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For those of you who are customers of the Houghton Book Store:
We/I would not be offended if you contacted Houghton College to give them input on whether you think the store should continue. Please leave any comments you have, not for the college itself, but for the Houghton Foundation that owns us.
Also, if you are in the habit of praying, feel free to add both the store and its staff to your list.
Many thanks. And if we do still close, still, many, many thanks!
7 Ekim 2012 Pazar
Mozart- where did your body go?
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The Mozart Myths: A Critical Reassessment, by William Stafford (TPB, 1991, $1.50)
Who would have known there were all those rumors of stuff going on during Mozart's last days! What I like about this author is his refusing to decide what happened. Of course we will never know what really happened, but it is so refreshing that an expert admits it.
So, what are the myths? Let's see-
1. Was he poisoned?- almost certainly not
2. Was he anti-Semitic?- probably not, but maybe?
3. Was he melancholy and self-destructive just before he died? He was certainly exhausted, probably dealing with heart failure brought about by rheumatic fever, and massively in debt.
4. Did he see himself as a genius or a failure? A failure? How could he thought himself a failure? He had been a child prodigy, and as a young adult, a successful composer and performer. As he got older, though, his works were seen as too old-fashioned. People stopped buying his music. Before he died only 20% of his compositions were in print. Then he died, and people became interested again in his music. Both his widow and his son would be able to live lives of leisure. So as he was dying how did he see himself? We will never know.
5. Did he know he was dying when he composed his last work, the Requiem? Did he really push himself to exhaustion to finish it before he died? Did he hear a rehearsal of Requiem on his last afternoon? - Most likely not, since when he died the work was still not finished.
6. Did the weather get suddenly dark and stormy when he died? - Nope!
7. Was he buried in a pauper's grave? Is that why his grave site is unknown?- Nope. Actually during this time no one had lavish burials. Most of the middle-class were buried in wooden coffins, five to a grave, marked only by a wooden marker. Many times when more burial space was needed, bodies, including Mozart's, were dug up, the bones crushed, and then reburied elsewhere. By that time even his wife didn't know where his remains were. To complicated matters, in 1855 a marker was put up where people thought his body might be. Later, the marker was moved again. (And please don't ask about his supposed skull, and how it ended up separate from his body!) So, to summarize, his was not a pauper's grave, but where it is no one, even now, knows.
How weird is all this? Read more about this in the book, to be found on the new non-fiction table. (9/20) (L-mu)
Who would have known there were all those rumors of stuff going on during Mozart's last days! What I like about this author is his refusing to decide what happened. Of course we will never know what really happened, but it is so refreshing that an expert admits it.
So, what are the myths? Let's see-
1. Was he poisoned?- almost certainly not
2. Was he anti-Semitic?- probably not, but maybe?
3. Was he melancholy and self-destructive just before he died? He was certainly exhausted, probably dealing with heart failure brought about by rheumatic fever, and massively in debt.
4. Did he see himself as a genius or a failure? A failure? How could he thought himself a failure? He had been a child prodigy, and as a young adult, a successful composer and performer. As he got older, though, his works were seen as too old-fashioned. People stopped buying his music. Before he died only 20% of his compositions were in print. Then he died, and people became interested again in his music. Both his widow and his son would be able to live lives of leisure. So as he was dying how did he see himself? We will never know.
5. Did he know he was dying when he composed his last work, the Requiem? Did he really push himself to exhaustion to finish it before he died? Did he hear a rehearsal of Requiem on his last afternoon? - Most likely not, since when he died the work was still not finished.
6. Did the weather get suddenly dark and stormy when he died? - Nope!
7. Was he buried in a pauper's grave? Is that why his grave site is unknown?- Nope. Actually during this time no one had lavish burials. Most of the middle-class were buried in wooden coffins, five to a grave, marked only by a wooden marker. Many times when more burial space was needed, bodies, including Mozart's, were dug up, the bones crushed, and then reburied elsewhere. By that time even his wife didn't know where his remains were. To complicated matters, in 1855 a marker was put up where people thought his body might be. Later, the marker was moved again. (And please don't ask about his supposed skull, and how it ended up separate from his body!) So, to summarize, his was not a pauper's grave, but where it is no one, even now, knows.
How weird is all this? Read more about this in the book, to be found on the new non-fiction table. (9/20) (L-mu)
Exchange-Traded Funds
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Investing with Exchange-Traded Funds Made Easy, second edition: A Start-to-Finish Plan to Reduce Costs and Achieve Higher Returns, by Marvin Appel (HC, 2008, $2, has some markings.)
You hear about them all the time- Exchange Traded Funds, or ETFs.
So what are they?
Whatever they are, money is flowing out, out, out of mutual funds and into these funds that trade like stock, have less expenses, and are more tax efficient. Or at least the older ones do. Now there are active ETFs, ETFs that are made up only of futures, ETFs that never existed before a minute ago, and exotic ETFs that only invest in stocks having to do with Uncle Charlie's left big toe. In my own opinion, I like the idea of the older ETFs and distrust the new ones, but hey, I have always been an old stick-in-the-mud. Read this book and make up your own mind. Look for this on the new non-fiction table. (9/20) (Later-Ec.)
Note: In this rapidly evolving field, parts of this 2008 book are probably already obsolete.
You hear about them all the time- Exchange Traded Funds, or ETFs.
So what are they?
Whatever they are, money is flowing out, out, out of mutual funds and into these funds that trade like stock, have less expenses, and are more tax efficient. Or at least the older ones do. Now there are active ETFs, ETFs that are made up only of futures, ETFs that never existed before a minute ago, and exotic ETFs that only invest in stocks having to do with Uncle Charlie's left big toe. In my own opinion, I like the idea of the older ETFs and distrust the new ones, but hey, I have always been an old stick-in-the-mud. Read this book and make up your own mind. Look for this on the new non-fiction table. (9/20) (Later-Ec.)
Note: In this rapidly evolving field, parts of this 2008 book are probably already obsolete.
tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh'a' (Do you speak Klingon?)
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Do you speak Klingon?
Or do you want to?
If so, this is the book for you. Apparently some people actually do speak this nonsense. At least they do on The Big Bang Theory.
So, here you are:
The Klingon Dictionary: English/Klingon and Klingon/English (Star Trek, The Official Guide to Klingon Words and Phrases), by Marc Okrand (PB, 1985, $5, has a weak binding, and yellowed pages) Look for it on the new non-fiction table (L. sci. fi. )
(I just looked this book up on Amazon. It is amazingly rare. There is a more recent edition still in print. It is even available in e-book format. There are also entire books entirely in Klingon! Amazing, aint it.)
Or do you want to?
If so, this is the book for you. Apparently some people actually do speak this nonsense. At least they do on The Big Bang Theory.
So, here you are:
The Klingon Dictionary: English/Klingon and Klingon/English (Star Trek, The Official Guide to Klingon Words and Phrases), by Marc Okrand (PB, 1985, $5, has a weak binding, and yellowed pages) Look for it on the new non-fiction table (L. sci. fi. )
(I just looked this book up on Amazon. It is amazingly rare. There is a more recent edition still in print. It is even available in e-book format. There are also entire books entirely in Klingon! Amazing, aint it.)
Jim Thompson, hero of Thailand's silk industry
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Jim Thompson: The Legendary American of Thailand, by William Warren (TPB, 1970, $2)
One year in high school I read The Ugly American. It was the first time I had ever considered that Americans could be greedy, selfish, arrogant, or stupid. Well, I was pretty naive back then.
Jim Thompson is an example of the best America can offer. He was from wealth, graduated from Princeton, and then designed homes for the rich. During WWII the OSS sent him to Thailand. After the war he returned to the private sector but stayed in Thailand. He was amazed by the indigenous woven silk, but the industry was dying. Local vegetable dyes were unpredictable and often faded with use. Silk, in general, was seen as either too old fashioned, or too expensive. Few people in Thailand wanted it. Enter our Mr. Thompson, who was fascinated by everything Thai: their people, architecture, art, and textiles.
