Surely if the first amendment guarantee of freedom of the press means anything, it means that a printer can refuse to print speech they disagree with.

Some competitions require a homeschooled child to be classified as the grade she would be in (by age) if she were enrolled in public school in the district you reside in. When in doubt, check with the organization. If it's a matter of tinkering with grade level in a way you wouldn't want the organizers to know about, think about the possibility that you could disqualify your whole team, and have your child barred from future participation. (ETA: Generic "you," not you "you."

Ding ding ding ding ding Yes!

One of my favorite memories of Child Food Pickiness is of a very young man who, displeased with the unpeeled boiled egg I was offering him for a snack when he knew perfectly well there were granola bars in my cupboard, announced that he wouldn't eat it because it might not be a hen's egg. Because not all eggs are okay, and how did he know it wasn't from an ostrich or something? I assured him it was from a Good Ol Texas hen, but he was adamant, and it turned out that nowhere on the carton did it actually say the eggs were from hens. He was triumphant and I caved and gave him the granola bar.

Reading updates: 1. My dear friend who poured years of your life into writing this (very competently written) novel (which is actually set in the modern South; it only starts out in the Old South; my bad) of 600+ pages ... I'm so sorry, I can't go on. It adheres to Mansfield Park a little too faithfully, and I didn't like MP the first time round. Though I thought having the female protagonist be actually disabled instead of just debilitatingly shy was an actual improvement on the original. 2. I am a little hurt that nobody identified the passage from Piers Plowman I excerpted. Come, it's not too difficult! Here's the giveaway verses: Ther ne was raton (rat) in al the route, for al the reaume (realm) of France, That dorste (durst) have bounden the belle aboute the cattes nekke, It's going faster as my Chaucer-skillz come back. But I need peace and quiet ("Mommmmmmmy...") to stay in the Zone. 3. So now I have turned to Lermontov for Potentially Interrupted reading time. Thanks Jane, and the picture on the cover makes me laugh happily every time I look at it. 4. Scottish novels. http://the-toast.net/2015/06/04/every-scottish-novel-ever/ It's so true. I especially like #5, which gathers in modern Scottish literature. In fact I think I have that very book waiting in my TBR pile. Dh says it covers Lanark pretty well, too. And I've actually seen the painting of the Highlander featured on the web page, in a little museum that is pretty much the only thing worth going to see in the city of Dundee. Dundee is like the Waco of Scotland.

Not a historian, but I would guess we inherited it from the pre-Christian Romans, who liked their contracts. So I would be surprised if it wasn't the view from day one. But I'm very open to correction.

The Western Church has vows because according to its theology, the sacrament of marriage is not administered by the priest but by the parties. The form of the sacrament is the expression of consent by both parties. We affirmed that our consent was freely given; that we understood the indissolubility of marriage except by death; and that we would accept the gift of children. Then we declared our consent to the marriage. Good old Roman-style legal formulae: clear and complete. (Fr. H. did insist that a couple of college students were perfectly capable of memorizing their vows, though, and wouldn't give us the "I do" option. Paulists....)

I am not doing well on my friend's novel. A boatload of characters are introduced very quickly, and without enough description beyond stating who they are for them to stick in my head. So I'm back to the beginning with an index card to keep them sorted. Meanwhile, I finished the Prologue to Piers Plowman, and my reading speed is accelerating as my Middle English comes back to me. It's like that muscle you haven't used much recently and it hurts a bit to stretch it and get it working for you. Here's a fun little section. Recognize this? --------------- A raton of renoun, moost renable of tonge, Seide for a sovereyn salve to hem alle, "I have yseyen segges," quod he, "in the Cite of Londoun Beren beighes ful brighte abouten hire nekkes, And somme colers of crafty work; uncoupled they wenden Bothe in wareyne and in waast where hem leve liketh, And outher while thei arn elliswhere, as I here telle. Were ther a belle on hire beighe, by Jesus, as me thynketh, Men myghte witen wher thei wente and awey renne. And right so," quod that raton, "reson me sheweth To bugge a belle of bras or of bright silver And knytten it on a coler for oure commune profit And hangen it upon the cattes hals--thanne here we mowen Wher he ryt or rest or rometh to pleye; And if hym list for to laike, thanne loke we mowen And peeren in his presence the while hym pleye liketh, And if hym wratheth, be war and his wey shonye." Al the route of ratons to this reson assented; Ac tho the belle was ybrought and on the beighe hanged Ther ne was raton in al the route, for al the reaume of France, That dorste have bounden the belle aboute the cattes nekke, Ne hangen it aboute his hals al Engelond to wynne, Ac helden hem unhardy and hir counseil feble, And leten hire laboure lost and al hire longe studie. -------------

Hear, hear. And then can we have Washington's and Lincoln's Birthdays back, instead of the awful Generic Presidents' Day? And Arbor Day, where did Arbor Day go?

