LOST Rehash: Greatest Hits, or Charlie’s Gotta Die and Jack’s Gotta Lead

May16

Best lines from tonight’s episode:

 Charlie: “Why does everything have to be such a secret? How about some openness for a change?”

 Jack: “We’re gonna blow’em all to h—!”

Naomi to Charlie: “Look on the bright side. You’re not really dead, right?” (Heavy irony)

 Sayid to Jack: “You said you were our leader. It’s time for you to act like one.”

Charlie to Desmond: “We both know you’re not supposed to take my place.”

 I loved Charlie’s list. Could you list the five best moments of your life? I may think about that for another post. Anyway, Charlie’s best and brightest list was illuminating. Will God catch Charlie when he dies just as his father caught him in the pool? Is Charlie really a hero as the woman said? (Yes!) Is he a “bloody rock star” even though he’s only had one hit record?

Apparently, Charlie lives a little while longer anyway. I think he’s doomed, though. Who are those Commando Ladies? And what will happen to Charlie’s ring left in Aaron’s cradle? Will Desmond wake up in time to escape whatever is going to happen to Looking Glass station?

The season finale episode is named Through the Looking Glass in imitation of Alice’s second adventure. What will happen is anyone’s guess, but I’m predicting:

Charlie’s death.

Locke’s reappearance.

Ben’s capture and maybe death.

Desmond has a headache.

Juliet has to spill some more secrets.

Did you notice that Ben said that Jacob told him to move the timetable up on the kidnapping? I maintain that Ben no longer hears from Jacob, if he ever did, and he’s using Jacob’s name to keep his “cult” members in line and make them carry out his (Ben’s) wishes.

Oh, and Rose and Bernard are back. This reappearance makes me and Lindsey (Just Enjoy the Journey) happy. Locke’s reappearance will not make me happy. Jack did better this episode. At least, he listened to Sayid, the real brains of this operation. And Hurley, the Wise Fool, sensed something was going on with Charlie. If they ever kill off Hurley, I’m done. No more LOST. The writers and producers have been warned.

Thinkling De’s liveblogging LOST again.

Hershey by Michael D’Antonio

May15

Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian DreamsI’m in West Texas for the week with my mom because my dad is in the hospital. And I’m craving chocolate.

I’m reading this history of the Hershey company and of Milton Hershey’s company town, Hershey, Pennsylvania in between visits to the hospital, and tonight I want a Hershey with almonds even though my dad is in the hospital for diabetes-related problems.

 According to the book, in the nineteenth century people thought chocolate could benefit all sorts of people: alcoholics, malnourished children, even factory workers. The factory workers supposedly would perform better and faster work with a dose of chocolate.

Nowadays, “some neuroscientists believe that chocolate, which stimulates the same areas of the brain activated by cocaine —the orbital frontal cortex and the midbrain —is addictive.”

As my urchins would say, “Duh.”  How many chocolate bars does one need to crave, obtain, and eat before knowing that the substance is at least psychologically addictive?

But it also “can improve your mood and may inhibit blood clotting.” Maybe I should take my dad a chocolate bar after all —unsweetened chocolate.

Blackthorn Winter by Kathryn Reiss

May15

Blackthorn Winter is a YA murder mystery set in a small village in England. The setting is emphasized since the main characters are “Yanks” from California. The other emphasis in the novel, besides murder, is adoption and familiess since the protagonist, Juliana, is adopted. The book reads like an episode in a TV detective series or a made-for-TV movie; it’s decent entertainment for an afternoon, but nothing profound, just what I needed at the time I read it.

The book did have a couple of minor annoyances. First of all, the author over-emphasized the differences between American and British terms. Every Britishism was pointed out, made into a joke or a misunderstanding, or the very least “translated” in parentheses. It got old, but maybe kids who were completely unfamiliar with British torches and boots and chips would appreciate the too helpful explanations. Also, there were way too many coincidences infesting the plot. I won’t go into detail, but the solution to more than one mystery in the book depends on coincidence, and motive for the murderer is a little weak.