He started his silk company in the 1950s. He insisted his weavers use color-fast dyes, and that the silk fibers be of the best quality. He had a spectacular eye for color, and an amazing ability to combine colors and patterns, so his fabrics were different from anything anyone had ever seen before, even in Japan.
Thompson believed strongly in helping the Thai people. First he insisted his weavers work out of their own homes and not in factories, so they could maintain their culture. He also insisted that 51% of his silk company's owners be Thai citizens. He made sure profits went to his workers and the people of Thailand. His board of directors kept trying to raise his salary, and he kept saying he made enough.
He was lucky. Rogers and Hammerstein's The King and I dressed its performers in Thompson's silk. Now everyone wanted it. Queen Elizabeth redecorated a room in Windsor Castle with it. Movie stars wore it, both when they were filming, and when they were not. Other companies tried to compete, but Thompson's silk was always the best.
Eventually he wanted a place to display the art he had collected over the years. He designed a "museum" he could also live in. He moved 6 antique Thai dwellings onto his property, and connected them. Then he started to entertain. Anyone who was anyone could be found there, as well as a lot of just regular people that Thompson thought interesting.
Tragedy struck in 1967. He went for an "evening stroll" in the jungle and never returned. Was it murder? Did he stage his own disappearance? Had he been injured, or gotten lost? Everyone looked for him. Nobody found him.
Reading about Thompson's disappearance is fascinating, but this book drags it out for too long, and keeps coming back to it, again and again. Otherwise, I really liked this book, and this man. Now he would have been someone to meet!
Look for the book on the new non-fiction table. (L-Th)
According to the internet, some bones were found in 2007 that might be his, but tests to determine if they were have not been done. Apparently the bones "are in a safe place", whatever that means.
One year in high school I read The Ugly American. It was the first time I had ever considered that Americans could be greedy, selfish, arrogant, or stupid. Well, I was pretty naive back then.
Jim Thompson is an example of the best America can offer. He was from wealth, graduated from Princeton, and then designed homes for the rich. During WWII the OSS sent him to Thailand. After the war he returned to the private sector but stayed in Thailand. He was amazed by the indigenous woven silk, but the industry was dying. Local vegetable dyes were unpredictable and often faded with use. Silk, in general, was seen as either too old fashioned, or too expensive. Few people in Thailand wanted it. Enter our Mr. Thompson, who was fascinated by everything Thai: their people, architecture, art, and textiles.
He started his silk company in the 1950s. He insisted his weavers use color-fast dyes, and that the silk fibers be of the best quality. He had a spectacular eye for color, and an amazing ability to combine colors and patterns, so his fabrics were different from anything anyone had ever seen before, even in Japan.
Thompson believed strongly in helping the Thai people. First he insisted his weavers work out of their own homes and not in factories, so they could maintain their culture. He also insisted that 51% of his silk company's owners be Thai citizens. He made sure profits went to his workers and the people of Thailand. His board of directors kept trying to raise his salary, and he kept saying he made enough.
He was lucky. Rogers and Hammerstein's The King and I dressed its performers in Thompson's silk. Now everyone wanted it. Queen Elizabeth redecorated a room in Windsor Castle with it. Movie stars wore it, both when they were filming, and when they were not. Other companies tried to compete, but Thompson's silk was always the best.
Eventually he wanted a place to display the art he had collected over the years. He designed a "museum" he could also live in. He moved 6 antique Thai dwellings onto his property, and connected them. Then he started to entertain. Anyone who was anyone could be found there, as well as a lot of just regular people that Thompson thought interesting.
Tragedy struck in 1967. He went for an "evening stroll" in the jungle and never returned. Was it murder? Did he stage his own disappearance? Had he been injured, or gotten lost? Everyone looked for him. Nobody found him.
Reading about Thompson's disappearance is fascinating, but this book drags it out for too long, and keeps coming back to it, again and again. Otherwise, I really liked this book, and this man. Now he would have been someone to meet!
Look for the book on the new non-fiction table. (L-Th)
According to the internet, some bones were found in 2007 that might be his, but tests to determine if they were have not been done. Apparently the bones "are in a safe place", whatever that means.
6 Ekim 2012 Cumartesi
Symbolism and Typology and the Ancient Art of Storytelling
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As a high school senior and later a college literaturemajor, I loved writing about symbolism in stories. My first symbolism essay wason The Lord of the Flies by WilliamGolding. In it, I discussed the character Simon as a Christ figure. I stillhave the essay, of which I was extremely proud, though now I see it was poorlywritten. It earned an A, so it must have been decent for a high school senior.This was when discussing Christianity in school was allowed. I believe theteacher suggested the topic.
As an adult, returning to the Catholic faith, I grewexcited to learn about Biblical typology. A "type" is an element ofthe Old Testament: a person, thing, or event, which foreshadows something inthe New Testament. The Fisheaters website has a nice article on it.
The element can be seen as having literally existed butalso be symbolic. It's not either/or.
I think of God as the supreme author of the universe.After all, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, andthe Word was God." (Jn1:1)*
For instance, circumcision foreshadows Christian baptism.The Passover lamb signifies the sacrifice of Jesus. The Ark of the Covenantsymbolize foreshadows Mary who carried Jesus in her womb. (More on these andothers at this article at Catholic Answers.
Today I listened to Grammar Girl's podcast. (No, I'm notveering off course). She talked about Lisa Cron's book Wired for Story. Ms. Cron says our brains are wired to respond tostory. She's right. People have alwaystold stories--first orally, then written. God, being the first storyteller,creating the material universe with the Word, of course we respond to story.It's built in the very fiber of our being.
Ms. Cron outlines what she sees as the seven rules ofstory. Check out Grammar Girl's site to listen or read about them. I'm not sureI agree with every point. For instance, many of the oldest examples of writtenstories are not emotion based nor are they concerned with the protagonistsinner journey. However, her list is thought provoking and useful for the writer(or reader) of fiction. It would make for a fun springboard when writing collegeessays. I'm eager to read Cron's book, Wiredfor Story. It sounds like a valuable and interesting book.
*"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989,Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches ofChrist in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rightsreserved."
As an adult, returning to the Catholic faith, I grewexcited to learn about Biblical typology. A "type" is an element ofthe Old Testament: a person, thing, or event, which foreshadows something inthe New Testament. The Fisheaters website has a nice article on it.
The element can be seen as having literally existed butalso be symbolic. It's not either/or.
I think of God as the supreme author of the universe.After all, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, andthe Word was God." (Jn1:1)*
For instance, circumcision foreshadows Christian baptism.The Passover lamb signifies the sacrifice of Jesus. The Ark of the Covenantsymbolize foreshadows Mary who carried Jesus in her womb. (More on these andothers at this article at Catholic Answers.
Today I listened to Grammar Girl's podcast. (No, I'm notveering off course). She talked about Lisa Cron's book Wired for Story. Ms. Cron says our brains are wired to respond tostory. She's right. People have alwaystold stories--first orally, then written. God, being the first storyteller,creating the material universe with the Word, of course we respond to story.It's built in the very fiber of our being.
Ms. Cron outlines what she sees as the seven rules ofstory. Check out Grammar Girl's site to listen or read about them. I'm not sureI agree with every point. For instance, many of the oldest examples of writtenstories are not emotion based nor are they concerned with the protagonistsinner journey. However, her list is thought provoking and useful for the writer(or reader) of fiction. It would make for a fun springboard when writing collegeessays. I'm eager to read Cron's book, Wiredfor Story. It sounds like a valuable and interesting book.
*"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989,Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches ofChrist in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rightsreserved."
World Breastfeeding Week
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Happy World Breastfeeding Week!
