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Everyday Semiotics: July 2006

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Thursday, July 06, 2006. Am I the only one bothered by the improper syntax on so many supermarket products? Having worked at a newspaper that received its share of letters to the editor and press releases, I've seen so many examples of improper comma placement and unnecessary capitalization that it's nearly destroyed what little faith I had left in the efficacy of English instruction in this country today. The pea has played an important role in dietary life and culture since they dawn of recorded histor...

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Everyday Semiotics: December 2006

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Friday, December 29, 2006. To hang by the neck until dead. So they hanged Saddam Hussein. Some first impressions: I was in the newsroom when word came in that the first uncomfirmed reports from Arab newsorgans had made their way to Western media about 10 pm Space was quickly found on the next morning's front page. But what, I ask somewhat rhetorically, makes the actual event more newsworthy than the fact that he was sentenced to hang, and that an appeal to the sentence had been denied? No doubt they were...

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Everyday Semiotics: October 2006

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006. Stay the course no more. Turns out this is actually old news, but the White House speechwriters have officially dropped "stay the course". From heavy rotation in their discourse about Iraq and the war on terror. From an NPR report by David Greene ( http:/ www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? Speaking in Utah at the end of August, President Bush said, "We will stay the course. We will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed.". So what finally, after all this time, cause Mr&#46...

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Everyday Semiotics: November 2006

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Tuesday, November 28, 2006. I don't need your civil war. So apparently there's a big to-do over NBC finally exhibiting the sense to call a spade a spade and use the words "civil war" in its reporting on Iraq. Seriously though, what's the big deal? Why is the White House so insistent that Iraq is not in a state of civil war, and why aren't more media agencies calling it a civil war? AP offers a feeble lesson in definitions:. You have notr yet had a situation where you have two clearly defined and opposing...

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Everyday Semiotics: July 2005

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Wednesday, July 06, 2005. New US. Unit to Release Terror Data. By Mary Louise Kelly. All Things Considered, July 5, 2005 The new National Counter-Terrorism Center is to deliver a comprehensive accounting of terrorist incidents worldwide. The government's release of similar data in the past has sparked controversies over its procedures and accuracy. Any time government involves itself in etymology we must sit up and take notice. That may be a bit of a stretch - after all, I don't think any questioning of ...

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Everyday Semiotics: February 2005

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Friday, February 25, 2005. Observations on the new, multinational American nationalism. Part 2. The dogtag incident. By now there's been plenty of banter about the hug shared by bereaved military mother Janet Norwood and Iraqi voter Safia al-Souhail during Pres. Bush's latest state of the union address. So far this banter has been confined to a sort of aesthetic, moral discourse. Either you think it was beautiful and spontaneous or disgusting and fake. So what is the message? Quite simply, it is what it ...

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Everyday Semiotics: June 2005

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Saturday, June 18, 2005. Fighting terror with fear. While I quite enjoyed it, I must admit the new "Batman Begins" film reads rather like Giorgio Agamben for Dummies. It's a regular pageant of homos sacer. A litany of superego excesses who all give rise to one another and then take turns clashing in hierarchical order to match the rising tensions and revelations of the plot. Meanwhile the rank and file, body politic, cogs of codified justice, cower on the sidelines. As a movie, Batman Begins is on the lo...

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Everyday Semiotics: October 2005

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Thursday, October 27, 2005. Now this is just fucking stupid. I heard about this last night on the CBC show. Which, if you're not already privy, is the best thing on radio. Real Audio format). The interview is at the last third of the file. Also, read the AP story below. Newark Pays Paper to Print Only Good News. Monday October 24, 11:20 pm ET. Newark, N.J., Paying Weekly Newspaper $100,000 to Print Only Good News About City. Do we have critical reporters on staff? No Do we have investigative reporters?

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Everyday Semiotics: January 2006

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Monday, January 02, 2006. Spooky action at a distance. This past week in the New York Times science section there were two articles, not quite side by side, that together in my mind posed a question of some interest and relevance to this blog. How is science to be defined? Founded recently in response to the Kansas Board of Education's re-definition of science to include intelligent design. Far be it from me as a semiotician to criticize the Kansas Board of Education's wordplay. Truth be told, the qu...