As a side note, not a criticism, I remember when books for children and even teenagers never included actual murders. I think the first children’s book I read that was a true murder mystery was The View From the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts in which a child actually witnesses a murder, but no one believes him. That plotline was unusual for children’s books back in the seventies when View was first published. but it’s not so unusual now. Child-in-danger movies and books are common fare these days. We’ve become much more lenient about what stories our children are exposed to and more confident of what violence and emotional content they can handle.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

May14

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”

O.K., so I read Nick and Norah and hated it. I thought it was rude, crude, socially unacceptable, sad, and eminently disposable. Now I’ve read An Abundance of Katherines, and it’s full of crude language, unsupervised, snotty kids, and way too much sex talk. So why did I like the second book and hate the first? I think I just identify more with geeky kids than with Cool. Nick and Norah were both so frustratingly, pitifully, in-your-face, up-to-date, New York City Cool! Blech! Give me Colin the Eternal Dumpee any day.

” . . . he always had books. Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.”

“In the first century CE, Roman authorities punished St. Apollonia by crushing her teeth one by one with pliers. Colin often thought about this in relationship to the monotony of dumping: we have thirty-two teeth. After a while, having each tooth individually destroyed probably gets repetitive, even dull. But it never stops hurting.”

“The missing piece in his stomach hurt so much —and eventually he stopped thinking about the Theorem and wondered only how something that isn’t there can hurt you.”

Colin and his best (only) friend Hassan (not-a-terrorist) are on a road trip designed to make Colin forget the pain of Katherine #19’s breaking up with him. Yes, Colin has been “in a relationship” with eighteen previous girls named Katherine, and now Katherine #19 has broken his heart —as usual. Colin always gets dumped by Katherines. Hassan (not-a -terrorist) is a great sidekick, and he’s the only funny Muslim book character I’ve ever encountered. The two buddies end up in Gutshot, Tennessee where they meet a girl named Lindsey, not Katherine, and Colin tries to formulate a Theorem that will predict the course of a romance from first kiss to the eventual End —dumping, divorce or death.

Maybe I liked the profane, wise-cracking, over-sexed An Abundance of Katherines because it’s funny, and unlike Nick and Norah I don’t feel as if the author is secretly sponsored by Planned Parenthood and the the Alan Guttmacher Institute charged with the task of feeding me propaganda about the sweetness and inevitability of teen unmarried sex. I get the idea that John Green just wanted to write a funny story about a nerdy genius who gets dumped by a whole string of girls named Katherine. The story is unbelievable (who even knows that many Katherines?), but I don’t get the impression that I’m expected to believe anything.

NOTE: If profanity, crude situations, and premarital sex offend you, you probably won’t like An Abundance of Katherines. But, darn, it’s a fun ride! I didn’t recommend the book to my young adults. I’m offended by all those things, but I still found myself chuckling at Colin’s and Hassan’s adventures. And I don’t even care for Walt Whitman either —much too juvenile and contradictory.

Fine Art and Poetry Friday: Silk and Butterflies

May11

salvador_dali_allegorie_de_soie

Salvador Dali was born May 11, 1904. The painting is called Alegorie de Soie; I think it means Allegory of Silk.

Who is the woman in right background?

Why are the shadows of the butterflies so prominent? Because it’s an allegory?

What is the yellow egg in the center?

And what are the two rock pillars on either side?

It’s almost like figuring out a LOST episode. What do you think it means?

I found this poem that I liked and which seemed to go with the painting:

To the Dead Favourite of Liu Ch’e

by Djuna Barnes (1892–1982)

THE SOUND of rustling silk is stilled,
With solemn dust the court is filled,
No footfalls echo on the floor;
A thousand leaves stop up her door,
Her little golden drink is spilled.

Her painted fan no more shall rise
Before her black barbaric eyes—
The scattered tea goes with the leaves.
And simply crossed her yellow sleeves;
And every day a sunset dies.

Her birds no longer coo and call,
The cherry blossoms fade and fall,
Nor ever does her shadow stir,
But stares forever back at her,
And through her runs no sound at all.

And bending low, my falling tears
Drop fast against her little ears,
And yet no sound comes back, and I
Who used to play her tenderly
Have touched her not a thousand years.

The poet seems to have been a person of rather dubious character, but I still like the poem.

Today’s Poetry Friday round-up is posted at HipWriterMama.

Epidemic, Pandemic, Plague, and Disease in Children’s Books

May10

Invisible Enemies: Stories of Infectious Disease by Jeanette Farrell. This nonfiction book for young adults (272 pages) covers smallpox, leprosy, plague, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, and AIDS.

