Thursday, March 4

Today is Thursday of Week 6, and here is a link to Week 6. Some of you will be writing a Story post today (writing a story is always a good option), and some of you will be doing Story Lab. I hope you will enjoy the experience whichever choice you make! 

Class Procedures and Reminders

Story / Story Lab. For those of you doing Portfolios, I'd recommend doing a story this week, especially if you took a break last week. The more stories you write at your blog, the more you will have to choose from when you add the next story to your Portfolio. For those of you doing Storybooks, be sure to check out the Research option for the Lab; especially at the start of your Storybook any/all reading and research you do can be a big help going forward.

Project Stack. If you turned in your project assignment before 6PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me by now, and I'll keep working on the Sunday assignments today. As always, you can check the stack to make sure your project is in the queue.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog stream. Sarah found an amazing Mahabharata illustration that she included in her reading notes post; it comes from a Mahabharata manuscript produced in Nepal! Like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata is a story told in countries beyond India, including Nepal.


There is a special connection in Nepal to the legend of Barbarik, the son of the Pandava hero Bhima, or the son of his son Ghatotkacha (versions vary). You can find out more about Barbarik and his connection with Nepal at Wikipedia. Here is Barbarik giving his head to Krishna:


Twitter stream. Some of you may know OU's ghost-sleuth Jeff Provine; I am a fan of his #vss365 very short stories at Twitter; here's a fun new one:


Via OU's Prof. Kaspari at Twitter, I saw this Atlantic article about fighting back against perfectionism.


And this comes from OU's Prof. Cline at Twitter: a Roman Tantalus Bowl! For the myth of Tantalus (and the English word "tantalize"), see Wikipedia.

And good news from the Yukon: the marvelous Gurdeep is celebrating his COVID vaccination:

Some of you in Myth-Folklore have been reading Egyptian stories this week, so here are some important questions about Egypt and its past: Who really owns the past?


And here's some hieroglyphic humor: Emojis as Hieroglyphics.


And a video from PBS: Can You Speak Emoji?


March 4: Toru Dutt. Today marks the birthday in 1856 of Toru Dutt, an Indian poet who wrote in English. Although she died at a very young age (she was only 21 when she died in 1877), she is the author of several books, one of which is of interest to students in the Indian Epics class: Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan. You can read more about Toru Dutt at Wikipedia.


And here is a lecture about her at YouTube:



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