Nothing of interest happened in the department this week, apparently. (The New Sesquipedalian prints corrections and retractions.)

In any case, Happy Hallowe'en!....

Check out the Texas Linguistic Society XI Meeting (upcoming, November 9-11), where three of our folks are on the program:

• David Beaver (UT Austin): Keynote speaker
• Liz Coppock: The Method in the Madness of the Adjective
• Roger Levy (UC San Diego): Keynote speaker

Stanford is also represented on the program of the Boston University Conference on Language Development, upcoming on November 2-4:

• Anne Fernald (Psychology): speaker in the Lunch Symposium: The Production and Processing of Grammatical Morphemes
• Bruno Estigarribia (UNC): Variation and facilitation in the acquisition of English yes/no questions
• Kristin Thorpe, Anne Fernald (Psychology): Developing efficiency in online interpretation of adjective-noun phrases: A longitudinal study from 24 to 36 months

H. Tily on the streets of Paris
Our wayward reporter was surprised to find our own Hal Tily on the avenue Saint Germain this week, Linguistic Institute T-shirt and all. The only problem is... We thought Monsieur Tily was chained to a computer (or an eye-tracker) in MIT's TedLab?

A pleasant chat on the phone
(From Stephanie Shih's father)

Caller: Hello, can I speak to Annie Wan?
Operator: Yes, you can speak to me.
Caller: No, I want to speak to Annie Wan!
Operator: You are talking to someone! Who is this?
Caller: I'm Sam Wan. And I need to talk to Annie Wan! It's urgent.
Operator: I know you are someone and you want to talk to anyone! But what's this urgent matter about?
Caller: Well... just tell my sister Annie Wan that our brother Noel Wan was involved in an accident. Noel Wan got injured and now Noel Wan is being sent to the hospital. Right now, Avery Wan is on his way to the hospital.
Operator: Look if no one was injured and no one was sent to the hospital, then the accident isn't an urgent matter! You may find this hilarious but I don't have time for this!
Caller: You are so rude! Who are you?
Operator: I'm Saw Lee.
Caller: Yes! You should be sorry. Now give me your name!!

This just in: Congress is to blame for global warming, according to one expert in Arkansas. Read about it HERE.

Dilbert Awards. For those of you who have worked in the corporate world, any other place with supervision or read "Dilbert" in the daily comics, you should appreciate this...A magazine recently ran a `Dilbert Quotes' contest. They were looking for people to submit quotes from their real-life Dilbert-type managers. These were voted the top ten quotes in corporate America:

"As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday, and employees will receive their cards in two weeks.." (This was the winning quote from Fred Dales, Microsoft Corp. in Redmond WA )



"What I need is an exact list of specific unknown problems we might encounter." (Lykes Lines Shipping)



"E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business." (Accounting manager, Electric Boat Company)



"This project is so important we can't let things that are more important interfere with it." (Advertising/Marketing manager, United Parcel Service)



"Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule." (Plant Manager, Delco Corporation)



"No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them." (R&D supervisor, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing/3M Corp.)



Quote from the Boss: "Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say." (Marketing executive, Citrix Corporation)



My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my Boss, he said she died on purpose so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday. He said, "That would be better for me." (Shipping executive, FTD Florists)



"We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees." (Switching supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division)

• THIS WEEK'S EVENTS
• UPCOMING EVENTS (always under construction)
• LINGUISTIC DEPARTMENT EVENTS PAGE
• Got broader interests? The New Sesquipedalian recommends reading or even subscribing to the CSLI Calendar, available HERE.
• WHAT'S HAPPENING AT UC SANTA CRUZ?
  
• WHAT'S GOING ON AT UC BERKELEY?
  

The Stanford Blood Center is reporting a shortage of O-, O+, A-, A+, B-, and AB-. For an appointment: http://bloodcenter.stanford.edu/ or call 650-723-7831. It only takes an hour of your time and you get free cookies. The Blood Center is also raising money for a new bloodmobile.

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