So cascarones seem to exist in Texas, Arizona, and southern California. I wonder if expat Texans brought them out to the west coast? Yes, my enthusiasm for making them at home is greatly dampened by the guy selling them for a dollar a carton at the intersection. The fun is in the chase. :D Good gravy. Poor guy! We smash them outside too, but then everyone comes in with hair full of confetti....

And where are you? I'm curious about the geographical spread of this tradition. Bonus points if you make your own. (We don't, though I keep meaning to.) We're in central Texas, and I will be sweeping up confetti for a week.

Louisiana, less pretentious than California? I'm shocked. :D

Happy Easter! I did much reading: however most of it was of Thomas Mann's lengthy The Magic Mountain, which isn't yet finished. I read a couple of "Pocket Penguins," which I note but don't count as they are only excerpts of longer works (which I hope some time to read). I spent a good chunk of the last few weeks in New Mexico, where I went wild at the marvellous COAS used bookstore, and read from a Collected Novels of Colette (in translation, having given up my attempt to read her in French). We don't give gifts for Easter, but a friend's adult daughter was confirmed last night and I gave her a small set of Kempis' Imitation of Christ, a book of psalms, and a daily devotional, in hardy editions for her upcoming travels. Read lately: Waugh, "The Coronation of Haile Selassie" 11. Colette, Claudine at School 12. Colette, Gigi 13. Colette, Music-Hall Sidelights Bates, "In the Heart of the Amazon Forest" 14. Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (reread) Currently reading: Mann, The Magic Mountain Francois Mauriac, The Life of Christ By the way, I took that quiz this morning to find my literary soulmate. Dostoevsky. Hmmm.

Almost done with Byron's Don Juan. Re-read Aphra Behn's 17th-century classic Oroonoko, Or The Royal Slave, giving me 3 (three!) female writers to date, beating last year. I wish I had time to type in the electric eel excerpt - a fascinating, detailed description of the sensation of serious electric shock, for a readership that had no familiarity with the concept, the write-up of Franklin's and Priestley's experiments being nearly a hundred years away. Floridamom, I'm going to see if I can squeeze in Daniel Deronda soon. Our library discard store had it. That store and I are settling into a very unhealthy relationship. Our city libraries buy beautiful, high-quality books from Modern Library, Penguin, and The Library of America - those are put in a special section labeled "classics," segregated from "fiction" - nobody checks them out - after a certain brief period of never being checked out, they are sent to the library discard store, next stop, the shredder - I drop by when they open on Thursday and buy them, brand-new, $2 for the ML and LoA, $1 for the Penguins. Last week they ended up with never-opened Dover reprints of specialized mathematics texts, many of which dh had already been thinking about acquiring for professional use. He cleared them out; hundreds of dollars worth of new books for less than $20. While we revel in the largesse, it does give me pause as a taxpayer. Last post for a while. See you in April, friends!

Robinson Crusoe (Middle Girl) Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anderson (Wee Girl)

1914: Gentlemen, you are now about to embark on a course of studies which will occupy you for two years. Together, they form a noble adventure. But I would like to remind you of an important point. Nothing that you will learn in the course of your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in after life, save only this, that if you work hard and intelligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of education. - John Alexander Smith, professor of moral philosophy, Oxford 2014: What is the real purpose of education if not to prepare your students for jobs? Seriously. That’s what we keep asking. - Mike Meroney, Jobs for Texas Coalition What would be your response to either man?

I get dragged by the hand (can't be too careful, mommies get lost...) to the children's section, shown to a comfy chair in which I will spend my entire library visit, and brought a large stack of reliably dreadful books to read aloud. But it's worth it for the cuddling.

Oh my, Gilbert and Gubar! It's been a very long time. The further I read in Don Juan, the more impressed I am that Eliana took it on as a teenager. I would never have been able to get anything out of it at that age, in my pristine suburban ignorance having read nothing of Wordsworth, knowing nothing of Coleridge or Southey or blue stockings, and being completely unaware of Greek political history and Byron's relation to it. All the amusing parts would have gone right over my head. The best stanzas are those where Byron takes on the topic of poets and poetry, delivered in the deliberately unwieldy (in English) structure of ottava rima that forces him into stretched-for rhymes and absurd couplets. A famous stanza: ------------------- When amatory poets sing their loves In liquid lines mellifluously bland, And pair their rhymes as Venus yokes her doves, They little think what mischief is in hand; The greater their success the worse it proves, As Ovid’s verse may give to understand; Even Petrarch’s self, if judged with due severity, Is the Platonic pimp of all posterity. --------------------- Now there's alliteration for you. Finished The Quest for Corvo, which I am convinced is a necessary companion volume to Hadrian VII, but which I wouldn't recommend to someone who hasn't read the latter. And as a lark, A Confederate General from Big Sur, which, while it had its moments - the scene with marijuana, tiny alligators, and the guy chained to a log is notable - was inferior to Brautigan's more experimental classic Trout Fishing in America. Afraid there's not much for me to offer on the challenge. I might re-read Oroonoko, which is in my Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. V; shall I count that for a number in the title? No progress on Dante, as there is no sign of Purgatorio anywhere. Maybe the Protestants are right. 10. Richard Brautigan, A Confederate General from Big Sur 9. A.J. Symons, The Quest for Corvo 8. Austen, Mansfield Park 7. St Hildegard von Bingen, Scivias 6. Shakespeare, As You Like It 5. Maupassant, "Le Horla" 4. Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories 3. Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables 2. Frederick Rolfe, Hadrian VII 1. Mann, Death in Venice & Other Stories

Last summer I had to stay here for a week: http://www.yelp.com/biz/american-airlines-training-and-conference-center-fort-worth I'll let the reviews speak for themselves, and only add that Wee Girl, after paddling in the goldfish-pond-sized "pool," developed what looked like chemical burns on her fingers and toes, as did another little girl.

