Each day on twitter there is one main character. The goal is to never be it

— maple cocaine (@maplecocaine) January 3, 2019

近年來，我傾向回歸較早較原初的用法和中文字，通常指使用沒有口字旁的原字，如「碎碎念」，「念書」。

這讓我想到英文發音的一個類比實例：很多 wh- 開頭的字，原初的發音，也是我國一開始學英語時老師教的唯一發音，是 /hw-/，帶有/h/音。但我們很快發現，美式英語中，這個/h/經常省略，剩下一個/w/音，what、 when、where 都是如此。

我何時念 /hw-/ 何時念 /w-/ 是說不定的，唯一可以確定的，是我想強調一個字時，必然會念成/hw/，因爲那樣的發音編碼(encode)了更多訊息。

有一次在我固定參加的週末逐步筆譯筆記練習會上，一位較年輕的口譯員同事竟然糾正我的when /hwEn/發音，說這個字的「正確」發音是/wEn/。

（以上使用SAMPA音標，見此表。）

我客氣但語氣堅定地說，謝謝指教，但這字的兩個發音都對，你顯然年輕許多。

"God bless you," in Irish

miss ivors - sense of nationalism, being in touch with one's roots

gabriel - flustered at the idea, prefers elsewhere

why was gabriel resentful? was it because of mary jane's performance?

gabriel conroy wary of social dynamics; has had an education

character is shown, as well as dynamics:

• likes good food - allows for luxury
• does not like back answers - domineering

this=character development

Pevear talking about Chekhov.

First sign of Violet's intelligence, as well as the beginning of the introduction to the three Baudelaire orphans' minds.

And so it is that this book series promotes introversion and encourages a love of learning. Also, all of the Baudelaires are introverts which is great.

characters vs. bytes

what does this mean? what does she want from this conversation? how does she actually feel? what doesn't she want from sharing it with the channel? how does she feel about nev asking?

Perhaps elaborate; is this sincere consideration? Or does he not intend to talk about it at all ? Laughing it off?

what is.... the point of this vlog? you've seen vlogs in 2023, right? they're highly edited, or highly comic - what do you imagine the clickbait title of this being? how do people vlog post-pandemic? did he start vlogging during the pandemic?

Chronological organization of events. The sheer need to get answers is killing him

Just like Sakina, his tears were gone. Rhetorically asking where both had gone. Once again, sensory imagery/personification of the eyes as they were not cooperating. Additionally, this shows depth to Sirajuddin in how we wants to express emotion.

Name of main character's daughter

Main character is old.

.

apparently distinct from: Unicode replacement character (U+FFFD)

There's so much in this chapter. Firstly prudent reasoning from Carwin vs religious enthusiasm indirectly clashes in this emotion heated scene. Carwin has confessed his sins. Wieland escaped prison again to sacrifice Clara in his belief that the voice he hears is a divine messenger. Clara had thought of commiting suicide before Carwin's confessions, but once Wieland appears, she dreads the thought of dieing. The atmosphere has such eerie gothic elements. On the other hand there's a lot of character development, all 3 have changed a lot which makes them dynamic characters. Carwin seeks to clear up everything he had done out of guilt. Wieland had gone insane. But the most dramatic change is within Clara, who everyone adored, percieved as pure, brave and just and now - even though she just heard from Carwin that he had not made Wieland murder his family, Clara turns on him with a lie, a religious reasoning to save herself from her brother and to make his brother realize that "the divine messenger" is unreal. Clara is trying to use a possibly deadly trick on the two men. All three characters has reached a big turning point.

Despite Hygd's distrust of Heardred to effectively rule the kingdom, Beowulf refuses to usurp his power.

Enter the dragon

Beowulf freely gives all his treasure to Hygelac

Norton: "Queen Modthryth: "The story of Queen Modthryth's vices is abruptly introduced as a foil to Queen Hygd's virtues."

oh, whoa, peace-weaver, I believe we can make it thru the ni-ight!

Enter Hygelac

Interesting sentiment in the context of Grendel's mother's motivation

This is really hard for a modern reader to understand. Austen has just said how sensible Lady Russell is but she too panders to Sir Walter. This may be part of the reason she rejects Wentworth for Anne; true, he didn't have money but he also wasn't important enough - were he a penniless titled person I bet she would have supported the match. Austen excels at writing well rounded complex characters, she often pokes fun at their inconsistencies.