Outbreak! Plagues That Changed Historyby Bryn Barnard. Another nonfiction treatment that relates historical changes to epidemic outbreaks, this book has chapters on plague, smallpox, yellow fever, cholera, tuberculosis, and influenza.

When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS by James Cross Giblin.

Smallpox
A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff. In 1870, 13 year old Dina emigrates from Germany to Brooklyn and finds herself in the midst of a smallpox epidemic.

Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster: The Discovery of the Smallpox Vaccine by Albert Marrin.

Polio:
Blue by Joyce Moyer Hostetter. Anna Fay’s little brother Bobby falls victim to the polio pandemic in 1944 even as their father is fighting the Germans in Europe.

Close to Home: A Story of the Polio Epidemic by Lydia Weaver.

Influenza
A Doctor Like Papa by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. Eleven year old Margaret wants to be a doctor like her father when she grows up, her mother says that doctoring isn’t a job for girls.

Hero Over Here by Kathleen Kudlinski. Theodore’s father and brothers are heroes —fighting the enemy during World War I. Theo learns his own lesson about heroism when he must take care of his entire family, mother and sisters, during the deadly flu epidemic of 1918.

A Time of Angels by Karen Hesse. Hannah flees Boston to escape the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, but she must battle both influenza and prejudice in Battleboro, Vermont where she makes a new life for herself.

Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan. When Rachel’s missionary parents die in an influenza epidemic in 1919 in Kenya, she is sent by scheming neighbors to England to pose as their daughter for a rich grandfather who may leave his estate to his fake granddaughter if she can endear herself to him.

Malaria:
The Boy Who Saved Cleveland by James Cross Giblin. In 1798, Cleveland is just a small village, and when malaria strikes the families settled there, ten year old Seth is their only hope of survival.

Yellow Fever
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy.

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson.

The French Physician’s Boy: A Story of Philadelphia’s 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic by Ellen Norman Stern.

Graveyard Girl by Anna Myers. Grace is the Graveyard Girl who must toll the bell each day for all those who have died of yellow fever in Memphis, 1878, and her friend Eli must learn to move past his grief over the deaths of his mother and younger sister.

Bubonic Plague
A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Paton Walsh. A village is quarantined, no one allowed in or out, in seventeenth century England, when the plague infects the villagers by means of an innocent-looking parcel sent from London.

Master Cornhill by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. A 11 year old orphan boy survives in London during the Great Fire and the Black Plague.

Any more suggestions?

Yellow Fever: America’s Plague

May10

An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy.

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson.

The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever the Epidemic That Shaped our History by Molly Caldwell Crosby.

I read the nonfiction 2003 Newbery Honor book for children and young adults by Mr. Murphy first. All I knew, or thought I knew, about yellow fever before I read it was that it’s carried by mosquitoes, it’s common in the tropics, and Walter Reed figured out about the mosquitoes. It turns out that yellow fever isn’t confined to tropical climates, it is spread by mosquitoes, and Walter Reed had a little help. Oh, yes, and by the way, yellow fever hasn’t been eradicated, and there’s no cure. Treatment consists of rest, fluids, and time. You may or may not survive if you contract the disease. Thousands of Philadelphians in 1793 didn’t. Of course, many of them may have been bled to death by Dr. Benjamin Rush and his colleagues—who also believed in dosing patients with strong, nearly lethal, purgatives to make them vomit and eliminate all the “bad blood” collected in the digetive system. Rest, fluids, and time are starting to sound good, aren’t they?

The American Plague by Molly Caldwell, a nonfiction book for adults, focuses on two events: the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee in 1878 and the work of the Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba in 1900. Over one hundred years after the 1793 epidemic, doctors were still arguing about what caused yellow fever and how to prevent or to treat it. For prevention, some public health officials argued for a quarantine during the summer months if any cases of yellow fever were reported; others favored better sanitation and waste removal. Treatment came back to purgatives, quinine (good for malaria but ineffective against yellow fever), rest and fluids. Over five thousand people died in Memphis during the yellow fever outbreak of 1878 —more lives lost than in the Chicago Fire, the San Francisco Earthquake, and the Johnstown Flood combined.

