Southeast campus, my Northwestern friend. The university and its architects plan to build "an iconic sense of place" there. An area mock-up is shown on this page, proving the University Library looks as bad in balsa wood as it does in real life.

Local hero and Los Angeles Times car critic Dan Neil took a drive in a mucho expensive car and spun it out, MediaBistro's Fishbowl LA reported this week. Thankfully, Neil was fine. (Muchas gracias as well to Groom Nate for finding the link on Jalopnik.)

July 9, 1998 e-mail — Me to Tom, Jeff, Matt, and Tarik

The song "My House" from the 80s includes a line "My house, in the middle of my street". Frankly, this line doesn't make any sense. I've never seen a house in the middle of a street.

pat, i think he means that on his street, he's the middle house. just like my house. it's not supposed to mean street as in driving cars.

no, that would be in the middle of his block. here's a diagram:
    ] [
the brackets (representing the curbs) and outside of that are blocks. inside of the brackets is the street.

street (strt) noun
1. Abbr. st., St. a. A public way or thoroughfare in a city or town, usually with a sidewalk or sidewalks. b. Such a public way considered apart from the sidewalks: Don't play in the street. c. A public way or road along with the houses or buildings abutting it: lives on a quiet street.
2. The people living, working, or habitually gathering in or along a street: The whole street protested the new parking regulations.
3. Street. A district, such as Wall Street in New York City, that is identified with a specific profession. Often used with the.
4. The streets of a city viewed as the scene of crime, poverty, or dereliction.

right. "houses or buildings abutting it"

"along with the houses and buildings abutting it," so the houses are part of the street, and the street is not just the blacktop between the curbs.

okay, but look at parts a and b of 1. they outnumber c.

this is a dictionary definition we're talking about, not a sports score.

Read "A Letter Between Siblings Who Lived in the House Described in 'Our House' by Madness."

My ElvisNews.com mailing was topped with a message Thursday.

A little request to all of you: please stop the bickering about people. The site becomes a mess, and we don't want that. We did it once before, and we won't hestitate to remove the reaction possibility again. Arguing is fine, but keep it to the topic, not to a person. Thankyouverymuch.

I loved the ending, but the rest confused me. After some light searching for Elvis sites once, I settled on this one as my base. But I've never been able to tell the site's origin or raison d'etre. Given the comments on stories, I guessed the audience was mostly overseas, but I never got a sense of the moderators. With the newsletter message, I figured maybe they were foreign as well.

Then the next's day mailing was topped as well.

Yesterday we added a general message about bickering on our site. Obviously we were not clear enough, looking at the replies we got. But it seems to work, since everything is back to normal.

I went looking on the site Saturday and found the site to be based in the Netherlands, which made sense. But the lack of a great American-based Elvis fan site has left my parlor seeming empty and bare, so to speak. I went searching again, briefly, and didn't find anything.

After 30 years, the Sherman Restaurant has closed. A Medill junior commented to the Daily, "It has been there as long as I've gone to school, and obviously before that."

My favorite Sherman meal was with Mark and Nate. We ate for an hour and filled the table with plates. Then we went to Block Museum's theater and saw Dirty Harry. When the movie was done, we went to Mark's apartment, drank and talked about girls. It was a greasy spoon night.

Also meant to post a while ago.

The cover story in the New York Times magazine was a good read about Andy Stern, the head of the Service Employees International Union. The SEIU was the organizer behind Northwestern's janitorial near-strike a few years ago. In this article, the issue at play was simple: How do unions react to globalization?

Meant to post this story a while ago. The writers/directors of Thirtysomething talk to the Times about their new show aimed at Twentysomethings.

"This is the crucible of life," Mr. Herskovitz says, leaping in to finish Mr. Zwick's thought, something that happens frequently. "Those years between college and 25 or 26 is when people either find the courage to pursue a dream or make certain compromises that affect them for the next 20 years, big decisions about relationships, about careers."

If you missed the article, maybe the headline sent you flying by: "Talkin' About Someone Else's Generation."

John Kass had a good week last week.

-February 9:
Lost dog, lawyer, crying boy: Story has everything

-February 10:
Readers ring up a happy ending for dog story

-February 11:
Mystery nun's vows evidently include silence

Then with a sigh he added, "But I'll take an oat-bran muffin."

Dancing Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky offers a mini-compilation of love poetry to Slate for Valentine's Day. My favorite is halfway down the page, the Sappho by way of William Carlos Williams.

Related past entries:
-March 10, 2004: Pinsky and my chainsaw
-Oct. 19, 2003: Pinsky on baseball
-March 16, 2003: Pinsky on war
-Nov. 30, 2002: Pinsky on 9/11