Rules

Jul9

The Headmistress at The Common Room has a wonderful list of Rules My Mama Never Told Me I’d Have to Make. My favorite rule of hers: “Do not glue your Cabbage Patch doll to the floor. And not to Daddy’s flight jacket either. And don’t glue it to the couch. And not the chair. Do not glue that baby anywhere.”

And here are some rules my mama never gave me and never warned me about:

When constructing a toy cannon out of household odds and ends, do not use powdered red tempera paint for gunpowder on your mother’s bedroom carpet.

Do not urinate on the garden.

Do not eat a bottle of vitamins. If you do consume a bottle of vitamins, do not feed them to your two year old sister to disguise the amount of vitamins consumed.

Blue chalk is for drawing, not eating. (However, if you call Poison Control, they will tell you that it is probably not toxic.)

Do not put bologna in the computer CD drive.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, but judging from appearances, they are not: Books belong in the bookshelf; candy wrappers belong in the trash; and wet, dirty towels belong in the wash.

Flip-flops are not appropriate church attire. (I’ve given up on this one in order to save my breath for more important battles.)

Do not allow the (large) dog to sit on your baby sister.

Children should sleep in their own beds, not in their parents’ bed, not in the living room floor, not on the trampoline, not in someone else’s bed —in their very own beds.

Do not play tic-tac-toe with Sharpie marker on the wall. Do not play tic-tac-toe with Sharpie marker on the back of the new leather couch. Do not touch a Sharpie marker until you are eighteen years old, and then only with the written permission of both parents.

Mommy and Daddy are not substitute jungle gyms.

Picking up a snake at the nature center and bringing it to your mother to ask her to identify said snake is not a good idea. Especially if the snake might be a copperhead. Especially if the snake IS a copperhead.

Baby possums trapped in the trash can are not cute. They are likely instead to be vicious and rabid.

Poetry and Fine Art Friday: Riddle

Jul6

The Martyrdom of Jan Hus

The author of the following riddle poem, often attributed to Lord Byron, was Catherine Maria Fanshawe, born on this date in 1765.

‘Twas whispered in Heaven, ’twas muttered in Hell,
And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell;
On the confines of Earth, ’twas permitted to rest,
And in the depths of the ocean its presence confessed;
‘Twill be found in the sphere when ’tis riven asunder,
Be seen in the lightning and heard in the thunder;
‘Twas allotted to man with his earliest breath,
Attends him at birth and awaits him at death,
Presides o’er his happiness, honor and health,
Is the prop of his house and the end of his wealth.
In the heaps of the miser, ’tis hoarded with care,
But is sure to be lost on his prodigal heir;
It begins every hope, every wish it must bound;
With the husbandman toils, and with monarchs is crowned;
Without it the soldier and seaman may roam,
But woe to the wretch who expels it from home!
In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found,
Nor e’er in the whirlwind of passion be drowned;
‘Twill soften the heart; but though deaf be the ear,
It will make him acutely and instantly hear.
Set in shade, let it rest like a delicate flower;
Ah! Breath on it softly, it dies in an hour.

(The picture hints at the answer to the riddle.)

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born July 6th

Jul6

Mignon Good Eberhart, b. 1899. A contemporary of Agatha Christie, Eberhart wrote romantic suspense and mystery stories. Girl Detective writes about Eberhart and her books here.

Nancy Reagan, b. 1921.

George W. Bush, b. 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

Cheryl Harness, b.1951. Author and illustrator of many children’s biographies and books about American historical events, including Three Young Pilgrims, Young John Quincy, Young Abe Lincoln, and The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin. These are beautifully illustrated books, and Ms. Harness tells a good story, too.

Also, on this date in 1415 Bohemian reformer John Hus was condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake. He was a follower of John Wycliffe and promoted Wycliffe’s ideas in what is now the Czech Republic. John Hus refused to recant his teachings with the words: “God is my witness that I have never taught that of which I have been accused by false witnesses. In the truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught, and preached I will die to-day with gladness.”
Hus is believed to have been born on or around July 6, 1369.

Movie News

Jul5

I just read while cruising the blogs that the following new movies are due out soon:

A new Indiana Jones movie with Harrison Ford as a very old Indiana. (How old is Harrison Ford, anyway?) Director Steven Spielberg and Executive Producer George Lucas are also back in the saddle for this one. It has a May, 2008 release date.

A sequel to National Treasure. Mrs. Happy Housewife says the original National Treasure contains historical inaccuracies. No, no, say it ain’t so! We were using that movie as the backbone of our early American history curriculum. 🙂
The new National Treasure movie is about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. So that should take us through the end of the Civil War.

