Thousands and Thousands of Words

The Internet has inculcated in us an expectation of–and sense of entitlement to–instant gratification.  Whether that attitude has its origins in Wikipedia or Google minimizing all friction between oneself and all of human knowledge or (on a more elemental level) free porn, one narrative of consumers of the social “news” internet can be summarized as: “shut up and show me your pics.”  Ok, here’s some online junk food for you, but only if you promise to read some vegetables afterward.

I wonder what happens if you get two of these in a row:

Here’s your obligatory news item turned graphical:

And some Reading and Writing and Road Signs.  Come to think of it, why did we call Reading, Writing, and ‘rithmetic “The Three R’s” when only one of them actually starts with an ‘R’?

Not all communication errors in print are necessarily the fault of the writer; sometimes you can, in fact, blame the medium:

Speaking of print communications, Hallmark did not screw around in the 50’s (honestly, kinda refreshing):

And finally, political cartoons are a great way to combine the ease of visual comprehension, the pithiness of comic form and serious political arguments, usually taking the reductio ad absurdum form, as here:

The ideal effect is to trick people into learning, something I wish I was better at myself.  I’m usually too didactic for that, but sometimes a little diversion goes a long way.