Allison Keene
Weekend Links: Memory Tricks
by Allison Keene - September 4, 2010 - 10:21 AM
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I love this link from Danielle, who brought to my attention the performance of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” on the carillon on August 27th. Tin-Shi Tam, Iowa State University carillonneur and associate professor of music and theater, acquiesced in playing the song after a campaign was launched. Did you guys ever have any surprising tunes come out of your bell tower? At Emory I knew some people who had once programed in Black Sabbath. Another time we woke up early to the sounds of “It’s a Small World,” which was kind of nice!
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The anti-social side of social media is explored among these 7 Bloodiest Social Media Battles, which range from exposing tens of thousands of government secrets, to supporting a huge site’s competitor, to, in a rare moment of decency … preserving democracy via Tweets.
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Be honest, Flossers – would any of you try these Out-of-the-Ordinary Milkshake flavors? Or better yet, have you tried them??
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If you’re interested in accents and linguistics, or if you’d just like to polish up your imitations, hear accents from all over the world with the speech-accent archive. Does the person nearest to your area sound anything like you?
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An English teacher in high school used to say to us that, when it comes to glorifying one’s childhood, “people often have amnesia about the past.” You memory, it turns out, has several ways of playing tricks on you! (Thanks Kelsey for the link!).
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From the Department of Awkward: The Ten Strangest Celebrity Records of All Time. You might think Conan O’Brien’s new Frankenstein-themed single is strange, but you probably haven’t heard Crispin Glover’s semi-rapped “Clowny Clown Clown” …
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I hope everyone has a great 3-day weekend (if you are so lucky!). Start getting ready for Fall and cuddling up indoors with these 16 best dystopian books ever. Any other recommendations to this list?
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I’m off tomorrow but will be back next week with fresh batches of new links! Remember in the meantime to send all your submissions to FlossyLinks@gmail.com

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Comments (12)
  1. I would try all of the milkshake flavors.

  2. The accent archive is pretty interesting. My husband is from Haifa Israel so I played it. His accent doesnt match the person speaking in the recording. When I pointed it out my husband said “Thats B.S…Israeli accent is Israeli accent.”

    And I really want to try the Guinness shake!!

  3. The Hunger Games trilogy definitely belongs on the list of dystopian books!

  4. Art Linkletter’s record brought me to tears. So poignant and so beautiful.

  5. At a Cleveland restaurant owned by celebrity chef Michael Symon, they serve a Vanilla Bean Bacon Apple Pie milkshake, which is really good!

  6. Why must we put bacon in and on everything? It’s like an absolute obsession in the US and Europe especially. It’s gross enough to me as a normal meat/meal, but then as a dessert?

    Can I get some agreement–at least from my Jewish and Muslim sisters and brothers out there– that our culture’s obsession with swine is now officially out of control?

  7. I went to a green bean festival this summer and had a green beant milkshake. It was basically pureed green beans and vanilla ice cream. It really wasn’t all that bad!

  8. I don’t remember there being a carillon at my school but I worked at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota which has one in the top of the Mayo building. Every Friday the carillon was played by Dean. He took us up there once to watch him play. He had a sort of keyboard that would cause the bells to ring. He would play requests and asked us if we wanted anything particular played. The day that I was there he played Happy Birthday for a doctor at the clinic. I don’t know if he still plays but I enjoyed hearing him when I lived there.

  9. Purple yam, no, but purple potato ice cream is AMAZING, so I’d assume purple yam milkshakes would be as well. They were my mainstay all summer in Kyoto. <3

  10. I’ve tried the tropical punch milkshake… not so good.

  11. I would add “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin to the list of dystopia novels. Amazing- and if I remember correctly, some bickering between him and some of the other 1920s writers about who borrowed from whom. Add it to the “must read before I die” list!

  12. I would try pretty much all of them.

    One I noticed that was not on the list:
    Date Shake

    Offered by Hadley’s in Palm Springs, it’s basically a vanilla shake with dates in it.

    And it’s really tasty!

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