Amber's (scaifea) Thread #9

Hey, everybody!

I'm Amber, a one-time Classics professor, turned stay-at-home parent/lady of leisure, turned part-time library assistant, turned once again Classics professor. I spend my free time sewing, writing, knitting, baking, and, of course, reading.

My reading life is happily governed by lists, which means that I read a healthy variety of things across various genres.

I'm 45 going on 12 and live in Ohio with my husband, Tomm; our son, Charlie, and Mario the Golden Retriever.

Here I am in Dr. Scaife Mode (you can tell that because my hair is, for once, actually combed and not just in a messy bun):



Favorite Books from 2020
The Lumberjanes collected comic volumes
Call Down the Hawk
New Kid
The Wise Man's Fear
The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Pride and Prejudice
Silver in the Wood
A Tale of Two Cities

What I'm Reading Now:
-Guard of Honor (Pulitzer list)
-Ready Player Two (series read)
-Tales of the Rue Broca (1001 Children's Books)
-Chaotic Good (romance list)
-The Moonstone (audiobook)
-Far Away Across the Sea (family bedtime read-aloud)
-Memoirs of a Geisha (books I'm reading with my friend, Rob)
-The Club Dumas (an unread book from my shelves)

Books on Deck:
-Uncle Silas (books by year - 1864)
-(an unread book from my shelves)
-(a book from my Read Soon! shelves)
-The Experience of Insight (Buddhist reading list)
-A Likely Story (cozy mysteries)
-Henry VI Part 1 (Shakespeare re-read)
-The Ugly American (Banned Books)
-The Worm Ouroboros (Green Dragon 1001 Fantasy list)
-Wheels within Wheels (Prometheus Award)

The five-ish or so books I have going at once and the On Deck books nearly all come from the following categories and lists:

1. A book from the 100 Banned Books book (at least currently. As soon as I finish this list, I'll replace it with another, and oh, I've got tons of lists).

2. A children's book, for Charlie's library. I'm trying to collect books from various award lists, and I like reading them before reading them to Charlie or deciding to add them to Charlie's shelves. For this category, I’m currently working through three lists:
a. 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Die
b. The Newbery Honor books
c. Cooperative Children's Book Center list

3. A book from the Green Dragon 1001 Fantasy List, in chronological order.

4. A list I'm working through together with my best friend, Rob: The Hugo/Nebula/WFA/Bram Stoker (and other) lists (combined, in chronological order)

5. For this category, I cycle through 9 different stacks:
a. Agatha Christie's bibliography (in chronological order)
b. Stephen Fry's bibliography (in chronological order)
c. John Boyne bibliography (in chronological order, sort of)
d. Neil Gaiman's bibliography (in some order other than chronological (don't
ask)).
e. Christopher Moore's bibliography (in chronological order)
f. Maggie Stiefvater's bibliography (in chronological order)
g. The NEH Timeless Classics list
h. The National Book Award list (in alpha order by title)
i. The Pulitzer list (in alpha order by author)

6. An unread book from my shelves.

7. A book from my Read Soon! shelves.

8. A book on Buddhism or from the Dalai Lama's bibliography.

9. Book-a-year challenge: Three years ago, along with a few others in this group (*cough* Paul *cough*), I made a year-by-year list to see how far I could go back with consecutive reads. I've since been trying to fill in the gap years.

10. A book from the couple of series that I'm reading together with my mom.

11. A full-on re-read through Shakespeare's stuff.

12. A read-aloud-to-Charlie-at-bedtime book (or two).

13. An audio book, which I listen to as I knit/sew/otherwise craft/drive.

14. A romance novel, using as a guideline an excellent list of authors and works curated by lycomaflower (I know virtually nothing about this genre, but I now work in a library where many, many lovely people come through to check out books of this genre, and I want to know something about it).

15. This slot is reserved for books that just grab me and shout that they need to be read Right Now.

Books Read

JANUARY
1. Spinning Silver (Alex Award) - 10/10 = A+
2. Swamp Thing: Twin Branches (Stiefvater bibliography) - 8/10 = B
3. Manchild in the Promised Land (Banned Books list, AlphaKIT: M) - 9/10 = A-
4. The Wish Giver (Newbery Honor Book) - 8/10 = B
5. Silas Marner (audiobook) - 8/10 = B-
6. The Story of Tracy Beaker (1001 Children's Books) - 8/10 = B-
7. Thick as Thieves (series reread) - 10/10 = A+
8. Lumberjanes #16: Mind over Mettle (series read) - 10/10 = A+
9. Pilgrimage (Green Dragon 1001 Fantasy Books) - 7/10 = C
10. Each Tiny Spark (Schneider Honor Book) - 7/10 = C
11. The House on the Borderland (Green Dragon 1001 Fantasy list) - 6/10 = D
12. Beyond Religion (books on Buddhism) - 9/10 = A
13. Outlander (romance list) - 6/10 = D
14. Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun (Newbery Honor Book) - 7/10 = C
15. Far Away Across the Sea (1001 Children's Books) - 10/10 = A+
16. The Daylight Gate (Read Soon! Shelves) - 8/10 = B-
17. The Queen of Attolia (family bedtime read-aloud) - 10/10 = A+
18. Works and Days & Theogony (Myth course readings) - 9/10 = A-
19. The Book Thief (books I'm reading with my friend, Rob) - 10/10 = A+
20. Return of the Thief (series read) - 10/10 = A+

FEBRUARY
21. The Bacchants (myth course reading) - 9/10 = A
22. Camp (romance) - 8/10 = B+
23. Song of a Whale (Schneider Award) - 8/10 = B-
24. Gardens of the Moon (Green Dragon 1001 Fantasy list) - 4/10 = F
25. Oedipus Rex (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+
26. Antigone (Myth course readings) = 10/10 = A+
27. Agamemnon (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+
27. Upon the Head of a Goat (Newbery Honor Book) - 8/10 = B
27. Volcano (Newbery Honor Book) - 7/10 = C
30. A Promised Land (audiobook) - 8/10 = B+
31. The Stone Book Quartet (1001 Children's Books) - 7/10 = C+
32. The Libation Bearers (Myth course readings) - 9/10 = A
33. Eumenides (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+
34. Electra (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+
35. The King of Elfland's Daughter (Green Dragon 1001 Fantasy Books) - 7/10 = C
36. The Goalkeeper's Revenge (1001 Children's Books) - 7/10 = C
37. Conrad: The Factory-Made Boy (1001 Children's Books) - 8/10 = B
38. Medea (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+
39. The Frogs (Myth course readings) - 9/10 = A
40. Metamorphoses (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+
41. Iliad (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+
42. Odyssey (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+
43. Aeneid (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+
44. The Histories (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+
45. Till We Have Faces (Green Dragon 1001 Fantasy Books) - 8/10 = B-

MARCH
46. My Sweet Orange Tree (1001 Children's Books) - 9/10 = A
47. Lord Foul's Bane (BSFA) - 2/10 = F
48. Manolito Four Eyes (1001 Children's Books) - 7/10 = C
49. The Early History of Rome, Book 1 (Myth course readings) - 9/10 = A
50. Farmer Boy (family bedtime read-aloud) - 9/10 = A-
51. The Henna Wars (romance list) - 8/10 = B+
52. Cursed (Schneider Award) - 9/10 = A
53. Heroides (Myth course readings) - 9/10 = A
54. The Apocolocyntosis (Myth course readings) - 9/10 = A
55. Sandman: The Kindly Ones (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+

The Kiddo at Work:



The Mario and her Magical Rainbow Snoot:

I feel I have just walked into a construction zone...is it safe yet?

>5 scaifea: Woof, I'm glad I claimed my five posts quickly, Linda! Yep, it's safe to come in!

Happy new thread, Amber!

>5 scaifea: Love the Rainbow Mario, as she is the pot of luck ;-)

>8 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita!

Tomm has a prism in his office window and Mario just happen to sit right where the light coming through it landed on her nose. So adorable.

Happy new one, Amber!

From the end of your last thread, I just wanted to say that I also made Barbie clothes the way you did! I was so excited when my mother showed me how...

>10 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie!

Cool! My mom showed me how, too!

Happy new thread, Amber. Mario's rainbow nose is adorable.

49. The Early History of Rome, Book 1 by Livy (Myth course readings) - 9/10 = A
More re-reading for the myth class. Livy's...not my favorite, but I still have a certain fondness for him. He's not as dazzling as Ovid, nor as goosebump-inducing as Vergil, and he's not the wild ride that Herodotus is, but he has his merits. I have the myth students read the first book in his history because it's just as full of mythology as Herodotus is this early on and it's worthwhile comparing the two and how they each (and therefore how the Greek and the Romans) use mythology for different purposes. It's also fun to have them think about Livy in terms of Vergil: both on slightly uneasy terms with Augustus and that is reflected in their works in interesting ways.

>12 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky!

50. Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (family bedtime read-aloud) - 9/10 = A-
A year in the life of LIW's future husband when he was a kid. He grew up on a farm (obvs) and so we follow all the work that happens on a farm through each season. I love that part of it, but I think Wilder does not at all excel at explaining the details of certain things, in this book or in her other books: descriptions, for example, of how to make a sled or a yoke always leave me cross-eyed and none the wiser, and the narrative would be better without them. However, we still enjoy the series as a read-aloud project - Charlie's happy with them and I loved them as a kid, too, and am enjoying the revisit.

Happy new thread, Amber.
>15 scaifea: I don't know the books, but when I was much younger I liked to watch the TV series.

Wow, a new thread already. I enjoyed your last thread about the favourite toys. Another Barbie-girl here who loved to design and make clothes for her. I was a true Coco Chanel (more Vivienne Westwood really) in the making (I wished). Ken was available, but my sister and I never cared much about him. He seemed so boring and smooth.

>13 scaifea: - Hm, Livy...not really a fan either. I preferred the Greeks over the Romans anyway, but it might have had something to do with the teacher. The Greek teacher was the Best. She could bring it all to life and act out the entire Trojan War on her own. Fond memories.

Happy new thread, Amber!

Happy New Thread, Amber!

Happy new thread!

Happy #9 Amber. x

With my last couple of weeks of International Arbitration I simply can't keep up and it is appropriate that this is the post that puts you in front in the thread posting league.

>16 SirThomas: Thomas: Oh, I used to love the TV show, too. My dad even called me Half Pint.

