A story from my professor...

At a talk by a professor who's on my committee, about how Puritan women used language of "defilement" to talk about their spiritual state:

When she was in her masters and was writing about a similar topic, a history prof who didn't read religious sources much but had studied psychoanalysis was really disturbed by quotes in one of her papers, and was saying that it sounded like the women were abused.

She was like, "I told him that they hadn't been raped, that that was just Calvinism."

Reading Latin again...

The other day everything was beautiful, and I felt like reading Latin again, so I took Piccolomini's "Story of Two Lovers" and a dictionary and had a coffee at a place with a nice outdoor patio where I could sit in the evening sun. How idyllic! I was surprised at how few words I had to look up...

At some level, I'm not sure if he just writes really well, or he only uses words I know, so I think he's good because I can read some parts pretty fluidly.

A Story from my one (black) (female) dean.

She has to watch carbs for medical reasons, she told me, but she also confessed that she also loves potatoes.

She says that people at her church where she volunteers are very nice and keep a bowl of sugar-free candy out for her, but that at a Bible Study potluck the other day someone brought in this big bowl of au gratin potatoes.

"Why do they have to tempt me like that?!?!?!?", she was saying.

Freebie.

A few weeks ago I was at the gym, and when I went to use this one machine, I noticed something on the floor underneath the seat.

It was a pack of Pina Colada flavored gum still in the box, and although half of the gum pieces had been popped out, half were still in there, sealed in their little foil-plastic pockets.

I took it.

Cooking experiment: Great Depression Cooking.

The other week after watching a segment "Depression Cooking with Clara" on YouTube, I decided to make her egg drop soup recipe (dice and sautee potatos and onions, add in a bayleaf and water and boil, crack a few eggs in and stir once the potatoes are getting done, then salt and pepper to taste, and serve over toasted bread).

It looked disgusting, but it didn't taste half-bad.

As I ate it, I tried to imagine eating simple dishes based on potatoes day-in and day-out for 5 years.

I might buy her cookbook, and try other recipes as well. I might also try to buy her cookbook for my friend who turned me on to the YouTube series as a gift, and get Clara to sign it for her.

SIlverfish: It's Not Just Me.

The other week I was by my one lawyer friend from Missouri's house, and she went into the bathroom for something, and all of a sudden she was like, "Come in here and look at this, it's another one, I hate them!", and I ran in and there was a big silverfish in her bathtub.

She says she gets them a lot, and she hates how big they are and how quick they move if you go to smack them, at which point I added that I hate how thick they are, since if you crush them with your hand through a tissue, they crunch.

She wondered out loud if they're just a city thing in the North, since she never saw any at all anywhere back in Missouri.

Addendum.

I forgot -

My one Kuwaiti friend was also like, "And if people think that killing Osama bin Laden will solve the problem of extremist terrorism, they're wrong, they're chasing a ghost and missing the point."