Professor J's Place

I fell in love to this song.

Thanks, Julie , for the Thank You award! It's my first ever recognition, and I would like to thank the little people : Julie was also kind enough to tag me for the alphabet meme. The idea is to use the letters of the alphabet to describe yourself kindly. So, I'll give it a try. You don't mind if I sing while I'm doing this, do you? I find it necessary to sing if I want the letters in order (which was how I developed the amazing talent of singing under my breath when I was a library assistant in Junior High School and later in college). Anyway, here goes. Adventerous Blogger Clever Dog lover Effusive Friendly Game player (scrabble, gin rummy, dominoes) Happy Intense Joker Klutzy Lover /loyal / lesbian Morning person News hound Open Poet Quick (witted and tempered--but I cool down quickly) Reasonable Sensual / short / silly Texan Unspoiled Virtuous Well read / writer (e)Xcitable Yellow dog democrat Zaftig I'm not going to tag anybody, but I'd love for some of ya...

In an effort to comfort me, both Mrs. T and Melanie mentioned some Texans who have made the world a better place. I can only say, amen, sisters. Here's one who makes me prouder than I can say. "Who then will speak for America? Who then will speak for the common good?" Barbara Jordon (1936-1996) was born in Houston Texas' West End. She became a state legislator in 1966, served as president of the "ledge," became a congresswoman, gained some notoriety during the Watergate hearings, and gave the key note address at the Democratic National Convention in 1976. I was a junior in High School at the time. I remember her voice. I remember her words. I remember that we hoped that Jimmy Carter would choose Jordon as his running mate. I remember people talking about how it might someday be possible for a woman to become president. I remember thinking that it might one day be possible for an African American to be president. She served until 1979, when multiple sclerosi...

The United States is the highest producer of greenhouse gasses. Guess which state tops the list of offenders within the United States. . . That's right! Texas ! We aim to be the biggest and the baddest, and in this case we succeed. Heck, we have double the emissions of the two states below us combined . Why? Well in part, it could be that our biggest supply of energy comes from coal. It could also stem from our lack of good public transportation and our love of big cars . But for the most part, I think we simply DON'T believe that our emissions have anything to do with global warming. Last semester two of my ADULT students wrote essays about global warming. Both of them took the position that we cannot prove that the rising emissions of greenhouse gasses have anything to do with global climate change. O.K. if you are stupid skeptical, then what about the other dangers of air polution? What about the rising rates of lung disease like asthma and COPD? What about the r...

Luath He was a gash an' faithful tyke As ever lap a sheugh or dyke. His honest, sonsie, bawns'nt face Ay gat him friends in ilka place; His breast was white, his tousie back Weel clad wi' coat o' glossy black; His gawsie tail, wi' upward curl. Hung owre his hurdles wi' a swirl. gash : wise lap a sheugh : leap a ditch sonsie, baws'nt : sweet face with a white stripe tousie : rumpled gawsie : handsome hurdies : hips

Susan found this little book among her things yesterday. It has, as you might imagine, many helpful quotes to motivate and inspire. But it is an older book--published in 1992. Under the section for responsibility is a quote by O.J. Simpson: The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that's the day you start to the top." Ah yes, he did say that.

On a cold, rainy Saturday.

Oh, I am a sleepy girl. Of course, the two berry margaritas I just drank have nothing to do with my present condition, I am sure. We had a grand time today with family and friends. We did add two leaves to the table, but Some of us still needed to share a chair. Poor young Lyle had to work last night at Whataburger, so he was terribly tired, but the rest of us showed up with our party faces. We started off with grand style, but ended up looking like As soon as I figure out how to do it, I'll enclose a short video of us playing charades after dinner. Except for poor Lyle trying to sleep on the couch, I think we all had a good time. Merry Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night.

