1. Baby Darwin is due in eight weeks, which means that Christmas is in less than nine weeks. ARE YOU READY, PEOPLE. This due date is going to mess with my usual paradigm of heading to the store on Christmas Eve and wondering why all these crazy people are clogging the aisles when I just want to pick up a last-minute present.
2. I've been running silent lately because does the world really need one more angsty blog post about pregnancy? Suffice it to say that baby is plenty fat and wiggly, and that he's head-down, for which I'm grateful even when he rotates that little head right in my hip joint in the middle of the night, and then I try to turn over, which takes about sixty seconds (what, does that sound brief to you? How long does it take you to roll over in bed?), and then I get my pillow all fixed again under my stomach and between my legs, and then he turns his head again and kicks me in the ribs for good measure.
3. A note on etiquette for parents: when you take your children trick-or-treating at the nursing home, have them dress as something easy recognizable and not ugly. Let me tell you that when you take three ballerinas, an explorer, and an airline pilot (complete with leather jacket, captain's hat, and tie) amid a full complement of ninjas, corpse brides, and zombies, not only will you make the residents of the nursing home extremely happy, but the kids will receive handfuls of candy in recompense for the courtesy of looking appropriate for those who would like to see children look appropriate. Also a courtesy: when you do not wear a mask at the nursing home, the residents can hear you more clearly, and that also pleases them.
4. Speaking of costume dramas, here: some clips from Metropolitan, featuring the height of debutante fashion in 1990:
5. Speaking of young people: Brandon on how to disorient the youth.
Sometimes people give as the aim for liberal arts education things like "to unsettle presumptions, to defamiliarize the familiar, to reveal what is going on beneath and behind appearances, to disorient young people and to help them to find ways to re-orient themselves." I think these sorts of things are truly ridiculous things to aim for in the context of any kind of college education, as I've argued, but suppose I were to take this as my goal in a philosophy course? What would I have to teach? What is the topic that has come up in my courses so far that has most consistently and most clearly had these effects? Neoplatonism. Nothing, nothing at all that I have ever taught, generates as much controversy and distress as Neoplatonism.6. Today is St. Crispin's day! Get chills listening to Kenneth Branagh's beautiful voice over Patrick Doyle's stirring accompaniment.
Perhaps you would prefer Tom Hiddleston?
7. Crispin, Kenneth, and Thomas were all considered and rejected as middle names for this poor middle-nameless baby.
6 comments:
My grandmother had seven children. The oldest ones had grand, formal names. As you go down the line, the names are not as strong. Her youngest was named Leanne. Not Leigh Anne, but one word no middle.
Aw, I like Crispin!
I've always struggled with boy names even though we only have one boy. Now that my one boy name is taken, I don't know what I'll do if we ever have another.
Middle names I like:
David
Edward
Michael
George
+JMJ+
I have two first names and no middle name. =) Well, there's the Philippine custom of every child's middle name being the mother's maiden name, but that doesn't count in this case.
A few years ago, I met a woman from the Dominican Republic who had five first names. A real show off. ;-P
1. I'm due in six weeks and I've sworn that all Christmas shopping will be done first.
2. Misery loves company! I know exactly, exactly what you mean about turning over. And the pillows.
7. Crisp in is cute. No Nicholas? (We've been promised another girl, and the discussion is so far narrowed down to Ingrid Marie, Esther, or Lily, with much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. We never did find a boy name in spite of the first being a surprise - I liked Johannes, but the better half was meh. Y'know, if you wanted to know! But I'm guessing taste in names is totally different over here.)
Re: appropriate costumes
Some people don't give much thought to this. One year, when we arrived at City of Hope for one of Jon's cancer treatments which was scheduled on October 31st, one of the receptionists was dressed as what can only be described as "The Angel of Death." Given the clientele at C of H, this seemed rather insensitive to me.
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