TheCapitol.netCoursesConvenience LearningCustom TrainingPublicationsFaculty & AuthorsClientsStoreClient Care

March 2007 Archives

« Previous Archive : Main : Next Archive »

Congressional Directory 2007

The 2007 Congressional Directory is now shipping. It is available in both state-by-state and alphabetical versions.

Congressional Directory
Congressional Directory

March 30, 2007 09:27 PM   Link    Congress    Comments (0)

"The explanation is worse than the blunder"

Back in the 1950s I collected proverbs, and when in New York I roamed the used-book stores looking for proverb books to add to my collection. I was told in each store that Colonel Ginzburg had been there two weeks before and had bought all the proverb books.

Who was Colonel Ginzburg? I found out who he was when an article in the New York Times said he was connected with the United Nations and he had published a book of worldwide proverbial wisdom. I got his book, and I was pleased to see that all Ginzburg’s proverbs were already in the books I had. There was, however, a Turkish proverb: "The explanation is worse than the blunder." It was followed by this Turkish delight:
    A king known for his cruelty demanded that his court jester illustrate, within the hour, the meaning of the proverb, or be tortured to death.

    When the king and his queen, some time later, slowly mounted a staircase, the jester stole behind them and gave the king a loving pinch on his behind. The king, with sword drawn, wheeled around and was about to decapitate the fool who yelled:

    “Sorry, Your Majesty, I thought it was the Queen!”

"Who Said What," by Jacob A. Stein, Legal Spectator, The Washington Lawyer, April 2007



Legal Spectator & More, by Jacob Stein
Legal Spectator & More, by Jacob Stein




. . . . . . . . .


March 29, 2007 03:17 PM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

The more women at work, the sooner we win!

This is a WWII poster from the Northwestern University archives.

The more women at work, the sooner we win!
The more women at work, the sooner we win!


. . . . . . . . .


March 25, 2007 08:27 AM   Link    Art    Comments (0)

Do you finish every book you start?

The University of Paris literature professor Pierre Bayard's best seller How to Talk About Books That You Haven't Read is flying off the shelves in France. Not only does Bayard tell readers how to fake literary orgasm, but he admits to giving lectures on books he hasn't bothered to read. I'm sure Bayard's book will be met with outrage from many academics on this side of the Atlantic who lack the French national penchant for public display and intellectual pretension. Obviously, there is something seriously reprehensible about Bayard's know-nothing chutzpah (or whatever the French word for that is). Our goal as teachers is to teach what we know, not what we don't. But, outrage aside, perhaps it's time to admit that not reading has its virtues as well as its vices.

An all too predictable moralism surrounds the reading of books. There is a prescribed way of reading: one page at a time, starting from the front of the book to the back, paying close attention to every single page in order, no skipping around. But the reality is that most of us graze -- read a bit, put the book down, start up again. We may pay more attention to one part than another, skim boring parts, and even (heaven forfend) leap over long, dull tracts. Some very strange people even admit to reading the end of a book before the beginning, which is sort of like eating dessert before dinner

"Huckleberry Who?" by Lennard J. Davis, The Chronicle Review, March 23, 2007

Hat tip ALD

More


. . . . . . . . .


March 23, 2007 06:37 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Work on a farm this summer - join the U.S. crop corps

This is a WWII poster from the Northwestern University archives.

Work on a farm this summer - join the U.S. crop corps
Work on a farm this summer - join the U.S. crop corps

More




. . . . . . . . .


March 22, 2007 12:57 PM   Link    Art    Comments (0)

2007 Farm Bill

We are sponsoring a telephone seminar on the 2007 Farm Bill on April 17, 2007; the audio CD will be available a week later.

2007 Farm Bill: The Players, The Stakes, and The Debate, Audio CD Audio CD

2007 Farm Bill: The Players, The Stakes, and The Debate

More information

More

. . .


March 19, 2007 08:57 AM   Link    2007_Farm_Bill    Comments (0)

Fuel is scarce

This is a WWII poster from the Northwestern University archives.

All fuel is scarce. Plan for winter now!
All fuel is scarce. Plan for winter now!


. . . . . . . . .


March 16, 2007 08:27 PM   Link    Art    Comments (0)

Congressional Directory 2007

The Congressional Directory 2007 is coming!

Our Directory of the members of the US Senate and the US House of Representatives, with color photos, and fold-out map of Capitol Hill will start shipping the last week of March, 2007. Committee membership was not finalized until early March, and the Directory is now in production.

Congressional Directory
Congressional Directory

2 versions are available: Alphabetical by last name (popular inside the Beltway), and State-by-State (popular outside the Beltway). Sample pages here.

Wire spiral bound for easy use.

$17.95.

March 15, 2007 05:27 PM   Link    Congress    Comments (0)

Congressional Oversight and Investigation

From our Legislative Glossary:

Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.

