The Library

[mabel1015j]

The Library Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is  always out. Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us. We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not). Let the book talk begin here!

I liked geometry also. It seems to me that people tend to like either geometry OR algebra. Have you found that to be true?  I think it has to do w/ a person being either a "concept" person or a "detail" person, of course, some of us only lean toward one of the other and some of us are more  middle of the road. ............... like the Myers-Briggs "P's" and "J's " .........................I'm a real heavy "P" person, in general, but more "j" on the job. ..................jean

[JoanR]

I liked geometry a lot - using the compass and protractor was fun, proving theorems was satisfying.  Liked trigonometry too but couldn't care much about algebra.  Calculus in college nearly killed me because I  thought that you just  had to "do" math, not "study" it!!  What a surprise! Always got my best marks in math in high school so I thought I'd major in  it in college! Quickly switched to an English major where my heart really was.

[mrssherlock]

solving algebra and geometry problems are puzzles to be solved so both appeal to me.  calculus was hard but hardest was manipulating arrays.

[Octavia]

Mrssherlock, I have no idea what an "array" is. Things come to mind, but not mathematical ones.
Gumtree, how did you go in the violent hailstorms? You weren't driving I hope? The landslide sounded like something out of the S.American news.
The sun is shining here today, it's been sooo long.
Steph, your problem sounds like my spatial  hang up. I did read that some children are born without that ability and I think I'm one of them.
JoanK, your comments re converting Celsius in Israel reminded me of when we went metric here. We used algebra to calculate speed limits, and how many K's a trip would be. Now, it's automatic and the boys have no concept of miles, feet or inches.

I recently read Electric Brae by Andrew Greig and loved it. As I've said before I really love this man's writing, both novels and poetry. It's great to read poetry where a man speaks of being in love with his wife. It often seems unfashionable lately.

[Steph]

Both of you sound like my oldest son, who views geometry as art in a special form. He loves all math however.
I felt that way about algebra.. It was like a puzzle that unfolded and you realized the beauty of it..

[Babi]

I  thought that you just  had to "do" math, not "study" it!!(JoanR)   

[Gumtree]

Gumtree, how did you go in the violent hailstorms? You weren't driving I hope? The landslide sounded like something out of the S.American news.
The sun is shining here today, it's been sooo long.

Octavia Thanks for asking - I wasn't driving but I was caught in the icestorm. Left home to keep an appointment at 1.30 and got home at 8.15pm after all sorts of adventures and diversions in the storm. DH was beside himself - had rung police and hospitals. They say it was the worst storm here for 50 years - it was very widespread and reached into country areas as well. The city, and in fact, the entire metro area was in chaos for several hours. Traffic lights were out - no trains, buses or taxis - roads blocked by falling trees and other debris or exploding trees hit by lightning and all at peak hour and people, people everywhere all trying to get home.

  The landslide on the escarpment overlooking the river was a bit scary with 4feet or so of mud inside luxury apartments and cars half buried etc.  The hailstones were huge -somewhere between a golf ball and a tennis ball in size and there literally tons of them. Of course just about every car not under cover was damaged - some will be written off. We got our average rainfall for March in 30 minutes - I had four drenchings as each separate front came through accompanied by the usual sound effects of lightning and thunder- was soaked to the skin in moments and had to protect myself from the hailstones  -it was impossible to take shelter on the streets as the winds were driving the rain and hail horizontally - all this and more after the entire summer with nary a drop.

Lots of damage to homes and buildings etc - Our University buildings has  suffered major damage to the old stained glass windows in Winthrop Hall which is the main assembly hall. They were beautiful - I guess they will replace them. The ground floor of the university library had several feet of water coursing through it. Shelves and shelves and shelves of books destroyed let alone furniture and  fittings, computers and other gear. - enough to make any booklover weep.

Everyone here has a storm story - there were many injuries but miraculously no fatalities. Thankfully we had no damage to our household but the garden is knocked around and will take a while to recover.

