Raising your children bilingual is pretty common, but one Georgetown grad took it to the next level. D’Armond Speers (GRD ’02), who earned a doctorate in computational linguistics at Georgetown and is a big Star Trek fan, decided to raise his newborn son speaking only Klingon, according to TrekToday.com.
Speers spoke to his son in Klingon for the first three years of the boy’s life. Speers even went so far as to sing lullabies to his son in Klingon, like “May the Empire Endure” before the child went to bed.
Despite Speers’s attempts, his son, now 15-years-old, speaks no Klingonese at all now.
However, Speers passion for the language hasn’t gone to waste. When Ultralingue, a dictionary, translation, and grammar software company, needed assistance with their latest Klingon dictionary project, they contacted Speers.
Ultralingue, best known for their mobile phone applications and learning software, developed a Klingon dictionary over the summer. It even features audio clips of Commander Work Klingon from the television series.
This is what we get for being the one school with both a solid linguistics program and a class on Philosophy and Star Trek…
The Voice is looking back at the best of the decade in Tomorrow’s Classics. To celebrate the end of the decade, Vox is getting in on the fun too! This week, the best of the boob tube, broken down by genre.
Serial Drama (Broadcast TV)
Lost, Season 4 “The Constant”: Desmond and Penny. The boat. Time travel! “The Constant” laid the groundwork for immediate and long-term plot development on Lost, not to mention it had some of the most gut-wrenchingly emotional scenes this side of M*A*S*H. Lost may be the most frustration show on broadcast television, but episodes like “The Constant” keep pulling us back in again and again. That might not be a good thing—can we blame our failing grades next semester on J.J. Abrams?
The Sopranos, Season 4 “Whitecaps”: Without The Sopranos, high-concept cable dramas would be seen less often than Surviving Christmas, the Jame Gandolfini-Ben Affleck holiday bomb. “Whitecaps” is brilliant because we, the uncomfortable audience, get to watch Tony and Carmela tear into each other after years of mounting marital tension. On reputation alone this episode is the best of the decade—it opened the door for the Don and Betty Drapers of the world to dominate cable drama years later.
Were you inspired by the seven eight strangers who set up shop in Dupont Circle this summer? Want your own shot at reality show infamy?
You’re in luck: MTV is doing casting for the next season of Real World in D.C. tomorrow! Just head over to Town Tavern at 2323 18th Street NW between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. with a recent picture and photo ID.
The press release for the casting call even gives some hints about what they’re looking for in the next season’s cast members:
It’s important to us that The Real World reflects the diversity of the general population. This season we’d love to include a person who is physically challenged, an individual struggling with weight issues, someone who has been affected by a natural disaster, a cast member who is a product of home or alternative schooling, and an individual who wants to bring the spotlight of The Real World to a cause, condition, or social issue they care deeply about or are personally affected by.
If auditions aren’t enough to satisfy your Real World graves, don’t worry. The Voice will be covering the D.C. season of the show in next week’s feature!
This clip from last night’s Jay Leno Show, in which an actor sporting a Georgetown Hoyas sweatshirt pretends to be a mentally handicapped guy imitating Man vs. Wild in his backyard, raises a number of questions: What about this is remotely funny? Why is Jay Leno still on television? Who watches this? And, most importantly, why’d you have to bring that innocent Georgetown sweatshirt into it, Jay?
Nurse Jackie “Health Care and Cinema” On the first season finale, Jackie’s life begins to spin even further out of control and Dr. O’Hara’s mother is brought to the emergency room.
A TV show based on the Georgetown-centric Brat Pack classic “St. Elmo’s Fire” has just been picked up by ABC. The original 1985 film—starring Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe,Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham as friends who had recently graduated from Georgetown and hung out at the Tombs stand-in, St. Elmo’s Fire —is one of Georgetown’s biggest cinematic claims to fame.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the show is going to maintain the movie’s Georgetown setting and is being produced by, among others, Joel Schumacher (the co-writer and director of the film) and actor Topher Grace.
The show’s writer, Dan Bucatinsky, told the Hollywood Reporter that the whole six-young-friends-in-a-city-who-hang-out-at-an-eatery set-up may seem a little reminiscent of Friends, but that’s sort of what they’re going for.
You may have noticed construction work going on lately along the north side of campus, by Resevoir Road, and there’s an explanation: Georgetown is installing a new cable television system for the residence halls.
The new system, run by RCN, will provide more reliable reception and more channels, according to Georgetown’s Director of Media Relations, Andy Pino . Now students will get 180 basic cable channels (up from 70) and the option to purchase premium packages like sports or pay-per-view.
According to an email sent out by Georgetown’s Assistant Vice President of External Relations Linda Greenan to the Burleith listserv, the University plans to have the new system in place by the time school starts later this month.
With an increase in quality, though, there also comes an increase in price: cable will now cost $53.95 per month ($49.00 for service plus a $4.95 box rental fee), up from the old rate of $37.50 per month.
After the jump check out the flyer that will be going out at the beginning of the year with more details, a breakdown of rates for premium channels, and a basic cable channel listing.
It’s easy to spend time with kids with cancer when you’re dead on the inside.
The Best of the Best
Due to the Fourth of July preempting last week’s “Boob Tube,” this week’s installment will include the best television of the past two weeks.
Royal Pains “No Man is an Island” Hank and Evan spend the weekend on the private island of a wealthy family as their doctor and nanny, respectively.
Rescue Me “Torch” A gruesome death takes its toll on all the firefighters, and leaves Tommy questioning his stoicism.
Better Off Ted “Bioshuffle” The leaking of acidic goo (or “ass-goo” for short) forces a shuffling of offices that throws everyone out of their comfort zone.
Rescue Me “Disease” Tommy continues to deceive his family about the fact that he is drinking again. Sean is recovering from the surgery to remove his cancer.*
Better Off Ted “You Are the Boss of Me” Ted’s daughter is off in New York for the week with his ex-wife, so Ted decides to bond with his employees for something to do.
Burn Notice “Fearless Leader” Michael decides to offer up a gesture of goodwill to Detective Paxson, in the hopes of getting her off his back.*
*Both Rescue Me and Burn Notice are on 8 day delays before showing up on Hulu.
Vox Populi is the staff blog of the Georgetown Voice, a weekly newsmagazine at Georgetown University. Opinions expressed in posts are those of their author alone unless otherwise stated.
The Voice respectfully disagrees
We were due for an update…
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