I haven't been posting because I haven't been reading. Because dh is out of town for a week and I'm an exhausted lonely mess by evening, capable only of binge-watching awful brain-deadening things on Netflix until I fall asleep in the empty bed. So instead of a book excerpt, an excerpt from the comic book-inspired cliché-fest Gotham. Here the recently orphaned Bruce Wayne is being taken back to school by his butler, Alfred, who seems to be James Bond and cusses a lot: -Come now, Master Bruce. Had to happen sooner or later. -Is this really necessary? Homeschooling is just as effective. I can show you the data. -You need to be around children your own age. -Why? -Because you do. -You know I despise that sort of answer. -Don't you want to be like a normal kid? -I'm not sure. Define "normal" and make a good case for it. -You're going to bloody school.

Ours does that as a reaction to spinal arthritis and sensitivity to flea or mosquito bites; one bite sets off intolerable itching. Regular cortisone injections for the arthritis and itching, scrupulous flea treatment, and making sure she doesn't get out in mosquito season.

Thick cloud cover. Saw eclipse hazily; then it was all dark gray nothingness.

"Slow" and many similar words have been used as adverbs in standard English for centuries. Shakespeare and Milton use "slow" as an adverb; Thackeray even uses "drove slow." It's not so much an alteration in adverbial usage as a gradual reassignment of certain non-"-ly" adverbial forms to a category of informal usage only.

Yes, Stacia just added Marco Polo to my TBR tower. Am I the only one who reads his name in a shout? MARCO!!! ... POLO!!! >splash<

Good gravy, that article! What a Grinch. First, how does it even make sense that libraries are evil because they cheat writers of their royalties when lots of people check out books instead of buying--and besides, nobody uses them anymore? Second, he dissed Enid Blyton. In a smug little misogynistic way. Third, what a Grinch. Fourth, how much can library checkouts or used book sales hurt an author? The stock is limited in any case; and high demand for library books leads to greater library purchasing. And general popularity boosts primary book sales. Fifth, what a Grinch.

It's funny because it's true....

Oh there are much murkier swamps than Fisheaters.

I'm having trouble thinking of 17th century writers who were considered immoral in their own time; the Earl of Rochester occurs to me, but his writings weren't very widely circulated, and it's hard in his case to sort out the perceptions of immorality of the writings from that of the writer. But in general, I'd have to say no; the idea that you shouldn't read, or at least not support by paying for, a writer's publications because of moral disapproval of the writer (as distinct from moral disapproval of the writings themselves) is a very modern idea. Lord Byron and Ezra Pound spring to mind as writers whose personal odiousness was generally admitted in their own day; but there was no sense that one therefore shouldn't buy or read their work. I think the idea would have seemed very strange to our forebears. Personally I'm made uneasy by the idea of reading a work but deliberately avoiding paying for it, not from a desire for frugality but so as to not allow the writer to benefit from his work. But different people have different intuitions about these things.

It's so good to hear about your dad's progress, Heather. You must be so relieved.

Finished The Legend of Ben Lilly, by J. Frank Dobie. Thank you KathyBC (and your husband!) for the nudge to read it. Very interesting read. Lilly was a hunter and trapper, chiefly of bears and mountain lions, who became nationally famous for leading Teddy Roosevelt on his famous bear hunt that gave rise to the teddy bear. Sort of like Grizzly Adams (who is mentioned in the book--anyone else watch the tv show in her childhood?). The accounts of killing, and the sheer numbers, can be jarring and even sickening for modern sensibilities; but one has to keep in mind that in Lilly's day these were dangerous and not uncommon predators who threatened human lives as well as livestock. Still reading Piers Plowman. Jane, if you remember the legend of St. Gregory from the Aurea Legenda, you'll recall his springing the Emperor Trajan (one of the "good emperors") from hell by his prayers and tears. Well the Emperor Trajan makes a cameo appearance in Piers Plowman in order to set straight a few soteriological points, and there's just something so hilarious about Trajan popping down from heaven to deliver some theology in Middle English. I was a few pages into The Wings of the Dove and then Middle Girl decided she had to read Rebecca, which I then had to obtain for her, and I thought maybe I'd better have a look at it before she does.

Yes. Past participle, passive voice. Not as grammatically interesting as the usage of its present participle as one of the few infixes to exist in English.

Books. No, wait, that's not true, I can stop anytime.