[mrssherlock]

Gum:  So glad you made it through that horror.  Mother Nature can never be taken lightly, can she?  Until I read your post I had not heard about the storm.  But ten I don't watch news except for The News our on PBS.

Almost embarrased to mention this but I will:  A new Jane Austen book has me excited and eager to read it.  Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World, by Claire Harman  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125015157 

[maryz]

Gum, what a terrible experience!  Like Jackie, I hadn't heard about this storm until you mentioned it.  It's a shame we Americans don't get more world news - we're SO egocentric - and it's not pretty.   

[Frybabe]

Gumtree, thank goodness you are okay! I had not heard about the storm either. Ice storms are nasty business.

[Octavia]

Gumtree, the storm is so much worse when you hear from someone who was personally involved, rather than the detached voice of the newsreader. It must have been terrifying. I can just imagine how your poor husband felt. Not knowing is the worst.How sad about the lovely windows and the books.
Isn't it interesting that Americans say Math and we say Maths. As someone studying French I'm so much more aware of quirky things in language .

[straudetwo]

Gumtree,  

A little while ago I posted a brief note for you in the Book Thief discussion after seeing a video report  in a European paper online of the flooding in your city.   I had no other way to contact you and was concerned you might have lost power.

I am happy and relieved  that you came through this horrifying  experience safe and sound.  Cheers !

BTW,  I fully agree with Frybabe's assessment of Six Days in Marapore and have ordered the book.  Paul Scott is unsurpassed in my eyes. The elegance of his prose, the plot development and the suspense are sheer pleasure.   The web entry is a teaser and ends on pg.  .
 

[Steph]

Gumtree.. Like many of the others, I had read something about the storm, but did not connect it to you. Glad to hear that you are safe and all is well.. Living in Florida and having hurricanes on an off and on basis. I know that storms can be terrifying.

[ginny]

Gum!! Good heavens, how scary! Imagine the scene, I'm glad you are OK, I'm sure your husband was frantic. Imagine cars with that size hail, what is happening to our weather globally!! Now a volcano in New Zealand, jeepers.

[Babi]

 Good Lord, GUM.  With hail that size it's a miracle you weren't badly injured or killed.  And
certainly a miracle that there were no fatalities.  I can empathize with your DH; he must have
been terrified for you.
  The comments about our insular interest in news is all too true.  In fact, I'm embarrassed to
say that our local newspaper, though huge, doesn't really deserve to be called a newspaper.  The only news is buried on a few pages in the middle, and consists almost entirely of
local and some State news, only major national news and no international news. The front page consists of lead-ins to lifestyle stuff..fashion, entertainments and what the celebs are
doing. (I don't subscribe!)

[JoanR]

What a harrowing experience, Gum, for both you and your husband!  What a relief when it was all over but the destruction left behind sounds terrible!  I hate to think of stained glass windows being destroyed and the damage to the library sounds awful.  Doesn't it seem as if there has been an unusual amount of drastic weather this year? - it's as if the very earth and air were angry with us - rightly so, I guess.

It's a shame that most of the country has no idea about what goes on in the rest of the world! News programs onTV seem skewed towards entertainment or sensationalism.   I get the NYT paper and read the Washington Post on the computer.  There is a long list of foreign papers, as well as a slew of great articles, that you can click on on the Arts and Letters Daily site. Here's the link  -  do try it!!

http://www.aldaily.com/

By the way, I think it originates in Australia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gumtree]

Thanks everyone - sorry I went on about it so long but I was still a bit shaken at the time. We're still trying to clean up the debris round our little part of the woods - it will take quite a while as every tree and shrub has been stripped of much of its leaves and twigs.  The soil has been washed away from around plants and is left piled in heaps here and there and there is a high water mark on my back fence where the water left behind the tell tale grit. Lots of work still to do.