We are hearing the echo of Sir Walter and Elizabeth's opinions/words. This is a strange introduction for the main character, she is ignored and secondary. Chapter 1 focuses on Sir Walter and then the family context, Chapters 2 and 3 are a group setting (and people finally speak). A first time reader may not identify Anne as the main character till chapter 4 when the text pivots to focus on her. In chapter 1 we hear of Elizabeth's disappointment with Mr Elliot but the history with Wentworth is hidden till Anne is alone. Modern texts tend to have more active, vibrant main characters (like Lizzy Bennet) who have agency and push the story forward through their choices and actions. Fanny Price in Mansfield Park is another good example of the sort of main character modern readers struggle with.

What's the role of self-deprecating humor in this novel, especially on the part of Betteredge the 'house-steward' narrator/character? So far, no other narrators/characters self consciously make fun of themselves, although Betteredge will describe the silliness or odd behavior of other characters. Which ones are not "clownish" and why? And how do these descriptions affect readers' judgements about various characters' reliability about the information and observations they offer?

We need to slow down - in every aspect of our lives - so we can attend to the present more thoughtfully, seriously, and appreciatively. Now will never happen again.

This is clearly a political statement intended to get more people to contribute to the country's economy. It is, however, woefully wrong in the broader sense.

Persistence does matter, but it isn't "omnipotent". Persistence, like education, can and should be acquired. But without talent and intelligence (and curiosity, and honour, and truthfulness, and...), persistence alone will not suffice.

I've used ABBY FineReader (best on Windows) and it was much better at correcting OCR than Adobe Acrobat. —Dana Conard

@pratik Mastodon caps at 500 as a default. The information density of the particular language/character set is certainly part of the calculus.

Here's a few to start (and see their related references): - https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/How-Constraints-Affect-Content%3A-The-Case-of-Switch-Gligoric-Anderson/de77e2b6abae20a728d472744557d722499efef5 - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-019-0280-3

Role of Matalan in Silappadikaram

=> who functions like Matalan in greek tragedy? => matalan appears in which 2 kantams (cantos) ?

• like in telugu superhero films 'ayina evru thelsa'

It seems like them uncertainty in the world today makes need of higher quality relationships between the employers and their boss as they cannot find it in the systems to the same degree. It will be a time when the character of the leader is tested and the leader will then be in need of a greater input from God or an external source which is stable.

Tennyson's poem talks a lot about how this mysterious lady is cursed. The article below talks about the origins of this "cursed" character. Article

whataboutery dharma-sankat தர்மசங்கடம்

• moral ambiguity to who is right and who is wrong

  shows that victims in one context can be villains in another.

• neologism word used in #20thcentury/later 1900s/1970s
• context of violence in Northern Ireland.
• விக்ரம் வேதா
• system சரி இல்லை

Unsure of the text encoding here. I'm forcing them to be interpreted as Unicode here, hence the appearance of the replacement character. My browser's default is to treat this document as "Central European (Windows)", but in that case, they appear as majuscule and miniscule S-cedilla characters (e.g. Şhypertextş).

By a reasonable guess, these are supposed to be open and close quotes. I've seen these appear in other TBL-authored documents from the same era.

This is another word that Miss Clack used a lots in her narrative.

The word "devout" came out a few thing from Miss Clack's narrative. I assume she is a devout Christian?

This is one of words that Miss Clack will use, but Betteredge won't use. However, this word also reveals some personality of Miss Clack, by definition, alas means: "an expression of grief, pity, or concern." By this we can assume Miss Clack might be a sentimental person

more descriptions of women 'from the eye of a man'

So many similes

We already know that Betteredge pays close attention to the health (ie weight) of women, but I think this might be the first time (?) we get such a physical description of a male character.

Description of the Diamond. I'm going to tag this as character description assuming we're calling The Moonstone a character.

description of beautiful women by herncastle

This description is really something. Character description might be interesting to keep in mind later for computational analysis.

I'm glad this is brought up. I think its really interesting that Milton, a devout Christian, was able to write something that retold a story from the bible- the characters being Christian icons- without needing to convince the readers that God is real/Christianity is the path to salvation. His intention was not to convert readers, but to write! By carefully crafting PL's character relationships, the importance of faith is naturally conveyed through the dialogue between all characters.

Is there a difference in semantic meaning between the two? And if so, what is it? 

