Class Procedures and Reminders:
Storybook Stack. I don't update the Storybook stack as often on the weekends, but you can check there to make sure I received your assignment; I'll update it at least once or twice over the weekend. If you want comments back on your assignment sooner rather than later, turn your work in today or on Sunday morning. If you wait until Sunday evening, you will be farther down in the stack and will have to wait longer for my comments back to you.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Movies and States: I thought you might enjoy this map showing Movies and States. The states in which I have lived the longest are For a Few Dollars More, Pulp Fiction, and True Grit!
Writing Humor: Thesaurus Club. I'm not someone inclined to use a thesaurus, but I thought this was pretty funny! :-)
Foreign Words in English: Today's foreign word in English is jovial which we get from the name of the Roman god Jove (Jupiter), whom the Greeks called Zeus. For details, see this blog post.
Featured Storybook: Karma's Courthouse. Gods and humans alike come before the judgment of Karma in an eerie, otherworldly courtroom. What judgment will Karma pass on Rama, Sita, Maya, and Indra? Are any of the defendants strong enough to challenge Karma's ruling?
FREE Kindle eBook: Shah Nameh by Ferdowsi. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. It also contains some other classics of Persian literature such as the Divan of Hafiz and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago; the second-best time is now (a Chinese proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. In other words: it's never too late to plant a tree!
Ramayana Image: Today's Ramayana image shows Hanuman and Sita. On the left, you can see Rama sending Hanuman on his mission, and on the right you can see him together with Sita in Lanka.
Saturday Event on Campus: There will be a Steel Drum Concert in the Sharp Concert Hall at 6PM (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
February 22: Rashi. Today marks the birthday in the year 1040 of the great French rabbi Rashi, the author of one of the most important commentaries on the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. His name, Rashi, is an acronym: his actual name was Shlomo Yitzhaki, so from his name and title, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, we get the nickname R-SH-I (it's kind of like the way we use JFK or LBJ). You can read about his career in this detailed Wikipedia article. The image below comes from The Rothschild Miscellany, an illuminated manuscript from the Middle Ages that contains Rashi's commentaries:
Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.
