Tuesday, November 9

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 12 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 12 is on top. For those of you in Indian Epics, that means continuing with Buck's version of the Mahabharata (including the great legend of Nala and Damayanti), while it's a choice between fairy tales and ballads in Myth-Folklore, and this is the week of the Arabian Nights in World Literature. If you have not turned in your Week 11 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Counting this week, there are FOUR WEEKS of class remaining (Weeks 12-13-14-15), which means 120 points of regular assignments, plus extra credit. That assumes you have not been working ahead; if you have been working ahead, you can look at the Gradebook to see just how many available points you can still earn in these last weeks of class.

Storybook Stack. As usual on Tuesday, I am making my way through the big stack of Storybooks turned in over the weekend. If you turned something in by noon on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday, 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.

Overview of Week 12 and Week 13 Internet assignments. (repeat announcement) The Week 12 Internet assignment is available now, and you will be commenting on Storybooks in your class, with an extra credit option to look at Storybooks in the other classes. Then, for the Week 13 assignment (available a week from Tuesday, on November 16), you will be voting on your favorite Storybooks for the semester. After you turn in your nominations, I'll set up a ballot so everybody can vote for the best Storybooks - it's not for a grade or anything, it's just for fun, and it gives the folks who have done really excellent work on their Storybooks a chance to get some well deserved recognition.

November 9: Howard Pyle. Today, November 9, marks the death in the year 1911 of the American illustrator and author, Howard Pyle. You can read about Howard Pyle's life and career in this Wikipedia article, and you can find a listing of all his books that are online at his Online Books page. Some of you in the Myth-Folklore or the World Literature class may be familiar with Howard Pyle's work, since he is the author of a collection of stories about famous pirates, as well as books about legendary heroes such as Robin Hood and King Arthur. The image below shows one of Howard Pyle's paintings, The Mermaid: