Happy belated birthday Rome!

Ok, so we know (or at least, should) that Rome was founded in 753 B.C.E., but I only just came across the day: 21 April.

So what if it's a legendary founding!  It's still Rome's birthday!

What would you want to seminar on?

Today's seminar did not inspire, alas.  So, I asked the students I was with the deceptively simple question, "So then, what would you like to seminar on?"

Some suggestions for topics included: 

Why seminar in the first place?  Why are they important?

Older versus contemporary music genres

 Seminars on a half-day?  For that matter, why not more half-days.  How are school schedules determined?

Historical and modern conspiracies, the Illuminati for example.

School food, fast food and junk food.

The Kennedys

Marijuana legalization

Swearing

How are prices set? How much is a bag of gummies worth?  Why do you pay .99 for a half-full bag of chips? Are you paying for the air?

Suggestions for "texts" included the films Supersize Me, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Hotel Rwanda, Superhigh Me, Disney films and Pixar shorts.

So...  I am wondering.  If you weren't really thrilled with this seminar, then what would thrill you?

Revised Latin 1 myth project dates

Due to the whole Algebra field test thing, here's the revised dates for the rest of the quarter.

27 April— Death or underworld figure rough draft due

          23 April—Media center

4 May— Death or underworld figure second draft due

          1 May—Peer edit

11 May—Nature figure rough draft due

          8 May—Media center

18 May—Nature figure second draft due

          15 May—Peer edit

1 June—Final form due


As for Latin 2 and 3, well, you've bigger fish to fry.

Anne's allusion

So, my wife loves...  Wait, no.  More emphasis: LOVES Anne Lamott's writing.  She scored a copy of Lamott's latest, Some Assembly Required: A journal of my son's first son, and insisted I read it.  Ok, fine.  She loves me, least I can do is read a book, right?  It's actually pretty good and I share the following with you as a cute bit, clever allusion and example of something you might bring in for extra credit (properly cited, of course).

"I told Sam about when he was three months old, and Pammy came over at night to support me in letting him learn to cry himself to sleep.  His stomach was big enough to hold enough milk for eight hours, but he had developed the habit of waking up every four hours to nurse and check in with me on stuff he might have missed while sleeping.

The baby book said put him down, pat his back, and not pick him up, no matter how piteous he sounded.  I was committed to letting him cry it out, for however long it took, and I made Pammy promise to help me keep my butt on the couch, like Ulysses strapped to the mast.

I lasted close to six minutes, then did crack under the strain and picked him up.  Ulysses had an unfair advantage over me: the mast, and wax in his ears."  Lamott, Anne, and Sam Lamott. Some Assembly Required: A journal of my son's first son. New York: Riverhead Books, 2012.

Spring Break (light) reading

Let me kick off with the graphic novel tie-in to the 2011 flop Immortals.  Picked it up in the library yesterday thinking, 'eh, maybe it'll have some decent writing to go with the near-dozen different artists. Mmm...  No.  A sampling from the first story: (Zeus before Kronos) "Father!  You have much to answer for.  But I haven't come seeing answers.  I'm here for your blood!"

Oh bother.  Still, they had some nice touches which showed someone did some research (even if a lot of it got pitched): Persephone wanting to be with Hades, Cerberus is a normal dog which only appears to be monstrous on account of the twisted nature of the Underworld, Hercules is the only one able to openly defy Zeus without (major) repercussions, etc.  

Makes me wonder where on the spectrum the movie falls.  Are we in Percy Jackson territory or are we closer to a Hercules?

Jubilate Agno

As usual, it takes an external source to rouse me from torpor...  And this time it is the tried and true Writer's Almanac.   Today they featured Fragment B of Christopher Smart's Jubilate Agno or, Rejoice in the Lamb...  Imperative neo-Latin verb followed by ablative noun in case you were curious.  Anyway, I was weirded out how a devotional poem could contain over ten lines devoted to the poet's cat, so I looked it up.

It ain't just the cat.  In the 1200 lines of the poem, Smart addresses Noah's Ark, the Apostles, Newton, mythical beasts lifted from Pliny the Elder, John Locke, the Ars Poetica, and, uh, oh yea.  God and that cat of his.

Anyway, there's your randomness for today.  ;)

Hidden histories

I do love me some Terry Jones.  Monty Python aside, he's made a living of late dealing with, well, the late; history that is, and this documentary is a good example of why.  Normal people?  I mean, really.  How dull...  Oh.  OH!  Nevermind.  ;)

Email and other

Just a quick heads-up, my computer is wonky right now so email and anything electromoligical will be delaaaaaayyyyyyeeed...

Other than that, Trickster myth rough drafts need to be done by class tomorrow (Latin 1).  Think about finding your Re-Myths and what sources you will look for (Latin 2).  Keep reading your books (Latin 3).