Changing Tastes

Public tastes are fickled ... even the Mona Lisa painting will, one distant day, top a trash heap. — Anon.

Fiction Becomes Fact?

Quite some time ago I wrote a short short story about how the Mona Lisa got her enigmatic smile. Take a few moments to read my slightly risqué piece ... see: La Gioconda. But, as we have often heard, life imitates art. And so it is now revealed that Leonardo daVinci may have indulged in some hanky lanky with Mona Lisa ... see: Daily Mail Article.

So my attempt at reconstructive fiction might have accidently hit close to home.

Cheap Suit

Harvard University is folding like a cheap suit ... once again. After protesters targeted Harvard for using the term "house masters" for leaders of its 12 college complexes ... apparently suggesting slavery to these pudding-headed students, Harvard has relented and now changed this title to "faculty deans" ... see: Daily Caller Story.

Once again the richness of the English language is being diluted by the slightest suggestion of past national sins. Is that old British nautical term "master" now banned in any context? Are young boys' salutations on letters now to be "Young Boy" instead of "Master?" What will the finest carpenters, "master carpenters," now be called? What about Master Degrees for heavens sake? Are Harvard and other universities going to relable them as ... "Slaveholder Degrees?" Will the Mona Lisa no longer be called an "art masterpiece?" And, lastly, what will we now call sexual self gratification?

Enough of this linguistic silliness! Shame on you Harvard! You are supposed to be one of the guardians of higher learning ... are you now just the guardian of cheap suits?