To mark the beginning of Passover and the approach of Easter, today’s post features proper nouns in the Bible and the Torah, ones that are common nouns as well, making them playable in Scrabble. Some of these–including Gloria, Joseph, Maria, Noel, Ruth, Saul, and Veronica–-appeared in your first Scrabble post, “What’s in a Name,” along with your group pictures.
- Bible: a definitive text
- Calvary: a representation of the crucifixion
- Gloria: a halo
- Golgotha: a burial place
- Jezebel: an evil woman
- Joseph: a woman’s long cloak (after Joseph’s coat of many colors)
- Judas: a peephole
- Lazar: a beggar afflicted with a terrible disease, particularly a leper
- Lucifer: a friction mark
- Maria: a large plane on the surface of the moon that appears dark
- Noel: a Christmas carol
- Ruth: compassion
- Saul: a soul
- Sodom: a place infamous for vice
- Torah: a law (pl. torahs, toroth, or torot)
- Veronica: a handkerchief with a depiction of Christ’s face (after a biblical woman who offered Jesus a handkerchief to wipe his face as he carried the cross)
And Some Sweet Scores
Since Easter brings baskets of candy, here’s a list of playable sweets. If you have the right letters, don’t be a butterfingers.
- Bonbon: a type of chocolate-coated sweet
- Butterfingers: a clumsy person (also butterfingered but not butterfinger)
- Candyfloss: cotton candy
- Fireball: a ball of fire, a meteor
- Jawbreaker: a type of hard candy
- Jujube: a type of edible berry (not to be confused with juju: an object believed to have magical powers)
- Nestle: to lie close to something or someone
- Skittle: a form of bowling, or a pin played in that game (but not skittles)
- Starburst: an image resembling a diffusion of light
- Tootsie: a foot (also tootsy)
Updated Model Annotated Bibliography
The bibliography that follows, an updated version of the one I distributed yesterday in class, includes two notable changes:
- The parenthetical citation at the conclusion of the summary of “Can You Say . . .’Hero’?” now includes the previously omitted paragraph number, which is thirty-two (par. 32).
- The final paragraph of the annotation for the interview with Sierra Welch includes her new major, criminal justice. Also, I corrected the pronoun from he to she, but then eliminated the need for it by revising the subordinate clause, where she is currently enrolled in English 1103, to the more concise participle phrase, currently enrolled English 1103.
Remember that the model below does not include the paragraph indentations or the hanging idents you will include in the Microsoft Word file or PDF you submit to Blackboard.
Annotated Bibliography
Conte, Joseph M. “Don DeLillo’s The Falling Man and the Age of Terror.” Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 57, no. 3, 2011, pp. 559–83. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org.libproxy. highpoint.edu/stable/26287214.
In “Don DeLillo’s Falling Man and the Age of Terror,” Joseph M. Conte probes novelist Don DeLillo’s fictional chronicle of the destruction of the Twin Towers and the scarred lives of a survivor, Keth Neudecker, a corporate lawyer who escapes the North Tower; and his estranged wife, Lianne, who was not at the World Trade Center but who is subsequently haunted by images of a Manhattan performance artist who dangles from bridges and buildings, imitating the posture of the Falling Man in Richard Drew’s now-iconic photograph. Conte explores the characters and landscape of DeLillo’s novel, as well as the challenges of rendering in fiction the virtually unspeakable events of 9/11.
Although the focus of Conte’s analysis is not Tom Junod’s own Falling Man, his study is pertinent to those researching Junod’s work, as it references his 2003 article “The Falling Man,” and demonstrates the contrast between DeLillo’s aims as a novelist and Junod’s as a journalist. While Junod aimed to depict photographer Richard Drew’s Falling Man as a human symbol of what the United States became on 9/11, DeLillo’s fictional Falling Man haunts the New Yorkers who witness him imitating the posture of the still-unidentified Falling Man in Drew’s photo. Notably, Conte cites Junod criticism of DeLillo’s The Falling Man in his June 2007 Esquire review of the novel, addressing his objections to DeLillo’s decision to write a 9/11 novel whose scope is not equal to that of the loss.
Joseph M. Conte, a professor of English at the University of Buffalo, is the author of Transnational Politics in the Post-9/11 Novel, Design and Debris: A Chaotics of Postmodern American Fiction, and Unending Design: The Forms of Postmodern Poetry.
Hendrickson, John. “Family Secrets.” Esquire, March 2026, pp. 28-31.
As a prelude to the publication of Tom Junod’s new memoir, In the Days of My Youth I was Told What it Means to be a Man, journalist John Hendrickson profiles Junod at his home outside Atlanta, where he asks the author about his relationship with his father, Lou (the focus of his memoir), as well some of his most well-known magazine stories, including the highly-praised feature on Fred Rogers and the much-maligned profile of Kevin Spacey. Hendrickson incorporates observations on Junod’s prose by a host of other writers and editors, including memoirist J. R. Moehringer; Peter Griffin, former deputy editor at Esquire; Taffy Brodesser-Akner, New York Times staff writer; Wright Thompson, Junod’s colleague at ESPN; and journalist Bronwen Dickey, who teaches Junod’s work at Duke University.
“Family Secrets” provides researchers with the personal history that informs Junod’s writing, especially his new memoir, which Hendrickson refers to as a book whose “concerns hum beneath almost every magazine story Tom has ever written” (29). Along with its vital background on Junod’s formative years, Hendrickson’s article offers the insights of other writers and editors who admire Junod’s prose.
John Hendrickson’s stories have appeared in The New York Times, New York magazine, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic, where he is a contributing writer. He is also the author of Life on Delay, a memoir about his lifelong struggle with stuttering.