>17 Trifolia: I was never a huge fan of Ken, either, really.

As a Latinist, I will do my best to ignore your preference for all things Greek, but I do love that you had a good teacher!

>18 karenmarie: >19 connie53: >20 drneutron: >21 PaulCranswick: Thanks, all!

>23 scaifea: - I'm sure if the Greek teacher had taught Latin, I'd have preferred the Romans :-) And who knows, you might convince me to take a better look!

You just be steaming on through. Boy howdy, keep up the work.

Hi, Amber.

Your Dr. Scaife photo up there has a definite "don't even try messing with me" look to it. If I were a student, I'd get the message. :-)

I'm so glad to hear you're reading the Little House books with Charlie, and that he's enjoying them. I wish I'd known them when our kids were growing up. As I know I mentioned, Madame MBH and I just finished reading them aloud to each other - I say that generously, as she does almost all the reading, bless her.

>25 Trifolia: Aw, yes! There's so much to love in the canon.

>26 weird_O: Ha! Hi, Bill!

>27 jnwelch: Hi, Joe!

That look is known in our family as The Johnson Look; it's my mother's maiden name and I obviously inherited the look from her. We're much friendlier than we look, generally.

I adored the Little House books when I was a kid; the copies we're reading from were the ones I had and so are a little worse for the wear of all my childhood rereads but are still standing.

Happy new thread!

>10 katiekrug: I remember fiddling with the patterns and getting somewhere, but yes in a pinch it was pretty much cut and tie, with a whip stitch here and there. According to my mother I was too old for dolls when Barbie came out. I did acquire a blond poneytail one, chewed on by the dog, and bubble cut brunette to replace it, both of which were given away behind my back with the meager wardrobe I'd managed to get and make for them. What was the point of Ken? But I do have the Earring Magic Ken to the delight of my daughter.

Previous thread:>290 scaifea Wow, I didn't realize that the Narnia books were 1) all published in my lifetime 2) all published before I was 10. They felt like bedrock when I read them in the 60s.

>15 scaifea: One of the Little Prairie books was the first occasion I actually read for myself for pleasure - my mom had read the first few chapters but was ironing when I wanted more story. So I decided to read for myself. I was shamefully old for that, but dyslexia was a factor, though not known at the time.

>31 quondame: It's funny how sometimes canonical books seem much older than they are (re: Narnia).

I was shamefully old for that Shamefully old for what? Reading a MG book? Being read to? Because there's no such thing in either instance.

Hi Amber my dear, happy new thread.

>33 johnsimpson: Thanks, John!

Happy new thread, Amber!

Funny you say that about the descriptions in the Little House books. I felt the same way reading them, even as a kid. I remember scanning very quickly over long passages in On the Shores of Plum Creek til I could get back to a spot with some dialog. (My mom: "Did you really read it if you skipped sections?" Me: "Yes. Yes, I did.")

>32 scaifea: Isn't what should be and what was/is often in conflict?

>35 bell7: Ha! I think it's perfectly fine that you skimmed those parts!

>36 quondame: Not in this case, as far as I'm concerned. I think it's important to stand up for such things:

it's definitely okay for people of any age to read any book they please, and to be read to at any age as well. No stigmas and no judgement.

Please give Mario's rainbow snoot a book from me, Amber!

>38 rosalita: Ha! Will do, Julia! I'll do both - she's always snuggled up with us at night during story time, so she's well-versed at being read aloud to, and of course she loves boops, too.

Happy new one and have a great weekend!

>40 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita!

>39 scaifea: Argh! Foiled again by autocorrect! I hope Mario enjoys both her book and her boop.

>42 lycomayflower: YAS!

>43 rosalita: *snork!* I loved it, though. Also, boop duly given and she sends hand licks in return.

You know, I think I need to re-read The Book Thief. I didn't really see its significance the first time, and feel I may have missed something. It is such a loved book.

>45 scaifea: Awwww, thanks Mario girl!

Wow, log in later in the day than usual and find you with 47 (!) posts on a new thread! Hope it's not too late to congratulate you on flying through another one :)

>46 LovingLit: If you read it and didn't feel like it was anything special for you, Megan, I don't see any reason to doubt that. Not every book is for everyone, of course.

>47 rosalita: Julia: *big goofy grin*

>48 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba!

>37 scaifea: I like this sentiment. It is a very true thing, especially if one listens to oral histories.
So many cultures have story telling and for all the "clan" as it were. Yes?

I never read one single Lucy Maud Montgomery until I was 30 years old. A dear friend (a Librarian of great common sense) gave me a gift: The Blue Castle. I was completely enchanted. I then went on to read all the Anne series (even though I became thoroughly bored with the theme, I wanted to "see what happened".

I also never read any Narnia books until younger daughter was given The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. And by then I was in my mid-30's.

Many of my LT reads this past two years are in the Children's Genre. Some fit well into adult reading and some don't. Kind of like any genre really.

The Uses of Enchantment explained something to me that I hadn't understood: that what an author wants to write about (to 'say') is better suited to certain a certain genre, for example fantasy, rather than another format. I know a number of reviews have heartily savaged Bettelheim's book, but this was an aspect that I appreciated.

OK. I went on a longish side trip here. Oops.

Nice new thread, Amber. I'll probably be instantaneously behind until I notice you've started #10!

Happy newish thread Amber.

I don't really remember having a favourite toy as a kid. I liked to ride around on my roller skates, and I read as much as possible.
I have a teddy bear that belonged to my great-grandmother, it was handed down and much loved by each generation till he was quite scruffy and sad looking. I had him restored so he looks great now.

>52 SandyAMcPherson: Hi, Sandy!

I've not read the Bettelheim book, but I like the sound of it. Yes to all your thoughts on reading aloud and reading in all age groups no matter what your own age. I read a lot of MG and YA and picture books, which I started 13 years ago as a way to start a healthy home library for Charlie, and I've just never stopped. Sure, there are some duds, but there are some really wonderful books out there in all those categories and as you say, that's the truth for all genres.

>53 fairywings: Thanks, Adrienne!

You've made me remember all my junior high trips to the Roller Barn on the weekends! Oh, such fun times. And I love that you've restored your heirloom teddy bear! That's wonderful.

Number 9! Number 9! Wow! Happy New Thread, Amber! I hope all is well at the Scaife Manor.

Today's Agenda:
I'm going to sit here in my pajamas with my coffee and putter around the threads for a bit and hope that the headache I woke up with dissipates some, then I'll get the laundry going, bake a coffee cake for this week's breakfasts, do my portion of the house cleaning (ew), and then probably spend some time in the sewing room again today. Hopefully there will be some reading time in the afternoon, too.

The quilt is slowly coming along, although I still have a lot of piecing to do. It gives me a chance to listen to my audiobook, though!

On the reading front:
The Henna Wars is due in a couple of days and since it's a Libby book I can't just keep it past the due date. So I spent yesterday's reading time with it and will spend today's trying to get as close to finishing it as I can. I also made good progress on The Moonstone while baking and sewing.

What We're Watching:
It was Tomm's pick last night, so we finished up My Spy, which was way funnier than I thought it would be, and then we started School of Rock, which Tomm and I love but Charlie hasn't seen before. Jack Black is The Beans.

>56 msf59: Morning, Mark! All is well here - I hope the same is true for you, too!

Hope your headache disappears quickly!

>59 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle - me, too.

Headache, be gone!

There you go. All better now.

>61 katiekrug: *snork!* Thanks, Katie!

>61 katiekrug: If only that worked, YOU'd never have to work again...just drop in virtually one way or another on all headache sufferers and work your magic. You'd be supported in a manner beyond your wildest dreams, without even sending out bills.

>63 laytonwoman3rd: Ha! Yes!!

51. The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar (romance list) - 8/10 = B+
Nishat is entering her Transition Year in her Irish high school, has just come out to her parents with unhappy results, and has a crush on her worst enemy's cousin. So when a business project is announced as also a competition for a nice cash prize at school, she dives into it with a distracting passion for winning with her henna designing business plan. Her crush and her enemy team up and decide also to offer a henna business, though, (one of them unaware of the tone deafness of the gesture and the other very maliciously aware of it) and Nishat's short-lived happiness comes crashing down in a spiral of cultural appropriation mixed with homophobia and racism, and she worries whether her friendships, her crush, and her family ties will survive. This one was slightly rough going for me at first - I found the actions of the bully almost too frustrating to keep reading - but it smooths out in the end and turns out to be a fair YA novel on the subjects. Not a favorite, but I'm certainly not unhappy that I read it.

Happy new thread Amber!

Happy new-ish thread, Amber! I read the Little House books aloud, and was thrilled when the girls reread them. Now, of course, there's some controversy about insensitive content - like many older books. I recently had a conversation with a teacher who was thinking of reading Little House on the Prairie aloud to her class of 3rd and 4th graders. Not to caution her away or anything, but to warn her that some conversations would be in order, particularly as she does have Native American students. So I guess I have to look at them through that lens as a school librarian, but I'll never stop treasuring them.

Happy new thread!

From the last thread—I'm so glad to know the kids of today are also discovering the joys and terrors of Animorphs!! Honestly one of the best kids' series ever, IMO, even with the occasional book about alien toilets in Area 51 or getting stuck in the Australian outback.

On the topic of Little House, Prairie Fires is a really interesting book on the history of the Ingalls family, white settlers in the Upper Midwest, and LIW's and her daughter Rose's life and outlooks. (Also, FWIW, I loved the bits in those books about "how to make a sled" or "how to store food for the winter" or "how to butcher a whole hog"—I still really want to eat a pig tail, she made them sound so good.)

Happy new thread!

>66 swynn: Thanks, Steve!

>67 AMQS: Thanks, Anne!

I don't shy away from reading controversial books with Charlie because they tend to start really good conversations with him about where the controversy is and why, and that's been the case with the Wilder books for us, too. I think you're right to caution your teacher, though; I wouldn't read them aloud to an entire class, even if it did result in a good discussion because I wouldn't want any of my students to feel alienated at all. There are definitely lines and circumstances to consider.

>68 false-knight: Hi Emery!

