To my darling siblings, Junior D. and 8th grader J, who start school today: I have another month before MY classes start. Bwa-hah-hahahahahah.
That is all.
Okay, that wasn’t nice. And, once I start taking Latin this fall, I will NOT be laughing. At all. But delusions of superiority are the name of the game here, even though they’re temporary.
There’s a lot of buzz going on amongst authors with regard to Google. The company is kind of turning into the Evil Overlord, despite how we love it (especially since you can get cool graphic novel themes from First:Second for your homepage on iGoogle! American Born Chinese rocks!). For authors, Googles idea of copying of all the books published out there and getting them online is getting worrisome. Not so much because I have so many books out there that have been copied — but because I found my master’s thesis available as a print on demand thing. Um, what? No. No, no, no. You have the option to opt out of this, and you can bet I did, but …again, Google, this Google Books thing, while a fine idea, has too many loopholes. No, no, no. Let us have spaces in our togetherness, please.
(Here’s more information about the Author’s Guild lawsuit settlement, etc.)
People, did you see the 7-Imps piece on Charles R. Smith, Jr.? Be still, my beating heart. Never has Langston Hughes come across so beautifully. Never. That book makes me want to kiss babies and weep. Or something. Also: Stitches, by David Small. Wow. This is the 7-Imp’s week for my little Glory be for Books dance. My Christmas wishlist is filling up nicely.
Shannon Hale asked a few really good questions this past week on her blog, about readers who review books. I’ve set her post aside for a couple of days, to take some time to think before I answer her. Is gushing about books replacing actual evaluation? Does loving a book mean it’s good? Points to ponder, definitely.
This weekend, I learned that I hate fire doors. Glasgow, a city made of sandstone in which rain falls almost constantly, is hysterically afraid of fire, apparently. There are fire doors in every building, in every house, in between the kitchen and the living room and the front hall and the bathroom. Seriously. Solid, heavy doors that can be closed, ostensibly to shut fire within. (Of course, the fact that they have something like an inch clearance above the floor means that those sneaky little flames will go right on under, but let us not confuse the fire with facts.) I discovered my great dislike for these doors after I got my finger caught between a doorjamb and a hinge, and just about lost the tip. So, my post is, necessarily, shorter than I wanted it to be, and my icepack is calling.
I shall leave you with the montage of photographs from the cake D. and I made this weekend, which charmed a two-year-old of our acquaintance very much. That, and my tie dyed tights had him following me around, beaming with great love. Or amusement. You never can tell with kids that size. (FYI: the fish are marzipan cut out with my favorite fish cookie cutters, the cake is delicious lemon, from scratch, as is the fondant. That was a bit of work – but fun.)
Created with flickr slideshow.
Cool slideshow of the charming cake.I had Latin in high school and am very grateful…it really helps with English, understanding root words, suffix and prefix connections to Latin words. Bet you end up loving it with your love of language!Hope your finger is better by now!
Tanita, I can empathize about the finger. I hope you are babying it and taking care of yourself. I need cake. You need cake. We all need cake.
Adrienne: Learning at least about lighting and stuff would be fun. And next thing you know, someone would be putting a comment in the suggestion box that you film them doing puppet shows. All kinds of possibilities there…Liz: Um, not so much. Haiku-ing and rock-climbing and writing and yoga-ing and backpacking and parenting away, over there. I can do one out of six of those, so there's no slouching in your neck of the woods, either.
Latin AND baking.Honey. You're making the rest of us look like slouches around here…
I went to an extremely rural school–there were 70 people in my year–and our only language choice was Spanish. As a teen, I would regularly rant about how the lack of Greek and Latin instruction was going to ruin my chances of getting through college. I'm pretty sure I also got this idea from Anne. And Tolkien. In case we needed more evidence that I have been and always shall evermore be extremely nerdilicious. I'm thinking of taking the video production because I feel that there has got to be something I can do to make our public access TV storytimes look just slightly less low-budget. Besides, the class is a lot of hands-on, so it's bound to be fun.
I've always wanted to take Latin and Greek. I mean, a classical education — like the girls in Anne of Green Gables. They worried over all kinds of things like botany and Latin declensions(?) and I never knew what the heck those things were, but I longed to be like Anne Shirley and struggle, too. And I thought, "Why the heck not?"Adrienne: GO FOR IT. You and film? Oh, I can so see that.
I've been tossing around the idea of taking a video production class this winter/spring, but you're definitely raising the bar with the whole Latin thing. Latin would be so good for me when I'm doing crossword puzzles. Also Greek. Sometimes I wish I could just shove knowledge in through my ears and that it would stick.There is a lot more to respond to: That fun cake! Shannon Hale making me think! Your poor finger! I hate those ersatz fire doors now, too. I am solidly against anything that prevents you writing.
So impressed with your Latin aspirations!! And beautiful job on that lemon cake! Send me some, please.Sorry to hear about your finger. :(Hope you have a good week!