Archive: Arts & Entertainment

SMART TALK
by Dr. Amelia Raitt Payne



GENETIC MUTATION: I don't know why the language therapists asked me to write about this term.  True, I am the staff physician at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, and perhaps more of a hard scientist, so to speak, than they are.  But still:  Why me?

Surely, anyone with more thinking power than a crustacean can see that genetic mutation is redundant, right?  It's as silly as saying oral mouth disease.

Maybe some don't realize that a mutation is genetic by definition:  Mutations occur due to genetic irregularities, which happen much more often than most people realize.

That's why cloning of complex organisms, such as humans, works about as well as planning to win the lotto.  Even identical twins aren't, any more than are the right and left halves of your face, despite that our teachers told us we're bilaterally symmetrical.  So a look into the mirror tells us that our own cells can't keep making perfect copies of themselves every time, given even the best of conditions.

See?  Why'd they pick me?  I go off into a science lecture.

----
v6i36

----
v6i36

Tompkins County's only corn maze and sound garden is taller than ever.

"The corn in the maze is really tall this year," says Christianne White, who created the musical maze with her husband, trumpeter and composer Walter White, and neighbor George Sheldrake, who owns Early Bird Farm.  "The maze is more challenging this year. There are dead-endsŠplaces where you have to turn around and start again, but it's still the sort of maze you want to spend more time in, not the kind of maze that you just want to escape."

The Museum of the Earth will be opening its newest temporary exhibition, Science on the Half Shell: How and Why We Study Evolution, on September 24th, 2010.   This exhibition is made possible through a multimillion-dollar award from the National Science Foundation’s Assembling the Tree of Life Program to study the evolution of bivalves.  The Museum of the Earth, in conjunction with the Field Museum of Natural History and Harvard University, are the lead recipients of this grant.

Progressive Talk 1470 WNYY is bringing two big names to town this October with Stop the Press – It’s Miller Time. Progressive Talk Show Hosts Bill Press and Stephanie Miller will be performing live at Ithaca’s Hangar Theatre on October 23rd.

Stephanie will offer Ithaca her take on current events through her boxed-wine-colored glasses, along with an informal Q&A and lots of time mugging for the camera. Bill will put his humorous spin on the day's events as well as the upcoming elections.  The local Out Loud Chorus will start off the show.

This fall Sciencenter visitors will experience Tech City, the exhibition that has traveled the country and introduced over 1 million museum-goers to engineering and real-world problem solving.  Tech City opens at the Sciencenter on Saturday, September 25 with special hands-on activities throughout the day.  A special exhibition preview for Sciencenter members will be held on Friday, September 24 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Tech City invites visitors of all ages and abilities to “become engineers for the day” by fixing traffic flow problems, building bridges, and designing other structures to withstand the forces of nature.  Tech City features twelve exhibits, including a sound studio where visitors can produce their own recordings using a variety of sound effects, Design a Plaza that allows visitors to create various geometric patterns to tile a plaza in the most cost-effective manner, and Earthquake where visitors are challenged to build and test structures against a simulated earthquake tremor.

----
v6i35

SMART TALK
by Dr. Saber S. Poder



FIRSTLY: At the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, we decided to isolate this disorder as part of the adverb-compulsive strain of William F. Buckley Syndrome. 

Sufferers say firstly, secondly, and so on to lastly instead of the grammatical and simpler first, second, and last.  Perhaps they were sleeping all those times teachers and books told them that generally, words ending in  -ly are called adverbs because they add to verbs, as in think carefully.

Another symptom they often present with is saying hopefully instead of I hope, and more importantly instead of more important. Instead of feeling bad, they feel badly, which really means that their nerves don't work very well.

The quintessence of fatuousness, their bad grammar makes these poor people look foolish, while they think they sound ever so intellectual.

----
v6i35

Rachel Lampert’s newest movement/theater piece, Summers at Rock’s Edge (working title - Dancing in the Kitchen with the CCO), is a collage of dances and scenes. Rock’s Edge is a glorious artists’ retreat ruled over by Madame Tumkovsky, a passionate teacher of dance and “all things necessary to make your way in the world.”

The usual mix of painters, writers, dancers and musicians who take up residency at Rock’s Edge for the summer are not so sure about the newest addition to the summer guest list, eleven year-old Clarice. The piece moves back and forth in time as Clarice and her friend Stefan recall summers spent at Rock’s Edge.

----
v6i34

SMART TALK
by Dr. Verbos Metikulos



FIRST AND FOREMOST: We often refer patients who use this phrase to Dr. Viva Palaver, our staff psychologist here at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired.  They need to resolve insecurities about not always being first before standard anti-redundancy treatment can help them.

Like people who (often rightly) fear that they have no credibility and say to tell you the truth, making you think they've been lying so far, these patients show their fear of lagging behind by using first and foremost and first of all.

Firstly, however, is a completely grammatical problem, not a psychological one, and therefore easier to treat.

----
v6i34

Running to Places Theatre Company announced The Wind in the Willows, its final show of the 2010 Season, will be performed at The Community School of Music and Art (CSMA) off the Ithaca Commons on September 10 & 11 at 7pm and September 12 at 2pm.

Join young Mole (Ally Mirin), adventurous Rat (Alexandra Crenshaw), and curmudgeonly Badger (Max Mollenkamp) as they try to keep wild Toad (Saia Meyerhoff) out of too much trouble, especially when those Weasels and other Wild Wooders are around. But how can Toad be expected to resist stealing and crashing cars, dressing up in disguises, eating all the food, and generally being wonderful Toad!?