Art by the Kid

Her latest watercolor

She likes art deco now as you see.

Details:

I love the roses.

I Suppose I Shouldn't Be Surprised

It is their culture, after all.

Over here at Rod Dreher's blog, he notes the utter disaster that Jindal has left behind him in my home state of Louisiana. The state is looking at a shortfall of over two billion dollars.  This is the worst economic crisis in its history -- at a time when most other states in the union are seeing their economic outlook improve.

Or, I should say, states that had the good sense not to elect GOP governors and Tea-Party legislators are seeing things improve.  States like Kansas, Arkansas, Idaho, and yes, Louisiana all have state governments filled those who adhere to policies endorsed by Ayn Rand and Reagan -- that government solutions don't work and can't work (and if they did work, they'd be evil); that the best way to govern is to get out of the way.

What's UP?

So many things.

Mostly I've been sick, with a low-grade sick.  It's a cold, or it's allergies.  Who knows.  It's annoying, anyway.  Not sick enough to take to my bed and make out my will sick, but sick enough to feel terrible and cranky sick.

Also conferences with students.

Also book orders for Fall 2016 were due.  I'm teaching a very cool class next fall -- World, Class, and Women -- which I can't wait to teach, but book orders, being due earlier every year, as is the tradition, were due last week, or actually the week before, but since I was sick and cranky and whiny I got a week's extension.

So I was researching possible texts.  And whining, as I mentioned.

Whining takes up a lot of time.

And the kid was also sick.

I also wrote a short story.  Yay me!

So that's where I've been.

Roddy Doyle, The Snapper: A Review

Probably most of you have heard of Roddy Doyle, who wrote The Commitments -- that was the first book of his I read as well, just after seeing the movie version, both of which I recommend, especially for anyone interested in the use of dialect in fiction.  Doyle's great at that.

Right now I'm re-reading The Snapper, which is a not-quite sequel to The Commitments.

The Roosevelts: A Review

I'm probably the last person in America to watch The Roosevelts, Ken Burns' documentary about the interwoven lives of Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt. I stumbled across it the other day, and have been binge-watching since (quite a task since it's a seven episode series, with every episode being almost two hours long).

I don't know as much about this period of history -- the very early years of the 20th century -- as I do about other eras.  This is partly because in Louisiana, where I was schooled, history classes always stopped at the Civil War; and partly because when I went to the university (at least the university I went to) you could take either US or World History, and I went for World.