Conversation in my house: "Why is Great Girl still asleep?" "She doesn't have class because it's Labor Day." "Wait, so why is Daddy going to work?" "Because he can work better when undergraduates aren't bothering him." "Why do we have to work?" "Because tomorrow is Great Girl's Name Day and you'll get cake and fun in the afternoon." "Yayyy cake!!!" We get holidays. Just different holidays.

Not me; haven't read it. Saw the movie, though.

Robospam reported. Don't click on image at end of text.

This evening I finished Purgation and Purgatory/ The Spiritual Dialogue, by St. Catherine of Genoa. There's a lengthy introduction by Fr. Benedict Groeschel who became something of a celebrity among conservative Catholics in the '90s and '00s, but this edition is from the '70s and his introduction is endlessly preoccupied with psychoanalytic defenses of St. Catherine's visions and ecstasies, which today seems both quaintly dated and confusingly beside the point. Catherine was a fifteenth-century mystic, a married woman who worked tending the poor and sick during an outbreak of plague that killed four-fifths of Genoese who remained in the city. Both writings were in Italian, in verse (mostly). From The Spiritual Dialogue, an oblique account of her spiritual journey through a dialogue among her Spirit, Body, and Self-Love: ----------------- The Soul then said to Self-Love: In meeting your needs, I notice that bit by bit my own convictions are weakening. Are you not getting more than your due? And in following you am I not going to be badly hurt? Indeed not I alone, but all three of us? You are the arbiter. What do you think? Self-Love answered: It is because you were aiming so unreasonably high That you feel as if you are debasing yourself To come down to our level. With time, though, you will learn to moderate yourself, To be more sensible. Our company is not so bad as you seem to think at this point. Fear not, God will provide. You are to love God fully, not in this world but in the next. Take what you can get, and on the best available terms. --------------------- The reader is often left to judge for herself to what extent Body and Self-Love are offering temptations, judicious corrections, or innocent but self-interested obstacles to the progress of the Soul. Liked.

I finished Saul Bellow's Herzog, and have taken up William Langland's The Vision of Piers Plowman; a volume containing Catherine of Genoa's Purgation and Purgatory and The Spiritual Dialogue; and an unpublished novel called Stillwater, by a friend of mine, which is a version of Mansfield Park set in the Old South. Which last the author would like to discuss when she is in town in two weeks so I had better get cracking! Also a certain thoughtful person with a taste for Eastern European literature has sent me Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time, which dh, who apparently shares her tastes completely, has appropriated, having recently completed Cassandra at the Wedding and a re-read of the Niccolò series. So much to read....

We have The Sheltering Sky lying around here somewhere. Looking forward to your review. Wasn't there a Police song about it?

Makes sense to me; we have to be accurate about dates if anyone's going to believe these stories. Trivia: The Seven Sleepers show up in the Qu'ran; the earliest hint at this ancient legend is in Aristotle's Physics ("But neither does time exist without change; for when the state of our own minds does not change at all, or we have not noticed its changing, we do not realize that time has elapsed, any more than those who are fabled to sleep among the heroes in Sardinia do when they are awakened"). It's a shame they were taken off the Catholic calendar in the 1960s after lasting for millennia. The next book on my stack is from the 14th century, so I will join you in the Middle Ages.

Okay, excerpts will continue then. That reminds me, I need to resume The Worm in the Bud, which got dropped when our holidays ended. Yes indeed, reading Pam's list I felt like I'd just had my own mini-course for the summer term. One of my implicit reading goals is "be as well-read as Jane." (It would be "as Eliana" except I don't think my lifespan will accommodate that.) Yes, good. Here, nutshell reviews--O. Henry stories: Fun popular classics, not great literature, Like. Saul Bellow's Herzog: literary, excellent writing, not for those who expect a plot, Like.

Much later than I had thought, finished at last with Selected Stories of O. Henry. Yes they're quick and easy reads; but 500+ pages of William Sydney Porter's very short stories comes out to an awful lot of stories. I confess to a weakness for his writing, despite his literary second-rateness (maudlin wallowing, easy laughs, predictability); probably in part a matter of home-town loyalty, but anyhow a guilty pleasure that I can't quite apologize for. I'm sure I've mentioned that my nom de forum comes from an O. Henry story. Meanwhile, I'm more than halfway through Saul Bellow's Herzog. Dh has been meaning for a while to read it so at last I've gotten in ahead of him, while he's distracted by Cassandra at the Wedding, not to mention having to waste time working to put curriculum on the table. Herzog won the National Book Award once upon a time. Herzog feels a little dated by a 60s sensibility, but good writing is timeless: ------------- In the bathroom, Herzog turned his tie to the back of his neck to keep it from drooping into the basin. This was a luxurious little room, with indirect lighting (kindness to haggard faces). The long tap glittered, the water gushed forth. He sniffed the soap. Muguet. The water felt very cold on his nails. He recalled the old Jewish ritual of nail water, and the word in the Haggadah, Rachatz! "Thou shalt wash." It was obligatory also to wash when you returned from the cemetery (Beth Olam--the Dwelling of the Multitude). But why think of cemeteries, of funerals, now? Unless... the old joke about the Shakespearean actor in the brothel. When he took off his pants, the whore in bed gave a whistle. He said, "Madam, we come to bury Caesar, not to praise him." How schoolboy jokes clung to you! He opened his mouth under the tap and let the current run also into his shut eyes, gasping with satisfaction. Broad disks of iridescent brightness swam under his lids. He wrote to Spinoza, Thoughts not casually connected were said by you to cause pain. I find that is indeed the case. Random association, when the intellect is passive, is a form of bondage. Or rather, every form of bondage is possible then. It may interest you to know that in the twentieth century random association is believed to yield up the deepest secrets of the psyche. He realized he was writing to the dead. To bring the shades of great philosophers up to date. But then why shouldn't he write the dead? He lived with them as much as with the living--perhaps more; and besides, his letters to the living were increasingly mental, and anyway, to the Unconscious, what was death? Dreams did not recognize it. Believing that reason can make steady progress from disorder to harmony and that the conquest of chaos need not be begun anew every day. How I wish it! How I wish it were so! How Moses prayed for this! ---------------- By the way, is it helpful to anyone for me to post excerpts from books? I get a much better sense of how much I'll like, or not, a book by reading a paragraph or two from it than from a description or general (dis)recommendation, and I suppose I assume others do, too; but tell me if I'm wrong. Maybe I'll change.

