Wednesday, November 11

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 12. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you did not finish the Reading Diary that was due on Tuesday.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. If you turned something in before noon on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later on Sunday or during the week, it is probably still in the stack; you can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Apostrophe Nightmare. It's not easy being an apostrophe.

Words to Watch: Today's words to watch out for are PEAK and PEEK. For details, see this blog post.

Featured Storybook: Indian Horror Story: Tales of the Lingering Souls. This haunted house was owned by a mysterious man named Yash, whose eerie portrait has presided over a series of grisly deaths that echo the episodes of the ancient epics.

Free Book Online: The Book of Old English Ballads by George Wharton Edwards. This blog post provides additional information about the ballads in this book which include several of the Robin Hood ballads and also "The Mermaid."

India Featured Book: The Great War by Annie Besant. This blog post provides additional information about this reading option for Indian Epics, which is a retelling of the Mahabharata by Annie Besant, who was a leading member of the Theosophy movement and deeply involved in the fight for Indian independence.

Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is A thousand probabilities do not make one truth (an English proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. I believe in the power of random, but I also believe in the power of truth!

Today's Video: Manish Vyas: Atma Bhakti. Manish Vyas has a new album coming out, and he released this video about it; he's a wonderful musician, one of my favorites.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset kittens are keeping their eyes open: Look for opportunity!. Details at the blog.

Event on Campus: There will be a flag ceremony at 8AM on the Parrington Oval for Veterans Day, along with a Military Appreciation cookout at noon on the Robertson Hall lawn (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

Armistice Day. Today, November 11, is Armistice Day, "The Day of the Setting-Down-of-Arms," marking the end of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I on November 11 in 1918. November 11 is also the birthday of one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, Kurt Vonnegut. You can read about Vonnegut's life and career in this Wikipedia article. Here is a quote where Vonnegut talks about the fact that he was born on Armistice Day in 1922, just a few years after the end of World War I: "When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind."

Note: You can page back through the older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed, and you can check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day.