Weekend Assignment #320:THE SCOTUS Choice

**NOTE: You are welcome to participate in this Weekend Assignment even if you don't live in the United States. Your opinion is always welcome, as long as it's respectful! :)

Weekend Assignment #318: The SCOTUS Choice NOW CLOSED!

Recently, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he will retire, at the end of his term, later this year, leaving the position open to be filled by President Obama. As you know, Obama has chosen Elena Kagen as his nominee. I would like to hear your thoughts about this. Good choice? Bad choice? Indifferent? Who would you like to see appointed to the high court? Are you happy with the justices currently serving, or do you believe they leave something to be desired? Tell me what you think!

Extra Credit: Write one paragraph about a supreme court decision you felt strongly about either positively or negatively.

Here are the general guidelines for participating:

**1. Please post your response no later than than the deadline day and time given in each week's original assignment entry. You can do this either in a blog entry of your own or in the comments section of the assignment entry.

2. Please mention the Weekend Assignment in your blog post, and include a link back to the original entry. Using one of the logos shown here is encouraged but not mandatory.

3. Please come back here after you've posted, and leave a link to your entry in the comments to the assignment. Please post the URL itself rather than a live link.

4. Visiting other participants' entries is strongly encouraged!

5. We're always looking for topic ideas. Please see the "Teacher's Lounge" page for details. If we use your idea, you will be credited as that week's "guest professor."

6. We reserve the right to remove rude or unpleasant comments (not to mention comment spam), and to leave entries off the linking list if the person has been rude or unpleasant, or fails to mention the Weekend Assignment in the entry.

** This assignment closes at 9:00 PM, EST, next Wednesday. No submissions will be accepted after that time.

Last week, Karen asked us about our experiences with attending the theater in WA# 319: The Plays The Thing. Here are your thoughts on the subject...

Anne...
"I have seen more Shakespeare on stage than any other genre. (Is Shakespeare a genre?) The most recent was As You Like It and before that was Othello."

Kaitlyn...
"I don’t often go to see plays performed, actually. I did more often when I was in high school (especially for my drama class) and in college (because I could walk right to them)."

Hip Chick...
"I have not been to a play in quite some time. I have been to musical performances but not a musical play. I think the last time I went to one it was in Boston and it was something that Steve Martin had written about a woman in Germany."

Karen...
Sad to say, I hardly ever get to any sort of live performance these days, aside from the occasional convention appearance by a writer or actor.

Stephen...

Well, not often – because it’s expensive – but Dear Wife and I do love to get out to see plays and musicals.

Sandrine...
A little while back I made a pitch to Andrew Lloyd Webber for a musical (well, not really, I wrote a blog post about it, but you never know, maybe he read it).

Mike...
See, I'm not a fan of plays, musicals, or operas. Especially operas. I know. I'm an uncultured jerk, but I'm okay with that. Actually, I'm sure there are some plays that I might enjoy if I gave them a chance. Maybe.

Trevor...

I love plays,sometimes. I grew up with not much in the way of arts education. My father’s idea of cultural education was the Mandrell Sisters variety show on NBC.

-Carly

Weekend Assignment #319: The Play's The Thing

We seem to be in literary mode at the moment, so let's take a quick look at another of the literary arts:

Weekend Assignment #319: The Play's The Thing. NOW CLOSED!

Nowadays we get most of our comedy and drama from television, from movies and even from internet downloads. Perhaps we sometimes forget that all of these evolved from a much older art form, the stage play. Do you ever attend plays, musicals or operas? Why or why not?

Extra Credit: Have you ever seen anything by Shakespeare performed live?

Here are the guidelines for participating:

1. Please post your response no later than than 9:00 PM, EDT on Wednesday, May 26th. You can do this either in a blog entry of your own or in the comments section of the assignment entry.

2. Please mention the Weekend Assignment in your blog post, and include a link back to the original entry. Using one of the logos shown here is encouraged but not mandatory.

3. Please come back here after you've posted, and leave a link to your entry in the comments to the assignment. Please post the URL itself rather than a live link.

