billso.com

Funny: These Onstar calls should have been in the commercials.

Tech: Transparent alumna is real. Is it time for a colorful metaphor yet?

Hawai’i: While the UH housing shortage has left at least 700 students without a room, even more students cannot get classes. UH officials said that configuration problems in Banner concealed the surge in class demand. Banner is a popular registration software system that is used at UH. Increased enrollment also contributed to the shortfalls in classes and housing. Departments scrambled to find lectures for new sections. UH starts classes today.

USA: The inspiring story of Boudreaux’s Butt Paste, a diaper rash ointment from Louisiana. Get some at www.buttpaste.com. Hey, at least he’s got a great domain name.

USA: The new edition of Wheelock’s Latin is out. I had four years of Latin in high school, and thought it really helped my vocabulary and grammar. So here’s my plug: take Latin.

Wheelock died years ago, but the Wheelock family has pressed HarperCollins to keep the textbook price at a reasonable level. The paperback edition costs $21 new. But, as Al Greco says, the publisher’s business model is broken. Used books and the downloading of scanned copies help students avoid buying a new copy of every textbook.

I’m about to go through the usual beginning-of-the-term questions from students who want to use an older versino of the course textbook. Both of the textbooks that I use now have significant changes in their new editions, so I tell students to get the current edition. A few try to get by with an older edition, which may lack updated readings or entire chapters. Sometimes it hurts their performance.