Oversight Committee: A congressional committee, or designated subcommittee of a committee, charged with general oversight of one or more federal agencies activities. Usually, the oversight panel for a particular agency also is the authorizing committee for that agency’s programs and operations.

We recently released an overview of Congressional Oversight on audio CD:

Preparing for Congressional Oversight and Investigation, Audio CD Audio CD

Preparing for Congressional Oversight and Investigation

More information

More

March 14, 2007 06:17 AM   Link    Congressional_Oversight    Comments (0)

This world cannot exist half slave and half free

This is a WWII poster from the Northwestern University archives.

This world cannot exist half slave and half free
This world cannot exist half slave and half free


. . . . . . . . .


March 13, 2007 09:27 AM   Link    Art    Comments (0)

For parents with teenagers ... how to handle road rage ... Teenager Driving Contract

Trunk Monkey #6 - Chaperone Version

Continue reading "For parents with teenagers ... how to handle road rage ... Teenager Driving Contract"

March 11, 2007 10:17 AM   Link    Humor    Comments (0)

UNKNOWN FATHER

UNKNOWN FATHER, you have a 1-week-old daughter. UNKNOWN FATHER, you have a 13-year-old son. UNKNOWN FATHER, you have a newborn whose mother has six other children; none of them lives with her. UNKNOWN FATHER, your 1-year-old has been found with an ankle burn and such hunger pains that when she was finally fed, she did not stop to chew. UNKNOWN FATHER, your child's mother has told social workers she "has problems remembering where she leaves her baby."

The capital letters shout, as if in fury and frustration, as if the legal announcements' bold-faced, double-spaced type could roar beyond the confines of the clerk's office, where the few people who see these documents are the court employees tacking them up and the lawyers who double-check that they've been posted.
. . .
UNKNOWN FATHER, the postings cry to no one, you are hereby notified.

"Notes of Despair: On a D.C. Court Bulletin Board, Pleas for Vanished Parents And Stories of Foster Kids' Damaged Worlds Come to Life," by Darragh Johnson, The Washington Post, March 4, 2007



. . . . . . . . .


March 10, 2007 07:27 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

"I'm fiftysomething and I'm joining Facebook. You got a problem with that?"

It's clear that if you are in the target demographic for a face-lift, you're not going to know a lot of people on Facebook.
. . .
If only there had been Facebook when I was in school! That way, I could have skipped years of loneliness. The Michigan State University professors found [see link below] that even morose students, such as I was, end up making social connections in spite of themselves when they sign up for Facebook. If I had had Facebook, I would have known all along that my reunion was coming up. Of course, now that there is Facebook, and everyone can stay in touch, and look at one another's photo albums, and see one another's haircuts as the years go on, reunions are going to be a lot less interesting.

"Facebook for Fiftysomethings: I'm unfriendly, solitary, and 30 years older than everyone else on the site. But could social networking work for me anyway?" by Emily Yoffe, Slate, March 8, 2007

More

. . . . . . . . .


March 9, 2007 06:37 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

How do you order a burger, fries, and a milkshake in a library?

How do you order a burger, fries, and a milkshake in a library?


Quietly......

An excellent use of YouTube for marketing.

March 8, 2007 07:47 PM   Link    Business ~   Humor ~   Technology    Comments (0)

Schubert's productivity

A company president was given a ticket for a performance of Schubert's unfinished symphony. Since she had previous plans and was unable to go, she passed the tickets along to the Company's Quality Assurance Manager. The next morning, the president asked the QA Manager how he enjoyed the symphony, and, instead of a few pleasant observations, she was handed a memorandum that read as follows:

1. For a considerable period, the oboe players had nothing to do. Their number should be reduced, and their work spread over the whole orchestra, thus avoiding peaks of inactivity.

2. All twelve violins were playing identical notes. This seems unnecessary duplication, and the staff of this section should be dramatically cut. If a large volume of sound is really required, an amplifier should be used.

3. Much effort was involved in playing the demi-semiquavers. This seems an excessive refinement, and it is recommended that all notes should be rounded up to the nearest semiquaver. If this were done, it would be possible to use trainees instead of craftsmen.

4. No useful purpose is served by repeating with the horns the passage that has already been handled by the strings. If all such redundant passages were eliminated, the concert could be reduced from two hours to twenty minutes, with attendant savings.

In light of the above, one can only conclude that had Schubert given attention to these matters, he probably would have had time to finish his symphony. And the finished symphony would have been of a much higher quality and able to be produced at a much lower cost.

Source unknown

. . . . . .


March 7, 2007 06:17 AM   Link    Art ~   Humor ~   Music    Comments (0)

"Extreme Ethno-tourism"

You’ve spent 10,000 years getting there. It’s not pretty but it’s yours--the swamp, the forest, the tree house where you live. Bigger and stronger tribes drove you down from the better land higher up the slopes, so you retreated to a godforsaken place thick with reptiles, insects, and malarial encephalitis. Southern Papua’s rain forests are hell; but at least you feel safe and alone.

