It snowed this morning, the kind of big heavy flakes that make audible contact with the ground when they fall. It feels like the snow days of my youth. I’ve been having a decadently late lunch of classic cold-weather food (grilled cheese sandwiches) and listening to the Met’s broadcast of their 1967 Aida with Leontyne […]
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Amanda
Seen on a wall in a stairwell in the Alderman Library today: a heart containing the words "I love Beatrice." Next to it, in a different hand: "You go, Dante." Underneath, in a third hand: "Meanwhile, Virgil feels dumped." Then, from another contributor: "Petrarch only loved himself!" And finally, in yet another hand: "Hmm. Let’s […]
Me, age 21, after several winters in Chicago: "Wow! 27 degrees outside! It warmed up to the double digits! It must be an early spring thaw! Let’s go outside and throw snowballs at each other while we still can!" Me, currently, after six months in Virginia: "27 degrees? It was 60 last week! 60! Oh […]
I should have known. The cure for blogger’s block is the spreading of memes. Specifically, this Poetry Meme spotted at Noli Irritare Leones. Here are the instructions: Below you will find ten first lines of poems. If you recognize the line, leave it on the list. If you do not recognize the line, then replace […]
I hate it when I have an idea for something amusing to post here, like, say, fictional character sketches to go with the wackier made-up names adopted by the senders of the spam that washes up in my spam-filters, and I receive a particularly fine example one morning (an otherwise unmemorable spam from one "Romeo […]
So, as previously mentioned, I went to this year’s Modern Language Association convention in Philadelphia, not because I’m on the market for English-professor jobs (which was the first question asked by every single old acquaintance I ran into). No, this was more by way of keeping up with some of my intellectual roots (not to […]
If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention. I’m too angry to add any further comment. But if you, like me, live in Virginia, perhaps you would consider sending the delegate who proposed this bill an e-mail explaining the sheer inhumanity of demanding that women who have just miscarried have to report the incident to […]
A fascinating article from Scientific American on what your brain does when you listen to music (quite a lot, and not just in any one location, apparently). Some of the findings: Even a little training can quickly alter the brain’s reactions. … Just as some training increases the number of cells that respond to a […]
These questions have been making the rounds. I’m getting them from Liz Lawley at mamamusings, but I’ve seen them at plenty of other people’s blogs. 1. What did you do in 2004 that you’d never done before? Not completely in order: Started a major career shift. Discovered that I really like fiddling with and thinking […]