Saturday, April 20

Today is Saturday of Week 13. I hope you are having a nice weekend!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Mix and match. Now is a great time to make your plan for finishing up the class to get the grade you want (410-A, 360-B, 320-C). If you want a Dead Week in this class, then use Week 13 and Week 14 to finish up, or you can choose from the assignments in Week 15. It's all mix-and-match: whatever combination of assignments you want to use to finish up is fine with me!

Project Stack. On Friday I got through all the Week 12 assignments in the stack; on Monday, I'll get to all the Week 13 assignments that were left in the stack on Friday. Meanwhile, you can check the stack anytime to make sure I received your email. I'll start replying on Monday to the items in the order they are turned in. So, to get comments back sooner, turn in your project today if you can; don't wait until Sunday.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. Alena did a really cool Wikipedia Trail, from Execution by Elephant to the Bimaran Casket, and yes, execution by elephant was a thing:

Free Book Online. Today's free book is Indian Fairy Stories by Donald A. Mackenzie (1915), with illustrations by Maxwell Armfield. (Some of you may recognize Donald Mackenzie as the author of a short version of the Ramayana too!)

Free Audiobook. Today's free audiobook is also a Book of Fairy Tales by S. Baring Gould, one of the great English folklorists.

Featured Storybook. I know there are a lot of fans of Greek mythology in these classes, so here is a fun Storybook to look at: Real Housewives of Greek Mythology. Things are tense around Mount Olympus these days: Hera and Zeus are fighting. Again. (Check out the stories to see full-blown script style in action too!)

India Video. Here is a video from Devdutt Pattanaik about the goddess Saraswati: Saraswati's Secret.

Myth Video. This is a Crash Course video for all you psychology majors: Freud, Jung, Luke Skywalker, and the Psychology of Myth:.

Myth Item. Luke Skywalker's story definitely fits the model of The Hero's Journey.

Myth Item. This is another English word from mythology: COLOSSAL, from Greek kolossos, meaning a gigantic statue, like the Colossus of Rhodes.

Music Video. I've shared Amy Burvall's mythological mash-up videos, and she even has one about the Mahabharata! The Mahabharata ("Abracadabra" by the Steve Miller Band).

Writing. And here's Tom Gauld's take on Archetypal Heroines. Of course I want to be the Time-Traveling Victorian. And a Cave Woman!

Growth Mindset Cats. When you read, you grow your knowledge, and that's good: Knowledge is enjoyable and often useful in strange and unexpected ways.

This is a fascinating video about your brain and storytelling: Empathy, Neurochemistry, and the Dramatic Arc.

Event on Campus: OU's India Students Association presents Tamasha 2019 tonight, with dinner in the OCCE Forum Building and performances in the Reynolds Performing Arts Center (details).

Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

Passover 2019. The Jewish holiday of Passover began yesterday evening and continues through this week. You can read more about this holiday, which commemorates the exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses, at Wikipedia. Below is a Passover music video by the amazing Nina Paley: Chad Gadya, and you can read more about this folksong at Wikipedia. The last verse has all the characters in the chain: Then came the Holy One, and smote the angel of death, who slew the slaughterer, who killed the ox, that drank the water, that extinguished the fire, that burned the stick, that beat the dog, that bit the cat, that ate the goat.

Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements.