Though she be but little, she is fierce.

This journal is moving...

Thu, 09 Dec 2004 23:13:28 GMT

...to an unspecified location. Friends, or other interested parties, email me, and I'll tell you where to find me.

Mon, 29 Nov 2004 12:22:56 GMT


sondre lerche is love
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Rana's back! And safe sex.

Fri, 19 Nov 2004 21:13:59 GMT

The subject line says it all. Welcome back, Rana.

And coincidentally (in terms of it being in the same post), here's a little gem from my friend Jentery, from people who'd like to make the world a better place. Or something.

Ugh. I'm busy. And today's been kind of lame. I don't think I've ever used the word "lame" in that sense; most people use it to mean crappy; I tend to not use it unless I'm specifically referring to a handicap/limp. Most days, even when they're crappy, I wouldn't describe as limping. But hey, there's a first time for everything. If I work hard, I can go see Finding Neverland later.

It's true, you know.

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 19:25:44 GMT

Nursery rhyme violence 'tops TV'

In the realm of the terrifically weird and cool...

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:44:20 GMT

...is this site.

I think my favorite entry is this one.

Nothing much more to say right now, other than that I love my vestry and my choir (and esp. the overlap). But that's nothing new.

Whew.

Tue, 16 Nov 2004 20:01:57 GMT

My friend Tess's birthday party is on the 27th; I've told her that I'll be there, provided that my freshmen essays don't coalesce into a golem and eat me. It's not so much the eating me part that I'm worried about; I just fear that the golem would have somewhat sketchy logical argument skills.

Sun, 14 Nov 2004 02:06:13 GMT

You are Megara. You don't take crap from anyone.
You've been hurt before, and you're a stronger
person because of it. You tend to be sarcastic
and cynical about most things.

Which Classic Disney Movie Girl are you?
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More quizzes, since they help me stay awake.

They have green tea flavored Pocky?

Sun, 14 Nov 2004 00:51:20 GMT

what flavor pocky are you?

[c] sugardew

Sat, 13 Nov 2004 01:49:26 GMT

Congratulations! You're Sam!

Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you?
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You are the little prince.

Saint Exupery's 'The Little Prince' Quiz.
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An open letter to the Big Time Brewery upon their "New! Chicken pot pie!" announcement.

Fri, 05 Nov 2004 23:36:21 GMT

Dear Big Time Brewery:

I love your Quattro Formaggio pizza. I love your Bhagwan beer. But your chicken pot pie?

A few words on how pie is defined:

1) Pies, even chicken pot pies, have filling. Filling is more than Cream of Chicken soup -- it should be slightly thicker in consistency, but more importantly, have, vegetables sliced so that they're approximately the same size as the pieces of chicken*, not a few peas and some small carrot squares.

2) Pies have crusts. Some people make crusts with oil; some people make them with milk; you can learn about what constitutes a pie crust here. A sourdough breadbowl is not a pie crust, and does not ever become a pie crust, even if you call it a pie crust on your sandwichboard sign.

*Three pieces of chicken is not enough for a chicken pot pie anyway!

In closing, please be honest enough to refer to your chicken pot pie as "mediocre Cream of Chicken soup in a sourdough breadbowl." Thank you.

In other news; I need better French.

And in closing, a fantastic quote from my horoscope in The Stranger:

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- W.B. Yeats

Always look on the bright side of life?

Wed, 03 Nov 2004 19:18:27 GMT

Today I'm grateful for the students in my freshman comp class.

On Monday, they complained to no end that Angela Carter's "The Fall River Axe Murders" didn't actually describe Lizzie Borden's murder of her parents. And at the end of class, I let them get things off their chest in regards to the election, because they'd been quite excited about it during break.

Most of my fellow TAs have conservative classes; mine appears to be shockingly liberal. They made statements like "Vote Kerry or I'll kill you!" And this isn't the first time they've burst out with things like that; in discussions of logic, their favorite thing to do is bring up Bush statements and shred them.

It's hard to tell if they're actually all liberal, or if I have some students who are wildly intimidating to the others. I try to keep a moderate profile, but I think they're pretty aware which side I land on.

So I was a little worried about class today. And I didn't feel like doing anything but moaning anyway.

In response to the Monday bloodlust, I had them write descriptions of the Bordens' deaths. First individually, and then in groups they crafted a final submission to be read to the entire class, and judged for gore/horror (in conjunction with a discussion of genre) and in terms of fitting into Carter's essay historically. They really took to it, and had a great time. One group wrote a particularly creepy version that tracked the events backwards (they won).

We had a good discussion about genre, about things we learn from different genres, etc., and use of figurative language -- but the great thing was that they seemed to find it a great way of working out frustration. And I'm oddly mollified, too.

