New research hints at an unthinkable, abominable use of the remains of unborn children.
Is rate of lesbianism closely correlated to incidence of a certain hormone imbalance?
6.30.2003
6.27.2003
6.26.2003
New Car!
For all of those who have associated me with my rusty Celica since before Hillsdale, you may be grieved to know that I have retired the hulk and replaced it with a used blue-black Honda Accord of great condition!
"I dissent."
Today is a day that will live in infamy. I was dismayed by our high court's Lawrence decision, but it wasn't unexpected. Scalia's dissent was very good--and very bitter. Everyone should read it. Maybe I should blog it.
Ron Weasley is still alive!
I wasn't planning to, but found myself at B&N on Friday evening and then proceeded to stand in line for 40 minutes to obtain Harry Potter V. I then stayed up til 5:20 a.m. and got 306 pp. into the tome. I finished Tuesday night. Probably better than IV, but not as good as II or III.
There will be eight books after all!
The thing I was most surprised by in Harry Potter V was J. K. Rowling's clever ruse for writing an extra book. But putting Dolores Umbridge in charge at Hogwarts, she was able to fail the entire student body for that year. Accordingly, the next volume will be "Year Five at Hogwarts (Repeated)." This will allow Rowling to write not seven, but eight books in all, and milk the franchise for a corresponding portion of additional earnings. :(
For all of those who have associated me with my rusty Celica since before Hillsdale, you may be grieved to know that I have retired the hulk and replaced it with a used blue-black Honda Accord of great condition!
"I dissent."
Today is a day that will live in infamy. I was dismayed by our high court's Lawrence decision, but it wasn't unexpected. Scalia's dissent was very good--and very bitter. Everyone should read it. Maybe I should blog it.
Ron Weasley is still alive!
I wasn't planning to, but found myself at B&N on Friday evening and then proceeded to stand in line for 40 minutes to obtain Harry Potter V. I then stayed up til 5:20 a.m. and got 306 pp. into the tome. I finished Tuesday night. Probably better than IV, but not as good as II or III.
There will be eight books after all!
The thing I was most surprised by in Harry Potter V was J. K. Rowling's clever ruse for writing an extra book. But putting Dolores Umbridge in charge at Hogwarts, she was able to fail the entire student body for that year. Accordingly, the next volume will be "Year Five at Hogwarts (Repeated)." This will allow Rowling to write not seven, but eight books in all, and milk the franchise for a corresponding portion of additional earnings. :(
6.20.2003
Final Grades
I got my final grades today and was pleased to discover that the fifth semester (Fall 2002), the grades from which I had feared to check, was in fact my best semester at OSU--3 As, including both seminars. My final average was a measly 2.67, though; the 40 quarter-credit hours (i.e., my "Semitics minor") was 3.71. I suppose this does correlate somewhat with my final undergrad GPA of 3.675.
I got my final grades today and was pleased to discover that the fifth semester (Fall 2002), the grades from which I had feared to check, was in fact my best semester at OSU--3 As, including both seminars. My final average was a measly 2.67, though; the 40 quarter-credit hours (i.e., my "Semitics minor") was 3.71. I suppose this does correlate somewhat with my final undergrad GPA of 3.675.
Kissing feet
A conversation between Harriet Vane and the Dean of Shrewsbury College:
"I wanted to find out whether Annie could really have seen what she said she saw. These people sometimes let their imagination run away with them. If you don't mind, I'm going to lock these doors and remove the keys. I'd rather like a second opinion."
"Aha!" said the Dean. "The exquisite gentleman who kissed my feet at St. Cross Road, crying, Vera incessu patuit dean?"
[Recalling Aen. I.405: et vera incessu patuit dea. Ille ubi matrem.]
"That sounds characteristic. Well, Dean, you have got pretty feet. I've noticed them."
"They have been admired," said the Dean, complacently, "but seldom in so public a place after five minute's acquaintance. I said to his lordship, 'You are a foolish young man.' He said, 'A man, certain; and sometimes foolish enough to be young.' 'Well,' I said, 'please get up: you can't be young here.' So then he said, very nicely, 'I get your pardon for behaving like a montebank; I have no excuse to offer; so will you forgive me?' So I asked him to dinner."
- Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night, ch. 16.
Suffice it to say that I've had occasion and inclination, though never quite the nerve, to be such a foolish young man as Lord Peter Wimsey.
A conversation between Harriet Vane and the Dean of Shrewsbury College:
"I wanted to find out whether Annie could really have seen what she said she saw. These people sometimes let their imagination run away with them. If you don't mind, I'm going to lock these doors and remove the keys. I'd rather like a second opinion."
"Aha!" said the Dean. "The exquisite gentleman who kissed my feet at St. Cross Road, crying, Vera incessu patuit dean?"
[Recalling Aen. I.405: et vera incessu patuit dea. Ille ubi matrem.]
"That sounds characteristic. Well, Dean, you have got pretty feet. I've noticed them."