Why is a Catholic blog talking about WorldBreastfeeding Week?
Breastfeeding is the healthiest and safest way to feedyour baby. It's natural. Human breast milk holds the perfect nutrition for ahuman baby. It aids the bonding between mommy and baby. It's free! It'sportable. You don't need any supplies but your own body. It's the method of babyfeeding that God designed.
Sure, there are certain instances where breastfeedingmust be interrupted or stopped altogether. As a former La Leche League Leader,I know this. But most of the time--when there are problems--with a littleadvice from a breastfeeding councilor, lactation consultant, or even anexperienced friend, those problems can be solved and breastfeeding cancontinue.
When is World Breastfeeding Week?
From August 1st to the 7th. Here's the website to tellyou all about World Breastfeeding Week 2012.
So, what am I supposed to do about World BreastfeedingWeek anyway?
If you're planning to have children, you can educateyourself about breastfeeding. Maybe pick up a copy of my favorite breastfeedingbook, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.
If you have no children, or they're all grown up, you canstill educate yourself about the benefits of human milk for human babies. Thatway you'll feel confident when you see your daughters or daughters-in-lawbreastfeeding your grandchildren. You'll also smile with appreciation whenrandom women nurse their infants in public.
Breastfeeding sort of fell out of favor for a while, atleast in the U.S. My mother didn't nurse us kids. It never even came up at herprenatal visits. She didn't know how healthy it was. But then, after hearingabout its benefits, she appreciated when my sister and I nursed our children.
Does the Bible mention breastfeeding?
Yep. Go to Mothering from the Heart to read which scripture passages mention breastfeeding.
How about breastfeeding in church?
Of course! What better way to keep baby calm and happy,not to mention quiet!
One of my daughters recently mused over the idea thatpregnant moms taking the Eucharist might also be imparting the benefits totheir babies. That blew me away, but in a good way! :)
I didn't fully return to the Church until all of mychildren were weaned, but what a marvelous thing it would have been to take theEucharist while pregnant or even nursing.
 |
| Our Lady of La Leche |
Breastfeeding is the healthiest and safest way to feedyour baby. It's natural. Human breast milk holds the perfect nutrition for ahuman baby. It aids the bonding between mommy and baby. It's free! It'sportable. You don't need any supplies but your own body. It's the method of babyfeeding that God designed.
Sure, there are certain instances where breastfeedingmust be interrupted or stopped altogether. As a former La Leche League Leader,I know this. But most of the time--when there are problems--with a littleadvice from a breastfeeding councilor, lactation consultant, or even anexperienced friend, those problems can be solved and breastfeeding cancontinue.
When is World Breastfeeding Week?
From August 1st to the 7th. Here's the website to tellyou all about World Breastfeeding Week 2012.
So, what am I supposed to do about World BreastfeedingWeek anyway?
If you're planning to have children, you can educateyourself about breastfeeding. Maybe pick up a copy of my favorite breastfeedingbook, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.
If you have no children, or they're all grown up, you canstill educate yourself about the benefits of human milk for human babies. Thatway you'll feel confident when you see your daughters or daughters-in-lawbreastfeeding your grandchildren. You'll also smile with appreciation whenrandom women nurse their infants in public.
Breastfeeding sort of fell out of favor for a while, atleast in the U.S. My mother didn't nurse us kids. It never even came up at herprenatal visits. She didn't know how healthy it was. But then, after hearingabout its benefits, she appreciated when my sister and I nursed our children.
Does the Bible mention breastfeeding?
Yep. Go to Mothering from the Heart to read which scripture passages mention breastfeeding.
How about breastfeeding in church?
Of course! What better way to keep baby calm and happy,not to mention quiet!
One of my daughters recently mused over the idea thatpregnant moms taking the Eucharist might also be imparting the benefits totheir babies. That blew me away, but in a good way! :)
I didn't fully return to the Church until all of mychildren were weaned, but what a marvelous thing it would have been to take theEucharist while pregnant or even nursing.
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