One of the many, many things I loved about volunteering in the school library was seeing which books and series were the most popular and how some changed and others stayed constant. The Magic Treehouse books were a constant, as were the Warrior books and the I Survived books. And I was surprised at how many kiddos preferred non-fiction to fiction, too. Of course the 636 section (animals/pets, and especially cats and dogs) was always hugely popular and one of the banes of volunteer life. Another yay-they-love-books/stop-touching-the-books! area. Soooo many hours spent resorting that hot mess of a section.

One of these days I'll get round to the Prairie Fires book. It's been on the list for a while. I love that you love the insane explanation sections! I do love the ones that I can understand, but when they get too technical I tend to zone out.

>69 PersephonesLibrary: Thanks, Käthe!

Today's Agenda:
Mondays are always a bear. Tons to get done before classes: quizzes to grade, reader responses to grade, actual prepping for class, on top of helping Charlie with his work and office hours and,... *sigh* Not my favorite day. But it's DC Night tonight, so I get to go straight from teaching to propped up in bed in PJs and with a stack of books. So I'll use that thought as motivation not just to crawl back into bed right now and ignore the whole day.

On the reading front:
I started Guard of Honor yesterday, which is generally not my cuppa, but it's on the Pulitzer list, so I'm giving it a go. So far not so terrible, so we'll see. I also made good progress on The Moonstone and Cursed.

What We're Watching:
It was my pick last night and I decided it was high time Charlie was introduced to the classic favorite, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. His verdict: "It was okay." PSHAW. Philistine.

"Strange things are afoot at the Circle K."

>75 katiekrug: *SNORK!* YES

The hotel I stayed at in Ho Chi Minh City was across the street from a Circle K (go figure). Every time I saw it, I repeated the line. It started to drive my colleagues nuts :)

Morning, Amber.

I had to look up "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K". How could I have forgotten? Debbi's never seen Bill & Ted's excellent adventure, so I'm going to re-watch it with her.

It's lousy to wake up with a headache like you did. I've had that happen, and it always makes me wonder, what the heck was I dreaming?

>77 katiekrug: Ha! I would have loved it and celebrated every time.

>78 jnwelch: Morning, Joe!

Oh, I hope Debbie loves it! It holds up, except for one very brief scene that's no longer funny, but otherwise it's great.

I frequently wake up with headaches and it's generally allergies, I suspect, although the bigger ones are just, well, migraines.

>80 scaifea: My sympathy. Yikes. It's tough enough getting the day started! I have a sister and BIL who get migraines like that. Miserable.

>80 scaifea: I frequently wake up with headaches and it's generally allergies, I suspect, although the bigger ones are just, well, migraines

Same here, about 20 years ago, now.
Turned out I had a low level then full-blown food allergy. It was worth the detective work figuring out what caused it. No more headaches. Such a relief!

>81 jnwelch: Joe: Yeah, it's not my most favorite thing. I don't get the migraines all that frequently, at least. I used to get them a lot more than I do now, and when I was a kid, I'd have a headache every day by the time I got home from school. So I've lived with it all my life, really. Sometimes, too, it's just stress. *shrug*

>82 SandyAMcPherson: Sandy: I'm sorry you've suffered from headaches, too, but hurray for finding a solution!

Mr. Fine introduced me to both of the Bill & Ted films last year so that I could watch the third one with him when it came out. They're silly fun that I enjoyed enough I wouldn't object to a rewatch. Plus now I can get/make all the references. :)

>84 MickyFine: Micky: I haven't seen the second one in ages and I still haven't seen the new one. I really want to watch them both soon!

I hope your Monday went over smoothly! And you will find yourself soon in bed stacked up with books. What's "DC night"?

If I haven't yet watched Bill and Ted, should I catch up on it? 🤔

>86 PersephonesLibrary: Thanks, Käthe! So far so good - Latin down and myth still to go.

DC Night = Dad & Charlie Night, where they hang out together (mostly playing video games together) and I'm left to my own devices.

Bill and Ted is definitely a product of the 80s, but if you love that kind of thing, definitely go for it!

>72 scaifea:, >68 false-knight: re: Prairie Fires - it can be hard to read in some places (emotionally) and it did make me think long and hard about the Little House books. *Almost* made me wish for simpler times or the ability to un-know things, though in general I want people (myself included) to be less and not more ignorant:)

>88 AMQS: Hi, Anne! Now, see, that's partly why I haven't picked it up yet - I sort of maybe don't want to know things... *sigh*

Today's Agenda:
Class prep, Charlie school supervision, a trip to the library to pick up holds, and maybe some reading this afternoon. Open faced reuben sandwiches for dinner tonight, I think.

On the reading front:
I spent my reading-in-bed time yesterday evening with Memoirs of a Geisha and Cursed, and I made more progress with The Moonstone yesterday, too.

This week's bonus question in my Latin class was:

What's your favorite famous, non-famous, or infamous quote?

The responses were wide-ranging, from Malcolm X to "anything uttered by Ron Swanson" - I love these kids. Now, let me see your answers!

>91 scaifea: "Dreams will not be thwarted, faith will be rewarded."

>92 rosalita: Oh, that's a good one, Julia! I'm shocked, though, that you chose Bruce. Shocked, I say.

Hi Amber!

I love your DC night. Bill and I always made sure he and Jenna got their 'daddy/daughter' time. My favorite memory is when Jenna was a toddler and they would hang out in the hammock in the gloaming, watching for Mr. Bat.

>91 scaifea: "I’m quite sure that one never makes fundamental mistakes about the thing one really wants to do. Fundamental mistakes arise out of lack of genuine interest." Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers

"His soul swooned softly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

(Last line of "The Dead" by James Joyce)

>94 karenmarie: Hi, Karen!

DC Night was born back when we lived in Wisconsin and I had a knitting club meeting one night a month. When we moved here, Charlie asked if I would try to find another club because he didn't want to give up DC Night (*cue heart melting*) and I told him I don't need to leave the house for them to have their time together, and we even decided to make it once a week instead of once a month. I think it's so good for them (and for me to have my quiet reading time!).

And oh, that's an excellent quote!

>95 katiekrug: I. Love. Dubliners. LOVE IT.

>97 scaifea: - Me too! I have a little collection of different editions of it. That, and Heart of Darkness, which was runner-up for my favorite line: "We live, as we dream - alone."

I'm so cheery!

>98 katiekrug: *snork!* Very cheery stuff, for sure.

>93 scaifea: Right out of left field!

>100 rosalita: *SNORK!!*

But more seriously, from my latest read The Marrow Thieves:

“The stars began to rip through the hard skin of dark like the sharp points of silver needles through velvet. I watched them appear and wink and fade, and I smiled. This wasn’t going to be so bad. Maybe the end is just a dream. That made me feel sorry for a minute for the others, the dreamless ones. What happened when they died? I imagined them just shutting off like factory machines at the end of a shift: functioning, purposeful, and then just out.”

>102 rosalita: Oh, wow. I love that! *moves book up the list*

>103 scaifea: I highlighted so many lovely bits of writing in this book. Like this:

“Miig opened his mouth. The movement unhinged his legs and he fell to his knees, knocking down the grass like so much chaff. He held his hands out, palms turning upwards in a slow ballet of bone, marrow intact after all this time, under the crowded sky, against the broken ground.”

>102 rosalita: "Like"

“The distance is nothing when one has a motive.”

Pride and Prejudice

“With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?” Oscar Wilde

Apparently there is some debate on whether this is actually Oscar Wilde, but either way I think it's a lovely way to think about the world.

>104 rosalita: Oh, I love that one, too! That's some good writing, there.

>105 jnwelch: Good one, Joe! And it takes on new social-distancing meaning, too!

>106 ChelleBearss: Oh, I like that, Chelle! Wilde has so many good quotes, too.

>91 scaifea:

"I saw Jesus at the bowling alley, slinging nothing but gutter balls." ~Kristin Berkey-Abbott

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Every time I read the first sentence of Pride and Prejudice I can't help smiling with delight at knowing all the good things that follow after it.

>110 lycomayflower: Ha! I love it.

>111 MickyFine: That's such an excellent reason for being a favorite quote, Micky!

While ordering for work today I ran across Modern Myths by Philip Ball (due out in May from U of Chicago Press) and thought it might tickle your fancy since you spend so much time discussing myths. I might be reading it myself as the idea of Sherlock and Batman as myths is intriguing.

>113 MickyFine: Huh. Interesting! Thanks for the heads up!

I love the quotes here! There are a few that I like, but a colleague of mine uses this in her email signature: "The web is cool, but the library is magic." This one's by Arthur Plotnik, and I want my students to feel that way every time they walk in my library (and it is a good if non-specific rejoinder for people who wonder why libraries even exist anymore when there's the Google).

I have a few favourites - and I do tend to snip quotes into a file (I am a big geek);

Robinson Crusoe
"All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have."

Jacob's Room
"but then any one who's worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, with extravagant enthusiasm"

Tarr
"He had no social machinery, but the cumbrous one of the intellect. He danced about with this, it is true. But it was full of sinister piston-rods, organ-like shapes, heavy drills.—When he tried to be amiable, he usually only succeeded in being ominous."

Just looking through my file, there is also this one. Not a favourite per se, but appropriate for this last year I think!

Tono-Bungay
"You must not imagine they were ordinary days, days, I mean, of an average length; they were not so much days as long damp slabs of time that stretched each one to the horizon,"

But my file seems to be missing some of my favourites, which are from the brilliant Devil to pay in the Backlands. Wonder where they have got to :(

Sorry - that was an excess.

>115 AMQS: Oh, that *is* a great email signature! I love it.

>116 BekkaJo: Those are all great, Bekka! And nope, not excessive - I'm really glad you shared them.

Today's Agenda:
Same thing we do everyday, Pinky: class prep, occasionally look over Charlie's shoulder, grade reader responses, office hours, teach.

Our walks yesterday were so wonderful: 50s and sunny. Felt like heaven.

On the reading front:
Ready Player Two is picking up the pace some, now that the actual quest has started. I'm still slightly uneasy about the main character (I can't remember at this point if I worried about borderline disliking him in the first book or not, but that's the mood for this one so far), but the plot seems like it will be just as good as the first one. I'm also almost finished with Cursed and am liking the main character here much better than I did at the beginning (which is partly the point, I'm fairly sure), and I'm still plugging along with The Moonstone slowly, but happily.

What We're Watching:
One episode of Once Upon a Time and then we started Wandavision and inhaled three episodes before bedtime. So good. Paul Bettany will forever and always be Chaucer first in my mind, but he makes a pretty darned good robot person, too.

Morning, Amber. Happy Wednesday. Glad to hear you are continuing to enjoy Ready Player One and good to hear about Wandavision. I was curious about that one.

>121 msf59: Morning, Mark! I definitely recommend giving Wandavision a watch - it's very clever and fun.

I giggled at your Animaniacs reference.

>123 katiekrug: Ha! Excellent.

>115 AMQS: Another good rejoinder: Google can give your a thousand answers...a librarian can give you the right one.

>125 laytonwoman3rd: Yes!! I love that. (Although as someone who has now worked at the reference desk at a public library, I will tell you that we frequently used Google to help patrons get answers...)

>126 scaifea: Yes, but you have the mad skills to sort the good answers from the nonsense!

>127 laytonwoman3rd: Ha! True!

>5 scaifea: Hi Amber. Mario is a gorgeous pup, but you know that already! Fun to look at all your amazing reading!

>129 mdoris: Aw, thanks, Mary! She's a goof, but we love her anyway.

Hi, Amber.

Loving all the quotes. I did appreciate the pandemic-appropriateness of BekkaJo's last one: "You must not imagine they were ordinary days, days, I mean, of an average length; they were not so much days as long damp slabs of time that stretched each one to the horizon." Man, there were a lot of long damp slabs of time we got through.

Just popping in to say I love this thread. There's so much going here.

>131 jnwelch: Hi, Joe! Ha! Yep. Things are starting to look up, though, thank goodness.

>132 Trifolia: Aw, yay! I love it that you love it here!

Yay! I knew you'd love WandaVision!

>134 MickyFine: Ha! Yep!

(It's *so* weird that they're all sisters, isn't it?)

>135 scaifea: I frequently forget that fact and always find it weird when I remember.

Also, I'm totally with you on Paul Bettany always being Chaucer first in my head.

>136 MickyFine: Right?! So. Weird.

And YES! Aw, poor thing. He's tired from all that trudging.

>119 scaifea: I love these philosophical quotes: I admire the distillation of a home-truth into a simple one or two sentences.
I'd like to continue this meme of worthy quotes, if I may ~

One of my favourite authors is Terry Pratchett:
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving (A Hat Full of Sky)
and,
Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.

Marshall McLuhan: A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.

Then there's my favourite cowboy, Will Rogers, with pithy insights:
The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Regrettably, this one is too-frequently applicable: in all my years of full-time employment, this was sadly too true ~
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.

Usually mis-attributed to Gaius Petronius Arbiter, it is supposedly taken from Charlton Ogburn, Jr. (1957), in Harper's Magazine. I say supposedly, because I didn't verify this source.

Oooh, what a fun array of favorite quotes! If I went by one I had memorized, it would probably be the same as Micky's.

But to answer, I paged through my commonplace book a bit - I save things both when I find them profound and when I just enjoy a turn of phrase, so it's a hodgepodge of quotes on all sorts of topics from all sorts of books, some of which probably contradict each other - but here's a few that stood out to me tonight:

"I wonder sometimes how much evil is permitted to run unchecked simply because it would be rude to interrupt it." -The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

"You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are." - Fred Rogers

"I cannot despair of the world when there are such wonderful books being written." - Jo Walton, on Jo Walton Reads Tor blog post, Dec. 2019

"If my life was to be just a single note in an endless symphony, how could I not not sound it out for as long and as loudly as I could?" - Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

"Each of his sons had been his favorite child." - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

>139 bell7: Mary, these are *fabulous*. I especially appreciate the one by Fred Rogers.
There's an important truth there.

I had written that same quote from The Ten Thousand Doors of January in my journal book of reading where I note important (to me) passages. A happy feeling to know others have taken notice of the same thought.

>140 SandyAMcPherson: Oh that makes me happy to know we shared a quote in our book journals, Sandy, thanks for sharing that! Isn't it funny how reading can be such a solitary endeavor at times, but one we enjoy sharing as well?

I'd be curious to know, Amber, what are some of your favorite quotes? :D

Hi again, Amber! I'm trying to do catch-up on the threads—fell through a couple of holes, oops.

>74 scaifea: AAAAAHH yes Magic Treehouse!! And Warriors!! The quality truly survives!

>88 AMQS: Hard agree, there was a lot of (inhales through teeth)-ohhh… when I read it. But it's also interesting; and I think it sort of contextualizes some of the explanatory passages, and also something that's apparent in Farmer Boy too, which is just how poor the Ingallses were (compared to, like, the Wilders)—like some of the things LIW talks about her family doing, they're doing because they're subsistence farmers and Pa's always on the run from creditors (one of the reasons they moved so much!)

>91 scaifea: Had to dig up my own commonplace book, and choosing is hard, but:

I inhabited that half-shadow no man's land which exists between the boundaries of the two sexes. Throughout the world there are thousands of us furtive humans who have created for ourselves a fantasy as old as civilization itself; a fantasy which enables us, if only temporarily, to turn our back on the hard realm of life. Our number is legion and our heartbreak inconceivable.
—Gladys Bentley

We suspect that their concreteness hides secrets so deep that no revelation may fully dissipate their silences. We imagine the lives under the mortar, but how do we recognize the end of a bottomless silence?
—Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past

If you free yourself from the conventional reaction to a quantity like a million years, you free yourself a bit from the boundaries of human time. And then in a way you do not live at all, but in another way you live forever.
—John McPhee, Annals of the Former World

If there's a lesson, it's that: there are no dull stories. People are full of wonder. No matter how you study our history, you will always, always find it.
—Jon Bois, "The Bob Emergency: A Study of Athletes Named Bob, Part II"

So much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing itself to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the media assigned to record them.
—Brian Eno

Here's where you tear a hole in the poem,
A hole in the mind, here's where the russet glare
Of ships aflame and the pyre and the amethyst gleam
From the boy's swordbelt rise and roil in a blur.

We are trapped in meanings that circulate like blood.
—Rosanna Warren, "Turnus (Aeneid XII)"

…I just realized these are all really long oops

>2 scaifea: I just finished Uncle Silas by Le Fanu and thoroughly enjoyed it! But I like gothic tales, so this fit the bill perfectly.

For me, the favorites change from time to time, at the moment I love the following by Sir Francis Bacon:

It’s Not Happy People Who Are Grateful, It’s Grateful People Who Are Happy.

It fits the current situation and I try to take it to heart in my life.
I'm succeeding with you too, as I'm very grateful and happy right now.
A BB from your thread #5 hit home with me. I started The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and I love the book already.

>138 SandyAMcPherson: >139 bell7: >140 SandyAMcPherson: >141 bell7: Oh, these are all so good! Thanks for sharing them! And I love that you share favorites, too. This group is the absolute best. Mary, I'll share a couple of my favorites here in a minute.

>142 false-knight: Do *not* apologize for long favorite quotes - I love 'em!

You have a great point about the economic disparity between the Ingalls and the Wilders. I had forgotten (or maybe I wasn't a perceptive enough kiddo to notice when I first read it) that the Wilders had such a major and profitable operation, which really is in stark contrast to the Ingalls.

>143 ocgreg34: Oh, I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed that one! I hope I can get round to starting it soon.

>144 SirThomas: That's a great quote, Thomas, and I love that it's working for you! And yay for The Book Thief! It's a powerful read, isn't it?

Okay, some of my favorite quotes:

“God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players i.e. everybody, to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time." (Good Omens)

“This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it." (Dorothy Parker)

"Listen - do you smell that?" (Ghostbusters)

And if entire poems count, here are my two very favorites:

I hate and I love. You might ask why I do this.
I don't know, but I feel it happening and I am tortured. (Catullus)

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice. (Robert Frost)

Today's Agenda:
Menu planning and placing my grocery order for pickup tomorrow, class prep, helping Charlie with his work when/if he needs it, more work on the CAP course proposal (nearly finished, I think), and hopefully some reading this afternoon.

Oh! And this afternoon is a special zoom event for Charlie's ELA class with Kwame Alexander! They're going to be reading The Crossover together as a class starting soon, and so they're having a pre-read Q&A with the author. Guess who's super excited about sitting in?! I MEAN. Kwame Alexander! So. Cool.

Charlie's half birthday is next week (on the Ides, which is just the coolest thing, isn't it? And also, 12 1/2 - how did *that* happen?!) so I finally got him to tell me what he wants for dinner to celebrate: Soy and Butter-Glazed Chicken with Brown Rice and Snow Peas, and Carrot Cake for dessert. So I need to remember to order the proper supplies...

I had a bad anxiety day yesterday, all focused on the mythology class; I keep convincing myself that it's going badly and the students all probably hate both the class and me, and... ugh. But yesterday after class one of my students sent me an email telling me how much she's loving the the class and the readings and the fun discussions, and, well, that'll do. For maybe a day or so. Then I'll start fretting again, probably. But for now I'm enjoying the lovely, kind words and the break from feeling like a teaching failure.

On the reading front:
Not much time for non-work reading yesterday, so I only managed about 3 pages (seriously) in The Club Dumas and maybe 20 pages in Cursed. And 10 minutes or so of The Moonstone. Baby steps. I do have more myth-related rereads to report. Maybe later today.

What We're Watching:
More Once Upon a Time last night and it's so fun. I love the way they're playing with the original stories (because of course I do) - they've really done some clever things and put in some nice twists. Also, I'm half in love with Rumpelstiltskin. I'm not sure what that says about me but I'm also not sure that I care.

Hey Jude
don't spam my thread
get your dumb ad
and take it elsewhere
remember to take heed of the doorway
don't let that door
hit your ass on the way out way out WAY OUT YEEEAHHH

>150 scaifea: Oh, I just love Kwame Alexander's regular segments on NPR's Morning Edition! Lucky Charlie.

>152 scaifea: Ha! Love it.

>153 rosalita: Hi, Julia!

Lucky Charlie? Oh, right, he'll be watching too. Ha!

*takes a bow*

>152 scaifea: - Snork!

I love Charlie's pick for his half-birthday dinner. At that age, mine would have been cheeseburgers and tater tots probably :)

>152 scaifea: Ooo-wee, Amber's in charge! 😂

'Morning, Amber.

Charlie's half-birthday dinner/dessert choices sound wonderful.

Sorry about the anxiety yesterday. Great timing on the email from your student to at least quell it for a bit.

