Current Listening: Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark
Current Reading: Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews
Recipe of the Day: Curried Vegetable Stew, Burritos de lengua en salsa verde, Crockpot Rum Croissant Bread Pudding
Current Mood:
Daily Quote:
The friend who had recommended her to him, a priest who had been through her hands during a troubled period, told him, 'She advised me not to try to pray. She advised me to shut up and listen. Read the gospel, she said. Jesus is praying to you for sympathy. You have to see his point of view, what he had to put up with. Listen, don't talk. Read the Bible. Take it in. God is talking not you.' -excerpt from Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark

Shame on me! I was really surprised to find a current book written by Muriel Spark. I have read her novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie many times, and have seen the movie. I particularly hit an obsessive time when PBS showed a mini-series based on the book back when I was in high school. I pretty much thought that was all she had written! If you go to the link on Muriel Spark after the quote, you will see that this is far from correct!

I am enjoying the book (I'm listening to it on CD) and particularly liked the quote that I used above regarding reading the Bible (something I am very resistant to!). I feel doubly lucky, because I found a link with an excerpt from the novel that had that very quote in it! To read the excerpt, about a quirky psychiatrist that has two patients claiming to be the same fugitive from the law, click on the Quotes link.

I am still sick, and am staying home today. I will also probably stay at home tomorrow - I have made lesson plans to allow that. I am coughing, congested, and have other problems that I won't go into detail about!

You're welcome!

If I don't get better, then I will have to go to my doctor, who will prescribe the same old, same old - antibiotics, Claritin (I already have that!), and cough syrup. This is made a little more complicated by the new anti-depressant I am taking. This happens every year. When I moved to Georgia, I was fine for 2-3 years, then Georgia caught up with me, and every fall (not so much in spring) I have the same sinus troubles. I just read an entry by Texas Peach about similar troubles in Texas, and I submit to her that it is the same thing. Welcome to the south!

I still have a lot to do here - grading papers and assigning grades being the most important of the chores. My father is visiting, which is nice. I will be around for his visit - coincidentally - albeit a sneezing, coughing, "blah" version of me!

Yesterday, while catching up with TheMuseWithin, who also has some form of "the plague", I found the most hilarious site. It was too late to post yesterday, because I had already written in my blog, but I immediately sent a notice to friends and some family to go to this website: Strindberg and Helium. For those of you that need some explanation before you click on a link, here is a description from Sundance Online Film Fest: Morose Swedish playwright August Strindberg's dark musings are given a hilarious, lighter spin by his youthful high-pitched companion, Helium..

Here are some "reviews" (responses) from some of the people who acted on my e-mail yesterday:

I love it! - Mom

Boy. Talk about morose and depressing. I'm going to start pretending that I have a little floating familiar following me around and repeating everything I say. - my husband

Think we better add a couple more classes to your schedule!!! Too much play time on your black and bleeding hands.. Hope to see you next week!! Helium had redeeming quality of generosity. - an aunt