Then Zurück in die Steinzeit comes along--a party of Germans looking for tourism’s outer edge, an unknown and uncontacted tribe, a forest fastness to outfast any other. They have their cameras ready and this is what they’ve come for (Zurück in die Steinzeit means Back to the Stone Age)--stark naked little guys with bows and arrows and funny-looking penis sheaths and living in trees. They’re up there on a kind of platform gesticulating: even at $8000 a seat this show is worth the price.

It seems that everywhere today people spend lots of time staring at other people. In some Third World villages they do it because time hangs heavy on their hands. In First World cities they do it because time hangs heavier--the rich, who read less and play more and suffer a surfeit of channels as well as food, are often bored out of their minds. So the bolder of them go on tour to the ends of the earth where “extreme ethno-tourism” can be enjoyed by venturing into the last strongholds of tribal man.
. . .
How come the little brown tree-dwellers have come to be considered as suitable objects for staring at as if they were architectural ruins like Greek temples, or geological oddities like Monument Valley? In other words, as exotic extras on the global stage of commercially theatricalised tourist spectacle?
. . .
What the entire “first contact” tourist operation provides is yet another illustration of our insatiable need for theatricalized versions of life to take us out of ourselves, and the commercialization of exotic “experiences” for harried urban escapists willing to pay for their pleasures in Bangkok or beyond. In brief, we demand the world as spectacle, life as theatre, existence as exhibition--with more and more people staring at more and more people, directly as live tourists or indirectly through a thousand screens, while voyeurismo takes over the world.

"Voyeurismo," a review of Lawrence Osborne’s "The Naked Tourist," by Roger Sandall, the culture cult, February 2007

hat tip ALD

More

. . . . . . . . .


March 6, 2007 06:17 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Bank Account

This was forwarded to us by a good friend's mom. Thanks Iris!

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably coifed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

"I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait."

"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged, it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.

"It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.

Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away. Just for this time in my life.

Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in.

So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories! Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing."

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

March 5, 2007 10:17 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

"He was not of an age, but for all time."

In June 2006, I was scheduled to fly back from a trip to Sicily via Frankfurt am Main. Having seen the airport many times but not the city itself, I decided to spend a few days there. But as I discovered when I went to book a hotel, there was a little problem. Germany was hosting the World Cup that month, and the city was swarming with soccer fans come from all over the globe to watch the nail-biting zero-zero ties on jumbo TVs strategically placed around the city--one even floating on a barge in the middle of the Main.
. . .
Foreign producers of Shakespeare like Groß and Wilms evidently don't find his work alien to their own experience, and, given the popularity of the plays around the world, the same may be said of theater audiences everywhere. As far as I can tell, the only people intent on questioning the timelessness of Shakespeare's plays today are literature professors in the English-speaking world. In recent decades it has become increasingly fashionable among Shakespeare scholars to deny that there is anything intrinsically great or universal in his plays. They view Shakespeare as a product of the narrow horizons of his own day, and label him a distinctly English phenomenon. Indeed his greatness is often treated as a cultural construct, something invented or even manufactured in England. His plays are said to be the product of a culture industry, which first imposed his works on England, then on the English-speaking world, and finally on the whole globe, as if he were a skillfully marketed commodity, the Guinness Stout of the Renaissance.

In this view, Shakespeare is the ultimate Dead White European Male. He was canonized by the cultural establishment of England and then used to impose English values around the world (especially throughout the British Empire). In their efforts to cut Shakespeare down to size, and find something contingent, even arbitrary, in his reputation, Shakespeare scholars sometimes speak as if the cultural establishment could have taken any one of his contemporaries--say, Ben Jonson or Thomas Middleton--and through clever packaging and marketing built him into the world's most famous poet. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! The only reason the general public pays attention to Shakespeare scholars is for their help in understanding his greatness, and yet some of them are now actively engaged in debunking that greatness as a cultural myth.
. . .
Shakespeare most often crosses the border as a liberator, not a conqueror. Indeed, cultural exchange is generally more like free trade than imperialism.

"Playwright of the Globe," by Paul A. Cantor, Claremont Review of Books, January 8, 2007

hat tip ALD

Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton

If you want to see Shakespeare presented with a focus on the language and not the sets, we give our highest recommendation to Shenandoah Shakespeare at Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia. The drive from Washington is beautiful and well worth it.



. . . . . . . . .


March 3, 2007 10:17 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Women in the war - we can't win without them

This is a WWII poster from the Northwestern University archives.

Women in the war - we can't win without them
Women in the war - we can't win without them


. . . . . . . . .


March 2, 2007 08:37 AM   Link    Art    Comments (0)