Irene and Emily,

Just passing through with two quick things. First, Hurricane Irene is "only" a category 1 hurricane -- but moving very slowly, with hurricane force winds that are likely to last for up to a full day and strong storm surges. If your area goes under any kind of special advisory or evacuation order, take heed and do what it says; the emergency services may be unable to respond if something goes wrong during the storm, so if it looks like you may need to get out, get out. This is going to leave a huge mess behind with blocked roads, flooding, structural damage, and no power for days, and my gut feeling is that Long Island will be especially hard hit.  (No, I don't know why -- that's why they call it a gut feeling. But the whole East Coast is under the gun.)


Second, Emily is an intern for IPFW's English department this year, and she's asking around for advice about what people would like to see in an English and Linguistics Department newsletter. The original post is here:
http://strangexgirl.livejournal.com/131925.html

However, because so many people without LJ accounts seem to have trouble commenting on posts, here's what she said for anyone who wants me to pass an idea along:

If you were reading the English & Linguistics department newletter from your University, what super-awesome thing would you be all googly-eyed over if you saw it in there?

I'm in charge of my uni's newsletter this semester, you see. And I want to do something more awesome than the usual crossword puzzle of 'interesting' words (not that there's anything wrong with crosswords - people that love them, please do not verbaly fillet me). I already have a nice list of story/content ideas, including at least one that gives the linguistics side a little more love, but I figured with all the writer-y and university-y people I have on LJ ...

I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty intimidating looking at the blank template knowing I only have 3 sections of 'must-have' in there, and only one of those that's static. It's also awesome though. I hope that by putting a serious effort into it, I can make a good newsletter that will be utilized by future interns... and have something snazzy for my portfolio.