I have not posted every day this month. However, I have posted twenty-five times in nineteen days, so I don't think I will be drummed out of the corps. Nevertheless, I find the compunction to post daily is a bit onerous. (Can you tell I've been playing at f reerice.com ?) So, I have put a new link in my side bar to replace NaBloPoMo. I have really enjoyed writing and reading more blogs. Indeed, I now have enough links to keep me away from work for hours at a time. Yea! So here's to making it through November, my bloggy friends! I have great hopes that you won't all quit posting the moment the month is over.

Since I was so bold as to proclaim my love for Dickinson yesterday, I thought I should post one of her poems today. J 812 A Light exists in Spring Not present on the Year At any other period -- When March is scarcely here A Color stands abroad On Solitary Fields That Science cannot overtake But Human Nature feels. It waits upon the Lawn, It shows the furthest Slope you know It almost speaks to you. Then as Horizons step Or Noons report away Without the Formula of sound It passes and we stay -- A quality of loss Affecting our Content As Trade had suddenly encroached Upon a Sacrament.

This post could be subtitled, "Giving in to peer pressure." O.K. there has been no pressure, but I see all the cool kids playing, and I feel a little left out. What is all the fuss about? Mrs. G., over at Derfwad Manor , has invited all of her bloggy friends to post a list of their favorite things. So here goes. 1. Folk music. I love all sorts of music, but my latest favorite, and the accompaniment to every evening meal at my house is The Weepies . Aren't they sweet? I just wish they'd release a new album! 2. 3. Dinah Alice Joel 4. The Guadalupe River (Though Susan will ask if it is the Frio) 5. Coffee. O.K. , there should be something in the cup, but what can I say? I drank it. 6. Poetry. Especially Emily Dickinson 7. Sweet people. Grandmother and Momma Morgan and Susan

This is for you, Mrs. G! (And for me and Susan and Heidi and any other Joni fans out there.)

I am sitting here while my Composition I students struggle over an in class essay on the wonderful " Everyday Use ," by the glorious Alice Walker . They are having such a hard time. I know they will do their best. I know they will come to an understanding of the different values of the sisters. I know they will love Maggie and her mother. I have yet to have a student really identify with Dee. This surprises me, because I did. I don't mean that I totally disrespected my mother and my sister(s), although the sisters might tell a different tale, but there were times when we spoke a different language. There were also times when I was so full of myself and my grand ideas--so full of my feminist struggle--that I did not give credit to the woman who raised three girls by herself--to the women my sisters had become. I certainly gave them lip service, just as Dee has appreciation for the "folk art" her grandmother had quilted. But I neglected to accept what they we...

Early this morning, I had one of those teacher dreams. I was in my Algebra II classroom, it was the final weeks of the semester, as it is now, and I was utterly unprepared. After a few minutes of winging it and going over the homework, I decided to let my class go early. Normally, that is cause for student celebration. But today there was an angry student who complained that he had learned NOTHING all semester. This was not surprising to me as I am an ENGLISH teacher who never took a math beyond the required Algebra I and remembers nothing of it beyond the abject terror and her temptation to offer sexual favors to her teacher in exchange for a passing grade (thank God that wasn't necessary--he was not an attractive soul, poor man). Anyway, I apologized to the poor student who only wanted to learn something, and I awakened in a cold sweat two minutes before my alarm went off. Ah, November; it makes a teacher want . . . . . . some encouragement.

That Tom DeLay is a brilliant thinker. Did you know that if it weren't for legalized abortion we would not have a problem with immigration? Think about it.

This morning I was listening to an interview with Joni Mitchell on the Tavis Smiley show. Joni was talking about creativity, sensitivity, and her unusual aura, when I got an overwhelming urge to find one of my mother's prints, frame it, and put it above my desk so I could see it everyday while I'm working. This is a print she made in 1989--It is a self portrait. I first found this print this summer (three years after her death), when I was getting ready to move. There was a large container underneath her bed with dozens of prints and drawings I had never seen. I was blown away by this image. Mamma loved birds. We often had finches in our home (I still have our last two), and she fed wild birds as well. When I found this box of prints, I was amazed by the number of bird allusions in her work. Painting herself with feathers is particularly telling, I think. Here's one just for fun: Later, when I got to the garage, I found some of her plates for printing. This piece of paper w...

