Today. Boo.

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What msbelle said.

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ION, I just got a 404 message on a black page that said: "It is pitch dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue."

BWAH! That makes me ridiculously happy.

Kristin, if you and I happen to teach any of the same novels in any of our classes, I'd love to arrange for a email or letter exchange with your students to do something of the same.

Sure! Setting up a blog or LJ community is probably the way to do it. (Note to self: create new, innocuous LJ identity.)

I know your kids are also American teens, but you teach at a upper middle class, mostly Jewish school, right?

Well......my old school was. I'm starting at a new all-girls school in August.

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Erin,

If you do end up teaching Northanger Abbey, try getting your hands on a copy of the Palgrave Master Series on Jane Austen, IIRC it has an in-depth discussion/analysis of NA.

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I *think* it was a trial where the defendant was beaten by someone (her husband?) and killed in self defense or something. And was a piece of work. There may have been an affair too and I vaguely recall a roadhouse or something. Any case, probably 50s , maybe early 60s, defendant was a sultry brunette . Any bells? I have NO IDEA why we watched this in civics class.

This sounds a hell of a lot like a play 've worked on called Machinal, by Sophie Treadwell. It was based on a true story.

[link]

I am pretty sure I atarted reading bad romances with lots of sex at around 7 or 8. One of the most memorable (although not really a romance novel) was Fanny, by Erica Jong. I believe there was an entire chapter devoted to nicknames for the penis. I believe this is why it always surprised me when friends who were more sexually active than I was were so ignorant about what things were called!

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Yeah. I mean, ow. The attempts at feline...

A friend of mine was traumatized by the bondage bit in it when he was very young. I mostly remember McDowell picking a bit of stray flesh off of himself and popping it in his mouth, because, gah.

Do see the original if you can. The remake is interesting mostly in the way it totally missed what made the original good, since it turns what was mostly psychological into something literal. Which is never a good idea.

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Hivemind...

My upstairs neighbor's shower is still pouring into my bathroom, meaning that his dirty bathwater is seeping into my rug, and bloating the walls and ceiling. I reported the problem on Friday. The landlord came by on Sunday. He said it would be fixed on Wednesday, and yet, again, I am mopping up dirty bathwater.

What can I do? What are my rights?

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"Fanny" is still one of my favorite books. Dick jokes and pirates. What else could you want?

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Allyson, I hope you have run upstairs and let your neighbor know, so that they will at least stop using the water. I got no legal info for you. Calls to the landlord every hour on the hour until they get back to you would be a good start though.

I've tried to go to bed 3 time, each time remembering something I needed to do which got me out of bed. This time, I kinda gave in and am writing checks that I had on my to-do list for tomorrow. If I can't sleep I might as well be productive.

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Call tenants rights organization to find out what your rights are. (Lawyers are good too - but rights orgs, ya know free.)

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