I am so enjoying Don Juan! I can't believe I never got around to reading it before. Byron is shameless - he actually manages to shock me in places. Here's Lord Byron on Don Juan's classical education, as received from his prudish mother, Donna Inez: His classic studies made a little puzzle, Because of filthy loves of gods and goddesses, Who in the earlier ages raised a bustle, But never put on pantaloons or bodices; His reverend tutors had at times a tussle, And for their Aeneids, Iliads, and Odysseys, Were forced to make an odd sort of apology, For Donna Inez dreaded the Mythology. Ovid's a rake, as half his verses show him, Anacreon's morals are a still worse sample, Catullus scarcely has a decent poem, I don't think Sappho's Ode a good example, Although Longinus tells us there is no hymn Where the sublime soars forth on wings more ample; But Virgil's songs are pure, except that horrid one Beginning with 'Formosum Pastor Corydon.' Lucretius' irreligion is too strong For early stomachs, to prove wholesome food; I can't help thinking Juvenal was wrong, Although no doubt his real intent was good, For speaking out so plainly in his song, So much indeed as to be downright rude; And then what proper person can be partial To all those nauseous epigrams of Martial? Juan was taught from out the best edition, Expugated by learned men, who place, Judiciously, from out the schoolboy's vision, The grosser parts; but, fearful to deface Too much their modest bard by this omission, And pitying sore his mutilated case, They only add them all in an appendix, Which saves, in fact, the trouble of an index. For there we have them all 'at one fell swoop,' Instead of being scatter'd through the pages; They stand forth marshall'd in a handsome troop, To meet the ingenuous youth of future ages, Till some less rigid editor shall stoop To call them back into their separate cages, Instead of standing staring all together, Like garden gods--and not so decent either.

Many happy returns!

Dh recommends E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr, which I haven't read. But maybe now I should. (Hoffmann is much better known for The Nutcracker, which I understand was made into some sort of ballet.) http://www.amazon.com/Life-Opinions-Tomcat-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140446311

This week, finishing The Quest for Corvo (biography of Frederick Rolfe, who wrote the very strange roman à clef Hadrian VII, which I read and enjoyed earlier this year), starting Don Juan, three pages into Colette, and trying to find my copy of Purgatorio. It was around here somewhere, unless it's completed its penance and moved up.... I would like to know how Don Juan fits into people's theories of poetry and their enjoyment thereof. It's a hilarious read, especially with some familiarity of who and what is being skewered in various stanzas, but not quite what seems to be meant by "poetry" on the book threads. 8. Austen, Mansfield Park 7. St Hildegard von Bingen, Scivias 6. Shakespeare, As You Like It 5. Maupassant, "Le Horla" 4. Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories 3. Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables 2. Frederick Rolfe, Hadrian VII 1. Mann, Death in Venice & Other Stories

"Spalding green."

That sounds like a failure of characterization. Whether one can identify with a character or not, or get lost in their world or not, thinly written characters can easily make a book unreadable. Abandon ship! :)

Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the few time travel novels I've read, but it should definitely be on the list. ------------ Eaglei and Eliana, my continued thoughts and prayers. ------------ [edited] ------------ Maybe I can enjoy books like Clarissa because, despite having always loved reading, I have never had the experience of imagining myself as one of the characters. I hear people talk about being "lost in a book," but I've never shared in that. I'm always on the outside, watching the action. Undoubtedly I'm missing a wonderful experience, but it's not one I can participate in.

You say that like it's a bad thing. :D I couldn't help reading it as a story of a teenage girl who told a man whom she had no interest in, and whom she had never approached even as a friend, and whom she loathed upon acquaintance, very clearly that she wanted him never to speak to her or visit her again; upon which the man decided the right course of action was to try harder, and the people who were supposed to be protecting her decided to bully her into changing her mind and force her into the man's presence. Should sweet, innocent, meek Fanny try to change Henry Crawford's character through the power of his love for her, until he's the kind of man she can love? No, she should freaking call the police. This was perhaps not the right book for me in my life right now.

Thank you Stacia for the update.

Alas, dh belongs to the First Church of AoPS, and has been spreading the good news of competition-problem-based math since the pre-textbook days when members of his cult had to pass around badly photocopied MathLeague exams.

Leon Garfield is one of our favorite children's writers. I first read Smith when I was 11, and the girls have read many of his books. I see NYRB Children's has just published what I think is the first US edition of Smith. Mansfield Park is not pleasing me. I waited and waited for the plot to appear, and when it did it's a boring version of Clarissa. Sorry, Austen fans.

If you get nostalgic, you can come homeschool here! I'll give you the schedule and the crate of books and go hide with Mr Trollope. :D

Ooh! The whole Barsetshire Chronicles, or just the second novel? Not that it matters; I can't get five minutes in a row to listen to BBC news around here; I don't think I'll be listening to Trollope. Where do y'all find time to listen to broadcasts and podcasts and audiobooks, anyway? Seriously - this is a variation of the "when do you find time to read?" question. I have to tune out everybody just to try to read a book.

I read somewhere that heaths are just like moors, only more blasted. Thanks for the interesting link.

Reading this week: On azucena's suggestion, J.A. Symons' The Quest for Corvo; also Austen's Mansfield Park (see? another woman!); and if I get it in gear, taking up this month's challenge (sort of) with Dante's Purgatorio (having recently read Inferno).