing out.

Student (unfazed): My favorite food is tacos.

Teacher: Now that I have everyone’s attention. (lesson continues…)

Mite-y Cheesy

Milbenkäse is a type of cheese produced exclusively in the Sachsen-Anhalt village of Würchwitz. It has been produced since the Middle Ages and is distinct in that it uses mites in its production. Yes… mites. I summon thee Wikipedia!

[Milbenkäse] is placed in a wooden box containing rye flour and inhabited by Tyroglyphus casei cheese mites for at least three months. The digestive juices of the mites diffuse into the cheese and cause fermentation; the flour is added because the mites would otherwise simply eat the whole cheese instead of just nibbling away at the crust as is desired. After one month, the cheese rind turns yellow, after three months reddish-brown. Some producers, however, allow the cheese to ripen for up to one year, until it has turned black. The taste is said to be similar to that of Harzer cheese, but with a bitter note (increasing with age) and with a distinctive zesty aftertaste. Mites clinging to the cheese rind are also consumed.

Originally read here.

The Awful German Language

American author Mark Twain wrote the grippingly hilarious and sometimes sexist “The Awful German Language.” Ah, the liberation of intellect. This small excerpt deals a feature not present in English. All nouns in German are assigned a gender (male, neutral, or feminine) that effects their usage. With that bit of info masticated upon, read on…

Every noun has a gender, and there is no sense or system in the distribution; so the gender of each must be learned separately and by heart. There is no other way. To do this one has to have a memory like a memorandum-book. In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl. See how it looks in print — I translate this from a conversation in one of the best of the German Sunday-school books:

Gretchen: Wilhelm, where is the turnip?
Wilhelm: She has gone to the kitchen.
Gretchen: Where is the accomplished and beautiful English maiden?
Wilhelm: It has gone to the opera.

–Mark Twain

Ask Marx and Engels

What can a book published in 1848 tell us about the current economic difficulties plaguing our nation? Things to keep in mind from the past eight years: decline in US quality of life, unregulated economic markets, lax credit lending, war-profiteering, and mass consumerism.

It is enough to mention the commercial crises that by their periodical return put on trial, each time more threateningly, the existence of the entire bourgeois society. In these crises a great part not only of the existing products, but also of the previously created productive forces, are periodically destroyed. In these crises there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity – the epidemic of overproduction. Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why? Because there is too much civilization, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce.

-The Communist Manifesto

Lexicon Zeitgeist

bowdlerize – to physically remove material from a book deemed improper, thereby negatively impacting the message of the literary work

Taken from recent headlines. I find censorship in schools to be a futile exercise. Banning books in schools does not prevent ambitious readers from getting them at public libraries, book stores, or even (scandel!) the internet. It is a repugnant practice that diminishes educational possibilities. It shuts the door on open dialogue.

Without further ado. Pretend that I am Jewish and practice the laws of Kosher.

As a faithful and practicing Jew I find Dr. Suess’ book “Green Eggs and Ham” to be highly offensive. All references to ham will be ripped out of the book before my first grade class is allowed to read the book. I have to bowdlerize this book to make it acceptable for others.

I will never claim to be a good Jew because, let’s face it, I love ham. Nor am I implying that Jews actually do this. But, bowdlerizing not only dimishes the literary merit of a work, but it impinges one’s beliefs of what is acceptable onto another.

Lexicon Zeitgeist

bricolage – construction or creation from a diverse range of things

In the layman’s terminology…

Using all available means of persuasion for attaining one’s goals. Professor Gemin explains it in the following scenario.

I’m staying at a hotel and I have locked myself outside of the room. My wallet is inside the room and I have no means of convincing the staff of who I am. The staff refuse to let me in the room and are threatening to call the police. Explaining that my wallet is in the room clearly has not worked. Instead of pushing the point I state that my medication is in the room. If I do not get my medication I will become very sick. This statement is intentionally vague. The staff contemplates the possibilities of a guest becoming very sick and seeking monetary retribution against the hotel. The staff then agrees to let me into the hotel room. That, my friends, is bricolage.