The only teacher I ever let know I despised her class was my 7th grade home economics teacher, Miss Letitia Price. I actually learned quite a bit from her regarding cooking and baking. I hated the sewing bits and have blocked out the rest. I remember thinking she was prissy and ultra-fem in a time where I was figuring out my own brand of femininity. I've mentally apologized to her over the years.

Morning Amber! Just dropping by to check out the quotes again.
Love the one from Good Omens.
Which Dorothy Parker is that Fancy Terrible taken from?

And listen up kiddo~ you can't know what the students think of you, or your class (except when they tell you). I used to sweat it when I'd be the guest lecturer for a topic and the advice I most valued:
The students show up, don't they?
My mentor went on to say, "If you were that awful, they wouldn't come to class, they wouldn't sign up for the class because they know who's going to be teaching it. So don't assume you have *any* idea what they're thinking. It's more likely they're not thinking about you at all!"

>155 katiekrug: Ha! Yeah, he's had a way more sophisticated palate than I have ever had for several years now. Somewhere around 5 he turned into an 80 year old man.

>156 drneutron: *snork!*

>157 karenmarie: Thanks for the anxiety sympathy, Karen. I didn't like my home ec teacher much, either, but that was all my fault and I even kind of knew that at the time: I already knew how to bake and sew pretty well by the time I hit junior high and so that class was frustratingly not useful for me. Two weeks of sewing *very* slowing in a straight line on a piece of paper with no thread in the needle was agonizing.

>158 SandyAMcPherson: Hi, Sandy! I don't know the exact provenance of the Parker quote, I'm afraid. I suspect Google would help fairly easily, though, if you're really interested. I've just known it for ages and don't even recall where I first saw it.

Thanks for the thoughts on teaching, too.

No home ec for me, thank jeebus.

>163 katiekrug: I think *some* form of a Life Skills class is a good idea, but I just really didn't need the cooking and sewing help.

>164 scaifea: - Maybe that's why I have no life skills?

>165 katiekrug: *SNORK!!*

*grin*

>148 scaifea: a powerful book ? Yes - in any case!

>149 scaifea: Yay for the quote out of one of my favourite books! Good Omens.
from Douglas Adams there is a similar one:

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

By the way, today is his birthday.

>167 katiekrug: *grins back*

>168 SirThomas: Oh, I love Adams! So funny.

I have mostly fond memories of my Home Ec equivalent classes in junior high (in our school system it was Career & Technology Studies). Spent half the year in shop where I did everything from woodworking to stained glass and half the year doing cooking/sewing. However, after three years of it, I'm still pretty terrible at sewing a straight line on a sewing machine. :P

I'd be tempted to steal a slice of carrot cake when that comes around but I'm very picky about it and want neither nuts nor raisins in it. Maybe I should make carrot cake soon...

>171 MickyFine: I wasn't allowed to choose between HE and Shop. Boys were auto-signed up for shop and girls for HE. *eye roll*

No raisins or nuts in my carrot cake (at least this version - I have another version with raisins in, but it's just not the one I'm making this time around). You'll have to ask Charlie for permission, though, but I'm sure he'll share, particularly because he's partial to librarians.

>152 scaifea: Look at you, composing hot lyrics before some of us were even awake...

>172 scaifea: I wasn't allowed to skip Home Ec in high school either. And the sloppy woman who taught it couldn't hold a candle to my own mother and grandmothers when it came to teaching me that stuff. Of course, my Dad was probably better at woodworking and auto mechanics than the shop teacher too.

>173 laytonwoman3rd: Ha! I'm feeling saucy today, I guess.

And yep, my dad could have blown the shop guy out of the water as a mechanic, and my brother as a carpenter. No contest.

>172 scaifea: Boys were auto-signed up for shop and girls for HE. *eye roll*

OMG that's insane. I mean, I'm something like 15 years older than you and that didn't happen in my (also midwestern) high school. HE and/or Shop weren't even required courses. And that was a good thing for me because like you and Linda, my mom was very proficient with the sewing machine and even taught in a fabric store.

The best life skills course I had was "Consumer Economics," part of the social studies curriculum in I think 9th grade. We learned a lot about how money works and how to do things like read a bank statement and balance a checkbook. I didn't *need* to do either of those things at the time but it came back to me when I did.

>175 lauralkeet: Now, see, *that's* the kind of life skills course that they need to teach: how to manage a budget and a bank account, how to do your taxes, how to change a flat tire,...

Our Home Ec was re-named Consumer Education in the early 1980s and included sewing, cooking, and "life skills" like balancing a checkbook and such. Since no one at home was teaching me any of those things, I appreciated Mrs. Huntoon's teaching very much!

Also, shop class was called "ag class" for some reason in our rural Illinois school and girls could sign up for it, as my friend Ann did. The most useful things I remember her learning were how to change the oil in a car and change a tire, but I'm sure they did other stuff as well. I could have used that class as well, come to think of it.

>172 scaifea: We weren't auto-enrolled but the expected gender distribution was well-understood and few chose against it. In my grade (Class of '87), I think one boy chose HE and maybe two girls in Drafting/Shop.

The one boy wasn't me -- Home Ec did not tempt me because I wanted to take Drafting. (Drafting was as fun as expected but I'm extremely lucky I lost no fingers in Shop.)

>177 rosalita: I'm so glad you enjoyed your HE teacher, Julia! I do think offering cooking and sewing is still a great idea, but I like the idea of mixing it up with a bit of shop/ag/other life skills, too. A year-long course that all students have to take and experience a bit of everything.

>178 swynn: Steve: Ha! I'm relieved that you came out of the shop class with all digits intact! Drafting sounds like a lot of fun, and I kind of wanted to take it in high school, too (it was a separate thing from shop altogether), but didn't have the room in my schedule or the courage to be the only girl in the class (which is weird because I had no problem being the only girl in the drumline...).

>179 scaifea: Yes, a mix of both for everyone would be best! As I recall (this was a long-ass time ago) the modules were only for six or nine weeks? And the rest of the year you had study hall? Or maybe there were other electives? I skipped school a lot so I don't really remember.

>181 rosalita: You skipped school?! A LOT?!?! Oh, Julia.

>182 scaifea: Have I not mentioned that before? I got suspended sophomore year because I got caught. I had been skipping for months — my mom worked 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. so I would just stay home until 12:30 or so and then go out and hang out with my books in the neighbor farmer's machine shed. Unfortunately, I forgot my textbooks there one day and the farmer found them and helpfully turned them in at the school. Thanks, neighbor!

The worst part about being suspended was having my mom called into the principal's office. I knew how much she absolutely hated it and how humiliated she felt about it, especially since there was a clear implication that it was her fault for being a single parent and not being at home. This was around the time I first started being told by the principal and teachers that I was not "living up to my potential" because I seldom did my homework (except history class; loved Mr. Rowley and that class).

Anyway, I kept skipping school but got better about hiding my books and forging my mom's name on the excuse slips. A few years ago I found my senior year report card and saw I had missed 40 days that year — the equivalent of an entire nine-week grading period. I did still manage to be named an Illinois State Scholar and graduate in the top ten in my class. "But your POTENTIAL, Julia!"

Now you have a horror story to tell Charlie — "stay in school! You don't want to end up like Julia, do you?!"

You know what's funny, now that I think about it, is that I know there are photos in my mother's high school yearbook (1949) showing boys in Home Ec class...at least the cooking portion. Same high school that I graduated from, btw. When I was in school, driver's ed class taught you how to change a tire, check the oil, and maybe a few other basic things about car maintenance, and that, of course, was open to boys and girls. Unfortunately, it was not available to me, as I wasn't old enough to get a learner's permit in PA until well into my senior year, and they wouldn't let me enroll, even though the first half of the year was strictly classroom and mechanical stuff---no driving.

>183 rosalita: Ha! And here I skipped ONE class my entire school career - just one class, not even a full day (and it was the Early Bird extra senior Nerd Central class at that) - and I still feel SO guilty about it...
I had no idea I'm friends with such a cool badass.

>183 rosalita: Wait, they found out you weren't going to class, and punished you by telling you you couldn't go to class? Does punishment really work that way?

>184 laytonwoman3rd: That's interesting, Linda. It's neat (or sad and fractured, depending out how you look at it) how different areas of the country are so vastly different in their curriculum and methods over the years.

When I met my future husband in college, I was aghast at how often he skipped class. Of course you have more autonomy then than you do in high school, and you're more accountable for the consequences. But skipping was a totally foreign concept to me. I had such fear of failure I couldn't bring myself to skip even the easiest classes. Even more annoying was that he made good decisions about which classes to skip, in that he was still able to keep up with the course and do well enough on the exams.

>179 scaifea: That would be a really good idea for a high school course—I guess maybe some of it's been phased out by the internet, but I think it would've been nice to have a class where they taught us how to file our taxes and read the washing instructions on clothes labels and do meal planning and things like that. By the time I got to high school they'd completely gotten rid of home ec and there was only one school in my district that still offered auto shop. (I don't think we even had official driver's ed? If we did I didn't take it.) Even if we can just google everything now, it'd be good to know about the specific terms I need to google if I can't figure out what's wrong with the sink. In any case everything I know about home ec or shop classes I learned from a couple Mystery Science Theater shorts.

I skipped ONE class in high school and was caught, of course, and got detention with the teacher whose opinion I valued most in the world. When he took attendance and saw my name he said he knew for sure the world was ending. I'm really more of a Hermione anyway:)

>142 false-knight: Yes, it was so hard for them for a variety of reasons. It was infuriating reading about political policies that hurt settlers so much, and of course, it was far worse for Native Americans. Sometimes there was just no way to win. I've read a lot of pioneer books - Nothing to Do But Stay is one that comes to mind, along with Willa Cather's books. Wow, what a hard, desolate life. I think of those people and those characters whenever we make the trip from where we live near Denver to eastern Kansas to visit my husband's brother. There is a whole lot of nothing in eastern CO and western KS and occasionally you do see a derelict cabin in the middle of nowhere that puts pioneers in mind.

My high school class skipping was regular and sanctioned - I went one Friday each month with my mother to Los Angeles (about 130 miles from our town) for a day of Dr. appointments, shopping, eating and culture. I don't know what all excuses we sent in but I got no consequences for the absences and saw a lot of good plays. I had already learned how to turn minor sniffles into a 3 day absence. Since all I really wanted to do was stay home and read that worked out comfortably for me.