The hail really was huge and I have a couple of sore spots but luckily I had my trusty handbag to protect my head and face  

I'm sure the weather is becoming more unpredictable and violent globally but the experts still can't agree on the true causes.

It's good to know that we all complain about the inadequacies of our local newspapers - I think perhaps we have more international news because we are so isolated - but it's never enough.

Traude: Thank you. How amazing that you caught that video online from a European source. I truly am surprised!
Every time Paul Scott is mentioned I get a rush of blood to my head and pick up one of the novels and read a few pages. Exquisite use of the language. I really will get hold of Marapore - and soon!

Octavia Yes,  Math vs Maths. Of course the 'Yanks' use the term Maths when they really mean simple arithmetic.
Didn't know you were studying French - as you say it makes one more aware of the quirky bits of language- I've noticed the same since beginning Ginny's Latin.

[Gumtree]

JoanR - Thanks for that link - what makes you think Aldaily originates in Aust? I couldn't see anything to suggest that it does.

[JoanR]

If you "google" it, you'll see that it is identified as an Australian journal.  Also the editor's e-mail address ends in an "nz" which looks as if it stands for New Zealand.

[maryz]

ginnie, there was a volcano eruption in Iceland a couple of days ago, but I didn't see anything about one in New Zealand.  Is that maybe the one you meant?

[JoanK]

GUM: how awful!! I'm so glad you're alright!

[JoanK]

Another example that math students don't study the book or get what they need from class. I was over at my daughters yesterday. She was checking the 8 year-old's geometry homework. He had done it all wrong, and obviously didn't understand it. He cried that the teacher didn't explain it. She asked "is it in the book?" "I don't know". He obviously hadn't read it.

That's three intellegent people, ages 8, 10, and 30, sitting down and trying to do problems without first trying to understand what they were supposed to do. What's going on?

[JoanR]

My goodness!  Geometry - at age 8!!!  We didn't have it until high school!!!  The real Euclid??

[ginny]

Then they came in with the New Math and that was when my children were young. Emphasis on understanding, I couldn't help them with the homework, made NO sense to me, the terminology, semantics but the terminology!!!

I understand they have now thrown the New Math out on its ear.  Joan, ask the 8 year old if they are doing the "times tables" if you can without making him feel odd or something, because I have heard they dropped them also for a LONG time. Imagine not knowing the times tables.

It's the only thing I can do now in math.

Mary, I bet you are right! I have not found any recent volcanoes  in New Zealand, do you think that accounts for it? hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Like I was saying. hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I think 8 is much too young for geometry especially if it's not explained, it must be the "new" Geometry.

I listen to the BBC and the NPR/ PBS radio in the car,  so I get a lot of news, and I almost have the opposite complaint on the PBS, I really am tired of hearing about Afghanistan, that's all the local PBS seems to talk about in the morning.  (There are several PBS's on Sirius).

Did you know there is also a  Book Radio Station? They need us on there, they put on  old timey radio shows and read books and everything. They need a book club with some experience on there, huh? hahaa They interview authors, etc.

[ginny]

Ah well, Ice won't load, we'll have to rely on Gum's photos, I'd rather see them anyway, did you take any, Gum?

[mabel1015j]

Ginny - my kids had "new math" at Moorestown High, all i remember about it was that my dgt knows no time tables and figures everything out by "sets." I guess it works, it got her thru an MBA.

Yesterday my 7 yr old g-son had some concept questions about rhobuses!! I barely remember the word, let along what shape they are.........I helped him w/ his reading and told him he'd have to have his Mother help him w/ the rhombuses.....................lol............jean

[bellemere]

Ginny, i wanted to let you know that my son returned from his trip with his students and is raving about Carcassone.  Said it was a real highlight of the trip.  they saw lots of Roman ruins, the Pont du Gard, Arles, etc. , and, unfortunatly, he spent a night in the hostpital in Nimes with a student who had an asthma attack.  He recovered nicely and went on with the trip.