In the fictional account of the Philadelphia 1793 yellow fever epidemic, Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson illustrates the deadly nature of yellow fever and its effects on the community with a story about Mattie Cook, a girl of fourteen who lives above a coffeehouse that provides her family’s livelihood. Since Mattie’s father is dead, Mattie’s mother, her grandmother, and the black cook, Eliza, run the coffeehouse, and Mattie and the serving girl, Polly, help. At the beginning of the book in August 1793, Mattie worries about her mother’s temper and about how to get a little extra sleep and avoid as much work as possible. By the end of the story, Mattie has been forced to take on adult responsibilities: nursing, providing food for her family, repelling thieves and intruders, and running the coffeehouse, to name a few. The tone and the narrative voice of a young lady growing into a woman are quite similar to that of Ann Rinaldi’s historical fiction novels, anchored by specific historical people and events.

Interesting factoids:

Alexander Hamilton fled Philadelphia to avoid the fever in August 1793. He got it anyway, but recovered so tat he could die in his infamous duel with Aaron Burr ten years later.

George Washington also left the city of Philadelphia, which was at the time serving as the U.S. capital, but he neglected to take many of his important state papers with him. Nobody wanted to go back inot fever-infested Philadelphia to fetch the papers, and Madison and Jefferson contended that it was unconstitutional for Comgress to convene outside of the capital city anyway. So, the country survived without much government at all for the weeks that it took for the yellow fever to run its course in Philadelphia.

Dolly Payne Madison lost her first husband, Mr. Payne, and her young son to the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. Aaron Burr then introduced her to his friend James Madison, and she married Mr. Madison in 1794.

Dr. Benjamin Rush, a devout Christian and generally a good doctor, stayed in Philadelphia to treat the il, and at the height of the epidemic, he saw as many as 120 patients a day. Unfortunately, he truly believed the “cure” for yellow fever was to bleed and poison the fever out of his patients, and so he probably caused many of them to die. Dr. Rush himself fell ill with the fever during the 1793 epidemic, used his preferred treatment on himself, and survived.

George Washington laid the cornerstone for the U.S. capitol in Washington, D.C. on September 18, 1793 at the height of the yellow fever epidemic.

LOST Rehash: The Man Behind the Curtain, or Ben Is the Wizard of Oz

May10

SPOILERS: Do not enter. Pay no atention to the man behind the curtain unless you’ve already seen the May 9 episode of LOST.

The Wizard of Oz

So, Ben is the Wizard. And there’s no one behind the curtain, no Jacob, unless Jacob is an invisible poltergeist. I agree with Locke. Ben’s the Wizard of the Island, manipulating the curtain, producing his own special effects. And Ben, as I’ve said all along, ia a liar. However, just as there is in The Wizard of Oz, there is “magic” or something supernatural that supersedes Ben’s machinations. He was surprised that “Jacob” spoke to Locke, and now Ben realizes, if he didn’t already, that there are forces or personalities on this island that he doesn’t understand or control.

Jack, on the other hand, thinks he’s still in control. He finally has a plan that he deigns to share with the other Losties. They’re going to have a big battle, and Jack’s the general. Sayid couldn’t be trusted to take part in Jack’s wonderful planning process even though he’s the only one they’ve got who know anything about fighting battles. And no one else could be told until now either. (Can you hear the sarcasm in my writing?) I don’t know who Jack thinks he is, but we don’t have time to argue about it now. Live together, die alone—whatever that means. It’s time to circle the wagons and fight off the Others who are appaarently not Dharma folks, but rather “Hostiles.” Hostiles kidnap pregnant women. I think we’d better put a guard around Sun. And would somebody (Sun) please clue Jin in on what’s going on ASAP? They’re going to need all hands on deck. (I mix metaphors and cliches just as well as LOST mixes symbols and allusions.)

Symbols and stuff in this episode that I don’t really understand completely:

White rabbit: Why is Ben so fond of white rabbits? White Rabbit was the title of the episode in Season 1 when Jack kept seeing his dad —his dad who was already dead. In this episode, young Ben sees his mom —who is also supposed to be dead. Is this island a place where dead people who have unresolved issues with their kids re-appear as ghosts? Alice followed the White Rabbit in Wonderland. Ben sort of followed the White Rabbit into Hostile Land. Ben also used a white rabbit to con Sawyer into thinking that he had a pacemaker implant that would kill him if he got excited.

