Indiana vs UNC, White Lotus, and Tweets of the Week

Battle of Top Ranked Women’s Teams, White Lotus Episode 5, and Tweets of the Week are this week’s topics on the December 5, 2022 edition of the Torg Stories Podcast.

Click above for audio.

Segment One: Tweets of the Week

Joanna Robinson is a writer and podcaster at The Ringer. Click here for Twitter bio.

Nick Stevens is managing editor of High School OT at WRAL. Click here for Twitter bio.

Thanks to Keith Booker for the shoutout about our upcoming games at Watauga HS in Boone, NC. Keith is MMBR National Director of Scouting and Evaluation. Click here for his Twitter profile.

Watauga HS Girls are #9 in the new Charlotte Observer Sweet 16 Poll. Langston Wertz JR is a sports columnist for the Charlotte Observer. Click here for his Twitter profile.

SEGMENT TWO: WHITE LOTUS, SEASON 2, EPISODE 5

Here is my episode five summary with commentary:

  • We open with Albie (who my sister Anne says is a kind of Stanford boring guy) with Lucia the escort his dad slept with a few days before.  I was right about people heading off to Palermo, at least with the very rich older lady Tanya and Quentin and his entourage. They take a boat with plans to visit Quentin’s mansion and to see the opera Madame Butterfly. Lucia says she likes Albie and doesn’t want any more money to spend time with him. The wife Harper in the rich nerdy couple plants the evidence of the cheating she found in their hotel on the bathroom sink so that her husband will find it and finally Harper gets the story of what happened with her husband Ethan and Cameron when the she and Daphne were out of town. I’m just realizing that Cameron also slept with Lucia within the past three nights. Harper and Ethan get together with Ethan’s old college friend Cameron and his wife Daphne and Harper decides to tie one on. Harper starts saying things “let’s get some molly and rage!” that let Cameron know she knows about him cheating on his wife. Cameron put his hand on Harper’s leg later in the evening. Valentina, the hotel manager re-assigns the hotel worker (sexual harassment!) who keeps flirting with the worker she likes for whom she bought the starfish pendant. Lucia’s friend Mia, who has not slept with anyone for $$$, starts flirting with gay Valentina the hotel manager. She eventually convinces Valentina to let her play the piano at the resort. The rich older lady Tanya (who has gone to see the opera) also brings her assistant Portia to Palermo and she goes out with my sister Anne’s favorite man in the show, the dangerous Jack whose uncle Quentin has the mansion in Palermo and who has gone with Tanya to see Madame Butterfly. We’ll see if my sister Anne is still in on Jack. Harper tells Cameron’s wife Daphne that she thinks her husband cheated on her. Daphne says she has a trainer and maybe Harper should get a trainer / (wink, wink).We get a story from Quentin who says he’s never been in love except for with a straight cowboy who didn’t love him back.  “Love’s never been my achilles heel,” Quentin says. “It was always beauty. I’d die for beauty; wouldn’t you?” Lots of hints about dying are starting to pile up. We get a montage to the sound of Mia playing the piano. Anne’s guy Jack tells Portia that he’s got to do something for his uncle and for her to keep the door unlocked cause he’ll be back. We get a shot of Harper looking like she could kill somebody. Cameron certainly looks like he could kill somebody. Albie’s dad Dom tries to call his wife but can’t get through. The older rich lady Tanya can’t sleep and holy smokes, isn’t that Jack having sex with Quentin who we have been told is his uncle? Bodies are coming in the next two episodes. Who’s not going to make it? Who will do the killing?

SEGMENT THREE:

INDIANA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL VS. UNC

Sydney Parrish went 4-7 from three and scored 24 points for Indiana in their 87-63 win over North Carolina.

Thanks for checking out this week’s episode of the podcast!

Down on Disney, NBA / NFL Standings, and White Lotus Episode 4

Down on Disney, a peek at the NFL and NBA Standings, and White Lotus season 2, episode 4 are the topics on this November 27, 2022 Episode of the Torg Stories Podcast.

Click audio file above to listen to the podcast.

Relevant Links to today’s podcast:

  1. NFL Playoff picture click here.
    • The Jets roll with a new quarterback.
    • Bengals recover nicely after a terrible start.
  2. NBA Standings click here.
    • Celtics best record in the league. Pacers in 4th place?!!!
  3. NY Times article “Iger’s Sudden Return to Disney Shocks a Discontented Kingdom” by Brooks Barenes, Benjamin Mullin, and James B Stewart click here.
    • Eye-popping losses in streaming. Lower-than-expected theme park profitability. Sharp challenges in cable television, including at ESPN.
  4. White Lotus Season 2 Cast and Characters click here.
    • “My whole life has been one long distraction.”

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Enjoy the podcast? Use the podcast icon on an iPhone to rate and review. See the video above.

What Do We Mean, College Writing?

Like me, both of my guests on today’s episode are lecturers in the Rhetoric and Composition program at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. At App State, we have what is called The Vertical Writing Curriculum, which is a series of four required writing courses for students. The first-year course is called RC 1000 Expository Writing and the second year course is called RC 2001 Writing Across the Curriculum. Each of my guests coordinates one of those required courses.

  • Ben Good coordinates the RC 1000 Expository Writing courses
  • Kelly Terzaken coordinates the RC 2001 Writing Across the Curriculum courses
Audio version above and also in Podcast App of iPhone. Search for: Torg Stories Podcast

We begin this episode by discussing the problematic nature of the phrase, “college writing” and then we begin to work our way through a discussion of the course goals and outcomes for both Expository Writing and Writing Across the Curriculum. We also reference the Writing Across the Curriculum office and the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) position statement about the teaching of writing.

I’d love to hear from you with comments or questions about your own ideas related to the notion of college writing. Thanks so much for checking out the podcast!

Writing Across the Curriculum and the Vertical Writing Model at App State

Conversation with Dr. Sarah Zurhellen, Assistant Director of Writing Across the Curriculum

Welcome to the August 2, 2022 edition of the Torg Stories podcast. On this episode I talk with Dr. Sarah Zurhellen, assistant director of the Writing Across the Curriculum program at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

This conversation is a part of a larger project in which I’m focusing on that examines the progression from the required first year writing course at App State, then to the Writing Across the Curriculum course that I most frequently teach, and on to the writing in the discipline and capstone course that student take as a part of the vertical writing model.

Audio only version above / also available in the Apple Podcast app.

Thanks for checking out the podcast!

Podcast on Directing Composition, Required Writing Courses, and the Vertical Writing Model at App State

Welcome to the June 6, 2022 edition of the Torg Stories podcast. On this episode I talk with Dr. Bethany Mannon. Bethany directs the Rhetoric and Composition program at App State University. I am a lecturer in that program, and I teach a second year required course called Writing Across the Curriculum / RC 2001. 

This conversation is a part of a larger project I am working on that examines the progression from the required first year writing course at Appalachian State to the Writing Across the Curriculum class I most often teach, and then on to the Writing in the Discipline courses that are taught within each major. 

Audio only version of the podcast also available in the podcast app of an iPhone.

I’m always hoping the podcasts can work as conversation starters among writers, students, and those who teach writing. It would be great to hear about your experiences taking and teaching writing courses.