Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 9AM or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in; please check to make sure that I received your assignment!
Monday afternoon. I will be out of the office for most of Monday afternoon so I will not be as prompt to respond to email - but I will get back to you on Monday evening about any urgent questions; for anything not urgent, I will get caught up on emails on Tuesday morning.
Writing Center. In addition to the writing you are doing for this class, you are probably now working on end-of-semester writing projects in your other classes, too. Whether you are struggling with the overall organization of your writing or whether you have questions about writing mechanics (especially punctuation), or even if you just need some tips on how to proofread your work, the tutors at the Writing Center can help. For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website. Everyone can benefit from an extra pair of eyes, and the writing tutors are there to help you improve your writing, at any level and for any class you are taking. They won't do your proofreading for you, but they will help you learn to do a better job with that on your own.
Mythology Monday: Snopes.com. One of the ways in which mythology and legends live on in the modern age is through the phenomenon of the "urban legend," and the single best collection of urban legends - thousands of them! - that you will find online is at the website Snopes.com. There is a randomizer that will let you see random legends, and you can also browse through their extensive categories or use the search feature to find a specific story. You might also want to visit the Frequently-Asked-Questions page which discusses just what makes an urban legend and how the editors at Snopes decide what kinds of stories belong at the site. It's a great online resource for the myths of our age! Will these legends be as long-lived as the myths of ancient Greece and Egypt...? Only the future can tell.
Monday Events on Campus. There will be a lecture by Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol on "The War in Syria: Turkey's Role" at 4PM in Meacham Auditorium (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
October 22: Doris Lessing. October 22, is the birthday of the great British author, Doris Lessing, who was born in 1919 (so that means she is turning 93 this year); she who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. You can read more about Doris Lessing's life and career in this Wikipedia article. I would rate Lessing's novel Shikasta as one of the greatest science fiction novels I have ever read. If you are a science fiction fan, or interested in political literature (like Orwell's 1984, for example), it's a book I recommend most highly - it's an extremely unusual novel and quite amazing! Here's a recent photo of Lessing when she learned she had won the Nobel Prize. Happy birthday, Doris Lessing!