Here's to remembering that MUCH of life is glorious. Thanks Zenmomma !

Diving Into the Wreck Adrienne Rich First having read the book of myths, and loaded the camera, and checked the edge of the knife-blade, I put on the body-armor of black rubber the absurd flippers the grave and awkward mask. I am having to do this not like Cousteau with his assiduous team aboard the sun-flooded schooner but here alone. There is a ladder. The ladder is always there hanging innocently close to the side of the schooner. We know what it is for, we who have used it. Otherwise it is a piece of maritime floss some sundry equipment. I go down. Rung after rung and still the oxygen immerses me the blue light the clear atoms of our human air. I go down. My flippers cripple me, I crawl like an insect down the ladder and there is no one to tell me when the ocean will begin. First the air is blue and then it is bluer and then green and then black I am blacking out and yet my mask is powerful it pumps my blood with power the sea is another story the sea is not a question of power I h...

I've been tagged again! I can see how this sort of thing can get out of control. But I so appreciate Grammar Snob's kind words about me (she said I was witty, for Pete's sake!) that I'll play along. Remember when we were kids and at every opportunity, some adult would have us play that silly Telephone game? You know… the one where the lead person comes up with a sentence or statement, whispers it into the ear of the next person in line, and the sentence is passed from person to person until it reaches the end of the line. The last person then repeats the sentence out loud, the first person announces what it actually was, and everyone gets to laugh about how goofy it got by being passed from ear to ear and being altered because of mispronunciations and hearing ability.Of course I realize that the game was simply a means for adults to keep us in line while we were waiting for something or killing time. Haven’t we even now as adults, tried to use it on our own kids? Being ...

I love this guy ! And it doesn't hurt that he looks like his daddy .

If you're in town, don't forget to stop by Susan 's Show at Justin's on Main! Food! Art! Fun! Frivolity! (The paintings are both by Susan, but neither one is in the show.)

Women and people who love women should read this blog entry , by one of my favorite bloggers--Mrs. G.

Yea! I've been tagged by It's My Life! For some odd reason, this has been a difficult post to write--I guess I feel that I'm an "open book" and everybody already knows all they need to know about me. The idea is to post seven random facts about my life and to tag other bloggers to ask them to do the same. So here goes: 1) I worked for a summer as a nude model for life drawing courses. It was good money, but it got a little creepy after awhile. 2) Two years later, I worked for a summer as a short order cook at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It is amazing to get to see the canyon every day; I plan to return one day. 3) I met my partner through match dot com; hers was the first profile I read, and I knew that I wanted to get to know this person. 4) I love raspberries more than any fruit. 5) I play the guitar (poorly). 6)I dream about getting an RV and traveling from national park to national park. 7) I have one friend who calls me "Kitten" and one who...

Here's a video I found on my friend Gini's blog.

I stole this from Lanie Painie who stole it from Grammar Snob. Copy this list and Bold those you’ve read. Italicize books you have started but couldn’t finish. Add an asterisk* to those you have read more than once. Underline those on your To Be Read list. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Crime and Punishment Catch-22 One Hundred Years of Solitude Wuthering Heights The Silmarillion Life of Pi: A Novel The Name of the Rose Don Quixote Moby Dick * Ulysses Madame Bovary The Odyssey Pride and Prejudice Jane Eyre A Tale of Two Cities The Brothers Karamazov Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies War and Peace Vanity Fair The Time Traveler’s Wife The Iliad Emma The Blind Assassin The Kite Runner Mrs. Dalloway Great Expectations American Gods A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Atlas Shrugged Reading Lolita in Tehran Memoirs of a Geisha Middlesex Quicksilver Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West The Canterbury Tales The Historian A Portrait of the...

