Monday, April 13, 2015

Dr. Seuss

For this blog I have decided to talk about the author Theodor Seuss Geisel, or otherwise known as Dr. Seuss. Geisel is famously known for his childrens books such as, "Oh the places you'll go," "The cat in the hat," and "Green eggs and ham." His books were fun and rhythmic but included very strong values for kids to live by while growing up.
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father and grandfather were both brewmasters in Springfield while his mother was accredited with his ability and love for rhyme by chanting rhymes from her childhood to soothe him to sleep at night. While they were financially well off the bringing of WW1 and the Prohibition did bring along changes for the German immigrants. Nonetheless, Ted had a great upbringing and was off to great things. Ted ended uo leaving Springfield to atten college at Darthmouth where he began to work for the newspaper, The Jack-o-Lantern, which was a humor specific paper. He then left for Oxford University in England. After he graduated he met his first wife, Helen Palmer, who just so happened to be a childrens author. After returning to the US he began to pursue a cartoonist career. Springfield can be seen illustrated throughout many of his books. In his first childrens book, "And to think I saw it on Mulberry Street," Ted illustrates his Mayor along with the police force seen riding on their red motorcycles that he saw as a kid.
1) What made you choose the style of illustrations that are seen in your books? 2) How long did it take for you to come up with some of your made-up words? How did you choose them? 3) Why didn't you further explore your "adult" literature? 4) When did you finally feel like you had made a name for yourself? 5) Which of your books is your favorite and why? Sources:

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Journalists Losing Critical Thought?

Cody Barger
I believe that the public as well as reports are both becoming more and more gullible as time goes by. If reporters get wind of a big story that they think other news sources will cover as well they go in guns blazing trying to get any information they can without proper prep time or research before. This is also the case with the majority of the public now too I believe. We as the audience are too quick to read a story and believe it word for word before researching it at all. We are in the mindset of, "oh, all these news sources are talking about it surely they know what they're doing and talking about." We get so brain dead sometimes that we never stop to actually use critical thought on issues or news. We as a society want information and we want it now, at all costs. It does not matter how we get it we just need a little scoop of what may be happening. This idea of needing constant information before people can correctly and professionally expel it is hurting us as a people and reports alike.