[ginny]

"Sets," that's right, Jean, sets. Yes I do remember sets, never made any sense, sets.

Bellemere, you won't believe this but I was wondering just yesterday  IF they actually went to Carcassonne after all,  and hoped they did,  and I am so glad to hear he loved it:  it's perfect for a field trip.  It's perfect,  period. I am so glad, and he sounds like a very dedicated teacher. I'd love to hear what all he saw.

I'm going, also, in July, to Arles and Les Alyscamps, who knew Van Gogh and Gaugin painted there side by side but Gaugin left out the sarcophagi?  and Orange and Glanum and Vaison la Romaine and and and.... and all kinds of places I never knew existed till I started reading about it. I think La Turbie and Frejus are too far but just found a milestone not too far maybe I can manage. The Romans were all OVER Provence, there's even a book, Caesar's Vast Ghost (which I hear is disappointing and more about somebody's personal life than the issue).

Thank you for letting me know!

[Steph]

Some years ago when we were in Holland, the Van Gogh museum was having a special exhibit.. It was Van Gofh and  Gaughin.. Painting side by side, they had the two painting and put them next to one another. There were quite a few and it was so neat.. You wondor how two people saw things so differently.
Ginny, your trip sounds great. Do you go along? or with someone else..
I have to thank an unknown someone again. I made a note about " A Reliable Wife" by Robert Goolrick some months ago. Finally got around to reading it and I love it.. It is really quite different . Has anyone else read it?? He is really hard on the weather in Wisconsin.

[ginny]

Stephanie, several people here have read it, I have it but have not read it, am reading a wonderful lovely book called a Rather Lovely Inheritance. It's a series, takes place (this one does) in the south of France and reminds me so much o the  Rosemary and Thyme series, just fun to read. "Fluffy" is an adjective applied to them. I don't care,  I'm enjoying it so much. Reminds me of the Peter Mayle books.

Oh on Van Gogh, it's amazing, to me, how ignorant I have turned out. I was telling my son that when I was 40 I used to think oh what a shame I can't write, I know so many things and want to tell them. Now I am simply amazed at what I don't know!

What do you think of when you  think of Van Gogh? Ear cut off, sunflowers, crazy looking stuff?

You don't think of  (or I didn't anyway) Les Alycamps by Van Gogh, versus Les Alycamps by Gaugin

I've even bought Lust for Life by Irving Stone since I know nothing of Van Gogh but I will. Isn't it fun to learn!?!

 

[ALF43]

Ginny, I took a class last year on VanGogh.  I decided that I wanted to learn (as you've so aptly put it) about something I have absolutely NO idea about.  I loved this class learned a great deal and was sorry when it was over.  Since then I am so much more aware of "paintings" and what the artist is trying to say to us.
This year I went for "From Cave Paintings To the Cathedrals"  taught by a very impassioned professor.  I figured I was dumber than a box of rocks about that subject but found out that I knew more than I thought I did.  It was a 4 week course of 2 hours each.  It didn't even touch on the subject.  I felt like I was back in Art class in high school by identifying Roman, and Greek architecture.
Steph- I read the Good Wife a couple of months ago.  IMO it wasn't as good as everyone raved it to be.

[joangrimes]

Oh My all this talk about Carcassone, then Van Gogh.  You are really getting into my places and people now. I love Carcasonne.  I love Van Gogh.  I have been studying Van Gogh for many years.  He was such a complex, interesting person.  It breaks my heart to read about him but I have really done lots of that.Joan Grimes

[mrssherlock]

Van Gogh's paintings are so full of emotion it's sometimes almost overwhelming.  Somehow I missed Art History in college so I'm self-taught, what little I know.  It is the same with Caravaggio, the emotion leaps off the page!  I've never seen the actual paintings, merely the reproductions.  Van Gogh's work has a tactile element, too, I understand that the paint is applied very thickly.  Not that we should touch a painting!

