hopping the awesome reading list discussion (man how I want to be one of kat's students) to say

Hey scola - just crossing into staten island if you get off work early today. Profile addy is good.

It's like farmers cheese

You're description of farmer's cheese is totally different than what I know as farmer's cheese. To me it's a hard, dry, very much like cheddar, but usually white.

Colin Firth and Jon Stewart's conversation on The Daily Show: Comedy Gold.

By the end, when they were both giggling about Colin Firth's penis, I was in hysterics.

There was snow on the ground when I woke up this morning. It just sets the tone for the day.

Kat, for contemporary comedy writers, I think some of Tom Stoppard's work would count.

Also, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead would tie in to Shakespeare.

Oh, I agree with Frank, Stoppard is good. Or Joe Orton. Or, and it's really a monologue more than a play, something by Spaulding Gray.

By that same token, there's also Eric Bogosian. If this is for a class, though, I'm not sure it would be entirely appropriate (that goes for Orton too, I think).

You're description of farmer's cheese is totally different than what I know as farmer's cheese. To me it's a hard, dry, very much like cheddar, but usually white.

Hmm. What I know as farmer's cheese, I've only ever seen sold either in Jewish stores or made by exclusively kosher brands. It's the stuff traditionally used for cheese blintzes or dairy lukshen kugel. But now, most people use a mixture of cream cheese and cottage cheese for that stuff, because it's easier to find and it's sweeter.

OK, wikipedia suggests that what I know as farmer's cheese might be the same thing as quark (I've tried quark, and it is pretty similar), which is sold in Canada as baker's cheese.

OK, wikipedia suggests that what I know as farmer's cheese might be the same thing as quark (I've tried quark, and it is pretty similar), which is sold in Canada as baker's cheese.

I prefer strangeness and charm cheese to quark, personally.

If you aren't worried about canon, Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale qualifies as American magical realism.

I'd agree on Neil Simon for American theatrical comedy -- maybe The Odd Couple, although today's high school students will certainly see things in it that Simon's original audience probably didn't. Barefoot in the Park might work better, but it loses something on the printed page, so you'd want to show them the movie. If you want to go back a bit further, there's Philip Barry -- much as I love The Philadelphia Story, I suspect Holiday would speak better to today's high school students. But his comedy may be a bit too "drawing room."

He says to look at Caryl Churchill

UGH. Please don't inflict Caryl Churchill on your students, I beg you.