Syllabus #106

What happened this week?  I hit a milestone - 800 consecutive days of Duolingo!  But I still don't know how to say "I hit a milestone" in Spanish, so I'm not sure what this signifies other than compulsive behavior:

Also, I had two new experiences Friday night.  Hanging out a pinball bar, and food poisoning.  How I have made it 35 years on this earth without it (that I can recall) is a mystery.

Pinball Wizard: Or, The Mysterious Tale of the Grilled Octopus of Questionable Provenance that Ricocheted Through My Digestive Tract for Sixteen Hours Before Making an Overly Dramatic Exit

 This article/interview is interesting and it sounds like this guy is doing important work, but the fact that this guy is a white researcher seeking to legitimate African American English is one thing in an academic sense, but speaks to a larger cultural question of 'legitimate according to whom?' Who gets to say what is and is not legitimate or valid or valuable, and why?  Why isn't the fact that this language is used by the community that uses it validation enough?    

I'm so glad to see this article about the precious gift to comedy that is Bowen Yang.  I know a lot of people still shit on SNL, and I haven't watched regularly in years, but I think this season's cast is generally great and he's probably my favorite.  "Audiences are used to straight characters’ sexuality not having anything to do with the joke of the sketch, but if a gay character’s sexuality isn’t a punchline, then its inclusion requires an explicit justification. Yang is challenging this double standard, one sketch at a time."  Like, seriously, Bowen Yang as The Gay Iceberg That Sank the Titanic on Weekend Update was a bright spot in a very dark early part of 2021.

Analog Reading:

Finished Suleika Jaouad's Between Two Kingdoms.  It was so beautifully written.  In less skilled hands, or from a less reflective and introspective mind, a story like Suleika's would make you cringe and turn away.  The only thing stopping me from reading the entire book in one sitting was sheer exhaustion, otherwise I would have read through the night until the sun rose.  The sensory descriptions were evocative without being syrupy, and there were moments of dark humor even in the most serious of moments.  I loved every page.

Reading Notes from the Bathroom Line:  Humor, Art, and Low-Grade Panic from 150 of the Funniest Women in Comedy, curated by Amy Solomon.  Some of the pieces are kind of meh, but I have chortled and/or snorted at several of them so far.

Also reading Selfish, Shallow, and Self Absorbed, an essay collection edited by Meghan Daum, by writers who have chosen, for a variety of reasons, not to become parents.  It resonates.