I have no idea if the quote has got the same ring as the German translation... but I remember reading Frankenstein when I was about 15 - and the sentence echoed like a poem. I still quote it:

"Die kurze Todesqual, sie ist vorüber und alles Leiden hat ein Ende. Nun bedeckt Gras dies zarte Wesen und was darunter liegt, kennt keine Schmerzen mehr."

I try to translate:
The short agony of death is over and every suffering comes to an end. Now, grass is covering this gentle being and what lies beneath doesn't know pain anymore.

I just looked up the English original which seems to be less words and a bit rougher:
"The pang is over, his sufferings are at an end for ever. A sod covers his gentle form, and he knows no pain."

>188 lauralkeet: Tomm was the same way when I met him, Laura, but the class that he was skipping was mine!

>189 false-knight: Emory: I think it would still be a good idea despite what's available on youtube now. There's something about getting the hands-on experience with the teacher right there to answer your questions, yeah?

Also, MST3K: WOOT!

>190 AMQS: Anne: Ha! I didn't get caught, but I know that my Early Bird class teacher was deeply suspicious. He was also good friends with one of my (much) older brothers, so I think that helped keep me out of trouble. It was weird calling him Mr. Trout in class when I grew up with him hanging out at my house with my brother...

>191 quondame: Who knew the 75ers was such a rough group of juvies.

>192 PersephonesLibrary: Oh, Käthe, your translation is beautiful! I like it better than the original! My Catullus quote has the same problem, but in that case it's *my* translation of the Latin that I'm never satisfied with; the Latin and the sentiment behind it are wonderful, but my English for it always sounds clunky to me.

>186 swynn: Shocking that it didn't stop me, isn't it? I've never understood the logic behind that ...

>186 swynn: >198 rosalita: *snork!* Yeah, I never understood that logic, either.

>188 lauralkeet: One of the consequences of my lawless high school years is that I am constitutionally incapable of calling in sick to work when I'm not. I have the kind of deep-seated fear of "slipping" that I imagine people battling various addictions must feel. The only cure for me is abstinence from the addictive behavior — in my case, playing hooky.

>193 scaifea: OH, THE NERVE!!

>200 rosalita: Wow, Julia. That's wild.

>194 scaifea: Yeah, and also for being able to practice.

"College for Kay would mean sacrifices." "Human sacrifices."

>197 scaifea: I am glad you like it, Amber! It's funny that the translator obviously added something to the novel that wasn't there - and that's what stuck with me. :)

I know what you mean about Catullus... The words in English sound more harsh and "cut-off" than the sentiment and idea behind them. With a little bit of freedom in translation you might fit the mood better? I like your translation nontheless.

I went to a lot of schools, and don't remember what I did where. I know I took a Home Ec class, and we did sewing - I was hoping we'd do cooking as well but I don't remember that we did. And I know I took a shop class and made a little round shelf that my parents still have - it was perfect for displaying their Parvati statue (eight-armed Indian goddess). I think those were at two different schools but I have no idea which ones... probably not Iran, one might have been in Greece, another might have been in Massachusetts or Virginia...I don't think Virginia, that school (the one I graduated from) was a magnet school and college prep and I don't think they had any shop or Home Ec classes. Because it was a magnet school, I technically graduated from a different school, that I went to for one class (Driver's Ed). But we all got "diplomas" from HB Woodlawn, the magnet school, too...and mine said I was the Stairway Reader. I skipped a lot of classes and spent the free time sitting in the stairwells reading. For most of the classes, I didn't really need to be there anyway - I read the book and passed the tests with flying colors. I got caught a lot, but since I had good grades they didn't give me more than a slap on the wrist and I'd be right back in the stairwell the next day.

Which gave me a lot of trouble in college, when I skipped just as much and shouldn't have...It worked out eventually, but my grades were in the pits for a while.

Just a drop in on the Home Ec teachers - my daughter's (who I haven't met but seems fine etc), has one idiosyncrasy that makes me giggle. They have to bring their recipes in their baskets in, in a plastic folder. Fine and very sensible for in the kitchen. But for a woman with a normal English accent, she pronounces it 'plaaastic' with a very long a. Cue a lot of teenage girls trying not to giggle...

I skipped probably 40% of my A Level French lessons. I was being badly bullied and the teacher didn't notice or care. So I just didn't go. Which was definitely shown in the horrific grade I got!! Eeep. Lowest grade by about three grades that I have ever got for any course ever - still mortified about it 20 years later.

>200 rosalita: Oh that's funny, Julia! You *Are* okay with calling in sick when you *are* sick, though, right?

>201 lauralkeet: Right?! The nerve indeed. Somehow I must have forgiven him. He was good enough at Latin that he could have tested out and I'm not sure why he didn't, honestly. I guess I could ask him...

>202 false-knight: (omg that MST3K reference made me nearly spit coffee all over my computer.)

You know, you've reminded me that it's just about time to introduce Charlie to that particular phenomenon...

>203 PersephonesLibrary: Käthe: I have an awful time balancing accuracy and smoothness in translations. I tend to agonize over it. *sigh*

>204 jjmcgaffey: When I first started teaching (college-level I'm talking here), I used to think that students who were breezing through the class could skip here and there NBD, but pretty early on I decided that yeah, it was a bit deal, not for my ego or anything, but because they were making the class experience something less than it could have been for the other students. I really do think that when students sign up for a course, they have a certain amount of obligation to make it as good an experience as it can be, both for themselves and for the other students, just as the teacher has. And students who are doing well enough to skip class and still understand what's going on could be contributing in amazing ways if they did show up. (I'm not AT ALL judging your experience (I mean stairway reading sounds amazing) - your story just got me thinking about all of this.)

And the trouble in college thing: Over my years of teaching college students, I've seen it happen so many times that people who had zero trouble at all in high school, who never had to put in much work at all to get straight As or to understand the material, a large number of those kiddos get to college and hit a hard wall. College is *such* a step up, academically and responsibility-wise, and if you haven't had to hone your time management skills and your study skills, it can be so hard to adjust. Some of them - like you! - work through it and go on to be amazing, but some can't manage it. Thankfully I hit that wall in high school (yay for the benefits of not being a genius?) and so had already gone through the process of learning how to study, plus I've always been a complete nerd about making a schedule and writing up To Do lists, so college was an easy transition for me.

>205 BekkaJo: Hi, Bekka!
Ha! The "plaaaastic' thing is hilarious!

But ooof to the bullying. I had that in junior high gym class and it made that one year so, so awful for me. I had never ever hated school until then, all because of two jerkwad boys who tormented me every damn day that year (well, until I finally told my parents what was going on and my dad went to the school and raised absolute HELL and the boys get in lots of trouble) because I was rubbish at all things sports.

Today's Agenda:
Grocery pickup, helping Charlie with school if he needs it, baking, office hours, a bit of course prep, reading in the afternoon (or possibly a nap) (or possibly both? why not both?).

On the reading front:
I finished up Cursed yesterday and I have a couple of myth class rereads to report (and I'm now finished with the rereading prep for the rest of the semester!), so I'll try to get those mini-reviews up today. I almost started Chaotic Good, but then the day got away from me, so today for sure.

What We're Watching:
Thursdays are GBBS time, so we watching one episode of Masterclass and then switched over to an episode of Arrow.

Hi Amber!

>185 scaifea: My high school had something ridiculous called Senior Ditch Day, where seniors were officially allowed to ditch school. What’s the joy in that? I don’t remember if I ‘ditched’ or not – I might have simply because my best friends were ditching.

>200 rosalita: My high school also had 2 ‘Pants Days’ a year, where girls could wear pants instead of skirts and blouses/dresses, but not jeans. I hated the pants I had, so for one of them I remember keeping the window open all night and breathing in the cold air so I could truly say I had a sore throat and stay home.

>206 scaifea: I do call in sick when I am actually sick because I don't want to be one of those people who comes to work and coughs and sneezes their germs all over everyone. So I feel guilty, but I do call in.

Now that I think about it, I haven't really been sick at all this quaranyear, other than allergies and, ahem, gastrointestinal issues. Unexpected side benefit to not working in a Petri dish, I guess. :-)

>213 karenmarie: Hi, Karen!

Oh yeah, we had Senior Ditch Day, too. I'd completely forgotten about it! It wasn't official at my school, though, but had a long tradition. I...didn't ditch.

"Pants Days": Oh, whoa. On so many levels, whoa.

>214 rosalita: Excellent point about not taking your germs in to work! Makes it easier not to feel guilty about it (which was what I was thinking earlier).

And I've read (okay, skimmed) several articles recently about how low the flu levels are this year, which is an interesting result of all...*waves hands around vaguely*...this. Charlie's had a couple of sick days with a slight fever and I just wonder...how?! I mean, we go NOWHERE. So weird.

>216 scaifea: Perhaps just something internal that manifested in that way? I agree, it seems impossible when you go nowhere like we have been and still get sick. Doesn't seem fair, somehow — staying healthier overall seems like the least the Universe could do to make up for Everything Else.

>217 rosalita: Yeah, probably. Tomm (being all sciencey and logical and annoying) says that it's probably either allergies or just a random virus he's picked up on our walks...? Apparently those things are EVERYWHERE.

Morning, Amber.

We were just talking about how little flu there's been this year. Post-pandemic (there will be a post-pandemic, right?) we're going to try to at least continue the pandemic precautions of washing hands a lot and looking out for doorknobs and the like, and keeping ours cleaned.

I've been enjoying all the quotes. Yours from Good Omens is a corker! "I cannot despair of the world when there are such wonderful books being written" from Jo Walton and Mary has crossed my mind in recent years with that former president.

How did it go with Kwame Alexander? How amazing for Charlie and his mom to have that opportunity.

>218 scaifea: >219 jnwelch: There hasn't been a flu epidemic at all. Very good. I am going to ask to be vaccinated against it next year, it's not obligatory but it means I won't be contagious to anybody. There have been other viruses, like the common cold, so maybe Charlie picked up one of those?

>219 jnwelch: Morning, Joe! We've talked about trying to keep a lot of the habits we've developed over the last year going, like multiple daily walks and eating out less. Hopefully we can stick to it.

THanks for the Walton quote! I'm enjoying everyone's contributions and I'm glad you like the Good Omens one.

