Ironic Sans has created a video tracking the incorrect use of lay and lie in the TV series Mad Men. This is a commonly tested diction error on the writing section of the SAT, so pay attention! Also frequently tested is the difference between raise and rise. Like lay, raise takes an object; like lie, rise does not take an object.
Paste a sample of your writing into the box on this website to find out which famous writer you write like. Disclaimer: it may lack accuracy: pasting a sample of Alice Munro yielded a result of Stephen King. And this blog post? Arthur Conan Doyle!
Visit this blog for unexpected juxtapositions between modern television screen shots and the literary quotations they’ve been captioned with, or, as the author Maris Kreizman puts it: “Kurt Vonnegut, meet Brenda Walsh.”
An essay by Margo Rabb in the New York Times discusses which books are the most stolen in bookstore across the country. Apparently, the most commonly stolen book at Book People in Austin, TX, is the Bible, whereas at St. Mark’s Bookshop in New York, books by Martin Amis, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Raymond Carver, Don DeLillo and Jack Kerouac are so often pilfered that they have been moved to a special case behind the counter.
Courtesy of Toronto journalist Shaun Smith, here is a top ten list of literary feuds.
On a more light-hearted note, here is a rap music video with advice to help you prepare for the SAT, created by teachers at Williamsburg Charter High School.