The empty rocking chair: Jacob is supposed to be in the rocking chair, but it reminds me of Psycho. I think Ben’s psychologically disturbed, probably as a result of his dead mom and verbally abusive dad.

Skeletons: Skeletons abound on this island. There are skeletons in the slave ship, skeletons fall out of airplanes and a VW van, and now we have skeletons in a pit. Is this the Island of Death? Are the skeletons meant to imply that the Losties are already dead, too, or that they will be soon? Doomed.

The pit: People die or sometimes live in pits on this island. Anna Lucia had Other Goodwin down in a pit. Nikki and Paolo died in a large grave/pit. Now Locke’s dying or dead in the pit along with a bunch of Dharma skeletons. Of course, the hatch which preoccupied all of us first season was just big pit which became a death trap. Only no one died? Didn’t Rousseau live in a large underground room or pit?

Alice in Wonderland. The Wizard of Oz. The Pit and the Pendulum. Psycho.
I think those stories about summarize tonight’s episode.

Next week: Apocalypse Now?

Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer: They Don’t Call it LOST for Nuthin’.

Amanda: The Wonderful Wizard of Lost.

Olive: Ben’s as crazy as we thought.

Lazy Days of Homeschool

May8

IMG_9755Our homeschool year is winding down. We always do this about May/June. I run out of steam. The Great Outdoors invites the children out to explore before it gets too hot in Houston to go outdoors. So, here’s a play-by-play of our school day today:

Starting last night: We watched the video, Building Big: Dams with David Macaulay, that I got from Blockbuster. Last night’s viewing was the second time we watched it because Engineer Husband wanted to watch it, too. This time two of the urchins decided to build a dam, but it was too late last night. So Engineer Dad got out the sand and the rocks and left them for the urchins to build their dam.

9:00 AM: Karate Kid (10) and Betsy-Bee are ready to build their dam. They go outside and begin to play dam-building while Z-Baby (5) watches. After it’s built we take pictures and flood it a few more times.

10:00 AM: Everybody’s finally awake now. Computer Guru Son leaves for college to take his government final. The urchins are grazing on breakfast (bagels, cream cheese, and/or cereal) and doing their morning jobs. Karate Kid is reading the book I gave him yesterday, The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin. The book is an ARC that Mr. Berlin kindly had sent to me to review. I’ve read part of it, but I figured a ten year old boy’s opinion would be useful. Karate Kid says it’s sort of like The Westing Game, and it’s a great book, and he wishes there were more books about the same character. Brown Bear Daughter (12) is doing her writing practice on the computer. She’s taking a writing class at The Potter’s School, an online resource for middle school and high school classes, and she’s supposed to write for thirty minutes a day. By the way, I recommend the classes at The Potter’s School, if you can afford them. Most of them that we’ve used have been quite good and helpful. While everyone is grazing, working and reading, I read two books to Z-baby that she requested: The Magic School Bus: Wet all Over, a Book About the Water Cycle and Richard Scarry’s Great Big Mystery Book.

10:30 AM I finally get all the urchins (except Computer Guru Son) together for Bible reading and devotional time. We read from Matthew 6, then read about a missionary to the Philippines who was held prisoner by the Japanese during WW II and later became a missionary to Japan in The One Year Book of Christian History. We sing a hymn, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. The older urchins say that I led it too slowly. I’ll have to remember to pick up the tempo. I remind the urchins to complete their morning jobs, which should have been done long ago, and to start on their math.

11:00 AM: I’m ready to help Betsy-Bee and Z-Baby with their math, but Betsy-Bee says she wants to help Z-Baby with her math. They go outside to the picnic table to do math look at the dam. Then they come inside to start the math pages in Z-Baby’s workbook. Karate Kid is back to reading Winston Breen and laughing out loud. I don’t have the heart to tear him away for math, so I decide to leave him alone and let the math wait until later. I find Brown Bear Daughter back on the computer browsing a forum, and I remind her that she’s supposed to be doing her Saxon math lesson. She complies sheepishly.

11:30: I thought she complied, but I catch her back on the computer again. She says she’s chatting with someone while she does her math. I tell Brown Bear Daughter to “move away from the computer.” (Does anyone else have this problem, a 12 year old who’s computer-dependent? If so, or if not, what do you do to limit computer use? Or do you?) Brown Bear Daughter goes to the living room couch to do her math lesson. Dancer Daughter is practicing her piano pieces for recital.

