Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Smart Talk SMART TALK
By Dr. Les Terse


WHERE IT’S AT: Back in 1957, when the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired opened in a converted feed store over on Amanita Drive, redundancies like this were mostly limited to jazz musicians.

Where it’s at is a good example of a tautology. Department of Redundancy Dept. demonstrates repetition and is easy to spot. Rio Grande River, not repetition, is a redundancy because “rio” means “river,” but a tautology is more subtle. “Where” includes the concept of “at” in a question-and-answer way, as in, “Where is she?” “She is at work.” So saying where it’s at sounds like overkill when you think about it. Say where it is, or ask where is it instead of the ignorant sounding where’s it at.

Many of the old blues players also shouted, “One more time!” when calling for another chorus. We at the Institute wonder how they missed learning once more.

Both of these expressions have spread, like Hillary rumors, faster than we at the Institute could control them.


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WOOSTER, Ohio — The Wooster Chorus, featuring more than 50 student musicians from The College of Wooster, will present a concert at First Presbyterian Church (315 N. Cayuga St.) in Ithaca, on Saturday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m., as part of the ensemble’s 43rd annual spring tour. There is no admission charge, but a freewill offering will be taken.

Directed by John Russell, professor of music at The College of Wooster, the Wooster Chorus performs a rich selection of choral music as well as the finest sacred and secular music from the past five centuries. This year’s tour program includes several Renaissance motets by Heinrich Schütz and English composers Orlando Gibbons and William Byrd.

Smart Talk SMART TALK
By Clara Dix, N.P.

THAT’S ALL WELL AND GOOD: After meeting together in Strunk Hall, the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired staff’s general consensus was not to call the clause that’s all well and good a symptom of William F. Buckley Syndrome. Doing so would insult Mr. Buckley.

A sufferer of William F. Buckley Syndrome would fail to see the humor in a poster advising, “Eschew Obfuscation.”

Rather, that’s all well and good indicates cerebroporosis. The speaker either wants to impress those who are even more ignorant, or doesn’t know about predicate adjectives and also commits the error of saying I feel badly.

In language, simple is better. So simply say that’s fine, that’s good, or that’s OK. OK?


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It's difficult enough to direct a high school musical.  It's nearly impossible to direct a good high school production.  And the odds of producing a good show diminish still further when you challenge students to perform way beyond their abilities.  That is why it is all the more remarkable that Cindy Howell has had a string of hits at Lansing High School.  Howell challenges her students to do better and better, and they rise to the bait.  "I sat with the kids and said if you guys want to do a really big show like you keep talking about, then I got to see more than I'm seeing," she says.

Smart Talk SMART TALK
By Dr. Molto Breve

YOU’VE GOT MAIL: No one on the staff of the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired has an AOL account. In fact, our founder, grammarian and usage expert James Evans, prohibited AOL accounts on Institute computers after several monitors were smashed by angry language therapists.

Just imagine working all day to cure patients of using redundancies like very unique, prerecorded, hot water heater, and plan ahead. Then you sit at your desk to check email, and that cheery voice declares, “You’ve got mail!” I wonder why we didn’t lose more monitors than those few.

The voice, of course, should say, “You have mail!” “Have” and “get” aren’t synonyms, but their meanings are related closely enough that saying you have got mail is the linguistic equivalent of playing a C and a C-sharp together. Closely enough to give a therapist violent inspiration.

The British love to say have got, but they’re the same folks who refer to things which are related, instead of things that are. They’d love AOL.

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ITHACA, NY: After Ashley is a darkly comedic play that has audiences laughing at one moment and horrified at the next. How do we respond to tragedy that leaves us speechless? How do we continue to survive when a part of us dies? In a play that is both heartbreaking drama and scathing social satire, playwright Gina Gionfriddo takes these questions head-on in her arrestingly powerful and award –winning play.

Three years ago, a family tragedy shattered teenage Justin Hammond’s (Karl Gregory) world, sending him spiraling downward. His father, Alden, (Greg Bostwick) responds by writing a tell-all bestseller that causes a media frenzy. Justin’s 911 call has been sampled in a rap song and now both he and his father are sharing the limelight (unwelcome for Justin and sought after by Alden). Now seventeen, Justin has grown callous not only toward his father, but toward anyone who tries to get close.

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