Finished A History of Private Life, Volume 1: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium. Two Amazon reviews pretty much capture this book: http://www.amazon.com/History-Private-Life-Volume-Byzantium/dp/0674399749 If you read the reviews "A Classic of the Annales School" and "A Disappointing Read" (2 and 3 on the page right now), you get an idea of the series; it's a specific French approach to history that is very different from what Anglophone readers are accustomed to. I enjoyed Volume 1 and plan to continue the series; but I can see how others might find it confusing and disappointing. Today is dh's birthday, and you'll be shocked to learn that he got books, too: Philip K. Dick & Roger Zelazny, Deus Irae Francis Beaumont & John Fletcher, Philaster John Fletcher, The Tamer Tamed John Fletcher, The Island Princess And for some reason, he got quite a lot of Magic Treehouse books, too....

Great Girl dressed like a colorblind clown for years as a young teen and I never said anything. Then in her late teens she started dressing in beige and navy. Now in college she dresses in STEM-slovenly like all the other kids in her classes (but cleans up nicely for interviews). Meanwhile Middle Girl has started dressing in wildly clashing colors and patterns. Here we go again.... Never noticed that the other homeschooled girls were any different. I say, leave it alone.

So I checked and sure enough, the series is a project of Canongate Books, the Edinburgh publishers whose Scottish books I've been enjoying over the last few years.

It's been years since I've seen The Prisoner. Clearly I must invite myself over to somebody's house and rewatch the episodes. Patrick MacGoohan trivia: did you know he was the murderer on four episodes of Columbo? You'd think Peter Falk would start to be suspicious when he appeared.

Birthday books! Thomas de Quincey, The English Mail Coach and Other Essays http://images.worldofrarebooks.co.uk/1411066111SRG_1.jpg http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/02/20/still-booking-on-de-quinceys-mail-coach/ John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct http://www.booksontheblvd.com/si/45314.html The Philosophy of William James http://www.amazon.co.uk/philosophy-William-modern-library-worlds/dp/B0007DFCEO Aristophanes, Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds http://www.amazon.com/Lysistrata-Other-Plays-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140448144 ... and an extra, for Middle Girl ... Barbara Byfield, The Glass Harmonica http://desturmobed.blogspot.com/2013/12/barbara-ninde-byfield.html

Thanks y'all for the birthday greetings. :) Actually I spent most of the day in a walking coma because we got back from our family weekend at Carlsbad Caverns at two a.m. after a long drive across the Whole Lot of Flat Nothing that is west Texas, and the cat decided to punish me by spending the rest of the night throwing up on the carpet. So today is the Transferred Observance of my birthday. And yes, I am hoping for books out of it. Anyone want an elderly obese cat with occasional digestive problems? Favorite excerpt from A History of Private Life: "The tonsure was a sign of slave status, which the clergy used to signify subservience to Christ. Women's hair was left uncut, and judging by the long hairpins that have survived, it must have been artfully displayed. To tonsure a free boy or girl was punishable by a fine of 45 solidi under Salic Law, reduced to 42 solidi in the case of girls under Burgundian Law. Burgundian Law further specified that the offense should not be punished if it occurred outside the girl's house during the course of a battle in which she took part."

Congratulations, Robin! Many more. Middle Girl read the Penguin edition this summer and seemed to like it. http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/books/the-phantom-of-the-opera/9780141191508/ Almost done with A History of Private Life, vol. 1. The article on Roman domestic architecture of North Africa was a little too specialized to hold my interest, but the following article on the early middle ages quite made up for it. And still reading O. Henry stories, which are hit-and-miss, with the occasional duplicated twist ending. Unaccountably, despite not having finished a book in two weeks (due to the distractions of homeschooling, travel, and enjoying my birthday today), I have begun Saul Bellow's Herzog. See? Modern literature!