12:00 noon: I start lunch, pasta salad with tuna. I should have made it earlier and refrigerated it, but I didn’t think. I also put some pinto beans on to cook for supper. Computer Guru Son gets back from his test and says he thinks it went pretty well. He has one more final to go on Thursday to finish the semester. Betsy-Bee and Z-Baby finished Z-Baby’s math, but Betsy-Bee hasn’t started hers. I tell her to get her book and do math.

12:30 PM: Lunch is just as informal as breakfast was. I put the pasta salad in the freezer to cool and tell the urchins to get some as soon as they’ve finished something significant school-wise. I help Betsy-Bee get started on her math. Using the Cuisenaire rods, she’s doing some simple division problems in her Miquon math workbook.

1:00 PM: Betsy-Bee is still working on her math in between distractions. Brown Bear Daughter is still working on her math, too. I have a long discussion with Computer Guru Son about when he should purchase a car. He wants to buy the car now with a thousand dollar down payment, and I think he should wait until he gets another job before he gets the car. Delayed gratification is major lesson that should be required for graduation.

1:30 PM Dancer Daughter and Organizer Daughter leave to go to the church for their drama class. Their class is working on a musical play called Malcolm, based on a story by George MacDonald, that will be presented in less than three weeks, and they’re hitting the time crunch. I’m still trying to get Betsy-Bee to finish her math. Z-Baby and I do a couple of pages in her phonics workbook, Go for the Code. I tell Karate Kid, who has finished the Winston Breen book to go do his math lesson. He wants to write a report on The Puzzling Adventures of Winston Breen instead.

2:00 PM Brown Bear Daughter finished her math, and now she’s reading another ARC, First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover by Mitali Perkins. BB Daughter says it’s a good book, but she doesn’t think I’ll like it because the mom in the story says, “Crap.” I tell her not to make that word a part of her daily vocabulary and think to myself that I probably will like it.

2:30 PM Computer Guru Son wants me to come see a picture on his computer of the car he wants to buy. Z-Baby wants me to write some words in her alphabet book for her to copy and illustrate. I write: “map, tap, lap, cap, nap.” She tries to read the words as I write them and as she copies them, but she’s really just reading my lips and memorizing for the most part.

3:00 PM I look at the car. After Computer Guru Son threw in all kinds of sweeteners, including a promise to redesign the blog and cleanup the backyard, I’m about convinced, but he still has to get his dad’s approval. Brown Bear Daughter and I take a look at Sameera Righton’s blog, SparrowBlog. We learn that Barak Obama now has secret service protection and that presidential candidates’ kids sometimes get to fly in private jets.

3:30 PM The younger urchins are watching Maya and Miguel. I don’t like this show for some reason that I can’t exactly articulate, but the urchins like it. Karate Kid needs to get ready for swim team practice which starts at 4:00.

4:00 PM I take Karate Kid to swim team. The rest of the day will be mostly filled with me playing taxi driver. Betsy-Bee has dance tonight. Brown Bear Daughter has swim team practice later. And Dancer Daughter has an appointment to get an MRI on her knees—the reason she’s not really Dancer Daughter anymore 🙁

See you later.

8:00 PM: I did all the taxi-driving and came home to find supper on the table thanks to my wonderful Engineer Husband. After supper, we made a quick, impromptu trip to the library so that the urchins could get some library books. Karate Kid never did get his math done, but he did write a paragraph about the book he read. Dams and puzzles today, math tomorrow.

Book Character Meme

May8

I found this book character meme at A Circle of Quiet. I added the last question because I thought it would be fun.

Three characters you wish were real so you could meet them:
1. Nero Wolfe, although he probably wouldn’t meet with me since I’m a woman. He’s somewhat gynephobic.
2. Elizabeth Bennett
3. Father Tim of Mitford

Three characters you would like to be:
1. Anne of Green Gables.
2. Jane Marple.
3. Madeleine. “To the tiger in the zoo, Madeleine just said, ‘Pooh, pooh.'”

Three characters who scare you:
1. Gulliver of Gulliver’s Travels.
2. Tom and Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.
3. Steerforth in David Copperfield.

Three characters you would welcome if they came courting your daughter:
1. Lord Peter Wimsey.
2. Curdie.
3. Faramir.