Wednesday, September 24, 2014

In which we wish some of you a happy new year (in our own little way)

I get the impression that half the people at the Pups have come down with the Creeping Crud or some near cousin. The Sailors seemed to be in one piece when I saw them last night, and although my head was a little buzzy on Monday I’m fine now, but everyone on Facebook seems have suffered everything from night sweats to navel lint, so I guess we should consider ourselves lucky.

Last night, watching our Not George go over the parts of a round, I realized I pretty much have to spend a day or so working on creating teaching stuff for PF. As I said, I used to wiggle into it from LD, but now we’ll be launching directly into it, which is a totally different business. As a paying member of NSDA (which I doubt I’ve mentioned yet, and which I’ll explain eventually), I assume I have access to all sorts of stuff on their site, but I’m as happy making it up myself as using theirs. I do like the idea of getting to watch Fr Michael’s PF lectures, though. The only one I ever saw was just the top of his head and his first name was Brother rather than Father, so I’m hoping via the promotion that he now gets full skull treatment. I read the potential PF topics to the Sailors at last night’s meeting. A couple of people moaned about GMOs, but I ascribe that to ignorance. I think it’s a strong topic with plenty of strong opinions on both sides. As I read the other topic, I had to allow people a ten minute recess in the middle because I lost them somewhere between “is preferable” and Needles, California. As anyone who has even consulted the book of rez rules can tell you, the longer it is, the worse it is. If it fills up your entire constructive, you might want to vote for the other one. Oh, yeah, the content is pretty uninteresting too. Unless we’re talking about some sort of agriculture from hell that should be stopped at all costs, it’s pretty hard to prioritize having a nice lawn over feeding the hungry masses. Then again, the Sailors tell me that, in the heat of battle, Sept-Oct wasn’t that bad after all. They liked the Pro, in other words. Go figure. I never really hated the topic, although it didn’t grab me as having any great merit as an issue that must be discussed. GMOs and water rights certainly have more intrinsic value as topics. I did put in my vote, for what it’s worth. We’ll find out soon enough.

This is pretty much a verbatim quote from a plebe last night: “Moby-Dick. Bleech! It’s got all this whale stuff in it.” Comden and Green went at it a different way: “It’s about this whale…” Both lines are pretty memorable. Anyhow, next week the plebes will read to us from a “favorite” book, a regular feature of the novitiate. Favorite books earn those quotes because over the years we’ve heard from everything from Dr. Seuss to Alex Comfort. The point is for me to get a fix on poise and voice, with a soupcon of mental status; the Alex Comfort reader, for instance, turned out predictably, uh, inappropriate, in many, many ways.

O’C is heading out tonight to spend Rosh Hoshanah with the NSDA board, which I’m pretty sure isn’t exactly a family tradition with him. I think he said it was in Iowa. So near and yet shofar. He promised to look at the agenda for the MHL Workshop on the way out. I’d like to put that baby to bed by the end of the weekend. That and the PF curriculum.

I hope it rains all day Sunday. I’ll light a fire in the hearth and plug away.

("So near and yet shofar"—Are you really letting me get away with that?)

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