My schedule this week. As previously announced, I will be out of town this week on Thursday and Friday, so my email access on those days will be limited at best. To make sure you get a reply from me, please contact me today, Wednesday, with any questions you have about anything in the class. If you contact me on Wednesday, I'll be sure to get back with you by the end of the day; for any emails that come in on Thursday or Friday, I may not be able to get back to you until Monday.
Storybook Stack. There are still some Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later, on Monday or on Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. If you turn something in today, Wednesday, or later this week, it will stay in the stack until next Monday because of my schedule this week.
Spring 2009 enrollment. As mentioned in yesterday's announcements, please let me know today, Wednesday, if you would like me to reserve a seat for you in any of the online classes that I am teaching in the Spring: World Literature, Myth-Folklore and Indian Epics.
Govardhan Puja 2008. One of the most important festivals in the Hindu calendar is Diwali (or Deepavali), also known as the "Festival of Lights." The festival takes place over a five-day period, and you can read about all the stories and legends associated with each day of the festival in this Wikipedia article. Yesterday, October 28, was the main day of the Diwali festival. On October 29 is the celebration called Govardhan Puja, or Annakut, a holiday in honor of Lord Krishna who lifted up Mount Govardhan to save the people from Indra's flood, as he held the mountain above them like a giant umbrella. You can read about Mount Govardhan in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image showing Krishna lifting the mountain (click here for a larger view):
