Friday, September 24, 2010

Flashback Friday # think 3 + 10 = (you might think it's unlucky so I won't post it) ~ My Early Book Reading

These books were written after I was too old for them. Clifford's Kitten was copyrighted in 1984 while Disney's Winnie the Pooh came out in 1965.

All about our early reading opportunities and involvement is what Linda wants from us this week. Linda asked several questions. Click her icon, right, if you want to read others or participate in this.
This morning Linda has written of many of her childhood books you might identify with.
First,
a little teacher joke from my friend, bornagn901 (I never know whether that will be James or Gwen--the address belongs to James but they both use it when it comes pass-around-joke time):

TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.

Now, to what Linda asked us to answer:

Did you like to read when you were a child? What were your favorite genres, books or series? Did you read books because of the author or because of the title/plot?
I loved to read and would read everything that was around. Back then I liked the scary and adventure type reading. The first book I remember reading (many times) was a Billy Goat Gruff book which I still have but can't find for a picture today. I liked trolls too. Later my favorite would be the Tugboat Annie series in the Saturday Evening Post.

Did you own many books?
I didn't own very many books at all. My favorite was a little book of poems. I still have that book from which my favorite poem was Abou Ben Adhem. I am not sure that my teacher in her heart approved of this poem that I decided to memorize for her assignment.

I dabble a little in writing poetry now, see some of them on my other blog, here.

Did you visit the library often?
This question isn't very appropriate for me because our library was in town and we lived a half hour away by car.
In the grades 1-8 one-room school we had two large bookcases full of books. I either have read all of those or listened to the older kids reading them in class.
The two-room high school for grades 7-10 similarly had bookcases for the library. I don't remember reading any from those.
When I went to the town high school we had a nice large room for the library. I spent a lot of time in there. I never took homework home so I suppose I went there during home room to look things up.

Was there a summer reading program when you were young, and did you participate?
Summer reading programs were for the town kids.

Do you have any particular memories of your school libraries?
My most vivid memory was reading my Zane Grey magazines from home in the library. I would put them inside 'approved' reading material.

What were your favorites and least favorites among the classics (the ones high school English teachers assign!)?
I only had three years of high school English. My sophomore teacher ordered the 11th grade English book, the last grammar course, for my 10th grade by mistake.
So in my senior year I took sophomore, 10th grade, English. In my 11th grade I took no English. Senior English was a literature course which I was not able to take. I.e, I missed the classics.
In college I took both American Literature and English Literature courses so I was able to catch some of the classics. Mainly with that and English Composition for my freshman year I was able to write papers which received mostly "A" grades. There may have been one "B" grade.
.
If you didn't like reading, do you like it more today than you did then?
I love to read but just don't get much done anymore.

I might add that I went from high school into college but dropped out after three semesters. Fourteen of those hours would transfer eleven years later when I went back to college.
I then went to night school for another eleven years. I did get three degrees during those eleven years; an associate, a bachelor, and a doctorate (law) degrees rewarded my later years' studying.

- - - - - - - -

Per Wikipedia: Leigh Hunt (author of the poem, Abou Ben Adhem), had read in Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville's Bibliothèque Orientale (1781) of the Islamic belief that on the night of Shab-i-Barat, "The Night of Records’ in the month of "Sha'ban" Allah takes the golden book of mankind and crosses off the names of those whom he is calling to him in the coming year, those whom he loves." The poem is by far the most famous that Hunt wrote.

Number 1 3:
I really don't believe the # 1 3 is unlucky. That is superstition and I am not superstitious. But there exist many people who are. For that reason I avoid the number 1 3 when I can.
I never gave a test numbered 1 3 in my classes. Instead I would use the number 43 or 63. In my own filing I would file that test where # 13 belonged.
I could just imagine triggering off thoughts of being unlucky at test times. The students should have their minds on answering the test questions instead.


Books more current:
William Barclay Commentaries (New Testament); please note my monkey multiplication table toy and Dick Tracy camera from my childhood
Some of the books given to me by my friend, Sam S, before he moved to a retirement home. Sam died about a year ago from Parkinson's disease.
My Black's Law Dictionary from my law school days


My NIV Study Bible appears to be needing a face lift and other books on the shelf in our living room. Someplace here I have my early childhood Bible with pictures but I think it did want to pose for a picture either this morning. The Statue of Liberty on the right is my XX birthday present. We went to NYC that year, 2003, to watch Karen run the NYC Marathon. We got to see her five times by riding the subway to places where she would run past.

Labels: ,


# posted by Jim : 9/24/2010 07:10:00 AM  13 comments

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Cleaner cook stoves, please ladies

How clean is your cook stove? Mrs. Jim and I each work on keeping ours clean.
I may be doing more than my share of work. I think I will start a pie chart.

Secretary Clinton to Announce New Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves at Clinton Global Initiative.


Today at 10:09 PM CDST Fall officially begins.


Be sure to look at the pie chart. This one is funny, not like Mrs. Jim's and mine.

Labels: ,


# posted by Jim : 9/22/2010 12:17:00 PM  3 comments

Monday, September 20, 2010

.

The sermon today was a shoe filler.

Right, there was no toe room left. That's why I'm carrying mine.

I couldn't get that carried away.


140 Characters
µ-fiction
Story Copyright
© 2010 Jimmiehov
All Rights Reserved

Picture from Susan's blog, Stony River (from Dover Publications' weekly design sampler)

Check over at Susan's blog, Stony River, for more microfiction Monday! They should read quickly because our requirement is 140 characters or less.
You might like to try this. It's fast, easy, and fun.

Labels:


# posted by Jim : 9/20/2010 12:03:00 AM  22 comments

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?