I got them when they were on one of those site wide sales. My boys really liked them. For some reason the corny humor really bugged my husband. They're not my favorite but I can tolerate them being on. And of course fine for the kids to listen to on their own.

Overll, Colleen, I agree with your posts on the football front (and elsewhere) and I concede you are more knowledgeable than I am on football. I've been a football fan for 40+ years but only lately come to the Seahawks. That said, I do think there are teams on the pro and college level that people tend to have strong opinions about. For me, it might be the Cowboys and to a lesser extent the Pats. My husband might expand it to include FSU. I wouldn't say it runs very deep for us -- more of a love to hate -- and doesn't stop us from being polite to the other side.

Obviously, I should go to a doctor, but I'm wondering if anyone has advice. I have no problems with vax but find it hard to get nonemergency appointments at the doctor, and the last time I went they weren't able to do a blood draw (I've always been a hard one to get blood from or an IV started). So if it is at all a toss up, I'd rather just go to Walgreen's and get a MMR shot/booster. I'm 50 and I'm sure I had whatever was standard. My husband is 52 and in the same boat. Neither of us have a clue about our childhood records. 17 years ago, we went to India -- at the time there was a travel immunization clinic at our local hospital -- and we got whatever they thought we might need, not knowing what we got growing up. I would think I would have gotten a booster then. I don't remember getting an MMR when I was trying to get pregnant but I would have gone along with whatever was recommended. Anyway, my husband's thinking of going into the local Walgreen's and getting a shingles shot. I'm thinking of joining him and asking about measles shots too. This is what passes for a date night here! Anyway, thoughts welcome.

I think the Skittles thing is adorable. My kids and I watch it repeatedly when we need a lift. I can't stand all those typical sports questions and answers. I didn't know about the social anxiety issue but it fits. This is a great article about him. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/everybody-loves-marshawn-lynch/

My father in law teaches history at Emory. I have always been very impressed by the other professors I have met through him. It is a lovely campus. Emory has changed a lot over the years. As my father in law tells it, it used to feel off in the woods, but now is pretty firmly in the urban area. I guess I'm always surprised that I don't see more students in the area when we visit (my in laws are walking distance from the campus) but maybe we are usually there when school is out of session. I would want to make sure that most kids don't live off campus if having a real vibrant 24/7 campus is important (at least that's what I am planning on looking into for my kids). It is bigger than a typically-defined liberal arts college, but the undergraduate student body is the size of Duke or Northwestern. So, not a LAC but a good place to get a high quality undergrad education. My FIL always has a had a lot of ongoing contact with his students, but he has won teaching awards, so I don't know if that level of care is typical. For good or for bad, it changed years ago from feeling like a southern school. Most of the students are from outside of the south. It has strong grad schools if that is important. Emory at Oxford is another option. We have several friends who did it decades ago, but I don't know much about it. As I understand it, you start at the campus in Oxford GA (a small town, and a smaller campus population). It used to be slightly easier to get in that way. After 2 years, you transition to going to Emory in Atlanta.

I'm attempting to recover from it, but I think in my case it is definitely class bias. It was something my family and my husband's family have had as a pet peeve forever, and it was all rooted in class bias. Invented spellings = uneducated, uncultured, and unrepentantly so. Names should be chosen from history, preferably family history, from the "canon" of names. As I say, I'm trying to recover from that bias. The humor in it for me is we chose our boys' names from family names, lots of family history behind them. And they are perenially misspelled! So my kids with their names that we carefully chose are probably going to have tons more trouble their whole lives than someone with a name our families would have disdained. I've learned a lot of humility from that one.

My kids were more likely to be engaged at a younger age using the audio. My kids are very into audio books however. As noted above, the videos are pretty boring even for adults. I get restless watching them unless I have another project going, and it is really hard for younger kids. So for any that would be suitable for audio, I would go that way. I would also say that my kids would have had a hard time fully engaging before say middle school. Depending on the topic, they probably got more out of a good audiobook, or a good documentary. Most documentaries or PBS series are more suitable to the visual medium.

