SPIEGEL Surfs the Web English in the Spotlight
People love reading language columns. How else to explain the New York Times's not entirely bargain basement price for a package of columns by language maven William Safire? But no worries. The Internet is a great place to go for all of your (free) language-analysis needs. Specifically, the Web site "Making Daylight" is a great place not only for biting analysis of language slip-ups in the media, but also for highlighting factual errors that creep into newspapers and Web zines. The site also has a great list of "essentialist" explanations of various languages. All of which means, if you're not a fan of Safire , or don't have a Times subscription, all you need is a good Internet connection. And if you can understand German, we, of course, recommend our own colleague Bastian Sick's column. Sick's wit leaves Safire in a trail of dust.
Solidarnosc Hits 25
Never ones to let important historical milestones pass by without a mention, we here at Spiegel Online International figure it's time to brush up on your Solidarity knowledge. It was, after all, 25 years ago in late August that Lech Walesa's movement -- born in a Gdansk shipyard -- began gathering steam. By the end of the month, Walesa's fledgling union already had membership rolls boasting 400,000. A PBS special takes you through everything you need to know about the movement that eventually came to be seen as the first chink in the Iron Curtain separating the communist East from the democratic West. The special can also be watched in video form. Walesa, who started his career as an electrician, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and served as Poland's president from 1990 to 1995.
The Pimp Backlash
As anyone who has ever seen a rap video knows, if you dress like a pimp you get the diamonds, the respect and most importantly the girls. To help those of you who might be aspiring to pimpdom, this sterling steel pimp stick promises to "keep 'em in line just fine." Pimp hats, suits and shoes are also available.
In Berlin meanwhile a pizza delivery service, Pimp My Pizza , is also promising its very own brand of edible bling-bling. Presumably the pizza is delivered by medallion-wearing ghetto boys.
But there are signs of a backlash against the pimp. Metafilter has a rant about the adoration of the pimp, while the LA City Beat blog writes that the pimp phase is "out of control and must cease. I have nothing against whores, hookers, or any other subdivision of sex workers, but pimps are something else.... The pimp philosophy is that, for a small initial outlay, the investor is entitled to live idly off the sweat of the ho in perpetuity, and any challenge to this given certainty will be met with escalating violence." And you thought that being a pimp was just about having a cool set of wheels.