Becoming Jane, the movie about Jane Austen’s life and love, will be in theaters in August. I think it will be fun as long as no one’s expecting historical fact instead of fictionalized romance based Austen’s life.

Golden Door is already in release in some cities, according to the official website. It’s a story about immigration to the U.S. through Ellis Island in the early 1900’s. More American history curriculum. 🙂 I’m going to have an entire course covering the span of U.S. history soon. Not really, but the movie does sound interesting.

Finally, they’re not new movies, but Melissa Wiley is compiling a great list of movie suggestions for her Netflix queue. I’m definitely going to add some of them to my Blockbuster list.

A Place in the Sun by Jill Rubalcaba

Jul5

Setting: Thirteenth century B.C., Egypt under the rule of Pharoah Ramses II, New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty.

Main Character: Senmut, the nine year old son of the sculptor, Yuf.

Themes: hardship, suffering, luck, perseverance.

This seventy-five page historical novel is short but full of pain and suspense. Senmut is only nine years old (I kept reminding myself of his age throughout the story) when he is sentenced to hard labor in the gold mines of Nubia for a “crime” that was essentially an accident. It’s unfair and horrible, and I think that although the reading level of the book is fourth or fifth grade, the content is pitched at young adult readers.

I got a picture of ancient Egypt as a place that might be nice to visit, if I could successfully avoid breaking any of the many superstitious taboos that ruled the lives of the Egyptians, but it wouldn’t be a “place in the sun” that I’d want to call home. Senmut survives his ordeal and becomes something more than a slave in ther gold mines, but his escape and his success are really due to luck, or the favor of the gods, more than anything else.

I think this one would be a great choice to go with our ancient history study to show students that ancient Egypt wasn’t all Pharoahs and pyramids, that lots of common people suffered and died under the rule of some dictatorial rulers who thought they were gods and yet were afraid of the gods whose images they both worshipped and emulated.

Shadow Hawk by Andre Norton

Jul2

Setting: Ancient Egypt, mainly in and around Thebes, c.1590 B.C. during the reigns of Pharoah Sekenenre III and his son Pharoah Kamose. Also near the end of the Hyksos occupation of Lower Egypt.

Main Character: Rahotep, younger son of Ptahhotep, viceroy of Nubia. Through his mother’s lineage, Rahotep is entitled to be called Nomarch (Duke) of the Hawk, but his duchy is overrun and has been for some time by the Hyksos invaders.

Themes: war, obedience to authority, rebellion, freedom. (Even if you don’t care for Ms. Norton’s science fiction/fantasy works, which are full of “witchy” worlds and themes, you may very well enjoy this book, which is straight historical fiction, good versus evil, morally impeccable.)

Minor Details that I noticed:
There are a lot of battles and descriptions of battles. Boys might enjoy that aspect of the book more than girls.

Rahotep is a hero. He’s the younger brother, forced to flee from his older brother who is out to get him. So, he’s the underdog who makes good at Pharoah’s court. That sort of plot and protagonist still works for me.

Very minor as far as the story is concerned, but I noticed how much respect and worship the Egyptians accorded their Pharoahs who were thought to be gods, sons of Re, the Sun God. We would be ashamed, and misunderstood, if those ancient Egyptians saw what little respect we Christians sometimes give to the God of the Universe and his Son, Jesus.

. . . by custom he did not raise his eyes to the man on the improvised throne. . . .

Rahotep went down on his knees. ‘Life! Health! Prosperity! May the Son of Re live forever! I am one unworthy of his notice! Let the Son of Re know that this one is less than the dust on his sandals . . .’

Rahotep advanced to put his lip to the Pharoah’s sandal strap.”

Author: Andre Norton is mainly famous for her science fiction titles, but she also wrote historical fiction. Shadow Hawk was published in 1960.

During those early days, agents were really unknown. So, when I was ready to submit my first novel, I got an alphabetized list of publishers and sent it to the first name on the list, and they accepted it.”

Can you authors believe that kind of sucess?

I was children’s librarian at the Cleveland Public Library for over twenty years, from 1930-1951. Each month the librarians would receive a book to review. If there was some objection to the book, and we still wanted it, we would have an opportunity to defend it. I remember getting The Hobbit and nobody had heard of Tolkien, so I had to argue for it like mad.”

I always say that I read and loved Tolkien before Tolkien was cool, but I don’t have as good a story as Ms. Norton.

A lot of children’s stories these days, while being well written, are downbeat. They have no hope, and the protagonist is someone that you wouldn’t like, and they are no better off at the end of the story than they were at the beginning. This is a new format, and it’s getting in to stories in the Science Fiction and Fantasy fields.”

