Category Archives: ESL Links

For years the Dowbrigade has been using the Harper’s Index with his advanced ESL students.  The Harpers Index is a monthly list of surprising or unexpected or counterintuitive statistical facts, written in a strange hybrid form expressing equivalency, but gramatically … Continue reading →

Cool little quiz over at quizilla.com, called "What kind of post-modernist are you?" I’m not really sure what a post-modernist is, except that I think it has something to do with deconstructionism. Thanks to Ryan Overbey for the tip. Here are … Continue reading →

Gadzooks! Jay McCarthy has discovered Ayn Rand! Also notable as a sweet application of outline-based, category-rich blogging. From Make Out City

The holiday spirit was dampened and Christmas dinner ruined at Buckingham Palace by a combination dog fignt / cat fight involving The Queen of England, her daughter Princess Anne, a bull terrier named Dottie and the Queen’s favorite Corgi, name … Continue reading →

As the top prize gets closer and closer, The Remaking of Howard Dean is reaching a fevered pitch. What with Michael Jackson embracing the Nation of Islam, hearing that Dean is embracing his Christian roots is all part of a … Continue reading →

In this exclusive photo by Dave Winer, Sen. Lieberman warily eyes the Dowbrigade, as your intrepid reporter, pen in one hand and beer in the other, grills him on the issues of the day. In an exclusive interview at a … Continue reading →

A teenage girl from a nowhere town pours her heart into prose. A risk-taking publisher turns that prose into a book. It outsells almost everything else in Italy, making its author famous. That is an accurate enough account of what … Continue reading →

David Bowie leads an impressive secret list of 300 British luminaries who have snubbed the Royal Family and refused to accept knighthoods. The list was somehow leaked to the press earlier today. Bowie declined a CBE during the Queen’s birthday … Continue reading →

With typical low-key British aplomb, the Queen has consented to allow, for the first time, holiday illumination on Buckingham Palace. In a subtle demonstration of good taste mixed with saavy business sense, the Union Jack motif appearantly alternates with an … Continue reading →

The Dowbrigade is currently reading "Counter-Clock World" by Philip K. Dick, a great piece of pretzel logic in which time has started running backwards.  In the novel, written in 1967, a 1986 discovery called the ‘Hobart Phase’ has started time … Continue reading →

Photo by Dave Winer Yesterday, along with fellow bloggers Dave Winer and Jessica the Cyber Librarian, the Dowbrigade hit the campaign trail in New Hampshire, crashing events in Manchester featuring Howard Dean and Joe Lieberman. After an engaging drive up … Continue reading →

Apparently the Dowbrigade is not the only wacko who believes that people should be allowed to marry their pets. There is nothing more loving, supportive and nonjudgmental than a pet, and who can deny these are ideal qualities in a … Continue reading →