Apr
2
“I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.”
Mary Oliver
In a Minor Key
Maureen's random thoughts about pretty nearly anything
Apr
1
1938. Iberville Parish, Louisiana. “Belle Grove. Vicinity of White Castle. Greek Revival mansion of 75 rooms. Built 1857 by John Andrews, who sold it to Stone Ware. Occupied by Ware family until circa 1913.” What was left of Belle Grove, reputedly the largest plantation house in the South, burned to the ground in 1952. (via Shorpy)
Jan
3
Textbooks, 812% More Expensive Than 1978
With a new semester almost upon us, it’s time to figure out why college textbooks are so absurdly expensive.
(via npr)
Welcome to the Union, Alaska!
Presidential Proclamation 3269 of January 3, 1959, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower admitting the State of Alaska into the Union., 01/03/1959
Did you miss our Alaskan photoset from last year’s anniversary?
Sep
20
“Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.”
Zadie Smith on writing (via explore-blog)
(via stoppingandseeing)
Sep
19
Why Students Don’t Talk in Class
World-Shaker had some pretty good ideas for professors to get students talking about the reading in class. The most important point he makes, I think, is that there should be explicit instruction in how to read the kinds of texts you assign in class. I think we forget that we couldn’t always easily read and discuss the texts that we assign.
But what I love best about his post is that is was prompted by a student question, which highlights the fact that students don’t want to sit mute and bored in a class. Certainly they bear responsibility for when they do. But we have some responsibility to help them become the students they might like to be.
Jul
31
New Orleans Itself
“Mr. Batiste could have been New Orleans itself: mischievous, unhurried, with an antiquated and singular style, well-acquainted with the hard life but easygoing nonetheless, at once the genuine article and a showman playing for the tourists. As a child he tap-danced for the customers at a whites-only club in the French Quarter. But he also danced to the music of legends like Professor Longhair at a neighborhood club owned by Mr. Jones’s father. And he kept on performing in his off time.”
From a tribute to Lionel Batiste of the Treme Brass Band in the New York Times. Mr. Batiste earlier this month.
Nov
30
The delicate, tough skin of words.
“During the raid, Stephen Boyer, a poet, friend and OWS librarian, read poems from the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology (see peopleslibrary.wordpress.com) aloud directly into the faces of riot police.
“As they pushed us away from the park with shields, fists, billy clubs and tear gas, I stood next to Stephen and watched while he yelled poetry at the top of his lungs into the oncoming army of riot police.
“Then, something incredible happened. Several of the police leaned in closer to hear the poetry. They lifted their helmet shields slightly to catch the words Stephen was shouting out to them, even while their fellow cops continued to stampede us.
“The next day, an officer who was guarding the entrance to Zuccotti Park told Stephen how touched he was by the poetry, how moved he was to see that we cared enough about words and books that we would risk violent treatment and arrest just to defend our love of books and the wisdom they contain.”
William Scott writing about the NYPD November 15 raid of Occupy Wall Street and destruction of the OWS People’s Library, in The Nation.
Nov
17
“
‘…. I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon women’s inconsistency. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman’s fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men.’
‘Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage in telling us their own story. Education has been theirs to a much higher degree; the pen has been in their hands……’
”Captain Harville & Anne Elliot
Jane Austen’s Persuasion (1818)
(via coolchicksfromhistory)
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