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  2. What are some cheaper alternatives to Grammarly that are equally as good?

    ~tech Ask (recommendations)
    As a non-native English speaker, I use Grammarly's free tier daily. It is invaluable to help me catch common mistakes, as well as to get a better understanding of the language through the...

    As a non-native English speaker, I use Grammarly's free tier daily. It is invaluable to help me catch common mistakes, as well as to get a better understanding of the language through the explanations it provides. I will need to write even more English in the next few months, so it seemed like a good idea to get the Premium subscription. Unfortunately, Grammarly's pricing ($144 for the year) is prohibitive when converted to Brazilian Reais. And even if I am capable of making that payment now, I would rather avoid becoming dependent on something that is so expensive for me. So, what are some affordable alternatives to Grammarly's Premium subscription?

    Just to be clear, I am aware that it is not ideal to rely too much on that kind of tool. Rest assured that my domain of English is enough that I am entirely capable of taking the suggestions as extra help and not as a crutch.

    20 votes

  3. Comment on I want to hear about your unknown favorites! in ~books

    random
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    The crônica is a uniquely Brazilian genre. It emerged in 19th-century newspapers as a narrative that mixes fiction and fact. They may be described as very short short stories that reflect either...

    The crônica is a uniquely Brazilian genre. It emerged in 19th-century newspapers as a narrative that mixes fiction and fact. They may be described as very short short stories that reflect either the current news or a cultural zeitgeist. Unlike most that you read in a newspaper, it is distinctly literary, emotional, poetic, and reflexive.

    Crônicas can be humorous, amusing vignettes or slice-of-life. Some resemble an oversized joke, others are odd, whimsical, and experimental. They may tell us something about relationships, the homeless problem, or middle-class family dramas. They aren't always overtly factual but usually seek to reveal something about our lives, culture, and society. Crônicas are taught in Brazilian schools both as reading material and as writing practice.

    Some well-known Brazilian cronistas are Rubem Braga, Carlos Heitor Cony, Stanislaw Ponte Preta (Sérgio Porto's pseudonym), Rachel de Queiroz, and Luís Fernando Veríssimo.

    Because of their unique format and role in Brazilian life, crônicas are not often translated into English, which makes them inherently unknown for the purposes of this post.

    My favorite cronista is Luís Fernando Veríssimo. Despite being a well-known leftist, most of Veríssimo's work in crônica is weakly factual and centered around the small dramas and incoherencies of the Brazilian white middle-class. Most of his crônicas are fairly short, barely one, two, maybe three book pages. Some could be considered short stories in length. They have a uniquely Brazilian "feel" that a foreign reader is unlikely to capture. Think of him as a Brazilian Woody Allen with a cultural background largely informed by his time in Rio, Porto Alegre, and the United States. Even in the most prosaic passages, Veríssimo's writing has the refinement, timing, and precision of a surgeon. More than anything, he is a master of dialogue.

    Coming from the Brazilian south, LFV is notoriously introverted and hates interviews. This puts him in an interesting position to narrate the follies of our chronically festive society.

    My favorite of his books is Comédias da Vida Privada ("Comedies of the Private Life"), his main collection of crônicas published in 1994.

    EDIT: I managed to find one of his crônicas translated into English here. It's a good one! For reference, Brazil was ruled by a military dictatorship between 1964 and 1985.

    8 votes

  6. Is acupuncture, like, legit now?

    ~talk Ask
    I remember a time when acupuncture was universally condemned as bogus pseudoscience, and I was under the impression that that remained true. However, looking for negative takes on acupuncture on...

    I remember a time when acupuncture was universally condemned as bogus pseudoscience, and I was under the impression that that remained true. However, looking for negative takes on acupuncture on YouTube is almost impossible now. Almost everything is overwhelmingly positive, including content produced by medical doctors. I could only find a few negative videos. They were short, not very good, and not very popular.

    This is a sincere question: am I really out of touch, or has everyone gone crazy?

    Anecdotally, I did acupuncture without believing in it, and it didn't do anything for me.

    30 votes