Question: What are you conservative about?
http://annehodgson.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/conservative.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadI did something for the very first time in my life this past week, and you’re going to laugh at me. “What,” you’ll say, “it was her first time?” You see, I may be relatively radical and I do love to experiment and try things out, but there are […]
Question: So what’s your island?
http://annehodgson.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/island.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWe’re heading over to Drummond Island to my family’s cabin place, but I’m going with very mixed feelings. First of all, my mother is too sick to travel there, and I got us both, Helmut and me, tickets primarily to see her. I don’t know when I’ll be able […]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I’ve been away from the US for so long that I’ve got a few blind spots regarding US popular culture. But I’m working on it! One of the things I truly regret missing are some of the better TV series, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (March 1997 until May 2003). Just the snippets of teen […]
JFK: We choose to go to the Moon
In the fall of 1962, when the USA was far behind the Soviet Union in its space program, JFK held his rivetting “We choose to go to the Moon” speech at Rice University in Houston, Texas, proclaiming space to be the new frontier. I’d like to highlight two excerpts, with the minutes in the video […]
Clara Boone, pioneer
When I was a child in the late 60s, a family friend, a descendent of Daniel Boone, came round one day for tea. Clara Boone was a teacher at a public school in DC. The local public schools were deteriorating in those days, kids were really tough, and the teachers were struggling to adapt. We […]
Question: Heroes or victims of circumstance?
It’s Memorial Day weekend, a national holiday dedicated to the soldiers who have fallen serving their country. By definition, that makes them heroes. Or are fallen soldiers victims of circumstance? Soldiers have a very important job to do, and we ask them to do their duty for us. Does doing that duty make them heroes? What exactly are we celebrating here? What do you think: Are we right in asking soldiers to do their duty? Are they heroes or victims of circumstance?
Sex and … grammar?
I’ve got a fun job, writing an exercise a week for learners of English. We think up a topic related to the magazine and a grammar issue that should be addressed, or a set of vocabulary items and an approach to learning them, and then I’m off and running. It’s funny: The more bizarre the […]