Alexander was okay and most of the kids seemed to enjoy it from their comments. Charlie and I were less impressed, though, mostly because he seemed to be pandering a bit, talking down some to the students. I wouldn't have minded his ebullient display if it had seemed more genuine? It just felt like he was trying to be what he thought 6th graders would think was cool and it came off, to Charlie and me at least, as more fake than connectible. It was surprising, too, since he is a pretty successful writer of MG and YA stuff, so shouldn't he be better at knowing that it's better to be yourself around kids? And a few of his answers made me cringe; when asked how his life has changed since becoming a "famous author," he said something about driving a much more expensive car now and living in a penthouse in London. It sounded a little crass, and again I think he was trying to be funny for the kids? But it landed wrong, for me at least. I dunno. Just a bit disappointing, I guess.

>220 EllaTim: We always get flu vaccines every year. Just seems like the right thing to do, both for us and to protect others.

Colds don't usually have fevers with them, so I don't think so? Anyway, no worries. Those kinds of little mysteries just bug me sometimes. Ha!

Nate and I were talking just last night about how much healthier we were as a family over this last year. Chloe's first year of school we spent the majority of the school year with at least one of us sick at all times. This last year the girls have been so much healthier and I'm sure that's partly because Chloe has to wear a mask all day at school.

>223 ChelleBearss: Yes! Oh, those first 2-3 years of school are rough ones for viruses and such. I'm glad the girls have stayed well this year!

What's the Friday snack today, Amber?

Also, hope you enjoy Chaotic Good.

>225 MickyFine: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars today, Micky. I'm going to get them in the oven here soon!

And thanks! I'm looking forward to starting it!

52. Cursed by Karol Ruth Silverstein (Schneider Award) - 9/10 = A
Ricky is a teen trying to adjust to living with the severe arthritis she's developed in the past few months. Life has changed drastically for her in other ways lately, too: her parents have recently divorced, she's moved in with her father to be in an apartment with no stairs (much easier, in theory at least, for her painful condition), and this means a new school, too. But she has to walk the few blocks to school, plus face accessibility issues and bullying once she gets there, and it's just all too much. So she starts skipping school. And gets away with it for months. She eventually gets busted, then suspended for cursing at a teacher almost immediately after returning to school, which leads to some harsh reality facing: take on a pile of extra work - and extra after-school meetings with the teacher she hates - or don't pass ninth grade. But things do start changing for the better once she starts communicating just how difficult things have been for her to her parents, her new friends, and her new doctor.
I struggled with this one at the beginning because I had a hard time getting past Ricky's angsty angry bad attitude. She evolves and grows throughout the story, though, as do her parents, and it became obvious to me at some point (much later than it should have, really, silly me) that this was a major point to the novel: awareness and communication help all parties to change for the better. In the end, it's actually a very good read and makes some very good points about accessibility, the importance of communication (for kiddos to *tell* their adults what's going on with them openly and honestly and for the adults to listen and in general be more aware of what's possibly not being said). And it has reminded me of one of the reasons I love reading MG and YA books: it's been a fair while since I was that age and it's easy to forget how hard it can be and the specific challenges kids at those ages face. I feel that I gain and maintain much more empathy for young people by stepping into the shoes of these characters, and it helps me keep a healthy respect for what they face every day. Books matter. Books do important work. And this one and others like it in the genre do important work on me.

>209 scaifea: Yes, you want to be as accurate as much... that's the challenge of translating. But as Brot/bread/pain mean the same and different things at the same time we can only ever translate "close to".

53. Heroides by Ovid (Myth course readings) - 9/10 = A
A collection of epistolary poems, in which women from myths write letters to the heroes who have wronged them. Ovid gives a voice to these female characters, but his patent tongue-in-cheek style is still very evident. Impressive yet infuriating in parts, which, let's be honest, makes for excellent student discussion.



54. The Apocolocyntosis by Seneca (Myth course readings) - 9/10 = A
The title translates to "The Pumpkinification" and refers to Claudius getting deified after his death. Seneca clearly doesn't approve and here gives us a silly satire to prove it. I have students read this one so we can talk about the whole issue of the Romans turning their leaders into gods so nonchalantly, plus the text itself gives us a fascinating take on the underworld/afterlife.



55. Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman (Myth course readings) - 10/10 = A+
*happy sigh*
This is Gaiman at some of his heckin' best. I love it even more every time I read it. I'm walking a fine line here, and if I lose my balance I'll tip over into verbose, giddy gushing, so instead I'll just say this: Toward the end, when the raven Matthew asks Dream why he doesn't just 'poof' the Furies away from the Dreaming and be done, Dream's response is, "Because there are rules. And because they are part of something far huger and older than simple goddesses, and bound and empowered by rules, as I am." This is what myth is all about, those ancient rules, and things older and bigger in scope than the stories themselves. Myths explain the unspoken rules we live by and tell us why those rules are important. And That's why our stories are so vital. Gaiman gets it. He. Gets. It. And I will love him to the end of my days for that.

>228 PersephonesLibrary: Very true, Käthe!

>210 scaifea: Boy do you describe me perfectly there, Amber. I never cut class (ever!) in high school and had a very good gpa (not 4.0 but close) with very little effort and I graduated early. Freshman year I lived off campus and my route to the area where my classes were took me right by the book store. I often was early and I would stop in the book store, get involved and never make it to class. End of first semester I was on academic probation. It was a shock I needed I think because I worked myself out of that hole, graduated with a decent gpa and then went on to get two graduate degrees.

>231 RebaRelishesReading: Oh, good for you, Reba, for pulling yourself out!

Count me in as another goody two shoes who never skipped in high school. I went to a small liberal arts college with trimesters rather than semesters and I'd say in 95% of my classes, participation and attendance was actually graded. Generally, you could miss class up to 3 times, no questions asked, but after that you would be docked on your participation grade, which often was anywhere from 20-40% of your total grade depending on how discussion-based the class was. (And I majored in English and French lit, so 90% of my classes were discussion-based.) I honestly appreciated it; it taught people who needed it the importance of showing up at class even though they were in college and responsible for their time, and it made me a better public speaker and discussion-contributor since I knew I had to talk at least once a class or get docked. And shy baby Natalie definitely needed that!

>233 curioussquared: I do that, too, in my courses now and have for years: attendance and participation counts generally for at least 25% of the grade.

Sorry to hear Kwame Alexander was a bit disappointing. I get what you're saying; it's always tough when heroes show their feet of clay. Makes me think of the poet Sharon Olds who did the opposite (whatever that is - feet of gold?) when we saw her live. She's a poetry hero of mine, and live she was even better and wiser than I would've guessed. I came away thinking more highly of her than I did going in.

I have to admit I was a class skipper in high school; I got bored probably too easily. When I got called into see the principal, he was nonplussed by what I was doing instead: going to the school library. Ha! He finally just told me I was done; I couldn't skip class any more.

Echoing what Natalie just said, when I ended up teaching as an adjunct prof., I let students know that participation in class was part of the grade they'd get. Seemed fair, and it made attendance better and class more interesting.

>235 jnwelch: Hi, Joe!

Who would have thought that LTers are the kind of folks who would skip class to spend time in the library. That's a puzzle, right there.

Here's a new twist to the attendance bit: I've had to add to my syllabus that cameras must be on as well! I also give my students a talk about how I understand that there may be new social and classroom anxieties around zoom classrooms and having your camera on, so I'm willing to work something out individually if some students struggle with that. I had a student last semester who came to me (well, via email) about how zoom classes bring out all her worst anxieties and makes her crippling shyness even worse, and we were able to work out a way for her to participate that was fair to her and her needs while still being true to the syllabus and the class requirements. I'm happy with how it worked out and she was pleasantly surprised that we found a way for her to be comfortable and shine in the class in her own way.

I've heard from colleagues that they're having a hard time this year getting their college students to keep their cameras on during classes. But weirdly, maybe, I've stumbled onto a solution that's working wonderfully for my classes: I've stated the camera-on policy pretty clearly and sent them a breakdown of how not having the camera on would affect their grades in a very clear here's-how-the-numbers-break-down form, all while encouraging them to let me know if they need extra consideration. With one exception this semester (which is a completely and wholly other story), they all have their cameras on every time and are ready to participate. I'm pretty proud of that, honestly. And of them. I don't know how I manage to get so lucky, but I always seem to get the best students in my classes. The dear little cherubs.

Jumping in late on the skiing school conversation - never skipped, but I did get suspended with a group of mystery band buddies when we surreptitiously managed to flip off the camera for our annual band picture. Some parents weren't particularly happy with all the middle fingers showing... 😂

>237 drneutron: *SNORK!* Jim! You would have fit right in with the drumline in my band! We were constantly doing stupid stuff, although we were more judicious about it and very, very rarely got caught.

Another Trojan War meme for your collection.

>239 MickyFine: Ha! I added that one to my folder this morning! I love that twitter account.

>240 scaifea: I follow Spark Notes on Instagram and it adds so much joy to my life. :)

>205 BekkaJo: I made the mistake of actually enrolling in the high school French class that I had asked to "audit" so I wouldn't have to do study hall in a quiet room. The B I got kept me from being Valedictorian - my friend got after retaking Algebra - or Salutatorian - a classmate who selected the easiest classes got that. Since I wouldn't have qualified for means based scholarships it probably made no difference in my life, but hey. The two guys who showed the most smarts in high school hadn't done as well in English or History while Gene, my friend, and I knew how to politic the science/math teachers to get A's. Peter and Richard probably should have gotten the top honors, but they did just fine for themselves too.

>210 scaifea: Over my years of teaching college students, I've seen it happen so many times that people who had zero trouble at all in high school, who never had to put in much work at all to get straight As or to understand the material, a large number of those kiddos get to college and hit a hard wall. College is *such* a step up, academically and responsibility-wise, and if you haven't had to hone your time management skills and your study skills, it can be so hard to adjust.