Well, it seems that I missed posting on Tuesday. I guess that the two posts on Monday will have to fill the void. I am willing to admit that my joy over the prospect of cheap, plentiful ethanol may have been premature. But I am never one to pass up the opportunity for a happy dance--just ask my partner. I've been known to dance just because I'm happy to be home from work or we're having meatloaf. I'm also one to break into song for no good reason. I got that from my mother, I think. She would sing or quote poetry at the drop of a hat. How do you celebrate? And why? Does it take a high holy day or is Wednesday good enough?

We have all heard that ethanol made from corn is not very cost effective. Evidently, we have to use a great deal of fuel, land, fertilizer, water, and other resources to grow corn to be turned into alcohol, and it just doesn't make fiscal or environmental sense to continue to develop ethanol in this way. Indeed, if we didn't have the farm subsidies and the sanctions, we would never have developed it to this extent. It is, as it stands, a government boondoggle. But take heart my dears! News is out that a company in Georgia-- Range Fuels --has developed a way to make ethanol from waste! You heard me--waste. They claim that soon they will be able to supply enough ethanol to replace the oil we get from Venezuela and the Persian Gulf combined . This makes me happy. It is a great example of problems being solved by the private sector. What? Did I just say that? Well, I'm still a big ol' liberal, and I still think our government is responsible for investigating and en...

This morning on my way out the door, I noticed that there was an empty rum bottle awaiting a trip to the recycling (which gets picked up on Monday). So I grabbed the bottle and walked to the curb just in time to be passed by a school bus. Stay in school, kids, and work hard! You, too may be able to drink lots of rum! Arrg. I wonder, am I the only person who is embarrassed by her recycling bin? I wonder if the garbage men really care. . .

I thought tonight I might talk about some of the TV I've been watching lately. I must admit there's far too much of it, and I won't go into the gory details of the occasional episode of General Hospital and Rachel Ray, but I did want to write about what is right in television these days. You really need to watch Pushing Daisies . This is one of the best shows I have seen in years. The camera work is amazing, the colors are a dream, the script is clever, and the actors are great fun. Do yourself a favor and tune in. Another wonderful show is The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard on Masterpiece Theatre. I don't know how many episodes are left, but the idea of a populist woman taking Britain by storm is enjoyable and even inspiring. I would like that to happen here! What are you watching?

Creation Story Joy Harjo I’m not afraid of love or its consequence of light. It’s not easy to say this or anything when my entrails dangle between paradise and fear. I am ashamed I never had the words to carry a friend from her death to the stars correctly. Or the words to keep my people safe from drought or gunshot. The stars who were created by words are circling over this house formed of calcium, of blood— this house in danger of being torn apart by stones of fear. If these words can do anything I say bless this house with stars. Transfix us with love.

Yesterday afternoon, Susan and I went to Justin's on Main to hang her show, which opens next week and will hang through November. We met there with her friends, Donna and Kim , who are showing with her. I enjoyed being witht the three different artists and seeing their work together. They are all very talented, of course, and they have different ways of seeing the world, which is a good thing. I spent the afternoon taking pictures, chatting up the artists, and generally getting in the way. And, ah, sipping a little wine. Susan, of course, was all work. Okay, maybe not ALL work. We did find time for a little wine and a great Reuben sandwich. We had fun, the place looks great, and I am thrilled about the opening next week! After all, I get to hang out with artists and art lovers and take pictures. What could be better than that?

Okay, it's not the greatest picture, but MY NEPHEW PASSED THE BAR!!! I can take no credit, but I am proud of him.

Well, it's November First. That means it is time to start daily postings (although now that it's required, the ideas seem to have dried up). It also means that I give the dogs their heart worm preventative, and I go help Susan hang her new show (more about that later). I held class last night, although only a handful of students decided to come and see me rather than go trick or treating with their children. Where are their priorities?! Actually, I quite understand. I think I'd rather be combing the streets for candy with an eight year old,too. It was fun, though. I created private blogs for both of my classes and signed up the students who attended. I am not sure how well that will work, but it seems a good way to communicate with them. Let's face it--I've gone mad for blogging. My new friend Mental Mosaic has suggested that we nominate St. Cassian as the patron saint of both of the november writing fests. I like that! Even those of us who suffer from bl...