Monday’s Link Roundup.

In this week’s Monday’s Link Roundup I particularly enjoyed My life story is written on my bookshelves. It reminded me once again how much the objects in our lives are touchstones to memorable stories and events. My grammarian friends will definitely want to check out Where Did That Sentence-Ending Preposition Rule Come From?  It’s Slate magazine’s new television program exploring all kinds of language issues.

• 99 Tiny Stories to Make You Think, Smile and Cry. “Sometimes the most random everyday encounters force us to stop and rethink the truths and perceptions we have ingrained in our minds.  These encounters are educationally priceless.  They spawn moments of deep thought and self-reflection that challenge the status quo and help us evolve as sensible individuals.”

• Old Quilt Provides a Glimpse of History. “Sometimes the best genealogical finds are not in public records but in old objects — an address book, a box of surveyor’s tools, a set of military dog tags. In my case, I discovered a great deal about my family’s history buried in a box at an estate sale halfway across the country.”

• My life story is written on my bookshelves. “After 20 years of living and reading together, we have gathered what some might call a sizable library. One problem: We don’t actually have a library to put the books in…It was time to take action…Our books show what we’ve cared about, where we’ve visited (or perhaps wished to visit) and the challenges we’ve faced. How could I give that away?”

• In ‘Pilgrimage,’ Leibovitz Explores Portraits Without People. [PBS video]“Known for portraits of celebrities and musicians, Annie Leibovitz has given herself a new assignment: capture striking landscapes and visit the homes of iconic figures to document significant items from their past. Jeffrey Brown and Leibovitz discuss her “Pilgrimage” book and exhibition at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum.”

• Lost Malcolm X Speech Heard Again 50 Years Later. “Last semester, Brown senior Malcolm Burnley took a narrative writing course. One of the assignments was to write a fictional story based on something true — and that true event had to be found inside the university archives…Malcolm X came to speak at Brown University in Providence, R.I., on May 11, 1961. Burnley noticed that at the end of the article, there was a brief mention of another article — also from the Brown student newspaper — written by a senior named Katharine Pierce. Her article was the reason Malcolm X wanted to visit Brown.”

• Where Did That Sentence-Ending Preposition Rule Come From? “In the first episode of Slate’s new language program Lexicon Valley, producer Mike Vuolo and On the Media co-host Bob Garfield explore the history of the terminal preposition rule, and whether there are good reasons to follow it. Lexicon Valley is a new audio program created by Mike Vuolo. In the coming weeks we’ll explore a broad array of issues surrounding language. They’ll range from linguistic pet peeves, syntax, and etymology to sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics, and the death of languages.”

• Who Owns Your Personal History? “In an era when nearly everything we do is recorded, we have less control over what we choose to remember, and perhaps more crucially, what to forget.”

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