May 12th, 2013 → 7:43 am
“He did it to please his mother.” – Coriolanus
We’re in Nevada right now with my in-laws. So for the first time in many years my husband is actually with his mother on mother’s day. It’s adorable. I can’t wait till my own son is old enough to do nice things for me on Mother’s Day!
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
May 7th, 2013 → 6:24 am
“If it be a man’s work, I’ll do it.” – King Lear
My heart breaks when I read stories of people in their fifties who have been unemployed for six months or more. They are too young to retire, but old enough to suffer from ageism. And the longer they stay out of the job market, the harder it gets. I’m glad the recent unemployment report was better than expected, but my heart goes out to the millions still who have been without a job for months on end.
Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money & Other
May 5th, 2013 → 6:13 am
“Freedom, high-day! high-day, freedom! freedom, high-day, freedom!” – Tempest
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
May 2nd, 2013 → 5:44 am
“I cannot tell what the dickens his name is.” – Merry Wives of Windsor
Yes, that screech of letters and numbers up there is a name someone in Sweden tried to give their baby. They weren’t allowed. Yesterday New Zealand released its own list of banned baby names, which include: Lucifer, Messiah, Christ, King, Anal, and others. After having done some research on this important and fascinating topic, it appears that the U.S. is one of the most liberal countries for naming babies; we pretty much don’t ban anything so there are apparently hundreds of people with the name Noun in this country. (Don’t worry, Comma, Period, and Semicolon are represented as well.) The one thing I did find odd is that New Zealand bans the name Justice. Justice? One of my son’s best friends at school is named Justice. His dad is a polling worker on election day. What’s wrong with Justice?
April 30th, 2013 → 5:42 am
“No legacy is so rich as honesty.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
Congratulations, Jason Collins, for coming out yesterday as “an NBA center…black, and…gay.” Apparently he’s the first openly gay athlete in a major American team sport. I hadn’t known there weren’t any before. Shows how little I follow sports. But it also shows how behind the game they are on this…why’d it take so long?
April 21st, 2013 → 6:20 am
“No profit grows where is no pleasure taken.
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.” – The Taming of the Shrew
Another semester is nearing an end. I can’t believe there’s only one month left of classes! Now’s the time I get the stray student or two coming to office hours to discuss their courses, their majors, their future… And one piece of advice that I really do think is true, is that you should study what you most affect (i.e. “enjoy”). Life’s not worth it otherwise.
April 19th, 2013 → 6:07 am
“O ye gods, ye gods! Must I endure all this?” – Julius Caesar
I have always hated – and I mean hated – the saying that “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” And now, apparently, I’ve been vindicated by recent research. A new study, tracking a group of people over a decade, finds that heartache and stress just wears a person down; it doesn’t bolster them up. What Neitzsche was thinking I have no idea. Hadn’t he ever been deeply burned or cut? It leaves a thin delicate scar, vulnerable and pink. Heartache is heartache pure and simple, there is nothing good about it.
April 17th, 2013 → 5:50 am
“O piteous spectacle! O bloody times!” – Henry VI, Part III
I just can’t wrap my head around what makes someone plant lethal bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. What are they thinking? I can relate to wanting to get back at someone who has hurt you, but wanting to hurt completely innocent people? Children even? I just don’t get it. It’s so heartbreaking. Why? Why?
Filed under: Blog & Other & Stupid/Evil People
April 15th, 2013 → 6:24 am
“O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes!” – As You Like It
Continuing with the theme of linguistic differences and changes in meaning of things over time, I came across an interesting piece of research the other day, where a bunch of anthropologists tracked emotion words in literature over time (i.e. literally tracked the frequency usage of “happy” words in google books from 1900-2000). And one of their conclusions was that people were happier 100 years ago than they are today, because they used more “happy” words in their published writings. Personally, I find this bogus. Not just because economics research does not seem to be finding significant happy distinctions like this over time, but also because I am an author. Have you read any books from 1900? I have. The writing style was very different back then. Effusive, saccharine, adverb-laden in a way modern writing most definitely is not. It doesn’t mean our happiness levels have changed, it means our writing styles have. Subtlety and “show-not-tell” are the mantras of fine literature today; they weren’t back then.
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Other
April 13th, 2013 → 5:39 am
“[I] am enjoin’d
By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here,
And beg your pardon: pardon, I beseech you!” – Romeo and Juliet
Every now and again we all do stupid things. The other day I acted quite insensitively to a good friend of mine. I’m so embarrassed thinking about it now. Please forgive me, Arkadasim, I beseech you!
As a side note, I notice that it is extremely difficult (impossible?) to find the words “sorry,” or “apology” in Shakespeare. There are “pardons” and acts of “forgiveness” and “repentance,” but no apologies as we would recognize them today. According to scholars on this, in Shakespeare’s day apologies were more about seeking forgiveness from God for your sins, not other people. It was a religious thing, not an individualistic thing. I find this temporal distinction in what it means to say you’re sorry fascinating…
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life