Lisa Batya Feld's Blog, page 19

Question for Y'all

I'm about to run a contest for my class for "worst poem ever," with the intention that their attempts to write bad poetry will help sharpen their sense of what makes for good poetry, too. And I wanted to give them a goofy, awful prize which was handed down to me from another teacher: a book of dating advice compiled by Ashton Kutcher.

Except that once I really looked at the book, it's full of a lot of raunchy stuff that I might joke about with a friend, but which feels really inappropriate as a gift to a student. So what should I use as a prize?

1. Use the dating book anyway.

2. Give a very nice (but serious) book of writing prompts.

3. Sell the dating book and the writing prompt book at a used book store and use the store credit (and a bit of my own money) to buy a more lighthearted and appropriate prize.

Pulling off more than the Burlington Northern Railroad

In the past 24 hours:

25 assignments graded.
1 story gutted and reworked for my advisor (50% new material), a week after my last story.
Crises handled for 2 different internships (not counting the campus-wide blackouts).
Groups assigned for my class's upcoming workshop.
3 hours of student conferences.

Booyah.

Bookish

Have been reading Dorothy Sayers in brief snatches of time, and have to say that Busman's Honeymoon was a real disappointment after Gaudy Night. It was basically bad Mary Sue wish-fulfillment fic with a particularly shmoopy hurt/comfort ending. There were moments I did like, where Harriet is adjusting herself to the ethics of Peter's professional calling, but the struggles with their own flaws and weaknesses that made GN so fantastic were gone here, with both characters either being perfect...

Oddly starving

I know I just fasted yesterday, but my pattern has always been that the break-fast gets me back to normal. But this morning I've had two Luna bars, a venti frappuchino, a bagel with cream cheese, and teriyaki with rice, and I'm still STARVING. WTF?

In other news, Yom Kippur services were wonderfully moving. The rabbis were great and I loved praying out of Tateh's mahzor. (There is some really awesome stuff in there -- for the concept of God creating the world anew every day, they have beaut...

G'mar hatimah tovah

For those of you who are fasting, I wish you a good inscription and a meaningful fast.

I'm getting over being sick, so I'm trying to load up on salmon and spinach and orange juice and meds as much as I can before sunset. And I'm leading a meditation-type thing tomorrow afternoon between services, so I'm hoping I can muster energy for that.

Also, Tateh made the New York Times, which is pretty awesome.

Frustrating day lightened by heavy books

Ploughing through as best I can, despite being sick, trying to get my lesson plans done, my class's assignments graded, and launch a major fundraising event for the program. I'm getting things mostly done, but I wish I could just curl up in the fetal position and drink oceans of tea. Also, apparently there's been a massive recall of cold medicine, so I'm doing all this without the benefit of drugs.

On the up-side, just read Dorothy Sayers for the first time and realized that Lois Bujold borr...

My dad made the Wall Street Journal!

The Wall Street Journal has a review of Mahzor Lev Shalem and they quote and comment on Tateh in his role as chair of the committee.

All through this process, I've been so incredibly proud of the work he's done and the aspirations he's had for this project, aspirations I think he's fulfilled wonderfully. It's just an amazing accomplishment. I'm really looking forward to praying out of the Mahzor this year.

The ever-dying book

Really wanted to comment about the closing of the 66th St. Barnes and Noble, because I really disagree with the Times article on a few crucial points. The main thrust of the article is that the 4-story superstore is closing because people don't really read print books any more: at most, they see the store as a coffeeshop where they can read something for free, not a bookstore where they can buy coffee after they've bought a book. They also point out that Upper West Siders will still be able...

My students are awesome

The comments my students come up with in class are really insightful, they're respectful of each other and build on each other's ideas; they're just all-around amazing. I love teaching.

Teaching

Second day of teaching today, and it was magical. Students were laughing, blurting out answers, completely engaged. And I think it's going to keep getting better, the more I do it. I'm still working on the balance between bombarding them with too much stuff and not having enough to fill the time, but I'm switching more and more over to writing activities and discussion, so I think that'll give everyone a chance to mull things over a bit before we charge onward.

The main issue for me is that...