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.

---

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.