4. Visiting other participants' entries is strongly encouraged!

5. We're always looking for topic ideas. Please see the "Teacher's Lounge" page for details. If we use your idea, you will be credited as that week's "guest professor."

6. We reserve the right to remove rude or unpleasant comments (not to mention comment spam), and to leave entries off the linking list if the person has been rude or unpleasant, or fails to mention the Weekend Assignment in his or her entry.

Last week, for Weekend Assignment #318: Library Books, Carly asked about delinquently-kept library books. Not too many people copped to forgetting to return books, but the discussion was nevertheless quite interesting. Click on each name to read the full entry.

Anne said...

Um...no. I have never flat-out forgotten to return library books. I have been late in the “I thought it was due next weekend” sense. Or in the “paper’s not done, so I’ll just pay the fee” sense. But I have never flat out forgotten. And oooooh, with the new online renewal feature…God as my witness, I shall never be late returning a book again.

Sherrie said...

I am regular library user. 99% of my books come from my library. It's really a cozy little library in a small town. Not a great big one like some. But it has lots of books to read. As for forgetting to take them back, that rarely happens. Most of the time I am just finishing up a book and need a couple more days to finish it. But as for actually forgetting about a book, no I have never done that.

Kara, a.k.a."hip chick" (welcome, new participant!) said...

At the library here in Hip-Ville there are many things to do other than rent books. For example, there is a book sale room where you can pick up used books for a song. In fact, all through the month of May everything is half off because they are going to be moving the book sale room to make room for a teen room. One can spend time perusing the periodicals, getting jiggy with a jigsaw puzzle, using a computer, or for the more traditionalist, reading. Some folks have even been known to take a bit of a nap at the library.

Freda said in comments...

I don't do the library, so I opt out this week. Best wishes to the others.

Sandrine said...

I'm not that good on libraries. Every time I go into one, I marvel at the fact that they'll let me take some books home for free. Any book I like. Even crime fiction. That is truly wonderful. But I just don't go that often. There's something about them I find stifling, hospital like. The books don't smell like books should. Even if they're dusty it's an aggressive kind of dusty, not the friendly pick me up and take me home kind.

Karen said...

See, this is one of several reasons why I don't go to libraries any more. I don't like the pressure of having to finish with a book by a certain date and return it. In fact, I'd rather not return a book at all. It was one thing to borrow a few dozen books each by Walter Farley and Jim Kjelgaard (not all at once, of course!) when I was in fourth grade. That made sense, because what kid can afford to buy a prolific writer's entire output? Manlius Public Library and Fayetteville Free Library were very helpful when I explored the science fiction genre in high school, and Bird Library at Syracuse University helped me out when I needed to read English translations of books I struggled with in a French literature class. As an adult, though, I want to own the book, even if it means being far more selective about which books to read.

Stephen said...

Our local library is small, and it doesn’t have a particularly large collection. So, if you want a given book, chances are good you’ll have to wait for it to come, interlibrary, from one of the other libraries in the system. And if it’s a book worth reading, chances are also good there’s someone in line in front of you waiting to read the book first. (Dear Wife has even had to wait her turn to check out knitting books and cookbooks.)

Trevor said...

I love libraries. I love the idea of going in and having access to books I won’t see in bookstores usually, and being able to try out new authors I’ve never heard of. I also have a list of over forty authors I read on a regular basis, who come out with a book or two a year. You can imagine how bad this would be for our finances if I didn’t have library access. You can say, you can get them online, but I’m sorry , no. At least with libraries I know someone has gotten paid for their work, in some way. And I love the idea of using tax dollars for such a blatantly socialist enterprise. (Take that, Glenn Beck!)

Florinda said...

I would tell you about the last book I checked out of the library, but I honestly can't remember what it was or when I did it! I can tell you it's been at least six years since I had a valid library card, though - I've never gotten one for the library in Simi Valley, and I've lived here for almost five years now. Yes, I am hanging my head in shame, why do you ask?

Kaitlyn said...