Jans-Beken, L. (2020, November 25). A Perspective on Mature Gratitude as a Way of Coping with COVID-19. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.632911

Algernon sees as the second most important character and as of now he looks like those thypes of character that are charming, however can be very selfish

Hally is a negative person and she brings around negative energy she gets angry when stuff dont go right for her and say stuff out of anger. She is always angry about something

Know thy self.

While a drunk, the uncle seems to can't help himself and all he can do is apologize. I find it interesting, the fact that the characters of this book have multiple dimensions, not necessarily only a bad nor just a good side. This makes them seem very realistic.

I think this is the first and only time the word 'please' is uttered in the story. And I would not have expected it to come from the young girl. There's something very seemingly obnoxious yet profoundly mysterious about this girl. She pleads to wait in the car, finally not exposed or seen by others. It sounds like her appearance has shaped her life and defined much of her identity thus far, but she's fighting not to let it be everything (e.g., she's seeing through people who are staring at her). Symbolically, when her dark coat, perhaps symbolizing her beauty as a curse rather than a blessing or her rude demeanor, falls, revealing her opposite-colored skin, and, "like a flower... emerging from its dark bud, " she's becoming herself again.

I think it's pretty amazing how Mansfield uses this motif to illustrate the carelessness/lack of responsibility of Mrs. Raddick - it'd be interesting to see if she does this for other ways. Character-development seems like a really hard thing to track/write a program for because every character has different traits and isn't just described by adjectives.

Characters:

Aubrey is a secondary character which is consciously described. The character’s features (eyes, hair) and age signs (wrinkles and skin in general) are described with detail, as well as the colours that are perceived. Most characters are compared with different natural features: here, a horse. Nature is an important element in the story for constant references to the landscape, plants and flowers, weather and seasons can be found.<br> All the characters in the story are consistent, motivated and life-like characters; Audrey is not an exception, his character is a static character.

I don't know why it's caught my attention, but I find it funny that it's always page one hundred and something, as if nothing's going on in the first hundred pages (or anywhere else)... Assuming the guy has perused the book through and through as he purports to, it's just odd to me that we keep getting information from the same, narrow range of pages.

It's a wild guess here, but maybe this is Collins trying to portray Betteredge's character as one who claims to be a know-it-all (Robinson Crusoe, women, the house affairs, etc.) but, really, has such a narrow and restricted view on life that he will always be surprised or caught wrong; that there isn't that much wisdom in him after all.

It's just mind-blowing how satisfied she gets from distributing her tracts among random people who could not be clearer about their reluctance to receive them. Clack, much like Betteredge, assumes she knows the depths of people and is so judgmental of the unconventional (e.g., Rachel) but completely fails to recognize that her own behavior is far from being desired, and is, to all eyes, the unconventional and deplorable one.

I wonder if this is Collins' way to humorously ridicule this phenomenon. More broadly, I wonder if Collins' use of extreme and blatantly hypocritical narrators who inspire hatred (e.g., Clack and Betteredge), is his calling for moderation in society.

Johnson, Samuel Gregory Blane. ‘Dimensions of Altruism: Do Evaluations of Prosocial Behavior Track Social Good or Personal Sacrifice?’ Preprint. PsyArXiv, 22 August 2020. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/r85jv.

Ferguson, A. M., Cameron, D., & Inzlicht, M. (2020, May 15). Motivational effects on empathic choices. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/s7qph

The fact that you can use single character keys without modifiers to invoke functions such as Comment Mode (C) is an example of a violation of a violation of the WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion, 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts.

Woah. Perception management sorcerer.

On naming fantasy characters

发现了！small tilde ~（在网页里它反而是在中间位置）用于注音 波浪号才是我们汉语用的～

Marriage plot again, will Arthur end up with one of the Beauforts?

Marriage plot emerges here, Lady Denham wants Sir Edward to marry Miss Lamb for her money

Music and drawing, two skills that made women "poplar" or considered properly educated at this time. A theme throughout Austen novels, having these skills made women accomplished and more suited for marriage.

Beginning of a marriage plot here? The Miss Beauforts want to marry for money over love. By marrying someone with money it might also help their social standing. This is a similar sentiment that we saw with Mary Crawford in "Mansfield Park" who was all about marrying to elevate her own status.

Diana's being unable to make mistakes is a trait that reminds me of other Austen characters such as Emma from "Emma." While they both mean well they carry themselves with an sense of being "all knowing" and never wrong.

