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Stereotypes

What is up with the ridiculous stereotypes these days? People are just making things up like “all black people look alike”. That is a damn lie because if all black people looked alike everyone would be waking up to a Beyonce or a Denzel Washington. Do not get me wrong; there are some sexy black people other than Beyonce and Denzel but wouldn’t it be nice.  I am just tired of all of the stereo types lingering around and even children are making fun of others. Another one is all black people love chicken. “I in fact hate chicken. I have never eaten a piece of chicken in a while and I am a mixed black guy. I searched and came across some pretty interesting stereotypes.

Check these out!

Italians, Spaniards, Latino-Americans: hot tempered, high sex drives, possibly “prone to crime or violence”

Jews: money-grubbing, excessively influential in the world for some reason, conspiring, conniving

Greeks: can’t trust them, slick, business cheats, restaurant owners

Muslims (not an ethnicity/race but still stereotypes going on about them): possibly disloyal (esp. nowadays in America), possibly radicals or terrorists, can’t be trusted, always covering their face,

French:  arrogant, judgmental, rude (esp. Parisians)

Germans:  prone to militarism, nationalism, and war, anti- Semitic, easily led by a strong dictatorial type leader

Scandinavians:  politically progressive, open-minded, tall, naturally blonde, blue eyed, pale

British: pubs, football, fish and chips, sleazy tabloids, prudish, a bit cocky and arrogant

Irish: drunks, like to fight while drunk, cops (crooked) and firemen (crooked), always singing

Russians: polish, eastern Slavs, communists

Chinese: smart, physically smell, trained to do martial arts, everything is made in China, all look alike, eat with chop sticks, small package

Japanese: all business, good cars

Dutch: wooden shoes, windmills, drugs

Mexicans: Always working, construction workers, own the corner stores, only listen to music like (listen below), and have a lot of kids

Blacks: Look alike, failures, racists, drop-outs, love chicken, and love watermelon

Now what the hell!! We all are human beings; shouldn’t that be all that matters? I hope you all have enjoyed reading my article.

Image via Wikipedia

“When you think of librarians you might think….”

Here's something new I learned today: The phrase "two plus eleven" is equal to the phrase "one plus twelve" in more than one way!

Go here for more anagram coolness! (Click on the anagram link at the top right.)

Oh, and there's a whole bunch about palindromes there too.

I came across this vocabulary quiz in my wanderings today.

I got 74 correct, but I'll admit that:

1) I had to guess more than a few; and
2) if the definitions hadn't been given there were plenty more I would never be able to define on my own.

How will you do?

(Note: I got 71%, because I guessed wrong more than once on a few.)

In case you're not spending enough of your time playing word games, solving riddles, and generally frittering away your day while exercising your brain... have you checked out Word Sudoku yet?

I did a search tonight, and came across a few sites. This seemed the most promising, not to mention it was the least likely to make me want to commit Sudokicide.

Alternatives:

This one is a little more confusing, but the site itself has other good puzzles. Like Cryptograms. Or Acrostics. But not Word Ferret. Don't check out Word Ferret because we might never see you again.

And then this odd variation of Sudoku is like a Sudoku crossword puzzle. It's called Kakuro. Brave? Try it!

Here are some good words for you this Wednesday.

From the editors of American Book Review, we have this list of the 100 best first lines from novels.

Check them out. See if you agree. Personally, I think some of them were chosen based on the quality of the book rather than the quality of the line itself. Like this one, which was ranked #37:

Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.

Here's a site that's chock full of fun mind games.

I stumbled upon this weird words site for you today. That's right... I stumbled just for you. And now I have an 80's pop tune in my head... sigh.

World Wide Words

It's a good word site from the mind of Michael Quinion, author, Oxford English Dictionary consultant, and general word enthusiast. Here you can find weird words, fun phrases, current hot words or buzz words, questions from readers with fascinating answers from Quinion, and moremoremore.

It also has a "Surprise Me" feature that led me to these four excellent posts:

Whys and wherefores

Warm the cockles of your heart

Murphy's Law

At sixes and sevens

Lastly, and possibly most exciting (though I'll wait for another Wednesday to report back), this site has some cool links to other word sites, including one for Scots English, and one for regional American English. Maybe with that last one I can solve the mystery of "pop" vs. "soda." Or "hogie" vs. "hero" vs. "grinder." The possibilities!

Have you heard about Winston Breen?

Written by puzzle maker and blogger Eric Berlin (whose blog I visit all the time), The Puzzling World of Winston Breen will hit the stands in September. From all accounts it promises to be a lot of fun for anyone who loves children's books, words, and puzzles. I happen to love all three, so I'm completely intrigued.

Here's Winston's blog, which is well-stocked with puzzles to amuse, distract and challenge you.

Oh, and you can pre-order the book right here.

Handy Manny: Latino Role Model or Stereotype? In this show: Happy Birthday to Andrea and Lucy, Tools for thinking about Disney’s “Handy Manny” Special Thanks to : Kevan Miller for the station ID. Music: Happy Birthday by Craymo Podcasts Mentioned: Just One More Book Websites Mentioned: Latin_Know, Vivir Latino Participate in the show. Subscribe and listen in iTunes XML Feed Location : feed://www.bazmakaz.com/clip/?feed=rss2 Let [...]