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Lifestyle Editing: Books I read in February 2011

February was another great month for books! It actually really helps, knowing that I’ll be writing a book list at the end of the month, to make sure that I keep reading. It’s not as though I have tons of time on my hands… it’s more that I am re-prioritizing my time. Instead of cruising …

The Practical Guide: Random Rare Word (Assuage)

Someone – I forget who it was – used this word recently in conversation. I’ve always known the general gist of what context the word can be used in and such, but I’ve never known the exact definition of it. So I looked it up in my trusty Canadian Oxford English Dictionary, and this is …

Lifestyle Editing: Lessons from a vet clinic

“Let’s remember that cancer is a chronic disease,” the mother dear said to a client yesterday. The mother dear is a veterinarian who specializes in acupuncture, chiropractic, and physiotherapy. Many of her patients are ones who need extra help because Western medicine can’t do much for them. Because of this, a lot of the patients …

In the Media: Jared Diamond’s interpretation of Tolstoy

I’m partway through reading Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel, and I came across a couple paragraphs in particular that I wanted to share. In this section (Chapter Nine – “Zebras, unhappy marriages, and the Anna Karenina principle”; page 157), he discusses the first sentence of Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina: “Happy families are all alike; …

Lifestyle Editing: Books I read in January 2011

I’ve never kept track of the books that I read, but I thought it might be fun to start keeping a list of all of them. And it just might inspire me to start reading more books, too! Every month I’ll publish a blog post with a list of the books that I read that …

In the Media: The rhetoric of Mad Men

One of my current favourite television shows is Mad Men. From my point of view, as a rhetorician, what’s not to like about the show? It’s based around the concept of advertising, communication, and power struggle within relationships. I find the rhetoric of Mad Men to be fascinating. Something about the show that I really …

Analyzing everyday rhetoric: disposition of a raw foodist

Something that I like to do, when I feel my motivation to eat healthy and lose weight waning, is to skip on over to YouTube and look up videos created by raw foodists. For some reason, raw foodists are one of the most cheerful, motivational, inspiring groups of people out there. I always feel better …

Lifestyle Editing: Building a Time Capsule

About 11 years ago, my family and I put together a time capsule, which we planned on opening on New Year’s Eve, 2009. However, due to the father dear and sistertraveller being out of the country, we had to postpone opening our time capsule until New Year’s Eve 2010. When we opened it, most of …

Lifestyle Editing: Skiing and Rhetoric

I’ve cross-country skied since around the time that I could walk. Every winter, my parents would pack my sister and I up and take us nearly every weekend to go skiing. It was fantastic. It’s been several years since I was last out on the trails, so it was with much excitement (and a little …

Forms of Rhetoric: entertainment vs. high art

After reading Postman, I figured I should probably read Huxley. And what an excellent author he is! From Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (page 194): You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We’ve sacrificed the high art. We have the feelies and the scent organ instead. In Brave …

In the Media: Political Perspectives

George Lakoff is an interesting character. As an expert in cognitive linguistics with strong political views, his work makes for a fascinating read. I’ve been reading his book Don’t think of an elephant! Know your values and frame the debate: the essential guide for progressives and he certainly makes his readers re-think the rhetorical strategies …

Forms of Rhetoric: What are we really learning?

Neil Postman makes me swoon. His book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business may have been first published in 1985, but it is absolutely still relevant today. I share with you a paragraph from his last chapter, entitled “The Huxleyan Warning”, in which he discusses the dangers of television: …