This just seems like such an odd job to take on when you have not met the person or been asked to do this. In other Austen novels we have seen some characters take on responsibilities without being asked but they normally have to do with relationships such as Emma and her match making n Emma or Lady Catherine de Bourgh getting involved with Darcy and Lizzy's relationship.

Seems to be the opposite of what every other character says about sea air

First character we see who is not from England

Once again we see Charlotte "reading" the true nature of Arthur and seeing beyond the facade. She is very sensible like Elinor in "Sense and Sensibility." And even though she does not always voice how she actually sees people, she and Lizzy Bennet are similar in their directness.

Is this how Arthur flirts with Charlotte? Through toast?

This is a very odd dialogue scene. Something that we do not often get in Austen novels. The dialogue has nothing to do with the plot or getting to know the characters better (except about Arthur's weird habits)

Here I believe Charlotte sounds a bit like Lizzy Bennet. The two are both direct and tend to not hold back when it comes to being sassy or saying something that could be seen as controversial.

His "nervousness" is similar to Mrs. Bennet from P&P and maybe even Mr. Woodhouse from Emma?

Mr. Parker whines and complains about his brother not responding to him promptly -- which shows that he gets anxious and nervous easily, and his declarations about women just based on how fast Diana responds to letter is again, over-generalizing.

Again, Mr. Parker talks a lot, but always makes unnecessary or irrelevant generalizations. Most of his utterances are completely unrelated to each other and the current topic at hand, yet he says them in an absolutely confident and unapologetic manner -- meanwhile it is Charlotte and Mrs. Parker who has to endure his nonsense.

It is funny (and slightly concerning) that Lady Denham is boasting about the fact that her relatives are poor. She is sharing information that she thinks is impressive but probably won’t be to others.

Propriety overrides charity for Mrs. Parker. Likewise, in Austen's novels, many technically beneficial things are not said for fear of violating social decorum. This frustration is expressed by Elinor in Sense and Sensibility, when she could only guess at what others meant through allusions and off-hand comments, and is unable to prod the situation herself. Austen uses this dilemma to show the consequences of always adhering to social rules.

Another case of a landowner and "gentleman farmer" is Mr. Knightley in Emma.

Another single, female character who is the "chief" of the family. We see this type of female character in previous Austen novels such as Mrs. Norris in "Mansfield Park"

As a character, Charlotte has a good read on others people she encounters. This is the case with other Austen characters such as Elizabeth Bennett in "Pride and Prejudice"

Why differentiating between symplesiomorphies and homoiologies? Both are traits equally exclusive to a subtree (a clade) and closely linked to each other.

Pink is a symplesiomorphy of the ingroup, blue the homoiology Vice versa, blue is the symplesiomorphy, pink the homoiology found only in the most derived (in absolute evolutionary terms) taxa

Hillier is the tenant of Mr Parker's old house

https://austenprose.com/sanditon-list-of-characters/

Lady Denham obviously favored her second husband over her first, even though Mr. Hollis left her with an inheritance, which is much more useful than a title.

The Romantic literary movement was obsessed with cottages: see William Wordsworth's poem "The Ruined Cottage" as an example.

http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol28no1/hall.htm

It is strange that Charlotte is accompanying the Parkers when her own parents only just met them. This plot point is similar to the moment that Catherine Morland stays with the Tilneys, even though her family doesn't know them at all.

Miss Diana Parker's request to ask Lady Denham for money for various people that she does not know from a woman she likely does not know very well seems very impolite. Also, considering how little Lady Denham likes to part with her money, Diana's comments would be particularly provoking.

Austen characterizes Mr. Parker as a man with immense pride towards his village. He boasts of the many benefits of Sanditon all while suffering from a sprained ankle.

This is a mischaracterization of Lady Denham because she is anxious about her finances. She is worried about her existing investment in Sanditon, and she believes that her heir needs find a wealthy spouse.

Scyld's origins as "feasceaft," destitute, contrast with his rich conquests later in life: the "meodosetla" he takes (5) and the "gomban" ("tribute," 11) he receives. The opening lines thus establish reversal of fortune as a theme while showing Scyld as a powerful warrior and successful war leader. Edward B. Irving describes how appropriate "the Scyld proem" (as he calls it, 44) is for the rest of the poem in foreshadowing what Beowulf will do and experience, A Reading of Beowulf, 2nd ed. (Provo, UT: The Chaucer Studio, 1999), 44–5. Francis Leneghan argues for the originality of the Scyld episode in “Reshaping Tradition" and argues that Scyld's status as a foundling in a ship and his climb to rule parallels Moses.

