I took electives for 12th grade English -- writing and speech.

Good luck, Kat!

Technology is making me cry.

I had British lit in eleventh grade, then AP English in twelfth. It wasn't until a few years later that I realized we hadn't read a single book by a female author during AP English. (At least, none that I could remember. We had a bunch of Greek stuff, then Shakespeare, then a mix of other stuff, but I couldn't remember anything written by a woman. Can't remember everything else we read -- some Hemingway, some Falkner, Heart of Darkness, Turn of the Screw, Mourning Become Elektra, The Stranger, and I can't remember what else.)

Just don't cry ON the technology, Jesse! That might result in rending of garments.

AH! I just used LJ for good and not evil and bitched and moaned there. Thank god.

We had Brit Lit in 11th grade. And then AP lit where we read all over and all things. I remember arguing with teacher that I would never ever use Twain during the AP exam (she contended any question could be answered with Twain). And lo, during the exam, I used Charlotte Bronte instead. TAKE THAT, SISTER MARY CATHERINE!

Ahem.

I know, though, that things have changed in the 18 years since I was high school (yowch!) and the APs work differently now.

I used Hamlet on the AP exam. I can't remember what the essay was about, though. But our teacher had had us memorize most of the important and quotable passages, so that we'd be able to quote stuff on the essays on the exam. (He'd started that a few years earlier, when a class of his had done way better than average on the exam, and he asked some of them about it, and they pretty much all said that they'd answered the essay question with Midsummer Night's Dream, which had been the drama club production that year, and since most of them were in drama club, they were able to quote it to back up their arguments.)

So I'm watching The Truth About Cancer on PBS, and one thing that is interesting to me is that the "dumbed down" explanation of how non chemo/radiation meds work make total sense to me (the other does too, but it is scorched earth approach) and in fact, I understand beyond the dumbed down version. This is all courtesy of my brother translating his work into layman's terms. His primary focus right now is killing off the mechanism that builds blood vessels that feed the cancer cells in the tumor (via drugs,) but he's gone into other mechanisms explaining it to me.

And that's fucking cool. Biology was my weakest subject, but he's able to convey obscure stuff in such a way that a totally clueless person can understand.

You know how the repetition in some words leads you to repeat the repetition a few too many times? Like banana?

There is a throwaway in one of the Pratchett novels where a character asks how to "stop spelling banana".

Re lettuce in cooking: I'm against soups with lettuce. But if you cook peas, adding a few lettuce leaves to the bottom of the pot improves the flavor for mysterious reasons unknown to me. You use one of the types of lettuce considered "lame" i.e. iceberg, butter lettuce and such: the really bland ones. You throw away the lettuce when the peas are done, and the peas taste sweeter.

Huh.

His primary focus right now is killing off the mechanism that builds blood vessels that feed the cancer cells in the tumor (via drugs,)

Anti-angiogenesis! That's part of the mechanism of action of my company's drug.

Biology was my weakest subject, but he's able to convey obscure stuff in such a way that a totally clueless person can understand.

That's great!

Anti-angiogenesis!

DH was somewhat in this general area too for his post-doc.

Now, if only he could fix our kid. Doctor's visit this morning earned us "it's just a series of colds. come back if it goes on for too long." um. ok - is "too long" a new _medical term_? and she's mostly fine for the rest of the day. Until the 6pm 104 fever hits again. ::headdesk::