Archive: Arts & Entertainment

SMART TALK
by Dr. Amelia Raitt Payne



MALE NURSE: The Underbelly Prerecorder ran a feature last week about Gabriel "Gabby" Johnson, one of the few area natives on our staff.  It said, "Mr. Johnson is a male nurse at the the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired."

As staff physician at the I.L.I., I have the honor of  writing this letter to the editor.  I must complain on two counts: 

We already know he's a male, thank you.

Saying male nurse implies the same prejudice as does saying stewardess instead of flight attendant. 

As it happens, most of our nurses happen to be men.


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SMART TALK
by Dr. Les Terse



LEND/LOAN: The Institute for the Linguistically Impaired recently included JoAnn Tiedemann on the panel for a weekend workshop at Warriner House.  Underbelly, Texas, is a long way from Ms Tiedemann's home in Madison, Wisconsin, but we wanted to fly her down and reserve the best room at the Hotel Inn for her.  After all, she gave us a valuable diagnostic tool.

We discovered that the lend/loan word pair makes a perfect test for placement of advanced, relatively fluent patients.  We had tried to use the that/which pair, but find it more reliable as a criterion for graduation with honors.

Some folks may have been loaning books to each other for years, but those who actually learn from reading the books lend them.  When you get a loan, someone lends you money.

To the linguistically unimpaired, loan is always a noun.  You can look it up.  I'll lend you my dictionary.  Any good dictionary - like mine, of course - will acknowledge the use of loan as a verb by the same people who say ain't.

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The Kitchen Theatre Company’s 20th Anniversary continues with the regional premiere of The Tricky Part by Marty Moran. The Tricky Part has previews on March 23, 24, and 25. Opening Night is March 26, and performances continue through April 10, 2011. This show is recommended for ages sixteen and up.

The Tricky Part is a true story in the hands of a master storyteller. In the tradition of Spaulding Gray, Marty Moran’s The Tricky Part combines the immediacy and emotion of a real-life experience with the wisdom and thoughtfulness provided by the passage of time. This one-man play, performed by NYC actor Carl Danielsen, takes you on a journey from the madness of a tricky situation, through a tangle of conflicting actions and desires, and ultimately to a place of new understanding. All this is accomplished in a single spotlight with minimal props - just a vivid performance with tremendous heart. The Tricky Part is a moving story, infused with humor and courage about a tough subject.

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SMART TALK
by by Dr. Manda Rhynne



KUDOS: Educational initiative being what it is or isn't, not many study Greek any more.  Of course, this distresses my Institute for the Linguistically Impaired colleague Verbos Metikulos, who feels that his culture has been devalued.

Dr. Metikulos won't read sports pages any more, where ignorant reporters often write that "Kudos go to young Jane Fisher for her exemplary sportsmanship."  Kudos, which means honor and glory, is a singular noun, like pathos and ethos.  So the ignoramus's sentence should have said, "Kudos go to young Jane Fisher."

"They even offer a kudo or two," Dr. Metikulos has been heard to mutter.  "That's like one applau!"

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L'Orfeo, at Ithaca College, perfectly melds movement and movement, the way that opera originally set out to do. And Monteverdi's L'Orfeo is the earliest opera, originally performed in 1607.

Conductor Brian DeMaris and director David Lefkowich co-teach the Opera Workshop at Ithaca College. Their students do them proud in this production. They can act, dance, roll around on the floor as tormented Hadean spirits, and still sing that twirling Baroque music. It's great to see opera students so physically and vocally comfortable.

True to its mission, the Kitchen Theatre has given us the freshly oddball play boom, by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. First directed by Ithaca College alum Kent Nicholson in a developmental reading at The Playwrights Foundation In the Rough series, boom has been produced at the Wooly Mammoth Theatre in D.C. and Ars Nova in NYC.

Marine biologist Jules has predicted the end of the world based on his study of the habits of tropical fish. He invites undergraduate journalism major Jo into his underground lab to play Eve to his Adam. All of this is orchestrated by Barbara, some kind of futuristic tour guide. Because it has several surprises and surprise endings, that's all the plot you'll get.

SMART TALK
by Dr. Verbos Metikulos



KNOTS PER HOUR: Reporters and others frequently commit this redundancy.  Instead of factual, they're fatuous.

Many don't understand that a knot is one nautical mile per hour. A nautical mile is equal to one minute of latitude.  That's 1/60 of one degree, which comes out to almost 800 feet more than a land mile, also known as a statute mile.

Therefore, a fighter jet doing 400 knots is traveling a tad over 460 miles per hour.  With the metric system, we wouldn't suffer any of this confusion.

Anyway, saying knots per hour is as redundant as saying "Nice day, isn't it" in Honolulu.

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