We move from hearing of "Gardena" in general to their exemplar and greatest hero, Scyld Scefing. Roy Liuzza notes that the name means "Shield, Son of Sheaf," in his translation, 2nd ed. (Peterborough, ONT: Broadview Press, 2013), note 2 on page 49. The name connects the Danes' hero with both war ("Shield") and agricultural production ("Sheaf"): he makes his people victorious and well-fed. For more on the name, see Francis Leneghan, “Reshaping Tradition: The Originality of the Scyld Scefing Episode in Beowulf,” in Transmission and Generation in Medieval and Renaissance Literature: Essays in Honour of John Scattergood, edited by Karen Hodder and‎ Brendan O'Connell (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2012), 21–36.

A lovely example of the power of alliteration: Beowulf's name is associated even before the hero appears with fame ("Beowulf was breme") and power or renown ("blæd") using sound.

Sergeant Cuff's narrative is very straight forward and to the point compared to the others, especially Miss Clack. Because Cuff's intention in this narrative is to relay facts to Franklin, and also because he is a detective, Cuff uses few unnecessary adjectives or "flowery" language. I would be interested in running a POS (Parts of Speech) analysis on Cuff's narrative and compare it to Clack and Betteredge, as well as the rest of the text.

Blake's account of Rachel is clearly distinct form the other narrators because of their romantic past. He mentions her frequently throughout his narrative. I would like to run a frequency count the number of times he mentions Rachel compared tot he rest of the narratives in the book. I wonder if it is possible to isolate the discussions of Rachel in each character's narrative and then do some topic modeling with the extracted texts to examine how Rachel is discussed by each character.

Bruff's impression of Rachel is very different from Miss Clack, but similar to the affectionate tone of Betteredge. I would be interested in running a word frequency count on all of the ways Rachel is described by the different narrators and do a comparison between the words used by the different narrators and also which words they share in her description.

Penelope has been a compelling and independent character throughout the narrative, from the ways in which she gives insight to the narrative itself , to this moment here. It would be interesting to extract her character descriptions and speech and compare it to the other female characters in the story to see how they are different / similar. I would also be interested in comparing her to the male characters. Would this be something the sentiment analysis could be used for?

Winzy repeatedly returns to this question. He is wishing that it is not true, but he knows that Cornelius' elixir did affect him in the way he expected.

Every time Winzy remembers that he is no longer mortal there is an air of sorrow.

It seems like he has no concept of how unnecessarily dramatic their courtship was.

This romance is such a fast paced roller coaster of emotions. It's very hard to keep up with the characters and their motives.

Is this his name, or is that a phrase?

This is fascinating, as it implies that all human fears are derived from love.

This girl needs to chill. I have no concept of what her motives are. She's clearly manipulating him, but why? He is having to work hard for his income. There are doubtless other suitors who could give her the lifestyle and attention she desires without having to choose one or the other. Her attitude makes it clear that she isn't interested in him for love either, no matter how much she says she is. She's playing multiple suitors, as evidenced with this Hoffer dude. Clearly she can get almost any man she wants, so why is she bothering the main character?

That statement is so vague, as if he is trying to convince himself that it is true.

Unconscious knowledge of human character described by Joanna Baillie, Introductory Discourse

Similar to her previous line, this dialogue from the girl introduces us readers to an underling element of negativity. The line is a charged, declarative statement, suggesting that she may not hold her male companion in high esteem. Or at least, is non-receptive to his response. It's a line containing hostility and perhaps even resentment.

This introduces us to our first experience of conflict between the girl and the American.

A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler- Jefferson became poetic after reading~https://books.google.com/books?id=yQpDAQAAMAAJ&q=A+prince+whose+character+is+thus+marked+by+every+act+which+may+define+a+tyrant+is+unfit+to+be+the+ruler&dq=A+prince+whose+character+is+thus+marked+by+every+act+which+may+define+a+tyrant+is+unfit+to+be+the+ruler&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj52MO9z8PUAhXFwj4KHeXiAxEQ6AEIKDAA

I'm guessing that the character of Cicero might have some reflection to play in these parts. I'd have to research further to draw up a conclusion.

