Class Procedures and Reminders
Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in a Storybook assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me. If you turned in something later, it is probably still in the stack (contents of the stack). Especially with all the email problems this week, please check to make sure! And if you want comments back sooner rather than later, turn in your Storybook on Friday or Saturday — don't wait until the due date. If you want until Sunday or Monday morning to turn in your work, it will take me longer to get back to you.
Week 3 Read and Respond. The Week 3 blog commenting assignment is not available yet; that assignment is available each week starting on Friday — and that's right after midnight tonight, so any of you night-owls can do that assignment after midnight tonight if you want. There will be new random groups, just like last week!
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Writing and Technology: Emoji. Whether or not you use emoji in your writing, you might enjoy this fun article in the New York Times: The Emoji Have Won the Battle of Words by Jessica Bennett.
Indian Words in English: Today's Indian word in English is RAJ, as in the "British Raj," a word which comes into English from Hindi. For details, see this blog post.
Featured Storybook: Desperate Goddesses: Life on Mythological Lane. The Japanese goddess Izanami-no-Mikoto has left the world of the living long behind, but she still watches over the desperate goddesses of Mythological Lane — Aphrodite, Pele, Ishtar, and Devi — and shares their stories with you.
FREE Kindle eBook: The First Book of Adam and Eve by Rutherford Platt. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post has additional information about the contents of the book which provides a detailed account of the lives of Adam and Eve after they were expelled from the Garden of Eden.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is The dog in the manger would not let the horse eat hay or eat it himself (an English proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. This proverb briefly summarizes the famous Aesop's fable about the dog in the manger!
Ramayana Image: Today's Ramayana image shows Vali and Sugriva. You can see the two brothers fighting fiercely, while Rama prepares to slay Vali with an arrow.
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Thursday Event on Campus: There will be FREE POPCORN at the UPB desk in the first floor of the Union from 11:30AM - 12:30PM (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
September 4: Mary Renault. Today, September 4, marks the birthday of the English novelist Mary Renault who was born in 1904 and died in 1983. Renault wrote novels based on ancient Greek mythology and ancient Greek history. She wrote a pair of novels about the mythological hero Theseus (The King Must Die, Bull from the Sea), as well as a trilogy of novels about Alexander the Great. The middle novel of that Alexander trilogy — The Persian Boy — is my own personal favorite of her novels. The novel is narrated by Bagoas, the Persian boy whom Alexander took as his lover. Renault was one of the first historical novelists to write openly about homosexual love in ancient Greece, and the story she tells in The Persian Boy is intense, dramatic, and unforgettable. Highly recommended!
