How to Repair a Paperback Book

Another Great Wiki How-To:
How to Repair a Paperback Book

I'm going to try this.

The Cutest Teething Post Ever

http://seahorsepelkey.blogspot.com/2008/10/teef.html

'Fair' Warning to Palin

This was posted on a message board. Here are a couple of quotes from the article, which you can read here:

"During Thursday's debate, the press will be listening so hard for a Palin version of 'macaca' that they probably won't even hear what Joe has to say."

"Here's the rule of thumb: When a liberal misspeaks, it's a slip of the tongue. We all make mistakes. If you are a conservative, however, you commit an unforgiveable sin that must be revisited a thousand times until you are out of Purgatory – or office, whichever comes first."

Creative Reading

Miss M is reading a book aloud to herself. She makes it up as she goes. Here's a bit of what I'm hearing:

"I'm an archaeologist. Are you an archaeologist? Come in. Have a donut or something."

"Please, policeman, will you tie my shoe?"

"Oh, Mommy, it couldn't be that! It's my beard! We'll stick it on with tape so you can be an archaeologist."

I have no idea why she's stuck on archaeologists; we haven't been talking or reading about them. Or beards either, for that matter.

Madame de Stael's Father

From Mistress to an Age by J. Christopher Herold, 1958Monsieur Necker made himself useful to the King of France, got in some trouble, got out of it . . . here's a quote:

He was by no means a fool, and in some ways he was ahead of his time. His realization that France was rich, that only the government was poor, and that credit was the heart of prosperity--these certainly are ideas that have gained some currency in our times; but his lucidity was balanced by his blindness to the need of taxation, without which the credit was bound to collapse--as indeed it did, burying Europe in its ruins. His opposition to the laissez-faire doctrine, to Turgot's Panglossian notion that 'the general well-being is the result of the efforts of each individual to further his own interests,' was based not on a study of economics, of which he knew little, but on considerations of social justice. Government regulation, he insisted, was necessary to protect the people against lawless exploitation, and in the conclusion to his book on the 'Commerce of Grains' he echoed Rousseau's 'Second Discourse:'

It seems that a small number of men, after dividing up the earth among themselves, have created laws for their common protection against the masses . . . And yet, it must be said that after the establishment of laws to safeguard property, justice, and liberty, almost nothing has been done as yet for the most numerous class of citizens. 'What do the laws of property mean to us?' they well might ask. 'We owe nothing. Your justice? We have nothing to defend. Your liberty? If we do not work tomorrow, we die.'

(This would have been 1781-89)

The Education of Madame de Stael

Tim took me on a tour of his college, including the library, and I found a really interesting book: Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Stael by J. Christopher Herold, 1958. I've seen her name come up in CM's books and PR articles, so, naturally, I was intrigued. I was able to get a library card and check out the book.

Madame de Stael's first name was Germaine, and she was an only child. Her mother (Madame Suzanne Necker) was enamored of Rousseau's ideas and kept Germaine home to educate her herself. Here's a quote from the book. Sorry for the lack of caps - my fingers are tired, I'll go back and fix them later.

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Madame Necker, by some astounding feat of self-delusion, imagined that she was bringing up her daughter according to the teachings of rousseau--'like emile,' she wrote. a greater contrast than the education rousseau prescribed for emile and the education germaine received from her mother would be difficult to imagine.

rousseau, it may be recalled, had emile brought up in the country, isolated from the corrupting influences of society. germaine spent her childhood in a drawing room in the middle of paris. emile's tutor avoided any kind of formal instruction, seeking instead to let his pupil learn only through direct experience and guiding him in the spontaneous development of his natural gifts. 'for madame necker, all education consisted in instruction,' we are told. 'she taught mademoiselle necker latin and english, and she made her copy long extracts from books; but she never spent one hour alone with her in familiar conversation.

emile had not yet learned to read when germaine had read a whole library. emile's tutor reserved the idea of god for the end of his pupil's education; germaine learned her catechism before she was three. emile did not know of the existence of women until he was an adolescent; germaine had listened to discussions of love from infancy on.

emile's body was made strong and healthy by open air and exercise; knowledge and love of nature were the only discipline in his curriculum; and nature was his only textbook. 'the education of mademoiselle necker,' a childhood friend reminisced, 'was directed entirely toward the development of the mind. exercise, walks, everything that pleases and fortifies children did not in the least enter into madame necker's plans. and so her daughter knew how to dance, but not how to run. she recited thomson's 'seasons' but could not tell a hyacinth from a tubarose.'

there is one more striking contrast between germaine's education and emile's. rousseau had emile brought up not merely in solitude but away from his parents. 'oh, emile hadn't any father,' he said to boswell. 'he didn't exist.' he knew, of course, that emile's education was an ideal model rather than a practical possibility; but surely there is a middle ground between being brought up without parents and being, in a sense, married to them, as germaine was. her emotional involvement with her mother and father was the most decisive factor in her formation.

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the result of this education: germaine was starved for affection, because her mother's duty forbid her from showing affection. germaine thought her mother was dull and moralizing. she satisfied her craving for excitement with novels and plays, mostly sentimental. she faked coughing spells and fainted to get her mother's attention. a doctor diagnosed nerves and recommended rest, no exertion. So germaine's education ended at age thirteen, with her and her mother at odds.

A Hobbit Birthday

We're going to be having a cake to celebrate Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday, as we've done the last few years.

Miss M is very excited, and very chatty about the whole thing. She asked if they would be coming over here to blow out the candles, or if we're going to their house. When we explained that they're creatures with furry feet ("like horses?") and that they lived in Middle Earth, she was suddenly an expert. "Oh, hobbits. Yes, they're friendly, they're very friendly to people, and they love to shake hands. They especially like girls. They died . . . fifteen weeks ago. They have sharp hands. And they're this big . . ."

A product of the day's work

Although it's not really fair to call it work, because it's a lot of fun. Today in photography class we made prints from our negatives. This is a crop from one of mine. (The full size is a much larger version of the same crop.)

I have seen this light before--

It's not really autumn yet, but there are hints of it all over. The wind is coming back after a long, quiet summer; we've had days of soft, steady rain without thunder or lightning; and in the evenings sometimes the light touches the leaves with gold. So, as my mind follows the mood of the season, things that I've read and enjoyed in the past have been coming to memory. Like the Chronicles of Narnia (which it's really been far too long since I read). Or like this poem, which Fa-So-La-La (over at the Beehive) wrote a couple of years ago. (Whence comes my post title, by the way.)

It was rather strange tonight. For once, midnight came around and I didn't still have homework to do. Last week I had my first exams--Humanities, Bible, and Speech--and I spent extra time doing review for those. None of them were as hard as I feared, but I'm glad to have them over with.

P.S. This week the Humanities class is starting to read Greek tragedies. First will be Prometheus Bound (Aeschylus) and then we'll be doing Oedipus Rex and Antigone.

J's Violin Concert

J had an outdoor violin concert/recital today. Sorry I can't post any video or audio, but here are a couple of pictures.