Yes, I was a glutton — three medieval classes in one term. I should add, I’m teaching three medieval classes with at least two different textbooks, so I am teaching some of the same texts in different translations (as if conveying the complexities of different parts of the Middle Ages were not hard enough!). I…
Category: amusement
Bootless (but Corseted)
I was all pleased to be without the boot any longer, despite the swelling today (pushed things too much yesterday, I guess — missing the whirlpool at physical therapy, sigh). But my trip to the orthopedist this morning resulted in another appliance, an ASO, which naturally I have already dubbed “the ankle corset” (nice lacing)….
Fiction/Non-Fiction
From the official Empire State Building site: Narrating the tour is Tony, a fictional, but nonetheless authentic, native New Yorker born 50 years ago in Chelsea, an area of Manhattan not yet the hot, trendy neighborhood it is today. The tour is written from Tonyās point of view and is filled with his colorful, amusing…
Stephen Fry in America
My hopes that Fry’s visit to all 50 states for his documentary on this country would lead to 1) his no longer doing that quite terrible “Ammurrican” accent (leave it to your former partner, whose accent is superb) and 2) not portraying the nation as a circus of freaks, seem to be dashed by the…
Given the Boot
Yes, I have been booted now, which is a definite improvement over the crutches and Ace bandage. I taught today — up and down to the third floor a couple of times — so my foot was quite swollen by the time I got to the orthopedist. Crutches are painful! It was easier to limp…
Fabrications
I’ve decided the true story of my injury is very dull. I need suggestions of tales I might tell others, including my students whom I will be seeing tomorrow. Any ideas? The bruising is getting more colorful, as it tends to do. Will have to get another picture soon. Still no word on the x-rays,…
Sophie and her Pig
A doodad composed for my little friend Sophie and her favorite toy pig (who doesn’t quite fit into doll dresses, but tries anyway). THE PRINCESS AND THE PIG There was a princess name of Sophie And she had a little pig.It wasn’t very cleverAnd it wasn’t very big.But it was just as loyal As the…
Leeching
There’s a somewhat ridiculous scholar in Tom Stoppard’s India Ink who says, “This is why God made writers, so the rest of us can publish.” I love that quote because it speaks to an uncomfortable tendency in my academic field (and in many others, too) to feel like a kind of leech. We loot the…
Melville Marathon
Read the enthralling account of The joey Zone’s participation in the marathon reading of Moby Dick last week (it’s slightly shorter than the novel š It is brought to you by the New England Anomaly, your home for weirdness.
The Old Man and the Seaport
The Moby Dick reading marathon ends at noon today, with a big birthday cake for Melville. The joey Zone is in the thick of it down on the decks of the Charles W. Morgan in Mystic Seaport. His chapter was read in the middle of the night, I think (but I could be mis-remembering). It’s…