This is funny. I really like Richard Sherman. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/richard-sherman-claims-conflict-interest-deflategate-article-1.2091483

I wanted to chime in since we are planning a very similar trip in a few months and I have a bit of knowledge about some of the schools (but would love to test my assumptions). My DS has visited Emory previously. This trip, we are going to look at Vanderbilt, Davidson, Chapel Hill, Duke, Wake Forest, W and L, W and M, U of Virginia. When I first read this thread, I thought of adding Elon and Furman, but now probably not. Also, someone else suggested adding James Madison and Lynchburg. I think our biggest concern (other than getting in etc) is to find some place that our son will make lifelong friends as well as being academically challenged. On the schools: -- Duke. My husband and I went there for grad school. I wouldn't count it out (my husband was one of those Chapel Hill grads who disdained Duke while we were there and for sometime thereafter, now thinks it was a somewhat irrational view). It is the same size as Emory. That said, it is incredibly hard to get in (as are other schools on the list) and I'm worried about my son attaching to things that are out of his likely range academically. (I know he would do fine if admitted, but I'm not sure his stats will show it.) -- Chapel Hill. Absolutely lovely campus. My husband and I worry it will be too big for him; we see him at more of a liberal arts college. My big question on Chapel Hill is whether it is hard to fit in etc if you are from out of state, in our case from across the country. My husband went there as out of state, but from a neighboring state. He loved it while there (and still does) but I think he has concerns about our son breaking in to the social scene, when so many kids will be attending with folks they know from high school. Great place to go if you plan to stay in North Carolina. (Same questions about U of Virginia.) -- Davidson. We have various family members who went there. A generation or so ago, I think it was pretty insular, but I hear it is better from that perspective now. -- Wake Forest. I have some recent grads in my family and my work mentor sent several of his grandchildren there. His only negative on WF is that he felt it was too business focused. He is a believer in doing business in grad school and having a broader undergrad education, and he felt his grandkids followed the trend of (most?) of the kids to be a business major. That was true of the kids in my family too, but maybe they selected it because of the business focus? Sounds like the OP is (like us) taking a sophmore. For us, we aren't trying to eliminate (at this point) based on application nuances. The main thing I'm hoping to get out of this trip is a bit more focus on big/small, urban/small town, etc. But of course if some place doesn't seem at all like a fit, then it isn't worth spending half a day plus on it.

That SNL bit was great. Trish, I really liked your analysis of Brady's non-Denial. He seemed very rehearsed on the pro bowl interview tonight. The sad part is that the Pats will probably win.

I have been enjoying the Great Courses selections on audible for my self education. For me what is good is that it is portable and I don't need to watch a screen or have Internet connection.

This has been really helpful to me too. I use audible a ton but would love to find a way to manage and use my other audio files too. I'm thinking it may be as simple as an external drive. Otherwise I don't use my old files and CDs which is a shame.

Thanks!

I'm not sure I'm posting this on the right board, but my high schooler has been asking me to find him some good recreational reading on the modern military experience. Nonfiction is fine. He's read Chris Kyle's books and War by Sebastian Junger. We are real history nuts but at this point he's looking for something more modern, less military history. Ideally on audio but of course I can research that if I have some titles. He listens to a lot of podcasts so that's another option if there's something good there. It just isn't my genre so I can't suggest much. Typing this I realize I should get him to go to the library and ask there. But would love any suggestions here.

I have what I think is a similar issue. I won't derail this thread with my specifics, but I have been looking for an enjoyable survey of world history available on audio. Although I'm a voracious reader and was a history major, I have found textbooks pretty hard to slog through. Yet knowing the sweep of history is great. My kids loved SOTW and Hakim's history, but I've been struggling to find anything equally engaging at a higher level. This is mostly for my high schooler and me but could also include my middle schooler.