Amen, sister. That describes my first undergraduate attempt to a "T". It didn't help that I chose a particularly difficult undergraduate major (Biomedical Engineering), attended university in a city with many distractions (Tulane University, in New Orleans: great food, fabulous music, and gorgeous Cajun and Creole women on and off campus), and fell head over heels in love with one of my classmates (one of those gorgeous Creole women who, disturbingly, has now become a stalker after the death of her husband and has been writing creepy love letters and sending cards and gifts to me at home and at work every 1-2 months for the past dozen years). I had to return home, tail between my legs, to Philadelphia, and attend night classes at Drexel and Rutgers for six years while working full time before I finally earned my bachelor's degree from Rutgers, with a Major in Microbiology, a Minor in Philosophy, and a Mini in Spanish, graduating cum laude, and having taught myself time management and study skills along the way. (It helped that there were no gorgeous Cajun and Creole women in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.)

>216 scaifea: And I've read (okay, skimmed) several articles recently about how low the flu levels are this year, which is an interesting result of all

Yep. According to the weekly FluView from the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm) there has been one pediatric death in the 2020-21 influenza season in the United States so far, versus 195 deaths in the 2019-20 season. I posted an article from NPR on my Facebook timeline about the almost complete absence of cases of influenza in children in the US last week, and several of my physician friends and I from Atlanta, Pittsburgh and elsewhere chimed in about our experiences. I haven't seen a single case of influenza this season, and for that matter only three or four cases of RSV since last spring; on a typical winter's day at work I would have that many inpatients, if not more.

Fortunately our children's healthcare system is seeing fewer patients with both acute COVID-19 and MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome of childhood), the serious and occasionally deadly phenomenon that follows a benign case of COVID-19 by roughly 3-4 weeks.

>243 kidzdoc: Well now, Darryl, who could blame you for being distracted by the beautiful flora of NOLA? I'm not sure I could have resisted that myself. But I suspect the work ethic and discipline you earned for yourself over the next years isn't something you probably regret too much. Those life experiences are worth something, too, and I'm amazed at people who can dust off and not only come back absolutely thrive like you clearly have, friend. *hugs*

Ha! I think your FB shared article is one of the ones I read skimmed!

>242 quondame: One of my best friends from toddlerhood on was valedictorian when we graduated high school; I was so proud of her.

>202 false-knight: YES DO IT

>229 scaifea: Does…does he actually get turned into a squash or

>244 scaifea: Fauna, surely?

Senior ditch day was one more thing Marina missed last year. It would have likely been her only ditch ever - she's even more Hermione than I am. For everything that she missed in her senior year, she was really healthy for the first time in a long time. Not only was she not sharing germs, but the amount of stress and late nights with homework were gone and the health benefits were dramatic. There was SO much pressure at her school, which is definitely not unique to her/her school. I will say that the school definitely prepares students for college, though.

>227 scaifea: This sounds like one Marina would really like, particularly as someone who was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis in 7th grade. Fortunately her arthritis rarely interfered with school, but being a part of the arthritis community made us realize how lucky she was - no need for a 504 plan, though her teachers were more than willing to accommodate her - but she did know other kids who needed their own passing periods, for example, and of course there's the difficulty of living with a disease that looks largely invisible, and which she was "too young" to suffer from. One hard adjustment for parents is how you're absolutely cut off when they turn 18. You no longer can talk to providers, etc. She's a pro at managing her condition and is great for advocating for herself (she had sessions on self-advocacy at arthritis camp) but it is hard to turn into a bystander all of a sudden. She's been having flare ups this week, just as she and her rheumatologist have been trying to reduce her injections, and she's just handling it. Sorry - this is a long-winded way to say thank you for this book bullet. Representation absolutely matters.

>246 false-knight: *SNORK!* YES

>247 quondame: Nope, flora. They're pretty, see...

Morning, Amber! Happy Saturday. I hope you can enjoy a R & R weekend.

>248 AMQS: Hi, Anne!

I've been surprised at how happy Charlie has been this year - I worried that he'd feel isolated and missing his friends and 'real' school. He has told us, though, multiple times, that he loves it and has enjoyed the time at home with us. He hangs out and plays with his friends online everyday, and he loves being able to work through his school stuff at his own pace. So we're counting those blessings.

I'm so sorry Marina and your family have had to go through such a diagnosis, but also happy that she's had good support. I hadn't thought of the patient privacy issue once they turn 18 - ooof. Yay for Marina being a good advocate for herself, though! That must make you proud. I hope you both love the book - it won the Schneider Award last year and I think deservedly so.

Today's Agenda:
Cinnamon Rolls have been baked and enjoyed (they were from a tube, but still delicious), and now I'm going to enjoy my weekend morning PJs-and-coffee-and-LT time before I actually get myself going. Tomm's heading out for a quick trip to the hardware store - his next project is to make the garage a bit more finished than it is and make it so it can easily convert into his workspace when he needs it, and so he needs...spackle...or so I've been told. *shrug*

Charlie's spending most of the day video chatting and D&D-ing with his friends. And I'm going to bake some Italian Bread, spend some time in the sewing room, and read.

On the reading front:
I started Chaotic Good yesterday and am really enjoying it so far: a main character who loves sewing and making cosplay outfits and browses comic shops and fabric stores and thrift shops for fun?! Hello. Thanks, Micky, for the recommendation!

I also read through a quick entry in the 1001 Children's Books list, Tales of the Rue Broca, so I'll get that mini-review up at some point. Still listening, tiny bit by tiny bit, to The Moonstone, but I should be able to get a slightly larger chunk in today while sewing and baking.

What We're Watching:
Friday = Family Game Night and it was my pick, so we played one of my very favorites, Quixx! So fun. Even if Charlie beat the pants off both Tomm and me. Then we settled in for a Graham Norton and a Gilmore Girls.

>251 msf59: I almost missed up you there, Mark! Thanks for the weekend wishes - hoping the same for you, yoo, friend.

I can relate to the need for spackle. Sometimes a guy just needs to fix a wall. 😀

>255 drneutron: Jim: *SNORK!* You walls sound way fancier than what Tomm has in mind, I think...

>253 scaifea: Sounds like an excellent plan for the day, Amber. And I'm so pleased Chaotic Good is turning out to be a good read for you.

>247 quondame:, >250 scaifea: Flora. Definitely flora.

>248 AMQS: One hard adjustment for parents is how you're absolutely cut off when they turn 18.

>252 scaifea: I hadn't thought of the patient privacy issue once they turn 18 - ooof.

Spot on. This becomes a major issue for us pediatricians, whether primary care docs or hospitalists like myself, every so often. The biggest challenge we face is taking care of 18-21 yo patients who agree to be hospitalized for medical stabilization of eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia, or atypical eating disorders). It's not uncommon that one of these patients will balk at the treatment plan after a day or two, and decide that they want to be discharged, even though they are not yet medically stable (e.g., low heart rates or blood pressures, or electrolyte derangements such as low phosphorus or magnesium levels that require oral or IV medications to prevent serious complications from refeeding syndrome). Unless we and the parents can convince them to stay there is nothing we can do to keep them there, and often times the parents have to seek custody of their child to allow them to take over medical decision making capacity, which is not easy to do.

I faced a particularly sticky dilemma last month, when I took care of an older teenager who was admitted with cannabis hyperemesis, a syndrome where excessive use of marijuana causes intractable vomiting and dehydration. This teen came from a well to do suburban family, who knew about his marijuana use, especially since he was hospitalized for the same problem roughly six months previously. As we were discharging him his nurse and I discovered that one of the home medications he listed was naloxone, which is an antidote for an opioid overdose. When we asked him about it he admitted to using heroin on an occasional basis ("only on weekends"). His nurse and I were both horrified and talked to him about the risks of heroin overdose, which he understood, but said that he needed to use it when he gets stressed out or wants to unwind on the weekend, and he told us firmly that we were not allowed to tell his parents, which he had the right to do. The two of us wanted to tell his father about this once he arrived to the hospital to bring his son home, but legally we could not do so, which made us both deeply uncomfortable. I only hope that the next time we see him in our system it isn't because he is DOA from a heroin overdose.

ETA: I, his nurse, and one of my partners who I consulted all concluded that we could not inform this boy's father about his heroin use without his permission at that time. I probably should have spoken with someone in Children's Legal Department to confirm this, and I'll probably do so next week, for future reference.

>257 MickyFine: Bread's proving now, so so far so good. And yes! I'm not very far in, but I'm convinced I'm going to love this book.

>258 kidzdoc: Oh, oooof. I'm so sorry you have to face these kinds of situations, Darryl. That's so hard. I feel for you *and* the parents, and I hope they don't have to face losing their son because if his bad choices. Gah. *hugs*

>248 AMQS:, >258 kidzdoc: Just want to mention that the 18-year-old adult can grant permission for providers to discuss their care with parents---or anyone else they choose for that matter, by signing the appropriate authorization forms, preferably before there is an urgent situation. Obviously that wasn't going to be a solution for the marijuana/heroin abuser, but in a family where there is good communication this is an option that should be discussed.

>261 laytonwoman3rd: I'm sure Amber is well aware of this, but just adding to the general discussion ...

Similar problems arise when a child goes to college. Parents who are accustomed to having access to their grades or discussing progress with staff could be in for a surprise. This, too, can be addressed by the student/adult child signing an authorization form.

In an ideal world it's best if the child takes responsibility and their parents no longer need to get involved. Where it gets tricky is if the child is having serious unanticipated issues (i.e.; mental health) and the parents need to step in. I was fortunate not to have this experience with my two, but a work colleague went through this trying to help his daughter when she was going through some tough times.

>261 laytonwoman3rd: Linda: I was thinking that this must be an option, but yeah, probably not something Heroine Boy would be into...

>262 lauralkeet: I was going to mention that, too, Laura, as I remember very well the little talk at my daughter's college orientation where they explained that to us, and then slyly suggested that if the parents were "writing the checks" they deserved to see what they were getting for their money, i.e. the grade reports. Worked in our situation!

>262 lauralkeet: Laura: Oooof, yep. I ran into this on the professor side of things more often than I would have liked with parents calling me directly wanting to discuss their student's grades in my classes. I had to be firm in saying that I legally could not have that conversation. While I was at Kenyon the relevant Deans were wonderful at supporting faculty in these cases, so if the helicopter parents got too pushy I knew I could just direct them to the appropriate Dean's office and they'd back me up every time.

>264 laytonwoman3rd: Interesting that they hinted at convincing the student to sign over rights like that. I wonder if that is the case at Kenyon...Laura? Do you remember?

The new thread is up:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/330540#

>250 scaifea: There is some pretty gorgeous fauna wandering through New Orleans, not just planted in the gardens.