Junod, Tom. “Can You Say . . . ‘Hero’?” Esquire, vol. 130, no. 5, Nov., 1998, pp. 132-138+. ProQuest, https://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/ magazines/can-you-say-hero/docview/210269328/se-2.
“Can You Say . . . ‘Hero’?” brings together Tom Junod’s conversations with Fred Rogers in New York City, where he met architect Maya Lin at her giant clock in Penn Station, to tape a segment for his TV show; in Pittsburgh, at his studio, where produced Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood for thirty-one years and 865 episodes; and in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where he navigated the perimeter of his childhood home on Weldon Street. Together, those conversations build the foundation for Junod’s profile of Fred Rogers, a portrait of a music major at a small Florida College who shelved his plans for divinity school when he first watched his parents’ new television. He detested what he saw—slapstick pie throwing—but, in Junod’s words, “[H]e believed, right then, that he was strong enough to enter into battle with that—that machine, that medium—and to wrestle with it until it yielded to him” (par. 32).
Junod draws on the repetition used both by and for children to chronicle the life of a man who dedicated himself to creating and sustaining an imaginary neighborhood where he and his Land of Make-Believe characters say the words that children need to hear. Junod’s profile offers vital background information for researchers examining the life and legacy of Fred Rogers and also serves as a primer for Junod’s signature style. Paired with “The Falling Man,” “Can You Say . . . ‘Hero’?” showcases the patterns that are hallmarks of his prose. For example, the metaphors and similes he crafts not only provide comparisons but also link the recurring images and ideas in his stories.
Tom Junod, a senior writer for ESPN, has also written for Life, Sports Illustrated, and GQ, where his articles garnered two National Magazine Awards. Among Junod’s other notable works are his Esquire profile of Fred Rogers, “Can You Say . . . ‘Hero’?”—the inspiration for the Tom Hanks film It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood—and his newly published memoir In the Days of My Youth I was Told What it Means to be a Man.
—. “The Falling Man,” Esquire, vol. 140, no. 3, Sept. 2003, pp. 76+. ProQuest, https://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url= https://www.proquest.com/ magazines/falling-man/docview/210268344/se-2.
Published in the September 2003 issue of Esquire, Tom Junod’s “The Falling Man” focuses on the now-iconic 9/11 image of an unidentified man in downward flight, who appears to bisect the Twin Towers. Junod chronicles the moments leading up to AP photographer Richard Drew capturing the photo, Toronto Globe and Mail reporter Peter Chaney’s search for the true identity of the Falling Man, the reactions to the picture—both those of the public and of grieving families (whose loved one could be its subject), and the photograph’s status as a national symbol.
Junod’s thorough and riveting account of Richard Drew’s photograph and its life beyond the frame illuminates the role of the Falling Man in American culture and highlights the writer’s award-winning prose. “The Falling Man” remains an essential reference for studies of the iconography of 9/11, as well as studies of Junod’s writing.
—. “James B. Stewart and Tom Junod on Writing about 9-11.” The Press Box, 2 Sept. 2021, https://podcasts.apple.com /us/podcast/ james-b-stewart-and-tom-junod-on-writing-about-9-11/id1058911614?i=1000534129966.
In his interview with Tom Junod, Bryan Curtis, editor-at-large of The Ringer and cohost of The Press Box podcast, talks with Junod on the occasion of 9/11’s then-upcoming twentieth anniversary. In his Q and A with Junod and the one with James B. Stewart that precedes it, Curtis asks the writers about their approaches to writing about 9/11, their writing processes, and the public’s reactions to their magazine features devoted to 9/11: Tom Junod’s on the unidentified Falling Man and James B. Stewart’s “The Real Heroes are Dead.” The latter, published in The New Yorker, focuses on Rick Rescorla, the decorated Vietnam War veteran and head of security for Morgan Stanley, who died in the South Tower’s collapse after leading an evacuation that saved hundreds from the same fate.
The September 2, 2021, episode of The Press Box podcast offers insights into the intricacies of writing about 9/11 and the writing processes of two journalists who reflected on the tragedy after the initial shock subsided: Stewart, six months later, and Junod, two years later. Their conversations with Bryan Curtis provide key first-person accounts for researchers studying the writing of Junod or Stewart in particular, or the journalism of 9/11 in general.
Welch, Sierra. Interview. Conducted by Jane Lucas. 23 March 2026.
English 1103 student Sierra Welch discusses first encountering Tom Junod’s writing when she read the opening paragraphs of “The Falling Man” in class and recognizing the distinctive qualities of his prose. In her words, “[H]e could have explained what he saw, but instead, he went into a description of one man, how he was falling, his pants, his legs, and used different similes to convey how significant 9//11 was and capture the emotional aspects for the readers.”
Welch’s remarks provide a detailed first-person account of a reader’s initial response to Junod’s prose. Her observations provide insights relevant to researchers examining general readers’ reactions to Junod’s words, as well as educators contemplating his writing as a subject of classroom study.
Sierra Welch is a criminal justice major at High Point University, currently enrolled in English 1103.
Coming Soon
Next week, you will complete your final essay and annotated bibliography. The due date for posting it to Blackboard and WordPress is Wednesday, April 8 (before class); the hard deadline is Friday, April 10 (before class).
Yesterday in class, I distributed copies of my Tom Junod bibliography in progress (and an updated version is included above). Early next week, I will post my complete final essay and bibliography to Blackboard and WordPress. In the meantime, look to my model essay and bibliography “Scrabble as a Game Changer in the College Classroom,” which I distributed copies of in class. An additional copy is posted in the sample papers folder on Blackboard.
Look to next Tuesday’s post as a guide for finalizing your revisions and preparing to write your in-class reflective essay on the process of researching, writing, and revising your essay and bibliography.
Jane Lucas 