Gary D Pratt

Professor Emeritus, Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple University.

Oxford commas, and two spaces after a period. ;-)

@TempleUniv @TULiberalArts

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

The act of writing can be dangerous; the act of reading can be even more dangerous.

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

@MerriamWebster But 'discretionary' is related to 'discreet,' correct?

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

@OED #NSFW🙃

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

@NewYorker His diaries are not really that different from Samuel Pepys.

[The OED @OED]

OED #WordOfTheDay: poody, v.
Welsh English. To have a fit of sullen or petulant ill temper; to sulk.

View the entry: https://t.co/atdpwFNZDC

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

Following the Fauci hearing leaves me heartbroken.

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

@MerriamWebster @ActaeonComplex Regarding a word's etymology: it can change because newly discovered historical evidence can easily present new arguments about origins.

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

I was in a Family Dollar store a few days ago and I'm still triggered by seeing back-to-school merchandise in July. When will the nightmares stop? 🙃

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

@rafkhach Cornell?

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

Jocasta should have known better.

Happy Mother’s Day! 🙃

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

@BeschlossDC ✋It comes up in one of my classes when I'm teaching the Binding of Isaac, and I introduce students to the George Segal sculpture on the Princeton campus commemorating the event.

[Frank O'Hara bot @oharapoems]

I think I’ll be alone for a little while.

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

To celebrate this last day before the beginning of Lent.

Thanks to @TempleLibraries for access to 'The New Yorker' archives.

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

My kind of research. 🙃

https://t.co/qKksNrEdlP

[Margaret E Atwood @MargaretAtwood]

Here's a piece of literature by me, suitable for seventeen-year-olds in Alberta schools, unlike -- we are told -- The Handmaid's Tale. (Sorry, kids; your Minister of Education thinks you are stupid babies.)

John and Mary were both very, very good children. They never picked their noses or had bowel movements or zits. They grew up and married each other, and produced five perfect children without ever having sex. Although they claimed to be Christian, they paid no attention to what Jesus actually said about the poor and the Good Samaritan and forgiving your enemies and such; instead, they practised selfish rapacious capitalism, because they worshipped Ayn Rand. (Though they ignored the scene in The Fountainhead where “welcomed rape” is advocated, because who wants to dwell, and also that would have involved sex and would de facto be pornographic. Well, it kind of is, eh?) Oh, and they never died, because who wants to dwell on, you know, death and corpses and yuk? So they lived happily ever after. But while they were doing that The Handmaid’s Tale came true and Danielle Smith found herself with a nice new blue dress but no job. The end.

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

I begin teaching Sappho tomorrow. 🙃

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

@parisreview “Spanish is a language that tends toward exuberance, proliferation, profusion… in bed.”

Like a cookie’s fortune. 🙃

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

"Students said Watson was an easy grader; a student who died mid-semester still got a 'pass.'"

Something to ponder as I begin another semester of teaching.

James Craig Watson, shooting star https://t.co/r75sLxdWPG

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

@parisreview I think @JoeOrtonWriter may be interested in this. 🙃

[Gary D Pratt @GaryDPratt]

August is month of Sundays. 🙃