That’s right, we’re not from Texas

End of semester.  Winter.  Grading and student feedback, plus those odd moments that make you stop and think, like the shine on a wet pavement. Students who write and say that they appreciated being in class with someone whose first language wasn’t English because they learned something about a bigger world.  Students whose first language isn’t English writing to say that it was being in an online class that made it possible for them to participate at all. Given the…

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Way, way down in the weeds

A colleague sent me a link to the coverage of a “senior US intelligence official” describing Osama bin Laden as a micromanager, a news story that’s probably clogging up inboxes all around global higher ed at the moment. This was the bit that caught my eye: “He was down in the weeds as far as best operatives, best targets, best timing.” “Down in the weeds” is a phrase we don’t hear much in Australia. Language Log has put together a lovely inventory…

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