[maryz]

Seeing originals of any of the "great masters" will absolutely blow you away!  The first time I saw a "real" Rembrandt, I couldn't move, and the tears just streamed down my cheeks. 

Have you ever gotten any of the DVD courses from The Teaching Company?  If you don't have access to audit classes at a college or some at a museum, there are some good courses available there.  And your library might have some DVD courses, or some at Netflix.

[mabel1015j]

Years ago i read a good novel whose protagonist was Theo Van Gogh's wife. I've looked at the library catalogue and in my list of "read" books - very quickly - and can't find the name of it just now. It was the Van Gogh's lives told in fiction from her perspective. Has any one else read it? ..........Her name was Johanna ( looked at Theo's bio) and i tho't the title had her name in it, but i still can't find it............ jean

[JoanK]

"they had the two painting and put them next to one another."

Have you seen the PBS program on Cezanne, where they show the actual scenery that he painted, and then his painting of it?

Not quite the same thing, but at the Phillips Gallery in DC, they have two paintings of Saint Peter, one by El Greco and one by Goya hung next to each other. Fascinating. So different, yet looking at them together makes you appreciate the strengths of each one.

[winsummm]

wellll   I think Harry Dresden the wizard is a little too bloody for me although I like the amuzing ton of the writing and the characters.  I just downloaded a batch of tara myers samples. . .the ones having to do with food.  there are a lot of women writing light mysteries in this vien and I seem to relax, am entertained and enjoy all of them  the recipes re interesting to especially the books about the white house. Hail to the CHEF  and State of the Onion.  these writers love PUNS said to be the highest formof humor.

claire

[mrssherlock]

Hi, Claire, have you read any of the Diva series by Krista Davis/  She is very funny.  She as a Martha Stewart clone called Natasha, a rival of the Diva's since they were children.  Everybody loves Natasha and er TV show, making the Diva green.
Each chapter has an introductory snippet of advice, either Natasha's or Diva's.  Here's a sample concerning a wedding, the theme of book two, The Diva Takes the Cake:  

Dear Natasha:

My daughter wants a white reception.  White linens, white flowers, white china - You get the very stark picture.  I'm afraid it will look too sterile.  What can I do to make it look festive?
Color Crazed Mom

Dear Color Crazed Mom:

The trick to working with white is to add metal.  Gold, silver, bronze, or copper will add the spark you're looking for.  Use metallic balls in centerpieces.  Adorn place cards with a tiny glint of metal.  Use it on napkin rings or ribbons or tablecloth overlays.  You can buy sheets of 24-karat gold that are perfect for this kind of application.  The hint of sparkle will make all the difference.
Natasha

She sounds like she's got a really nice way to solve the problem until that next-to-last sentence.

[Frybabe]

Mrssherlock, maybe she is talking about gold foil. It's very thin and I don't think I have ever seen sheets bigger than about 4 or 6 inch square. Some craft stores sell it. I am hard put to imagine it as a tablecloth overlay though. Oh, and pastry chefs have been known to use gold foil as adornment on cakes and such. Some people eat it along with the the cake.

[Babi]

 What would we women do without our handbags?! Mine has served as my
'umbrella' on more than one occasion.

  Weather becoming more unpredictable and violent is one of the themes
of a sci/fi I just finished. It was "Jovah's Angel", book two of a Sharon'
Shinn series. I can recommend any Sharon Shinn book.

 I remember when they first introduced 'new math' in my son's middle
school, the parents were invited to come and learn about it. I realized
from that intro. how much easier it would have been for me to understand
algebra if I'd had that background. I was really regretful I hadn't had
the opportunity to learn math that way.

Thanks so much for posting those pictures, GINNY. I was envious when you
described the show, wishing I could have seen it. Both pictures are
full of gorgeous color. I'd hate to have to choose which I like best.

ALF, I think I would have been annoyed if I signed up for a course I
was interested in, only to find the 'impassioned' instructor "didn't
even touch on the subject". I think I'd want my money back.