Here's a link to fascinating video, "What a 9-year-old girl thinks,"  that shows what our female middle-grade reader likes and worries about. Based on an article and interviews in the Toronto Star by Mary Ormsby and Leslie Scrivener.

http://www.thestar.com/videozone/757243--what-a-9-year-old-girl-thinks

M and I just attempted to attend a debate about the possibility of time travel. There was a huge ticket lineup and it was sold out!

The three panelists are cosmologist Dick Bond, physicist Lee Smolin, and philosopher James Robert Brown.

You've heard it here first:

Time travel is the hot topic!

Rebecca Stead's WHEN YOU REACH ME, which just won the ( Read more... )

The word, "bogart," used as a verb, meaning to selfishly hog something for oneself without sharing it.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bogart

For those who would argue:

1. Bogie did indeed smoke his cigarettes. Too much. Unfortunately for everyone, especially himself and his family. They eventually killed him; he died of cancer when he ( Read more... )

Definitions of wit"The facility of combining ideas with humorous effect, a person with this ability, the ability to think quickly ( Read more... )

Did you miss me? Ha, you probably didn't even notice I was gone.

We had to take care of a minor health problem for M before we left on our vacation. The problem is chronic but treatable and he's feeling fine now.

I couldn't decide which of my research books to take with me, so I packed most of them! Heh, I also bought three more... Luckily we were ( Read more... )

Today I was determined to send out a poetry submission to Bumbershoot. A submission call was listed on Verla's: 
http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php?topic=34709.0

I am not a morning person. Especially before my coffee.

So I get up, take Echo out, look at the paper, wake M, feed Echo, let him out for his toilette, and get started on my email ( Read more... )

Choosing one poem of Dylan's as a favourite was very hard for me. And I don't want to analyze him to death and ruin what could be an introduction to poetry for some people.

I wrote a fun poem inspired by one of his titles, Highway 61 Revisited, and used a slightly Dylanesque style ( Read more... )

Doing kporterbooks's Favourite Things memeBogie and Betty and Stevie and Dylan ( Read more... )

Is direct thought in a third person point-of-view always a no-no ( Read more... )

I found these inspiring and hope you do, too ( Read more... )