I wrote an absurdist short story many years ago and posted it on a blog.

It was meant to be a parody.

There was an article written by Thomas Chatterton Williams at the New York Times last year that is very similar.

Chatterton mostly writes about issues relating to race.

Many parts of it seem identical, to the point that they seem to be copied.

That is by coincidence, obviously.

Chatterton writes in the style that the short story was parodying.

I would like you to read the 2 pieces of writing and compare them.

His essay in the New York Times likely has a paywall. You could get around it by adding the title of the article and the name of the author, Chatterton, in Google, and then selecting the article in the Google News section.

I would like you to tell me whether you see the similarity.

The short story I wrote is called:

"Is it racist to notice that Michael Jordan is Black (because I've never noticed that)?"

https://theabsurdification.blogspot.com/2015/05/is-it-racist-to-notice-that-michael.html?m=1

The article by Thomas Chatterton Williams is called:

"The Grip That Race and Identity Have on My Students"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/opinion/race-students-teach.html

That is an excerpt from his article, for example:

"When my friend Coleman Hughes guest-lectured on his case for colorblindness, several of them were visibly unnerved, suggesting that the idea itself was a form of anti-Blackness."

That is a pronunciation exercise.

It is 25 vowels and vowel sounds, and about 200 words that use those vowel sounds.

You could download the free Quizlet app, it is better than the website.

I recommend that you hear the words 10 times in a row, for words that you have difficulty pronouncing.

The vowel sounds will sound more distinct from each other then.

You could also hear the words in vocabulary exercises.

Or you could hear the pronunciation of sentences in translation exercises.

You could use the Anylang app to translate and hear short stories later on.

https://quizlet.com/ca/635494500/french-pronunciation-25-vowels-and-vowel-sounds-200-words-flash-cards/?x=1jqU&i=2pkc3q

Do you find that exercise useful?

It is a much better way to learn verbs, called "conjugaison" in French.

You should do that exercise until you get all the answers correct, translating from French to English, from English to French and practicing pronunciation.

Then you should review the exercise once a week.

You need to know those verbs to write simple sentences in French.

It takes about 10 hours to get all the answers correct.

https://quizlet.com/ca/574580312/10-most-common-french-verbs-6-verb-tenses-flash-cards/

The Quizlet app is the best app to learn French.

You should download the app if you want to use that conjugaison exercise.

The Anylang app is also really good if you are close to fluent, for translating short stories.

You could see translation of words and sentences by clicking on them and you could hear the stories narrated.

The conjugaison exercise is part of the French course of that company in Montreal.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1971jdE8xS/

That is an exercise of the "100 most common words in French".

How many of the words do you know?

They make up about 25 percent of words used in daily French.

That is only 100 words. You should know all of them.

You could translate the words from French to English, English to French and you could hear pronunciation of the words.

https://quizlet.com/ca/519513191/the-100-most-common-words-in-french-flash-cards/?x=1jqU&i=2pkc3q

Duolingo is not a good app.

Almost all of the language apps are bad.

The AI updates have led Duolingo to make more errors.

Do you have difficulty with listening, writing or speaking French?

That is an exercise of the "100 most common words in French".

How many of the words do you know?

They make up about 25 percent of words used in daily French.

That is only 100 words. You should know all of them.

You could translate the words from French to English, English to French and you could hear pronunciation of the words.

https://quizlet.com/ca/519513191/the-100-most-common-words-in-french-flash-cards/?x=1jqU&i=2pkc3q

"Chicago won the title of Best Big City in the U.S. for the ninth consecutive year in the Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards.

Over 750,000 travelers voted, setting a record for the longest winning streak in the history of the award."

I had added that as an EDIT on another post, I deleted that.

I created this post about that for people considering moving to the city.

I have never been to Chicago, I just thought that was interesting, as I came across that today.

The most popular answer is Montreal, followed by Edinburgh.

The next most-popular answers are Chicago, Vancouver, San Sebastian, Mexico City and Tokyo.

Chicago is the most popular answer among American cities.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1vgfbe1/what_is_the_best_city_youve_ever_been_to/

The most popular answer is Montreal, followed by Edinburgh.

Chicago, Vancouver and San Sebastian in the Basque part of Spain seem to be the next most-popular answers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/jd7Op8ElGb

His argument was that Hage was not the best player at Michigan and that he is not good at face-offs.

The criticism is quite facetious.

Hage finished 4th in points in the NCAA.

On a PPG basis, he and McKenna were about tied for second.

While I disagree with Hickey, I get the sentiment that the Habs may not be keen on the player now.

The team seems likely to trade him.

I think that the team rates Hage highly, but is baffled by his desire to return to Michigan, and it may interpret that as a lack of motivation.

For people taking the TEF, that exercise is really useful.

You should do that exercise until you get all the answers correct, translating French to English, English to French and practicing pronunciation.

Then review the exercise once a week.

You need to know those verbs to write simple sentences in French.

It takes about 10 hours to get all the answers correct.

The quizlet app is the best app to learn French.

I also recommend the "Reword French" app if you are at an intermediate-level, or the Anylang app, if you are almost fluent in French.

The anylang app is really good.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/189UEJpCNg/

He scored on a pace of 30-35 goals last season.

He was benched in Montreal for most of the year for his perceived indifference and lack of interest.

That seemed harsh.

He scored mostly on the power-play.

He had an 8 M per year contract.

He is an UFA now.

He could sign for 3 or 4 M per year.

A 1-year deal.

He has a really good shot, and for teams that want to improve their power play, he seems a good option.

The team did not trade him last year because of lack of interest by other teams, it was claimed.

He could have been traded, with salary retained by Montreal.

He is a 2nd overall pick, he kept a good attitude even after being benched for the second half of the season and all of the playoffs.

He got 20 goals in 52 games, playing 12 minutes per game.

His previous 2 seasons, he scored about the same number of goals in the same number of games.

There are only about 40 players who scored 30 goals last year.

A lot of teams overpaid for players like Nurse, Trouba, Byram, Carlsson, Raddysh.

Why is there no interest to sign the guy?

That is a brief, absurdist short story I had written.

I had also written other short stories and published them on that blog.

I think that was the best amongst them.

I wrote the stories a long time ago, I would like to know what you think of that story.

https://theabsurdification.blogspot.com/2015/05/is-it-racist-to-notice-that-michael.html?m=1

Cutter Gauthier is a crazy name.