Is it the nose?

Ethan looks different today, but I'm not sure why. Do you think it's his nose?

Rocket man

Ethan has a cool room. He's always had a cool room, but now it's even cooler - today we finally had both the time and presences of mind to finish decorating it, after only 8 months inn the new house :-)

I'm also in the process of finally outfitting my office completely. In the next month it'll be done. Maybe by our 1-year anniversary in the house, it'll look like we live here!

Deep dish

I love a good dishy Project Runway interview. This is, perhaps, one of the best I've ever come across.

Disgusted, but not surprised

Needless to say, I'm disgusted with P-Run's choosing Tattoo Neck as the Season 3 winner, but then, I'm not entirely surprised. There was waaaay too much manufactured drama, demonizing, and redemption from the editors for it to go any other way, I'm afraid. Oh well, this tends top put me in a pattern of not preferring the winning designer each year. Last year (and still), my heart belonged to Daniel V and Uncle Nick, while this year Uli, Michael, and Laura all won me over. Hell, I even cared about one of the models (Nazri), and had opinions about another (motormouth Amanda). LOL - when Heidi says "remember, models, this is also a competition for you," I typically snort derisively and wait for them to auf one and get on with the show, but this season they actually did things to make the clothes hangers interesting. Who would have though this was possible?

Thank God LOST can still be relied up on to amuse me on Wednesday nights! (Though I'm already missing it on account of the upcoming several weeks with no show.)

Fields of Gold

It's no secret, I love Sting. I've been a huge fan of his work, both solo and with The Police, for as long as I can recall. In fact, the first 45 (!) I ever bought was for "Every Breath You Take," purchased at the Peaches record shop (later known as Buttons, then Sound Warehouse, and then, I think, Blockbuster Music before shutting entirely) at 51st and Sheridan in Tulsa, OK.

Something has been in the back of my head for years - like 15 of 'em - and I am only now getting around to Googling out the answer. I'm not sure I've got it, but would love thoughts of those reading (Gillian, this means you, in particular!)

Does the lyric for "Fields of Gold" remind you of anything?

Here's Sting's song (one of my all-time top three Sting tunes, I'd say, btw):

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in fields of gold

So she took her love
For to gaze awhile
Upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold

Will you stay with me, will you be my love
Among the fields of barley
We'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we lie in fields of gold

See the west wind move like a lover so
Upon the fields of barley
Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth
Among the fields of gold
I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We'll walk in fields of gold
We'll walk in fields of gold

Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold

It's a gorgeous, gorgeous song, but has always nibbled at the back of my mind - where have I read this before?

So, there's a Christopher Marlowe poem:

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of th purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.

The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love

is this what Sting was inspired by when writing Fields of Gold? He was an English lit teacher for several years and anyone who could write a concept album inspired by The Canterbury Tales would certainly know Marlowe forwards and backwards, too.

What about this, though, by John Donne?

The Baite

COME live with mee, and bee my love,
And wee will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, and christall brookes:
With silken lines, and silver hookes.

There will the river whispering runne
Warm'd by thy eyes, more then the Sunne.
And there the'inamor'd fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swimme in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channell hath,
Will amorously to thee swimme,
Gladder to catch thee, then thou him.

If thou, to be so seene, beest loath,
By Sunne, or Moone, thou darknest both,
And if my selfe have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legges, with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poore fish beset,
With strangling snare, or windowie net:

Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest,
Or curious traitors, sleavesilke flies
Bewitch poore fishes wandring eyes.

For thee, thou needst no such deceit,
For thou thy selfe art thine owne bait;
That fish, that is not chatch'd thereby,
Alas, is wiser farre then I.

But, here's where I need help. I remember way back in French IV, Mme Anderson had us reading all sorts of great French works, and there was one by Rabelais, "Pantagruel," that for some reason I'm thinking also has similar language to this. I can still remember sitting there in class and reading it for the first time thinking, 'This is like "Fields of Gold,'" but, alas, since this was 1992 and pre-internet (for "regular" people), cross-checking it was not so simple. I'm not sure why it's taken me 14 yrs. to get around to looking for more on this - God knows I think about it every time I hear the song. Does anyone out there know what I'm talking about? I have a feeling this will drive me crazy until I know.

While being driven there, I'm loving Sting's new CD "Songs from the Labyrinth," which features, incidentally, a remake of Fields on the lute. Absolute perfection...

I have hay in my shoe

I have hay in my shoe, I said to Ethan and my mom this past Saturday. I don't think I've ever said those words, in that order, before. We'd taken Ethan to Hill Ridge Farms, in Youngsville, NC (about 20 minutes north of Raleigh).

Most Octobers, we are in NY and visit a fabbo place in Muttonville for pumpkins, but this year, with Mitch in CA right now, the NY thing wasn't happening. This place, I must say, was even better, when you consider all the cool stuff they have.

We took a hayride to the farm's pumpkin patch, where Ethan wasted no time choosing just the right one for him. Then, we were off on a train ride, through a literally short maze (over whose walls he towered, thus eliminating the difficulty of the thing), and an 80-foot slide. They also had a pond, where we could "feed the hungry, friendly fish," Ethan assured me, though we didn't happen to have any fish food on us. We even got to see a combine (Frank?) at work, something E and I had only previously seen in the movie "Cars."