Ah, someone else is concerned with that pesky “sense of hope” again. I must say that I agree with Ms. Norton and decry the loss of hope in children’s books.

Quotations are from a 1996 interview here at Ms. Norton’s excellent website. Andre Norton died in 2005.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born June 29th

Jun29

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, b. 1900.

Here’s a Semicolon review of Saint-Exupery’s Wind, Sand and Stars.

A poem, Generation to Generation by Saint-Exupery.

Wikipedia on The Little Prince.

From The Little Prince:

Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu’avec le cÅ“ur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Les hommes ont oublié cette vérité, dit le renard. Mais tu ne dois pas l’oublier. Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé.
“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed.

Poetry and Fine Art Friday: The Flag

Jun29

I love the way words in poetry play off one another like shadows across the floor.
I think poetry is one way to blow away all the fog and see life in full light. A certain kind of poetry can prettify and falsify life, no doubt about it, but the right kind can boil it down to its essence.”
From A Garden to Keep by Jamie Langston Turner.

American Parade

Some more of “literature’s greatest lines” courtesy of Dr. Huff:

The Flag Goes By by Henry Holcomb Bennett

HATS off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!

Blue and crimson and white it shines,
Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
Hats off!
The colors before us fly;
But more than the flag is passing by.

Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and to save the State:
Weary marches and sinking ships;
Cheers of victory on dying lips;

Days of plenty and years of peace;
March of a strong land’s swift increase;
Equal justice, right and law,
Stately honor and reverend awe;

Sign of a nation, great and strong
To ward her people from foreign wrong:
Pride and glory and honor,—all
Live in the colors to stand or fall.

Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;
And loyal hearts are beating high:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!

Essential or prettifying? You decide. At any rate, that ought to get you ready for the Fourth of July! And if you don’t live in the USA, then salute your own country’s flag the next time you see it.

Friday’s Center of the Blogosphere

Jun28

Cindy Swanson has a post on cutting, the practice of self-abuse that is prevalent among mostly teenage girls in some circles. I didn’t even know that this sad, self-abusive pattern even existed until a few years ago when a friend of one of the urchins admitted that she “cuts”. If this is a problem for you or for one of your loved ones, Cindy offers some hope.

Today at the Mission on God and creation: “The creation story tells me that God is present in our world in ways that are simply beyond our knowing – as scientists or religionists or anything else. The first chapter of Genesis tells me that God created a place where he could connect with people like you, and people like me, and we could all, you know, hang out together. Why? Because God is love and, forgive me if I’m wrong, but maybe love needs to express itself, longs to express itself, exists to be expressed, in the creation of a world with its own solar system; in the creation of a hot meal for a homeless guy who, cold and wet, sits at the dinner table in tears; in the creation of the smile on a little girl’s face as she heads out the door with her cookies; in the warm, safe beds at the shelter: in the coffee shop where a guy who hasn’t been on staff for over two years continues to meet with a former client.”

Kevin Stilley makes the case for Mike Huckabee as the best possible Republican presidential nominee in 2008: “The irony is that there is really only one candidate in the current field of Republican contenders who all Republicans would be willing to eventually invest their trust and support in the general election; and that candidate is receiving little attention, — Mike Huckabee.”

Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer reveals her struggle with panic attacks: “I spent my days huddled in a ball of anguish, feeling the waves of despair and panic wash over me, again and again. I wanted, with all my heart, to die, and I thought about it constantly. And to anyone who would listen, I would say, ‘This shouldn’t be happening to me. There’s no reason for me to feel like this,’ as though if I said it often enough, it would all go away.”

Book-spotting #27

Jun28

Marvin Olasky’s 100 favorite books from the last seven years of treadmill reading.

His list is mostly nonfiction; I’ve read three of them:
J. Budziszewki—How to Stay Christian in College (NavPress, 2004)
Philip Caputo—Acts of Faith (Knopf, 2005) Semicolon review here.
Lauren F. Winner—Girl Meets God (Algonquin, 2003) Semicolon review here.

I see several others on Mr. Olasky’s list that I’d like to read —someday.

NEWS from the UK: “Tori Amos, the singer, . . . is collaborating with dramatist Samuel Adamson on a hoped-for production of The Light Princess, George MacDonald’s story (which was illustrated by Maurice Sendak) about a princess cursed by a witch.” Sounds interesting.

Book-burning? Ah, but as a protest, it’s acceptable.

50 Books That Defined the Twentieth Century. Guardian and The Book Marketing Society list four, five, or six books per decade. The 1920’s rate seven books. I’ve read twelve of the twenty, and four out of seven for the 1920’s. Maybe the twenties were better.