Freudians

Working on a project tonight, a sort of survey of recent criticism of Milton's masque "Comus." I am come to the conclusion that Freudians have very dark woods of minds, rather thorny and difficult to follow paths through, and the paths lead inexorably to caves full of all uncleanness. This is probably not news to anyone.

For instance, were you aware that Milton was actually avenging himself on Shakespeare because in the masque, Comus was temporarily "ravished" by hearing the Lady's song?

Valentine's dance

Well, the most excellent Campeador was kind enough to take me to the school Valentine's dance. Behold us. Or don't behold us, as it's not a very good picture. But I enjoyed it anyway--the dance, if not the picture. Campeador was a prince among dates.

The de Tocqueville Society did a real nice job organizing it. My commendations. :-) There was far too much hip hop/seventies rock/whatever it was, and not nearly enough swing, but it was a cultural experience, if nothing else!

And then we had Adventures coming back. You wouldn't think you could have an adventure driving through Purcellville, but he claims coming home from swing dances has a bad effect on him. Well, it didn't hurt anything and he handled it like a trouper, and if you want more details, ask him. :-) All in all, a spiffin evening.

So...the Wicked Witch of the West lived in my dorm

I left my (slightly muddy) boots in the dorm lobby, and they grew a sign. :-)

Way to flatter...

So I took a "coffee personality test." :-) Query: is there such a thing as an inharmonious blend? Or do goats ever trip rather than dance? Their ad department is trying, it really is...

Your Coffee Personality!

You are sophistication personified. Complexity and balance are the hallmarks of your flavor preferences. You would enjoy our lush estate-grown Guatemala Antigua Finca El Valle or the caramelly sweetness of French Roast. Due to your interest in refinement, you might also enjoy our harmonious blends like Dancing Goats® or Skye's Mountain.

Athena moment

Some days, I just want to be the Awesome One in Pigtails.

(Homer calls Athena that in the Odyssey, and it's such a great title. It's so resounding and--six-year-old-ish.)

Dream

I dreamed last night that the President came to visit and remembered my name, I guess from a previous visit--only he called me Caroline.

A leaf by Niggle

Look, everyone. Isn't it pretty?

The acorn's brown roundness and the leaf's brown glossiness are the same, and the acorn's paler roughness and the leaf's blemish are the same paler brownness. I never knew that. They came from the same tree, last fall, and have been sitting on the ground since then until I came along and put them in the water.

The leaf wasn't a very good boat; the water encroached. But it floated well enough in the still shallows.

As he strung the acorn cups on the grass stem, he whistled softly to himself,

Lavendar's blue,
Rosemary's green
When I am King
You shall be Queen.

"There!" he said, finishing the necklace and dropping it into the Ordinary Princess's lap. "Be careful of it or it will break."

"It's simply lovely," said the Ordinary Princess, "and I shall keep it for ever and ever!"

The Ordinary Princess, by M. M. Kaye

Happy Chinese New Year!

I observe from my Latin-phrase-of-the-day calendar that today is the Chinese New Year. We are now entering the Year of the Dog.

The Latin phrase of the day says it best:

Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutamus.

Keep the faith, y'all.

Good inventions

Do you ever find yourself going, "Whoever invented such and such was very sensible," and then remember that it was actually invented by God?

Stargazing

I was going back to my dorm this evening from watching Miyazaki's movie Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (a good movie, I think, but foreign), and it looked like Lake Bob might have been frozen over. So I went and inspected it more closely.

It was still very liquid, but then I happened to look up. Oh, the stars were bright, and many, and beautiful. It was a very clear, very cold night, and beautiful.

So I returned to my dorm, asked a couple friends to go stargazing, and went. :-)

We walked out past the RA lot to the tennis courts. There's a hill there or embankment, and depending how far down it you go, you get different amounts of campus light. Toward the top of the hill we could read my star chart. At the bottom of the hill, if one kneeled or lay, the lights were gone entirely, and there were only stars.

Orion, of course, was easy to find, and so were the Pleiades and Cassiopeia. We picked out Perseus for the first time; he's sort of a semicircle looping between the other two, with a bright star below making a triangle's apex. And if you follow Orion's belt stars in a slightly drooping line out to the left, you find Sirius, the Dog Star, the alpha star of Canis Major. There were also the two Dippers and Gemini and Auriga, and a couple others.

It was delightful to go with my friends, because we all knew slightly different legends and constellations. And we saw two shooting stars.

The stars were lovely, dark, and deep, but the hour grew late and it really was cold. We came in, but oh, it was a good night for stargazing.