I demand a recount!

I don't get 57%! Ok, so I'm upset by this...why? Explain to me - I don't even know what the score even means. This would be what we in the ed biz call a "bad assessment."


The Completely Pointless Personality Quiz

Seven brides for seven brothers…

Seven Things to do before I die

1. Get a PhD in history
2. Travel to India and explore
3. See Machu Picchu
4. Perform a complete shoulder stand in yoga without breaking my neck
5. Go hiking on a portion of the Appalachian Trail – preferably not the incredibly dangerous bits. :)
6. Live in London
7. Find the man of my dreams


Seven Things I can’t do

1. Perform a shoulder stand in yoga without breaking my neck
2. Drive a car with a manual transmission
3. Sleep on airplanes
4. Turn down queso dip when offered
5. Speak fluent French – just “restaurant” French (I know enough not to order the cow brains)
6. Run
7. Focus on grading papers at home

Seven Things that attract me to Europe

1. My family living in England
2. My family connections in Austria and the Czech republic
3. History (natch)
4. The beautiful architecture
5. The beautiful landscape
6. The diversity of cultures
7. I feel at home there

Seven Good Books

1. Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
2. Harry Potter
3. Nearly everything by Steinbeck
4. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
5. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
6. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
7. Oxford Children's History: Earliest Times to the Stuarts

Seven Good Films

1. Singing in the Rain
2. Back to the Future
3. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
4. Ghostbusters ("Nobody steps on a church in my town!")
5. Arsenic and Old Lace
6. Charade
7. Sabrina (the one with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn, not the remake, even though it did have Harrison Ford)

Seven Things I Say

1. “Ladies and Gentlemen…”
2. “Chill out, yo”
3. “Like, oh my gawd!” (in an ironic Valley Girl way, thank you)
4. “If we can focus, please”
5. “Sweet Georgia Brown!” (don’t ask me why, I just do)
6. “Right, so where was I?”
7. “Ooh! Shiny object!”

Seven Blogs to Tag

Gawd. Seven??

1. Sarcasmo’s Corner
2. dreams and bones
3. I’m a novelist
4. Denmother2525
5. Intellectuals Inc.
6. dietgirl
7. Pound

Tag! You're it!

After weeks of wondering what the heck “being tagged” was, or even what a “meme” was, I have been tagged not once, but twice! The first one is from Leslie, which I will tackle today. I’ll tackle the second one later this week.

And we’re off!

1. Name five of your favorite books

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

You realize of course, if you were to ask me this same question tomorrow, next week or in a month’s time, this list would be entirely different.

2. What was the last book you bought (or brought home from the library)?

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

3. What was the last book you read?

A Wild Sheep Chase I finished it last night. An odd book, and I’m not quite certain what the heck was going on in the end. I was also very taken aback by the fact that very few characters had names, and those that did were named things like “The Boss” and “The Sheep Professor”. No women had names, they were all “she” and “her”. I’m trying to decide whether that’s hiding misogynist tendencies, or what.

4. List five books that have been particularly meaningful to you.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - This actually is not so much because of the book itself, the writing or the story, but the experience I had while reading it. I was the sponsor of the student book club at my old school, and last year the students chose to read Reading Lolita in Tehran, and then chose to read Lolita itself. I was impressed by the fact that they not only chose to read the book, but then actually stuck through it, and had thoughtful things to say about the book at the meeting. For me that was a great teaching moment. I was able to help guide the students into taking on a scary challenge, and they rose to it. I felt very proud of the students at that moment.

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - Doesn’t everyone read this in high school? I know all of my friends did, in fact I remember several of us torturing our 11th grade English teacher with the relationship between Guinevere, Lancelot and Arthur. Zimmer Bradley’s particularly interesting take on it was quite the shock for Mrs. Douglas. By the way, Mrs. Douglas: Sorry!!! You were a good teacher; I didn’t mean to behave so badly in class. Although I really did hate reading The Scarlet Letter.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O’Brien – I read this in fourth grade. The teacher asked us to begin reading the first chapter, and she would let us know when to stop reading. I just read and read and read, and the next thing I knew, my teacher was telling us to stop reading, and I had completed almost four chapters. I loved this book, and it made me realize that I loved reading, too. I was quite sad when I saw the movie, because it was so different from the book (my first experience with bad film adaptations! I’ve yet to be fully satisfied by those…another reason this book is significant, I suppose!).


The Roosevelts: An American Saga by Peter Collier – This is one of the first books of history (ok, technically it’s biography) that I read for pleasure. Ironic that it’s American history, given that I actually don’t really enjoy much about American history, and really like European and Global history the best. I’ve always been fascinated by Teddy Roosevelt, partly because we used to live on Long Island, near his house on Sagamore Hill, and we’d visit pretty frequently. I have a great many happy childhood memories of wandering around his house and the beautiful grounds. This book also gave me a healthy respect for FDR as well. I put it here because it also began my foray into reading history JFF (just for fun, something we crazy history teachers do!).

Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne – Does this really need explanation? Winnie-the-Pooh is such a lovely, lovely character, and the writing is so appealing. Just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Besides, isn’t it time for elevenses?

5. Name three books you’ve been dying to read, but haven’t gotten around to.

Here’s what I have on hold at the library (I’m waiting for them to become available):

PostSecret : Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives by Frank Warren
Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie
The Cell by Stephen King

I shall tag Ann and Sheila.