The weather was perfect for such a day - crisp and cool, with bright sunshine.

I am so glad fall is here!

Conversating is my speciality

There favorite way to conversate in Spain is in a foreign language Castilian.

Oh, the things my students teach me...

I heart Borat

It was like Christmas in Khazakstan when I opened my mailbox this afternoon to find Borat staring out at me.

I am really looking forward to Borat's movie, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, in a few weeks. I'm loving seeing all the press it's getting. Last week Newsweek made my day with this article, and now, Entertainment Weekly has won me over once again with Borat on their cover.

I've' been a Borat fan for a few years no - I'm no bandwagon jumper! - I just hope the thing is taken as it should be, and does well to boot. If only Borat and Louis Theroux could get together, I'd be in heaven!

BTW, whenever people ask me what one can really do with a history degree, I now have an answer. Sacha has one from Christ's College, Cambridge.

Shocking news

I'm still in shock, Laura Bennett doesn't live in a doorman building.

What more can P-Run throw at me?

Buenos dias, Señor Cleaver. ¿Donde esta Wallace y Theodore?

I'm going with Ethan's kindergarten class to Ganyard Hill Farm for a field trip on Thursday. I was been told this afternoon that I'll be in charge of three boys: Ethan, a child who speaks only Hmong (I think), and another who speaks only Spanish. The above is ALL I can say in Spanish and, well, it's about all I can say in Hmong, too. Given that the volunteer background checks included a box where we were to tell all foreign languages we can speak (Russian and French for me), you'd think they'd get a Spanish speaker to help out with the Spanish-speaking kids.

It should be interesting!

The Hmong boy, btw, is one of two in his class whom Ethan has identified as his "best friend." They sat together at the Blue Table for the first month of school, which I suspect cemented their relationship - that and the fact that the other kid had no way to tell Ethan to be quiet and leave him alone ;-) E, btw, feels VERY important for being charged with teaching his new friend to speak English. He must assume the ESL teachers are recruiting him to serve as their intern...

What I learned today

Did you know that it's most appropriate to use left-justified text when writing to "the poor"? I didn't either, but one of my students told me this today in no uncertain terms.

It's amazing what they choose to skip in the grad school curriculum these days.

Any poor people out there who'd like to comment on this? Do you prefer left-justified text? Why?

Nanci

PS - This blog entry is left-justified in of the spirit of economic inclusion.

Enjoy the Silence

OK, so the DM song title isn't totally accurate, but I can't think of any other cool song title off the top of my head to adequately express what a fabbo few days it's been.

Last week was the week from Hell, work-wise. I'm teaching (more than) a full load right now, and all but one of my classes had large assignments due. I have a week to get everything graded and the work plus weekly grades back in students' hands, and normally this isn't a problem. But, oh, last week was different! The grading went well, but there was just so much of it!

In the middle of this, Mitch came home from CA (yay!) and so my attention was distracted, to say the least :-)

Long story short, I did get the grading done, and then had a great long weekend. It was the first weekend that Mitch and I were in the same state since before my birthday, so we went out for a post-bday dinner and movie. We went to one of our favorites places, Michael Dean's, and then to see The Illusionist. Why aren't more people talking about his film? I absolutely loved it. Granted, Edward Norton can basically do no wrong, but he was far from the only good thing about it. I loved the story, thought the acting was great, sets and costumes really beautiful, and the filming itself was really interesting. Lots of nice, unexpected things going on, cinematographically. I'd def. like to see this again, and will pick up the DVD when it's out.

Today was the first teacher work day we've had since Ethan started kindergarten, and it was great having a long, bonus day for us to all hang out together. We slept late, stayed in our jammies too long, then went out for some mall time, had lunch, took naps, etc. All around, a really nice, low-key day. This was just what I needed after last week! Ethan and I even finished reading >The Mouse and the Motorcycle at his bedtime. Somehow this Beverly Cleary gem escaped me when I was small. I think I may have enjoyed reading it as much as Ethan did hearing it!

Now I plan to take the rest of the evening easy, curl up and pour over my new copy of U2 by U2, and then watch Studio 60.

Life is good...

This and that

This week has been far, far better than last. My students are still bizarre and other things are odd, but at least they're not all driving me up the wall.

I did learn this from one of my students: Every [school] applicant, regardless the method of enrollment, must physically consort with a [school name] education counselor before completing the enrollment process. We are nothing if not friendly, I guess. (Notice he didn't say faculty must consort - thank God for that!)

I we had dogs, here's what they'd be wearing for Halloween:


Ethan is going as Mater from the Cars movie, and has spent the better part of the week saying "Trick or Treat from Radiator Springs" and similar phrases in Mater's voice. Should I be proud of his accent and mimicry skills, or appalled that a redneck voice comes to him so easily?

