5 Things: Random Sampling

• I'll Go On: An Afternoon of Samuel Beckett. A Philoctetes Center discussion featuring Lois Oppenheimer, Edward Albee, Alvin Epstein, Tom Bishop, and John Turturro.
  
• The Creativity Crisis: Research shows that American Creativity is Declining. This article discusses how standardized school curricula, national testing, and rote learning erode creativity - which exactly what I've been witnessing in my oldest son since he started kindergarten (he'll be going into 5th grade this year). This past year, he was done with school around February which means that we had to keep motivating him (or at least trying to keep him out of trouble) for the last three and a half months of school. Since the first month or so of school is about review (which also tends to demotivate him), what happens is that he's engaged for about 3 months out of the school year (and there's peaks and valleys even in that). This year is about seeing how we can change things for him. Anyway, it's great to read an article from a mainstream news source that confirms our experience.
• New word (for me):
  
  criticaster 1. An incompetent or inferior critic. 2. A contemptible or vicious critic.
  3. A petty or inferior critic. As in: The rancorous and reptile crew of poeticules, who decompose into criticasters. - Swinburne

• Katya Mezhibovskaya’s Packaging Thesis
  

• This speaks for itself. I must to make it. Via my buddy @talgribbins.