See https://arxiv.org/abs/1512.00728

she is a little emotional. i think she will kill him.

she seams kinda mean she sounds like a antagonist the center of the conflict.

he seems super modest.

Title: What is it? An oral history of Izzy, the mascot marketing snafu of Olympic proportions - Atlanta Magazine

Keywords: fantastic mascot—cobi, public appearances—, bob cohn, atlanta-based artist, york city, billy wanted, spanish art, children thought, vice president, senior director, blue blob, acog spokesperson, billy looked, easy character, olympic city, olympic games, olympic bid, question billy

Summary: <br>Bob Cohn, cofounder of public relations agency Cohn & Wolfe, member of Payne’s mascot committee: In Barcelona in 1992, they had a fantastic mascot—Cobi, who was typical of Spanish art and filled with creativity.<br>Some of them wrote us back letters [that essentially said] “The nerve!” or “We’re not doing anything for nothing.”<br>So it couldn’t be characters that existed in Georgia lore.<br>Somebody sent us a deer.<br>John Ryan, then senior director at DESIGNefx, the animation division of Crawford Communications: The basic job was to design something that would appeal to children and broadly on a world stage.<br>Photograph by Rich Mahan/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP<br>It wore five Olympic rings—two on its eyes and three on its tail—and oversized sneakers nearly half the size of its body.<br>Bob Brennan, then ACOG spokesperson: Billy Payne wanted to do something modern, reflective of the technological world we lived in.<br>You had movies like Jurassic Park, Total Recall.<br>Shuman: I received Hi-Rez right at the deadline, a Friday.<br>When Billy looked at that [proposal], he said, “Gee whiz, wow.<br>Payne: As CEO of the Olympic Games, I felt it was both our responsibility and within my authority to make whatever decisions needed to be made.<br>Shuman: By the time I got back on Monday afternoon, Ginger told me Billy had made his decision.<br>Were we raising enough money?<br>Shuman: You didn’t question Billy.<br>Payne: The logical question that you would ask on seeing it is “What is it?” I guess we just said, “Well, we should just put it into one word.”<br>Shuman: The name, Whatizit, was almost worse than the character itself.<br>Does it all run together?<br>Ryan: We had to have [final] designs submitted by March [1992], knowing it’d be debuted in August at the Barcelona Games.<br>It really looked funky.<br>In a huge stadium it can’t be little.<br>Shuman: To generate interest about the mascot, we did these billboards all over town saying, “Whatizit?” We built up this huge anticipation.<br>Ryan: It was made very clear that if secrecy was violated, Crawford could lose future contracts.<br>Photograph courtesy of Harry Shurman<br>Meanwhile an amorphous animated character filled the stadium’s video monitors.<br>Evans: I took the field with Gregg Burge, the famous New York [tap] dancer.<br>Joel Babbit, CEO of the Narrative Content Group, veteran ad exec who worked with Payne to promote the Olympic bid, and City Hall’s first-ever chief marketing and communications officer under Jackson: If Maynard had an opinion, he kept it to himself.<br>“How do you say ‘Whatizit’ in Mandarin?”<br>Like, this is it?<br>Completely and totally horrified.<br>They’re complaining: This is terrible.<br>But [ACOG] had a lot riding on the mascot financially from license sales.<br>Robert Hollander, then ACOG’s vice president of licensing: My heart dropped into my stomach.<br>Hula: It’s something that’s supposed to evoke an image of Atlanta, the host city, and it really didn’t do that at all.<br>We didn’t even think we were compelled to do something that would make somebody in Australia say, “That mascot must be from Atlanta, Georgia.” It never crossed our minds.<br>It was sort of like a bigger Charlotte.<br>Photograph courtesy of R. Land<br>Ronnie Land, an Atlanta-based artist, better known as R. Land, who has made Izzy-inspired art: This was our “Hey, world, we’re Atlanta” moment.<br>LaTara Smith (née Bullock), ACOG’s “project coordinator for Izzy appearances” during the Olympics: I’ve heard everything from toothpaste to blue blob.<br>Hiskey: People were going to focus on the crazy blue thing because there wasn’t a lot of other cool stuff here.<br>Bob Hope, president of Atlanta-based public relations firm Hope-Beckham Inc.: I thought [Billy] briefly lost his mind.