I did poll them anonymously for voting; 3 of the 22 are Bush voters. Interesting.

Signs and wonders

Sat, 30 Oct 2004 02:17:00 GMT

It appears that Osama bin Laden has seen Fahrenheit 9/11. I must admit, I find that slightly odd. I could ask which, of Bush and bin Laden, was the greater fiend, but I'm not sure there would be any point to the question, other than to prey upon peoples' emotions. I'm not asking that question, but if I did, I'm not sure that I'd be able to answer it confidently.

Don't forget to vote! Don't forget to vote!

Borrrring.

Thu, 28 Oct 2004 20:20:39 GMT

This is boring. Silence of the Lambs was an interesting film. A great film, even. Hannibal (the film; I have better things to do than read the book) had this prissy little allusory thesis about Hannibal and Clarice and Dante and Beatrice, and the only thing the only thing that was worthwhile in the film was the aria that was composed expressly for the soundtrack. It was magnificent. And I used to have it on my computer, courtesy of Napster. I don't anymore, but lucky me, the soundtrack is available at my local library. I suppose that if CNN's announcement about another Hannibal novel has prompted me to rediscover this aria, then there's some purpose to it. Otherwise, I could care less.

What I would like to hear about is a new book from you. Yes, you. Lyra's Oxford was great; but please don't keep me waiting like you did with The Amber Spyglass. Please?

Turandot has a cold; I have antibiotics, and a vague sense of shock that in addition to being Paige, and Professor Morgan (though I haven't earned that title, some of my students still use it), and "that redhead," I'm also now known as "Turandot's mom." Creepy, I tell you.

Melusine

Tue, 26 Oct 2004 01:09:21 GMT

I've noticed Melusine by Lynne Reid Banks in bookstores before, and never picked it up. I was never a huge fan of The Indian In The Cupboard, or its sequels. Finally, though, I picked up Melusine from the local library, and I'm very pleased. It's a very evocative rendition of one of the more interesting (and lesser known) myths -- I'd explain it here, but it would give it away. And as a coming of age novel, it bears itself in a very satisfactory manner.

Back to my conferences, and my Plato. I'm behind in Plato. I hate being behind in Plato. But my students are giving me good feedback, and I continue to realize that they ARE learning. It's delightful to know that.

Sun, 24 Oct 2004 23:33:06 GMT

I have a kitten! A catling, actually, as she's four months old. She's small though; much smaller than my Mr. Bean teddy bear.

Tortoiseshell markings, and eyes that are greenish-blue at the center, but get more golden as they radiate outwards. She's very elegant looking, though slightly...sinister? Dangerous? Gorgeous, though; really lovely.

I thought about Medea, and I thought about Antigone, but I've decided to call her Turandot.

Pictures to follow, as soon as I figure out how to check out a digital camera from the UW...

R.I.P., Anthony Hecht

Fri, 22 Oct 2004 16:19:35 GMT

Read more about Hecht in the New York Times or the Washington Post. And I'm reprinting his answer to Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach below.

In other news, I found a very large and very hairy black hand in a very pastoral grove at the UW this morning. I've brought it back to my office, and plan to write a little meditation on it, but in the meantime, am enjoying speculating about how my freshmen will react to it when they visit me for mid-quarter conferences this morning.

More later.

The Dover Bitch
Anthony Hecht

A Criticism of Life: for Andrews Wanning

So there stood Matthew Arnold and this girl
With the cliffs of England crumbling away behind them,
And he said to her, 'Try to be true to me,
And I'll do the same for you, for things are bad
All over, etc., etc.'
Well now, I knew this girl. It's true she had read
Sophocles in a fairly good translation
And caught that bitter allusion to the sea,
But all the time he was talking she had in mind
The notion of what his whiskers would feel like
On the back of her neck. She told me later on
That after a while she got to looking out
At the lights across the channel, and really felt sad,
Thinking of all the wine and enormous beds
And blandishments in French and the perfumes.
And then she got really angry. To have been brought
All the way down from London, and then be addressed
As a sort of mournful cosmic last resort
Is really tough on a girl, and she was pretty.
Anyway, she watched him pace the room
And finger his watch-chain and seem to sweat a bit,
And then she said one or two unprintable things.
But you mustn't judge her by that. What I mean to say is,
She's really all right. I still see her once in a while
And she always treats me right. We have a drink
And I give her a good time, and perhaps it's a year
Before I see her again, but there she is,
Running to fat, but dependable as they come.
And sometimes I bring her a bottle of Nuit d' Amour.

From The Hard Hours by Anthony Hecht. Copyright © 1967 by Anthony Hecht. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf. All rights reserved.

