Asao B. Inoue's Infrequent Words

Over the next few weeks, I offer an extended response to Paul Beehler's article, " Cracking the Code (Meshing and Switching): Standard English as a Required Ticket to Influence ," in the International Journal of Information and Education Technology ( Vol. 10, No. 3, March 2020). My good friend and colleague, Vershawn Ashanti Young , suggested I write a response because the article required it. So here's the first installment of three posts over next week or so. Thinkin' Bout Towers and Strunk & White's Babel  In his article, “Cracking the Code (Meshing and Switching): Standard English as a Required Ticket to Influence,” Paul A. J. Beehler argues that it is essential that writing teachers and schools promote and teach a single standardized English, suggesting that it need not be associated with a white racial group of language users, and that it is a key to future success in our society, a society that already uses and favors such an English. I ap...

A Nice Belgian Beer I Had Recently Here's another prose poem I've been working on, probably 'cause of all the Coronavirus stories and thinking that's been going around. So, I've been thinkin' about death, since it's so present these days. Thinking About My Death No one thinks about death. I mean, not their own, not for very long, not for more than say, a minute at best. But even that is a long time to ponder one’s own mortality, to visualize one’s body a corpse in a casket, with others around you, looking, crying over you. Your eyes sewn shut. Your best suit or dress on. Your mouth closed permanently. You there and not there. When you’re dead, there is no more anything. You’ve eaten your last olive, the really salty kind that you love so much. You’ve seen your wife’s drowsy smile in the evening as you both climb into bed for the last time, or touched her nightgown, a soft satin or cotton, as she brushes past you in the morning getting ready for he...