If you are on audible (you may have to have credits to see this), they are often on the 3 for 2 or 2 for 1 sales. Just certain ones, but I've picked up several for later use that way. Most of my books have been for less than the one credit price on various sales. If you renew a year at a time credits are under $10.

We are really enjoying right now Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon. I am getting through the ones on Voltaire and Jazz (two different courses :)) but they aren't as compelling to me. (I like the content, but drier to me.)

We use audiobooks a ton and yes, you can pause them and discuss. My sons remember more from audio than just reading. Sometimes they do both. In any case, we use them for "school" book just like reading. My sons still listen to a lot of books for fun. I'm more of a print reader for fun, but I enjoy listening too. We've all gotten into the Great Courses on audio through Audible. Your question points to something I was thinking of posting on. When I was growing up and even as an adult, I have read plays. But in this modern world, that seems like a boring way to encounter text that is supposed to be performed. One of my New Year's resolutions is to expose my kids to more drama. Obviously a live performance is best! But I wondered how successful audios have been for others. Dvd movies are good but for example we have managed to consume more Great Courses through audio than through DVDs. So I wondered if kids would find audios as engaging as watching a DVD.

My 12 year old isn't a recreational reader either. Honestly, neither is my husband or older son (much), but my 12 year old really isn't. They all read for information, but... I'm the odd woman out in my family. I think it is awesome that you are doing read alouds. My 12 year old and I listen to a lot of audio books, which frees me up a bit and still exposes him to a lot. So for us it is a mix of whether something is good on audio, or just a good book itself. Our recent favorites on audio: -- To Kill a Mockingbird -- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn -- Watsons go to Birmingham -- Fault in our Stars -- Murder on the Orient Express and the Murder of Roger Ackroyd

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this, and I can't figure out how to link it, but there's a very interesting (and now poignant) video on the Ny Times website (just go to the main page and you will see it). It shows the cartoonists and editors of Charlie Hebdo drawing and talking about what to publish at the time of the Danish incident. Poignant because it shows 3 of the people who died.

This isn't a reply to anyone, but I wanted to say that it is completely unacceptable that anti-Semitic violence continues. My Jewish friends IRL are hurting that this never ends, that they are so often (feels like always) a target. Not able to do a simple thing like food shopping. I don't want to sound like I am only angry about the cartoonists.

My kids vastly preferred either of the SOTW narrators over MOH. I liked it better too.

When I check news on my phone, I end up checking Twitter. I follow a lot of journalists and can read my feed and see what's going on. Just an idea. I hate the CNN website too, especially on old computers and devices.

Voltaire and the Triumph of the Enlightenment http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/voltaire-and-the-triumph-of-the-enlightenment.html Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/living-the-french-revolution-and-the-age-of-napoleon.html I enjoyed the French Revolution one more -- what a time to see the best and worst of human nature! should be an HBO series -- but they are both good. We listened to them on Audible which worked fine -- somehow we get to those more than the DVD versions. My 12 year old found the Voltaire one too dry, but he liked the FR one. I think I've transferred my obsession with that time period to him. My older son is studying Voltaire/Montaigne/the Enlightenment/Tale of Two Cities for school and they're both studying French, so we have found these current events to be very thought-provoking in that way when studies and real life intersect, and it all seems so relevant. Just a very sad way for that to happen.

Lisa and Sadie, I'm really interested in this debate. I still consider myself a fairly religious person, but it is increasingly important to me that I live in a secular society. While I would never hurt someone's feelings IRL or on the internet, I think it is important not to let offended feelings trump free expression in the marketplace of ideas. Over the last months, my kids and I have been listening to a couple of Great Courses, one on Voltaire and another on the French Revolution. We have been talking a lot about how the history of secularism and the importance of the press and satire may have a different context in France than in the US. Can anyone comment on that? It seems to me that to say the Charlie Hebdo folks should not have printed their cartoons (e.g. Nick Kristof, who I usually like) could be asking French culture to give up some things that they view as essential.