Wed, 20 Oct 2004 18:01:58 GMT

You're Brigitte Bardot!

What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
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I hadn't realized...

Wed, 20 Oct 2004 06:25:04 GMT

... how annoying it is to be called Mrs. Morgan. It's only in an essay, of course, and the student means no harm, it's just... eww. Not my preferred form of address.

Still, I don't complain about Mrs. Peel -- but then, she was widowed. Mrs. Morgan lacks something.

Back to my grading--

Where I am (in grad school)

Wed, 20 Oct 2004 00:36:28 GMT

I've got my first grade (a check-plus, which is the highest possible).

On Sunday and Tuesday nights, I sleep 0-3 hours, on other nights, I sleep 8-10.

I've had my first awful cold.

I still need to find the UW's Dante expert and talk to him/her about my essay on Inferno XX.

I have a lot of papers to grade, and I shall work on them and watch Gilmore Girls.

Help!

Tue, 19 Oct 2004 18:44:15 GMT

I need the titles of all the movies you can think of about historical figures!

Today's pointless diatribe...

Tue, 19 Oct 2004 17:55:29 GMT

Inmates at Guantanamo Bay are fighting over Harry Potter books.

Is this news? Should it be news? What's the purpose of the story? My knowledge of what's happening at Guantanamo is so limited that I think I'm quite glad to know that there are books for the inmates to read (esp. because my suspicion is that the inmates have been mistreated and also that some of them are substantially less guilty (but I have NO concrete evidence of the truth of these suspicions)). But Harry Potter? Do they want to read Harry Potter? Is there anything else for them to read? What sort of subversive hegemony are the wardens promoting by providing Harry Potter books?

I know, I know, all sorts of broad questions. I should be more specific, but there's no time to do the research, because I'm also reading an essay (required) that's about someone in China who, owning a fee-based public toilet, put up a sign that said "Collecting Money Toilet." The sign, of course, is somewhat unclear, and the article, in discussing possible revisions, suggests that "instead of treating the sign as something to be simply 'rooted out,'we might present it as requiring the same close analysis we lavish on texts by Master Designers (Shakespeare, Gertrude Stein, or Gloria Anzaldua) and with the same relish." It continues to discuss the complexity of the situation caused by the sign maker's emotional bond with the terms that her parents used for toilet (maofang or maokeng) as opposed to ce suo.

It feels like splitting hairs. I do recognize, however, that the fact that it feels like it's splitting hairs may just be an indicator of my own racial prejudice. Or not.

Murdering my perfectionism.

Tue, 19 Oct 2004 01:36:14 GMT

Heidi Bond is sharp -- and not just because she likes chickens.

I continually murder my perfectionism, or try to -- it's quite resilient. And I function (or I think I'm functioning -- we'll see when I see my grades), but I still need reminders like this one. Thanks, Heidi.

A bit disturbing, don't you know...

Tue, 19 Oct 2004 01:26:31 GMT

What does this mean? It's the sort of thing I'd expect to read about in Isabella's chronicles; not so much on the local news.

Mon, 18 Oct 2004 19:41:18 GMT

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita,
Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
Che la diritta via era smarrita.

***

Well, and it's true. But it's amazing how much refuge there is in simply being able to quote that. It's when there's nothing quotable in Dante that you have to worry.

You know you're old when...

Mon, 18 Oct 2004 18:46:25 GMT

... you reference Gilda Radner and your students don't know who you're talking about.

Some of them might, actually. I referenced her for a small group who are feeling insecure about making an arguable claim rather than a descriptive one. Every claim has a counterclaim, I said, so don't worry that yours does, too. The trick is to take control of the counterclaim -- say that you're aware of it, and explain why you think yours is still valid. And I gave some concrete examples, and then said, here's another one -- something to show that this sort of arguing is something that you do all the time.

Gilda Radner was overweight. Kids laughed at her. She was miserable. Then, her grandmother or nanny said, "Look, if you say you're fat before they say you're fat, then you're in control. When they say "You're fat!," you can say, "Yeah, so what?"

And she did. And it worked. And she ended up on Saturday Night Live. They understood that as a good thing (I left out the anorexia and cancer...).

I need a userpic that's actually of me. I don't like depending on Audrey Tautou and Alyson Hannigan. Cowboy Bebop and C.S. Lewis are okay, though.

Edit: I thought I was actually reassuring the students who felt insecure, and commented on the fact to my godmother, who teaches at my undergrad U. She wrote back and said: Did you feel reassured when your professors told you it was okay to go out on a limb? I didn't think so. They're not reassured; they just don't want to disappoint you.

I had entirely forgotten; I am glad she reminded me; it will help me remember to keep on reassuring them as I teach.