Monday. Ick.

My tiny migraine has grown into a huge thumping evil demon of a migraine, and also I have to teach Chaucer in about twenty minutes -- the Reeve's Tale, which, discounting the amusement of the North-England accent of the two students, is not all that much fun. We're starting the Wyf tomorrow, so things should get better.

Anyway, I'm grumpy and in pain.

But I spent the weekend writing and in pain and reading Stephen Levitt's Freakonomics, which I highly recommend, if you haven't dipped into it already. Despite the fact that it kept making me get up and walk around the room and go but-but-but, it's a fine piece of work. Also funny. I like smart, funny, and provocative.

Crooked Timber already has a good post up on him, so I'll just link you to that

http://crookedtimber.org/2005/05/23/steven-levitt-seminar-introduction/

and mention that hey, way cool, Steve has a blog!

http://www.freakonomics.com/blog.php

And I'm thinking of using his book in my ENGL 1213 class next semester. (We have to use a book-length piece of work of some sort. I have been using Ursula Le Guin's Dispossessed, because it's complex and has ideas my students have never run into and I can use it to teach about literature, but this might be more fun. Might make them walk around going but-but-but. Heh.)

Oh -- and one thing I found out from Levitt's book? We've given the kid a name that will be a high-end baby name in 2015.

Yep. Ahead of the curve. That's us.