Class Procedures and Reminders:
Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the HUGE stack of Storybook assignments and practice websites that people have turned in over the weekend. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. If you turned in a Storybook and/or a practice website by 4PM on Saturday, you should have comments back from me. If you turned in something later on Saturday or on Sunday or Monday, it is probably still in the stack. You do not need to wait on my comments about your practice website before you go on to the Week 3 Internet assignment, but for the Storybook, please wait on my comments before you go on to the next Storybook assignment. I'll be getting through the stack as promptly as I can!
Late Storybooks. (repeat announcement) Each week, the Storybook assignment is the only assignment that can be turned in late for partial credit. Since I cannot get all the Storybooks returned immediately, you can turn in the Storybook late for partial credit. If you want full credit (10 points) you must turn the Storybook in on time, that is, over the weekend or during the grace period on Monday morning. If you turn it in late, you can receive partial credit, as follows: turn it in on Monday after noon and you can receive up to 8 points; on Tuesday, you can receive up to 7 points; on Wednesday you can receive up to 6 points. If you turn the Storybook assignment in on Thursday before noon, you can receive up to 5 points. You will see that same information at the bottom of each Storybook assignment page.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Featured Resource: Mythical Lake Monsters of America. Learn about the mythical lake monsters of all fifty states, including the giant octopus of Lake Thunderbird in Oklahoma!
Featured Resource: Beware the Zombie Nouns! This resource page explains how to fight back against the zombie nouns that can suck the life right out of your writing while also making it feel awkward and sloooow. So, if you want your writing to be more lively and sharp, heed this advice: Beware the Zombie Nouns!
Foreign Words in English: Today's foreign word in English is the name of the day today, Tuesday. The day gets its name from Tiw, the Germanic god of war. For details, see this blog post.
FREE Kindle eBook: Forbidden Gospels and Epistles by William Wake. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. It includes one of my favorite apocryphal texts, one that almost made it into the Biblical canon: The Shepherd of Hermas.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman? (an English proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. This proverb was famously invoked by the radical English priest John Ball, a leader of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
Ramayana Image: Today's Ramayana image is Ravana Abducting Sita. You can see the wounded Jatayu lying on the ground while, in a later moment of the story, Sita drops her jewelry (upper right) to mark her trail.
January 28: William Butler Yeats. Today, January 28, marks the anniversary of the death of the great Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, who died on this day in the year 1939. You can read more about Yeats' life and career in this Wikipedia article. Those of you in the Myth-Folklore course may have encountered William Butler Yeats in your research for the class so far because Yeats was a crucial figure in the revival of Irish popular culture in the 19th century, and you can find many of his works online at the Sacred Texts Archive. The image below shows Yeats' gravestone in a cemetery in Drumcliff, County Sligo, Ireland; the simple inscription - "Cast a cold Eye / On Life, on Death. / Horsemen pass by!" - was what Yeats himself asked to have carved on the stone.
Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.