Too much honesty

Note to self:

if ever taking a class again, instead of teaching it, remember not to explain poor performance in the following way:

Well, I know I didn't participate hardly at all last week and I completely missed an assignment but I went to Seattle to audition for American Idol and honestly walked right passed my laptop that was all ready to go. I was so stressed about everything else I guess. And I didn't know anyone so I had no access to a computer. Anyways, I know I missed a lot from last week but it was for a good reason. To me at least. I will do much better at planning on getting my homework done before I go on any future trips. I am sorry.

Very good - telling a teacher that American Idol (of all things...shudder) is more important than her class.

Can you hear me sawing away on my tiny violin?

Sensational Similes, Marvelous Metaphors

Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual similes and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners. . .

1) Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2) His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3) He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4) She grew on him like she was a colony of E.Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5) She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6) Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7) He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8) The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9) The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10) McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11) From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12) Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13) The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14) Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15) They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16) John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17) He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18) Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19) Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20) The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21) The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22) He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23) The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24) It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25) He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Check the Moon

I normally don't buy into the whole "weirdos and full moons coincide" thing, but this week has made me reconsider. I've been too busy, however, dealing with said weirdos to see if, indeed, the moon is full, if Mercury is in retrograde (whatever that means), etc.

The week began simply enough - four of my classes had work due for grading, one was in a discussion period, and two more were just beginning. Things went smoothly for many days, I graded a ton of papers, grumbled about grading the rest, etc. Then, Thursday happened.

My day began with an email containing a PowerPoint presentation from one of my students. The final project in his class involves a PPT presentation, so I didn't think too much of it. What did I find upon opening the file? Why, a detailed presentation outlining his upcoming incarceration for failure to pay child support! What did you expect? I know some people have different views of what's tmi than others, but really, did I need to know this? And even if he is about to be jailed for being a deadbeat dad and felt the need to tell me, did he have to do it via a PPT demo?!? I'm trying to forget I even read this thing of his - not only is it none of my business, but it's not like deadbeat dads are the most sympathetic group of criminals. BTW, he totally admits he is guilty.

The day was certainly off to an interesting, and telling, start.

Other fun awaiting me that day (in no particular order) - the arrival of a self-published "screenplay" written by a former student of mine named Hiroshima. Her twin sister is named Nagasaki. They are Cuban. I kid you not. The story is a rip-off err...modern adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, written in both English and Spanish, and was accompanied by a letter from the author asking me to put her in contact with "anyone I know" who could help her bring the story "to the stage." Last time I checked, it'd be easier to bring a screenplay to the screen... So, anyone wanna bring this screenplay to the stage? I'm sure any theatre on Broadway will do.

My plagiarist returned to class, with nary a word of explanation for himself. Mark my words, I am running EVERYTHING he writes through my diabolical plagiarism checkers (bwhahaha...)

The night ended with one of my new students sending me three "joke" emails to my school email address. Now, if you are reading this blog, you know how I loathe those emails. Some people can send them and I like them - those of you reading this, for example, probably meet my minimum standards for snark and irreverence, and so I say, send me what you have. But others? Uh, no. I don'' want to read anything that begins "Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Too CUTE!" and then displays the sender's entire address book. Ditto for "proud American" emails. (Blech!) What have I done to deserve this? I asked the student to kindly remove me from her joke list and only email me about school business. She replied saying that she writes to "another Nanci' and must have "guessed at the wrong email address." Uh huh. I'm sure the "other Nanci' not only spells her name with an "i' but also has an email account at the school's domain.

Friday's weirdness level was back to normal, I am pleased to report. No more PPT demos outlining upcoming incarceration schedules, no more Tony Award-hopeful screenplays, and no more CUTE! emails. Just one student telling me she "felt degraded" when I graded her paper and generously gave her a low B after politely pointing out she'd done the assignment all wrong but luckily included enough detail that I had something to work with. I know someone else who teaches this course who'd have given her an F. Maybe that person should be my new hero?

If I sound cranky, I'm really not, I more just amazed that all the weird things can happen in one 24 hr period. Thank God for the weekend!

Happy Holidays

I think when you're 5, a mid-September birthday really does seem to fall just a few moments away from Halloween. Ethan certainly seems to think so, so he's decorated my cake accordingly.

As for his gift to me, I think giving someone a cake pan for their birthday is something like telling a genie you "wish for more wishes."

At least I know it was heart-felt!

Which plague?

Don't all medievalists need to know which plague they'd have?

Which Medieval Plague Do You Have?

Congratulations! You have the Red Plague! Known today as Smallpox, you are highly contagious, suffering from fever, chills, headache and a terrible backache. Within days you will develop a red rash over most of your body. You will then probably develop pus-filled blisters on your skin. You will be sick for weeks. The good news is the mortality rate is only 25% (good odds for the Middle Ages!). The bad news is you will probably be left with ugly pox marks. On the plus side, you will be forever immune to it if you survive. Too bad you will probably give it to everyone in your family.
Take this quiz!








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Uli wuz robbed!

How on earth could this:




















Beat this?!?

Even if I didn't have an MA in history...

...I'd be bothered by this! (This is definitely worth clicking on the images to read all the comments!)








Thanks to Gillian for this :-)