"They have been admired," said the Dean, complacently, "but seldom in so public a place after five minute's acquaintance. I said to his lordship, 'You are a foolish young man.' He said, 'A man, certain; and sometimes foolish enough to be young.' 'Well,' I said, 'please get up: you can't be young here.' So then he said, very nicely, 'I get your pardon for behaving like a montebank; I have no excuse to offer; so will you forgive me?' So I asked him to dinner."
- Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night, ch. 16.
Suffice it to say that I've had occasion and inclination, though never quite the nerve, to be such a foolish young man as Lord Peter Wimsey.
6.17.2003
6.16.2003
Excellent Adventure
I spent the weekend with my brother and sister-in-law, more or less celebrating my birthday in the process. The drive out along US 142/42 was an interesting tour of a part of Ohio I haven't seen for a while--from the old United Technologies plant we almost purchased outside London to the triad of little universities just east of Xenia. We visted the Cincinnati Art Museum, dined in downtown Cincy, and attended a performance of a contemporary play at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival. The museum was disappointing relative to my memories, but this was first visit since seeing the Louvre, the National Gallery, the Vatican, and the Uffizi. They've reorganized some of the Hiram Powers marbles, and I don't think I succeeded in finding all of them. _Gingham Dog_ was an interesting and unexpectedly intense play depicting a marital breakdown between a white man and a black woman in New York in 1969. In many ways a fascinating, multivalent commentary on the several sides of the Civil Rights movement, it came at a high price: I don't think I've ever been so emotionally drained from watching leading actors yell at each other. All in all, a very good weekend away!
I spent the weekend with my brother and sister-in-law, more or less celebrating my birthday in the process. The drive out along US 142/42 was an interesting tour of a part of Ohio I haven't seen for a while--from the old United Technologies plant we almost purchased outside London to the triad of little universities just east of Xenia. We visted the Cincinnati Art Museum, dined in downtown Cincy, and attended a performance of a contemporary play at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival. The museum was disappointing relative to my memories, but this was first visit since seeing the Louvre, the National Gallery, the Vatican, and the Uffizi. They've reorganized some of the Hiram Powers marbles, and I don't think I succeeded in finding all of them. _Gingham Dog_ was an interesting and unexpectedly intense play depicting a marital breakdown between a white man and a black woman in New York in 1969. In many ways a fascinating, multivalent commentary on the several sides of the Civil Rights movement, it came at a high price: I don't think I've ever been so emotionally drained from watching leading actors yell at each other. All in all, a very good weekend away!
6.14.2003
6.13.2003
Done with OSU
I'm officially done with all of my OSU coursework. Final round of finals are complete. It's a very odd feeling. I feel that I've truly graduated now, or that I'm on the outside looking in, or that it's time to get on with life, or (even!) just a little sad. :)
I think I did pretty well on my Arabic final, and then went and read the beginning of Gilgamesh XI, went out for pizza with the "guys" (my Akkadian class of classicists and Hebraists), then smoked a Partagas Black, then had (another) beer with Dr. DiCarlo (a polymath chiropractor, classicist, and budding orientalist whom I shall miss considerably), and had coffee with a friend who recently passed her Ph.D. generals.
Right now, I'm staring at The Critique of Pure Reason and wondering if I need to read the Meditations first. And it's now Friday the Thirteenth!
I'm officially done with all of my OSU coursework. Final round of finals are complete. It's a very odd feeling. I feel that I've truly graduated now, or that I'm on the outside looking in, or that it's time to get on with life, or (even!) just a little sad. :)
I think I did pretty well on my Arabic final, and then went and read the beginning of Gilgamesh XI, went out for pizza with the "guys" (my Akkadian class of classicists and Hebraists), then smoked a Partagas Black, then had (another) beer with Dr. DiCarlo (a polymath chiropractor, classicist, and budding orientalist whom I shall miss considerably), and had coffee with a friend who recently passed her Ph.D. generals.
Right now, I'm staring at The Critique of Pure Reason and wondering if I need to read the Meditations first. And it's now Friday the Thirteenth!
6.11.2003
6.06.2003
Almost done!
I'm almost done with my quarter coursework. All that remains for me to do will be completed next Thursday: to take an Arabic final (no mean feat, though), to attend a makeup Akkadian class in which we'll read from the section on the Flood in Gilgamesh, and then to go out for pizza with the Akkadian class.
Then, I'll be completely done with OSU and free of academic commitments. It will be a nice change. Time to do something economically productive and read widely outside of particular assignments and projects.
I'm almost done with my quarter coursework. All that remains for me to do will be completed next Thursday: to take an Arabic final (no mean feat, though), to attend a makeup Akkadian class in which we'll read from the section on the Flood in Gilgamesh, and then to go out for pizza with the Akkadian class.
Then, I'll be completely done with OSU and free of academic commitments. It will be a nice change. Time to do something economically productive and read widely outside of particular assignments and projects.
6.05.2003
Life of a Sharia executioner. Lovely! I really loved the part about amputations. Maybe I shouldn't try to go over there seeking work....
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