TOW #3- The Washington Post Article/ "Pearls Before Breakfast"/ Gene Weingarten

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". As unfortunate as it is, the human race is a materialistic species. People value what they consider beautiful, and if it doesn't meet their expectations, they pay no attention to it. This idea was expertly applied in in January 2007 when The Washington Post decided to do a psychological experiment: Get famous violinist Joshua Bell to play six of the most complicated classical pieces ever written (including Bach’s Chaconne and Schubert’s Ave Maria), on a Stradivari violin from 1713, while wearing street-clothes in a Washington D.C. metro station, and see if anyone will stop to listen.

After 45 minutes of playing, Bell only made $32 (from 27 people) and caught the attention of only 7 who were willing to stop and take notice. This is surprising because, in general, tickets to Bell’s performances cost hundreds of dollars. Experienced Washington Post reporter/columnist Gene Weingarten expertly uses exemplification and testimonies to appeal to ethos and pathos in the text, and convince readers that though “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, people shouldn’t “judge a book by its cover”. Through quotes from Joshua Bell, passerby, and acclaimed composers, Weingarten establishes both the difficulty of the music Bell was playing and Bell’s credibility as a musician. The examples he uses make Bell seem like an authority in his field, and also signify how monumental the social experiment was emotionally for the child-prodigy; why it was so sad that more people ignored Bell than praised him. The vocabulary Weingarten includes also adds to the curious mood of the article and the vivid imagery of the articles examples and anecdotes. The author portrays nearly every character in his article favorably and makes the events of this psychological study meaningful to readers, whether they are fans of classical music or not. “Pearls Before Breakfast” attempts to make readers more culturally aware and give them an eye for “real beauty”. 

The Man with the Violin. 2007. Photograph. Washington D.C. Hole in the Donut Cultural Travel. By Barbara Weibel. Barbara Weibel, 12 Sept. 2009. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.

TOW #2 (Visual Text)- Pepperidge Farm Advertisement/ "Raisin cinnamon Swirl Bread"/ Pepperidge Farm, Inc.

 The well-known saying, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" is often used by parents who try to get their families to eat nutritious, filling breakfasts. Pepperidge Farm supports and thrives off of this idea, weaves this mentality into every aspect of the advertisement above, with the intention that parents will make Pepperidge Farm products a part of their families’ meals. The founder, Margaret Rudkin, started the business in the 1930’s after developing natural recipes that did not give her son allergies. Today, the company continues to use nutritious ingredients and bake Rudkin’s bread with “lots of love”. This “love” is apparent through the heart in the center of the slice of toast and vocabulary included in the advertisement. The fact that Pepperidge Farm says “We’re Bakers. But we’re also parents, too” appeals to pathos and attempts to invoke emotion in anyone who see the advertisement.

But Pepperidge Farm uses more than just this hook to attract people to their advertisement. The company plays with its readers’ senses by using colorful, comfortable pictures that intend to remind people of home. Even the company’s slogan, “Good is in the details”, works with the pictures and hook to create feelings of nostalgia for comfort foods. Pepperidge Farm believes that their product is good, and attempts to make their family-friendly audience think so too. The advertisement seems to do its job because it is realistic and comforting, and Pepperidge Farm’s advertisements can be found commonly on TV and in magazines, like the Food Network Magazine this advertisement is in. It also seems easy for parents to trust Pepperidge Farm’s products because the advertisement appeals to ethos, and Pepperidge Farm’s bakers, as fellow parents, seem like trustworthy authorities. The advertisement is successful because it displays its product in a clear and friendly way, and is not screaming “Buy me” to people, but rather “love me” and “enjoy me”.

Pepperidge Farm. Advertisement. Food Network Magazine Sept. 2013: 75. Print.

"Pepperidge Farm® – The Margaret Rudkin Story." Pepperidge Farm® – The Margaret Rudkin Story. Pepperidge Farm, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2013.

Works Cited for Summer Reading Post

TOW #1-The New York Times Article/"The Payday at Twitter Many Were Waiting For"/ Nick Bilton and Vindu Goel

It is probably safe to say that almost every person in America has heard of the social networking site Twitter. Like Facebook or any other media website, it is simply a space to connect with other people. The unique part, though, is that those connections are limited to posts of 140 characters or less. But what if millions of people could make money from one person's 140-character message? According to The New York Times article "The Payday at Twitter Many Were Waiting For", this dream will become a reality within the next six months when investors like Evan Williams and Dick Costolo plan to make Twitter investments public on the stock market.

Unfortunately, technology experts and magazine reporters Nick Bilton and Vindu Goel explain that not everyone will profit from this venture. Despite whether or not people are disappointed, the fact remains that the largest shareholders stand to make billions or millions, while all employees who have been laid off from Twitter, or who were part of the company before it became famous, will not make money or receive a share of stock. Twitter is expected to merely make money for a few chief investors and then finance the start of competing companies. As experienced professionals in the world of technology, Bilton and Goel inform their New York Times audience of their belief that Twitter will not be as profitable in the long run as Facebook has been. They use the stock statistics of other companies and the statements and opinions of "big-name" Twitter investors to add credibility to their report and signify just how important this announcement is. Their use of logos makes this article a factual account, but also successfully appeals to the idea that readers want to have information about a familiar aspect of many of their lives. Twitter is, at its core, a SOCIAL network, so it does make sense that socially (and literally), some will profit more than others.

IRB #1 Introduction Post

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (Second Edition)

By Charles C. Mann 

This book focuses on life in the Americas before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492,  and discusses the idea that the Americas were well settled before by natives before they were discovered by Europeans and were therefore already developed and impacted by the needs of the natives. Mann argues that Native Americans in the Americas invented the idea of genetic engineering, built cities more impressive than ones in Europe, and even caused the Amazon rain forest to change to their specifications. 

I selected this book as my IRB mainly due to the fact that, in general, history fascinates me. I love to watch specials on myths, legends, and the discoveries of famous events on the History Channel, and history has always been one of my favorite subjects. More recently, however, I was required to read about early life in the Americas when I read the first few chapters of my AP U.S. History textbook this summer. Many of the common ideas that Mann claims are incorrect, like the time Native Americans crossed over to the Americas from Asia via the "land bridge", were things that I learned from this textbook. I became curious when I read about this book on Amazon.com, and now I want to find out the new discoveries about what was really going on in the Americas before 1492.