I finished Bulwer-Lytton's Paul Clifford, and I can assure you it's 500 pages of prose just as purple as its famous opening. Plot: a young man, born into poverty but honest at the core and improbably able to obtain a classical education, is sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit, and there corrupted. He takes up the dual life of gentleman by day and highwayman by night. He plans to marry a wealthy heiress and retire, but falls in love with her despite himself. But can he marry the woman he loves when his base birth and criminality would bring her ruin? Still reading Piers Plowman; halfway through. My reading is going something like this: Forthi, ye correctours, claweth heron, and correcteth first yowselve,/ And thanne mowe ye manliche--"Mommy does this dress look all right? Can you button it for me? Is it the right size?"--... manliche seye, as David made the Sauter:/ Existimasti inique quod ero--"Mommy did you see how I sewed a buttonhole? Look. No, look. No I didn't clear my plate, I'm still hungry. What else is there? Can I just get myself some crackers? Hurray!" ... quod ero tui--"How come she gets crackers? But I can't, I already cleared my plaaaaaaaate...." Started also on The Ben Lilly Legend, by J. Frank Dobie. Thanks to a welcome nudge! ETA: If anyone fancies some Victorian romance, PM me and I'll send you Paul Clifford.

What happy news, Heather. It was. Especially the leftover syllabub in my coffee next morning.

I almost protested this, but suddenly remembered this is the twenty-first century. Have there been any books published in the 21st century? Surely it's too early to tell.

I think this kind of requirement actually got started as a way of dealing with "homeschool teams" made up of school kids who didn't qualify to be on their school's team. Organizations have had to come up with some way to define "real homeschooler." It's not about a minimum daily time spent homeschooling so much as making sure the child's primary education is from the parents. ETA: No, I see it really is about not spending all day doing spelling.

Jasperstone, sorry about the link confusion. There was a mention of Byzantine scholar Paul Alexander in your link, which led me to a fascinating book, The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition-- https://books.google.com/books?id=nw-rR_Skb-cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=paul+alexander+byzantine+apocalyptic+tradition&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAGoVChMIobPk2IuDyAIVCgiSCh0D0Akw#v=onepage&q=paul%20alexander%20byzantine%20apocalyptic%20tradition&f=false --which is an area I knew absolutely nothing about. Alexander discusses the text starting on page 136, and has a brief discussion of the section you're interested in on pages 210-211. Really fascinating reading, which I've spent too much of my morning digging into! Thanks for leading me to this vein of Christian literature.

Interesting. Do you have a link, or citation, to the source for that? (You have a typo I think in your dating: St. Ephraem lived and wrote in the fourth century.) ETA: Sorry! I should have noticed your link, which says it comes from a work called "On the Last Times, the Antichrist, and the End of the World." I'm not seeing that in a list of his prose works; but that doesn't mean it's not there somewhere. Any chance of a link to a more neutral source for the writing? I'm glad to see the Church Fathers becoming of wider interest. :)

She didn't say that, or anything like that. On re-reading your post, do you feel that it conforms to the demands of charity?

Who is buying all these books?

Another morning walk/shamble; nearly made it up to 2 miles. I chatted on the phone last night with the personal trainer at the YMCA--I must go over there and join up--and she had helpful suggestions, and said when I joined she would meet up with me and help customize a weight training routine for me. Basically confirmed that slow jogging and the right kind of weight training is what I need for my goals. Laura--I know when we were staying in St Andrews, both my oldest girls were at first nearly bedridden with what seemed like flu but which we quickly figured out was violent allergies to rapeseed. (Of course that season is well past.) I thought Austin had the world's worst allergies until I went to Fife. But the fields of blooms are so beautiful....

Great news, Heather! Prayers for his speedy and complete recovery.

Oooh! That's one of the ones I just got! <moves book to top of TBR stack>

The belief among some of the early Church Fathers in Millenarianism--a thousand-year reign of Christ in the company of the Just before the end of the world--really isn't the same animal as the modern ideas of Millennialism and Rapture. In any case, Church history is full of varying opinions that get eventually sorted out: some becoming dogmatic (for instance, the finer points of Trinitarianism); some being decided to be wrong; and others left as a matter of opinion or "pious belief." So an idea being kicked around in the first few centuries but disappearing soon after isn't the same, in a Catholic view, as its being "the traditional take."