Boxing Day

Christmas has officially passed, but the holiday season is staggering onward at my house. The kids and I are still out of school, and we still have some family gatherings yet to complete. Still, the kids have enough loot accumulated to allow them to completely obscure the floor and furniture in any room of their choosing. So far today, they have played with their new Barbies, thrown darts, thrown darts at their new Barbies, broken other toys and tried to feed the parts to the cats, and watched a new video (a Barbie video).
Mostly I’ve been hiding in my study.

Yes, I’m still grading.

I’m also listening to two albums I got for Christmas, the Weakerthans’s Left and leaving (Yes, leaving is lowercased on purpose.) and Bob Dylan’s new one, Modern Times. I recommend them both.

Bow, you peasant

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Very Lord Grumpy the Antediluvian of Giggleswick under Table Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Thanks to Carter's Little Pill

Saturday Shakespeare

O thou caitiff, O thou varlet, O thou wicked Hannibal!

Measure for Measure 2.1.65-66

Events thus far

The Woman and I did our gift exchange yesterday afternoon with Chaos and Mayhem. It was practically the only day we had free this Christmas before school starts again. We had a good time. I hope you do too.


Back to the grading.

Its about that time

School is out for semester break. Around here we can still get away with calling it Christmas. Anyway, the desk monkeys have left the building.

Now my festival of grading may begin.

Saturday Shakespeare

May never glorious sun reflex his beams
Upon the country where you make abode;
But darkness and the gloomy shade of death
Environ you, till mischief and despair
Drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves!

The First Part of King Henry the Sixth 5.4.87-91

Read again

Michael Paterniti's fine little book is a joy to read no matter how many times I read it. His account of the bizarre story of the theft of Einstein's brain and how it ends up in cookie jar in the trunk of his car is alternately funny and sad. Sometimes, it's both at the same time.

Plus, the guy can write.

Vocab

Your Vocabulary Score: A

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

A poem

Praise Prepositions
by Jeanne Murray Walker

After against among, around. How I admire
prepositions, small as they are,
like safety pins, their lives given to
connecting. They are the paid help,
maids in black uniforms who pass
hors d'oeuvres, and they're
the forbidden joy that leaps between us
when we get to know them.

more

A memo

My brother sent a copy of this memo to me because he thought I would laugh. He was right. In fact, I laughed so hard that, after removing anything that might identify anyone, I thought I would put the most grammatical portions here.

It reminds me of those students who complain all through high school English that they will never use anything from the class in real life. All too often, they're all too right.

Christmas Time...Kids
Again this year the...is needing help in adopting 80 Kids.
Time is running out -- hurray and an adopt a child for Christmas.
Contact...to adopt an children.

Iced in, part the third

School is cancelled again today. We're all sitting in the house and making occasional trips out into the ice to make sure that, yes, the whole world is slippery.

Actually, it is melting some, and I'm sure we'll be back to our usual routine tomorrow. This is probably good because we've exhausted our supply of Firefly and Hercules DVDs.

I have no taste.

Saturday Shakespeare

Away you cut-purse rascal! You filthy bung, away!

The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth 2.4.115-116

If I were a beverage

How to make a Grumpy Teacher

Ingredients: 3 parts pride 1 part crazyiness 3 parts empathy

Method: Combine in a tall glass half filled with crushed ice. Add sadness to taste! Do not overindulge!

Username:

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

Iced in, part the second

The winter storm finally passed out of our area last night. Everything near my house is covered with about a quarter inch of ice. On top of that is about three inches of sleet, now frozen into one solid mass. On top of that is a dusting of snow. Based on what other people are telling me by phone, we have it good. My principal tells me that he has about eight inches of drifted sleet over ice, plus some snow.

Still, I spent most of the morning digging the doors of the house free, getting past the iced-shut doors of my car, and confirming that I can drive to the highway and back. The highway may as well be another dirt road, though. The state department of transportation is still clearing the interstates. The secondary highways are just big sheets of ice.

I don’t mind this storm so much, though. I have a full pound of coffee in the kitchen and a big pot of potato soup.