7 Quick Takes

—1 —

Okay guys, this might be rough. As I mentioned yesterday, WordPress has forced a new editor on us, and it’s definitely one of those things of:

We’re giving you this intuitive process…

That isn’t intuitive to me at all.

Perhaps I’ll get used to it, but I am currently finding it weird and I resent it. So. This might be short.

— 2 —

Here’s a link to all my Yellowstone/Grand Teton posts which, as per usual, feels like a trip that was a lifetime ago.

— 3 —

So yes, we returned Friday night – all flights went smoothly. I will say that flights to and from Jackson (WY) were PACKED. I received a few emails over the course of last week asking me to change my flight, but I declined. There wasn’t an empty seat on either of those flights. The BHM-Dallas and Dallas BHM flights were considerably less crowded. But …yeah.

And everyone was very nice, and everyone was, of course, masked, with the not-so-subtle threat that “if you argue with us you probably won’t ever fly American again.” Which, given my past experience with them was not actually much of a threat, but hey, I paid for these tickets with miles, so whatever.

— 4 —

Progress report on the new editor. I think I get it. But I don’t like it.

So anyway, the week since has been all about Starting School For Real, getting updates from College Kid on the shifting sands of his place, and music, specifically, not one, but two funerals.

Hey! An advantage of being homeschooled! Your friends may be at school, sitting in class together, walking single file down the hall in their masks, but you can, instead, attend funerals every day.

Okay, two days.

— 5 –

School:

• Algebra 2 tutoring resumed. We’d begun, casually, over the summer, but will be more focused now.
• Chemistry class doesn’t start until next week.
• Latin: Started chapter 4 of Latin for the New Millenium 2 . Perfect and Pluperfect Subjunctive or some such rot.
• History: He’s on his own, doing this thing. Focusing on Ancient Greeks at the moment.
• Religion: Chapter 1 of the vintage textbook below, along with a pdf of the five proofs for the existence of God, and a viewing of one of the excellent Dominican House of Studies Aquinas 101 videos. This one.
• Also religion, this week: When you are the Teachable Moment Mom, yes, you take advantage of the student playing at not one, but two funerals to teach him about the symbolism in the Catholic funeral liturgy and what it says about both Catholic teaching on death and on baptism. So yeah, there’s that.
• Literature: I’m taking hold of this one, and guiding him through American Literature. Made out a syllabus for the month and everything. Using the two textbooks seen below, plus handouts, plus novels – The Scarlet Letter for September. This week, he read several readings from European explorers (Verazzano, de Vaca, Champlain) and will start with Colonial North America (Smith, Bradford, Winthrop, Bradstreet, etc. ) next week.

Process with the humanities: mostly reading and discussion, with him having to do a weekly written notemaking/assessment type of thing – of just whatever strikes him, in any way.

This week has been a little wacky because of the funerals, which took up two whole mornings. I don’t think that’s going to happen again any time soon.

Also every day: biking with his friends around town, banging on guitars and a bit of video gaming.

• 

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— 6 –

From Atlas Obscura:

As in many, maybe all, matters of Jewish law, the exact meaning of this rule has been debated for centuries. At times, Jewish leaders (and leaders of other religions) have advised artists to avoid any representation of human figures. At other times this scriptural stricture is interpreted more loosely. But in the early 14th century, it resulted in a remarkable illuminated manuscript that illustrates the story of Exodus without ever showing a human face.

Some of the figures simply have empty circles where their faces would be. But others, the ones representing Jewish characters in particular, have bird-like heads and human bodies. It is “the earliest surviving example of the phenomenon of the obfuscation of the human face,” scholar Marc Michael Epstein writes in his book Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts, and it’s a mystery. Why did the artist choose these avian heads? And what do they mean?

— 7 —

I actually did some cooking this week. I got myself out to the Asian grocery store and finally figured out what the Thai Basil was as well as some other ingredients, and came back and made a couple of things:

This (used skirt steak) and this. (I used pork instead of beef in this one – boneless “country style rib” meat – which turned out to be fabulous in the recipe.)

Well, neither call for Thai Basil, but I used it anyway. (I got it because I had tried to make Thai Drunken Noodles several months ago without it, but it was not, as they say, a success. But I didn’t make Drunken Noodles this time…I just used the basil in other..recipes…never mind.)

Also, may I say something about dumplings? Perhaps you live in an area in which you can find good frozen Asian dumplings in your regular grocery store, but if you don’t, and if you have a good Asian grocery store – go there, and buy bags of dumplings and fix them just as the package suggests, and you won’t ever spend $$$ on dumplings in a restaurant again unless you can actually see them being hand made. I’m sure 90% of restaurants simply used the frozen ones, just as with egg rolls.

This is what I’ve been buying.

Oh, and speaking of restaurants?

Drew Talbert on Instagram. (Or Tik Tok, if that’s you’re thing)

That is all. Insanely talented.

Okay, that’s enough learning curve for today. I don’t think I hate it. Much.

For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain’t the Lyceum!