<br>Kevin Sack, a New York Times reporter based in Atlanta, wrote in a 1996 story that “[i]t is precisely Izzy’s nothingness that has unwittingly made him an apt symbol for this Olympic city.<br>Whatizit’s costume made Mike Luckovich’s punchline.<br>People were embarrassed [by Whatizit].<br>You wish people would look at the good stuff instead of focusing on the minutiae and losing the big picture.<br>Campbell: I suspect I hurt some people’s feelings.<br>Photograph by Raymond McCrea Jones<br>ACOG officially retired Whatizit in October 1993.<br>It worked.<br>Babbit: I liked the name Izzy.<br>Jacqueline Blum, senior vice president of Film Roman, the animation studio behind The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Garfield and Friends, which produced an Izzy cartoon for TV: Izzy was a character created by committee.<br>Ryan: You got into a scenario where you have multiple art directors and bosses.<br>Hope: [Izzy was] like New Coke.<br>Smith: Izzy developed a nose.<br>Shuman: We had these stars coming out of his tail at one point.<br>I raised my hand and said, “Maybe not?” They left the shoes the way they are.<br>The costume had to get softer.<br>Evans: Children loved the mascot.<br>I’d guess probably close to 15 percent.<br>Watkins: I’m guessing [the bestselling item] would be the doll that was 12 inches that could be carried under a kid’s arm.<br>Lounge chair pillows.<br>Shuman: Billy wanted to market the shoes.<br>Blum: It’s not a particularly easy character to animate.<br>Hollander: Our broadcast partner, NBC, had gotten out of the children’s program business.<br>Watkins: They created an Izzy balloon that flew in New York City in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.<br>Photograph by Caroline C. Kilgore<br>Evans helped create a mascot program that recruited volunteers through auditions.<br>Smith: By the time the Olympics came around, we had upwards of 20 Izzys that could be in different places at one time.<br>I asked [Izzy], “How does one become the mascot?” They were having tryouts the next weekend.<br>Don’t exclude children.<br>For example, Izzy loved everyone, so whether it was a critic or a fan, you didn’t show any negative emotion.<br>Izzy had a size 22 sneaker, so you had to fit your shoe inside Izzy’s shoe, inside another little pocket, and be able to walk around in his big feet.<br>Jay: You entered through the top of his mouth.<br>Smith: A lot of children thought it would be fun to swing on the tail.<br>Evans: The lighting bolt eyebrows and rings on the tail were prime targets for being pulled, punched, or ripped off for a souvenir.<br>Smith: Handlers began watching the perimeter.<br>Photograph courtesy of Harry Shuman<br>Is he still waiting for a shuttle bus?<br>Smith: We took over one of the Olympic headquarters offices.<br>Other times it would be outside as a crowd-pleaser.<br>Jay: We were instructed to wear the Izzy costume 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off, because you would sweat.<br>Wilsterman: There were two fans at the top of Izzy’s head [inside the costume].<br>I was able to whisper into a little microphone that went into the escort’s ear.<br>Smith: Izzy didn’t talk.<br>Izzy didn’t do public appearances—only [ones for] ticketed sponsors.<br>Brennan: I don’t think Izzy showed up at the closing ceremony.<br>Jay: When the flame went out, so did Izzy.<br>The question came up: Can someone dress up in the Izzy costume to greet visitors in the Atlanta History Center?<br>Photograph courtesy of LaTara Smith<br>Smith: I still have one of the Izzy costumes.<br>Payne: People didn’t like it.<br>I never lost my enthusiasm for Izzy.<br>Was it the greatest experience of my life?<br>Evans: I do appreciate the originality and willingness to do something different.<br>Land: Atlanta tries so hard to be what we think the world wants to view us as.<br>Shuman: Izzy was kind of like Colony Square—a little bit before his time.<br>Smith: It would’ve been easier to have a phoenix.<br>It didn’t say anything.<br>Babbit: It doesn’t matter what it was.<br>It was bizarre.<br>An image of Izzy?<br>Shuman: Usually everything Billy touched turned to gold.<br>This article originally appeared in our July 2016 issue.<br>Tags: 1996 Atlanta Olympics, 1996 Olympics, Atlanta Olympics, Billy Payne, Izzy, John Ryan, Olympics, R. Land, Whatizit<br>

He makes a good point here. To be a good orator doesn't necessarily mean that one has those esteemed characteristics. A good orator and rhetorician could could posses unsavory characteristics. Ex: Hitler, Mussollini

seperating the art of rhetoric from the individual.