Syllabus #215

We drove down to Alabama on Saturday to visit the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.  For Andy, it was a homecoming of sorts, as that nerd attended Space Camp not once, but twice, in his youth.  He knew the names of all the rockets and was deep into the history of the space program, and I'm just like, look at how they poop!  

It's about a 2 hour drive from Nashville to Huntsville, so I was looking for other things to do while we were down there to make the most out of the day.  On the museum's website, they listed other attractions in Huntsville, including a couple of historic homes, a botanical garden, an art museum, and a store called Unclaimed Baggage.  It sounded like a nosy cheapskate's fever dream, and we said sign us up for that.  As it turns out, the pickins are so slim in Huntsville that Unclaimed Baggage is, in fact, not remotely in Hunstville at all, but rather 45 minutes away in Scottsboro.  We did not go to there.

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We got a lot of links this week!  Take what you will.

  

One teacher's mild take on why teachers are leaving education in droves.  She speaks like somebody who has a hot take up her sleeve but wants to keep her job for the time being.  

Margaret Renkl speaking the truth, although I think she's being a little to charitable towards old Guvnah HVAC.  

Accents and languages are fascinating!

Our butt-washer is named Jon Bidet Ramsey.   A treasured family member, highly recommend getting one.

Highly agree with conceptualizing after-work exercise as recess.  I like to go for about an hour walk every day after work.  Last week was brutally hot and I still managed to get out there every day except Friday.  Also, I like to trick myself into exercising before work in the morning by rolling out of bed and putting on a workout video while I'm still in my pajamas.  The workout is accomplished before I'm even fully awake enough to resent the imposition on my sleep.

David Sedaris is why I don't own a FitBit or an Apple Watch.  

Analog Reading:

I finished The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.  10/10.  Excellent.  I shed one single tear at the beautiful but not schlocky ending.

I blasted through Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.  It was sweet and entertaining and witty but felt formulaic and had some plot elements that really threw me out of the moment.  In an otherwise generally realistic story, the whole act of fostering and adopting the abandoned child was so glossed over and simplified that I was like, worried for the safety of all the other children in the foster system in a bureaucracy that is so casual about letting a rando assume custody of a dead stranger's baby.  Overall, it was enjoyable to read but nowhere near as excellent as Zevin's Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

Now I'm reading Colm Toibin's Brooklyn.  It moves at a much slower clip than A.J. Fikry and is much more tightly focused on one character than Heaven and Earth.  That's not to say it's boring, but it is a change of pace.  I might try to watch the movie version after I finish the book.

Syllabus #214

When I was a kid, I was morbidly fascinated by middle-grade Holocaust literature, both fiction and non-fiction.  I had one book that especially haunted me, called I Have Lived a Thousand Years. a harrowing memoir about a teenage concentration camp survivor.  The title comes to mind every once in a while, when I've had an especially exhausting week at work.  Which, believe me, I KNOW, is the trashiest, most ignorant thing to compare my cushy life with anything remotely traumatizing or difficult.  And yet, this week was the first full week of school, and I was weirdly very ill for about 36 hours in which I powered through in a Coricidin-buffered haze, which bifurcated the week in a confusing way.  And all of a sudden it was the weekend and arriving at home on Friday felt like lifting the trap door to my bomb-shelter and stepping out into the sunlight after a month underground eating canned tuna and drinking my own urine.  

That sounds like hyperbole, but go talk to any teacher in the first month of school and read them that analogy.  I will give you $50 if they do anything other than shrug and say, "Yea, that checks out."

On Saturday we ate Very Good Sandwiches at Little Hats

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To be a fly on the wall in this space!

Analog Reading:

I expect to, but will regret to, finish The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store this afternoon.  The tension is rising and I have about 30 pages left and I'm desperate to find out what happens but then it'll be over and I just hate saying goodbye to these fully-fleshed out, compelling characters.

Up next, TBD.

Syllabus #213

Yes hello I have stared into the bucket of truth, and in the bottom was this pizza, and lo, I saw that it was good, and I am forever changed.  The half in the foreground was a hot pickle pizza with dill, Calabrian chilis, and ranch drizzle, and you'll forgive me for any typos that follow because I have salivated all over my keyboard.  I have one slice leftover for lunch today and when it's gone, I'm going to feel the kind of nostalgic longing for happier times that many people associate with their childhoods, or their college days, or their first loves.  I'm not being dramatic.  It's that good.

If you are local to Nashville, please don't tell too many people about Pinky Ring Pizza in Madison because I don't want it to blow up to the point that I can no longer access this jewel that I just discovered, but please do hurry yourself on over for a pie.  Good lord.  I'm not religious but you better believe on this Sunday at lunch I'm taking my mouth to church and praising sweet baby Jesus for this perfect manna from heaven.

Don't even talk to me unless you're putting pickles and hot peppers on your pizza.

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We've all Wordled, but have you Connected?  It's like a daily SAT verbal exercise for utterly no purpose other than bragging rights, which is kind of also the purpose of the SAT, except this doesn't also largely and arbitrarily determine the trajectory of your future, your educational debt, and your lifetime earning capacity.  Low stakes insufferable nerd fun.  To date, I have a near-perfect record, having made only one mistake in the first puzzle I attempted a couple weeks back.  Now that I've announced that, I'm sure I'll start screwing them up left and right, but it's been a real ego-stroke while it's lasted.  

Speaking of education, but the high-stakes kind.  I'll be unraveling a cardigan in solidarity with the librarians of the Houston school district.  So you say you're trying to raise reading and math scores?  But you're closing libraries and turning them into discipline centers?  I'm sure that's going to work out beautifully for you.  

Analog Reading:

Finished Patrick deWitt's new novel, The Librarianist.  It was quirky and delightful and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Despite not being a septuagenarian male living in Portland, Oregon, I very much identified with the protagonist.  Somebody who spends their days reading, walking, tidying, cooking, and eating?  Damn, y'all.  It me.

Just picked up James McBride's new masterpiece, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.  I'm only a few pages in, but I can already tell it's going to be great.   

Syllabus #212

Whoops, the weekend got away from me.  It's Monday morning.  The childrens return to school tomorrow and I'm currently in denial.

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Edi Patterson, comedic treasure.  A real gem, if you will. 

Analog Reading:

Finally finished Our Best Minds.  It was...ok?

Started Patrick deWitt's new book, The Librarianist.  It's like they wrote a book about me but changed the personally identifying details so it's about an elderly man in Portland.  I keep reading passages about the main characters personality and proclivities and internally screaming IT MEEEEEE.