Shameless cross-promotion

Over at Legion -- which has been prolific and fascinating lately, and should be on your daily reading list -- Garrett and I are discussing the question of teacher quality. I can't promise you'll be interested, but if you're a wonk or you like the below graph it's probably worth heading over.

Also Mel is defending Gov against Social Studies and Jon-Mark Overvold wrote some badass lyrics for Babar the elephant. Hey -- there's finally a Harvard blog that rivals ours for coherence and predictability!

Mini-Roundup: I'm Going To Die

No full-length roundup today, because it's the hottest week of the summer down here in North Carolina and my skin is slowly melting off my face. However, read:

--TEACHERS' UNIONS: THREAT, OR MENACE? Kevin Carey and our boy Ezra Klein look at the peculiar tendency of liberal elites to blame teachers' unions for everything, including the weather. In rebuttal, Tim Lee at the newly redesigned American Scene thinks Kevin and Ezra are peculiar.

--NOT ACTUALLY A SQUARE-DANCE CALL: Open Left, Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers' new project (as well as some guy named Mike I've never heard of), kicks off with a bang. Read Chris with a long, possibly definitive study of the condition of the netroots.

--I PREFER THE FRENCH "EUH": Language Log, which is always worth your time, looks at differences in pausing between gender and age groups. Check this out:

Turns out "um" and "uh" are pretty reliable identifiers of gender. ...There is a moment in "Clue" that has bothered me for years, where Wadsworth the butler (played by Tim Curry) is talking very quickly and says "the uh, um, uh, library." I had wondered why that phrase stuck in my brain. Now I know: it was essentially androgynous! (Of course for Tim Curry that's hardly a stretch.)

--SENTENCE OF THE DAY: Roy Edroso channels Dylan:

How long can a man scream epithets in a cemetery before he loses the status of outrage and devolves into a figure of fun?

--AND: You may know that "musician" Avril Lavigne has been accused of plagiarism by 70s bubblegum-rockers The Rubinoos. But you probably do not know that The Rubinoos also recorded the seminal theme to 1984's "Revenge of the Nerds." Yes! In honor of their reappearance, I present the wonderful first ten minutes of that godawful movie:

A tip to our incoming freshmen: that is exactly what's in store for you this fall.

That's all I got. Stay indoors, everyone.