I might wait until the day the books are due, but I’ll always get them back on time (even if that means renewing, which is much easier now that the library has a comprehensive online system). I do remember one occasion when I was young when the dog threw up on several books. It mostly just ruined the covers, but we did have to buy the books from the library. I think my sister was upset about that, but I didn’t mind, especially since one of the books I’d borrowed was a cookbook (or maybe a craft book).

It's interesting; nearly everyone who participated said nice things about libraries, but many of us seldom go there any more. At least, we don't go there to check out books and then forget to return them. I suppose that counts as a good thing.

Thanks, folks! Happy writing!

Karen

Weekend Assignment #318: Library Books

Weekend Assignment #318: Library Books NOW CLOSED!

Recently, it was discovered that George Washington had forgotten to return some books he had checked out of his local library. They were only 221 years late, mind you, but late all the same. How about you? Have you ever checked out a library book and forgot to return it? Tell us about your experiences with checking out, returning, or forgetting to return, books to the library.

Extra Credit: Tell us about the last book you checked out of the library.

Here are the general guidelines for participating:

**1. Please post your response no later than than the deadline day and time given in each week's original assignment entry. You can do this either in a blog entry of your own or in the comments section of the assignment entry.

2. Please mention the Weekend Assignment in your blog post, and include a link back to the original entry. Using one of the logos shown here is encouraged but not mandatory.

3. Please come back here after you've posted, and leave a link to your entry in the comments to the assignment. Please post the URL itself rather than a live link.

4. Visiting other participants' entries is strongly encouraged!

5. We're always looking for topic ideas. Please see the "Teacher's Lounge" page for details. If we use your idea, you will be credited as that week's "guest professor."

6. We reserve the right to remove rude or unpleasant comments (not to mention comment spam), and to leave entries off the linking list if the person has been rude or unpleasant, or fails to mention the Weekend Assignment in the entry.

** This assignment closes at 9:00 PM, EST, next Wednesday, May 19th. No submissions will be accepted after that time.

Last week, Karen asked us about our "Merry Meetings," and here is what you had to say...

Freda

Anne

Karen

Sandrine

Stephen

Florinda (Welcome Back) :)

Trevor

Mike

Next week it will be Karen's turn to bring you the Weekend Assignment, so be sure to check back here on Thursday, May 20th, to learn the topic of W.A. #319!

-Carly

Weekend Assignment #317: Merry Meetings

Weekend Assignment #317: Merry Meetings NOW CLOSED!
People used to socialize with each other on street corners, at cocktail parties, at club meetings, and in a later era, at shopping malls. These days, however, we seem to do most of our socializing online. Where do you go most often for face time with friends and acquaintances?

Extra Credit: Do you ever hang out with co-workers after hours?

To play along with our Weekend Assignment, just write about the above topic in your own blog, and remember to include a link back here. Then leave a link to your entry in the comments below. (We also accept responses posted directly to the comments thread.) Please see our How to Play entry for details. The deadline for this assignment is Wednesday, May 12th at 9 PM EDT. Be sure to check back here on Thursday, May 13th for a roundup of the week's responses, and to see the new Assignment.

Here are excerpts from the responses to last week's assignment,
Weekend Assignment #316: National Poetry Month. Click on each name to read the whole entry:

Anne wrote...

I was thinking of writing something about the smart, snarky, tortured lady poets: Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton. But the truth is that I don’t much do poetry. I like character development.

I remember studying Beowulf in high school. That was pretty cool, but I imagine if Mr. David Mullaly taught quantum physics I would have thought it cool. Which is kind of how I ended up reading Paradise Lost a couple of months ago.

New participant Freda wrote...

How could I pass up this assignment, when I write poetry like a mad woman. It's a little thing you may or may not know about me. It is how I deal with almost everything that happens in my life. Whether it is good, bad or indifferent, I channel it all through poem. I change my writing style often too....

Carly wrote...

I love poetry. I always have. I don't know that I have a particular favorite, but I must say, I enjoy the simplicity of a Haiku. I have written some from time to time, mostly as the spirit moved me. At times, something will happen, either in my life, or the world in general, and I will try to put my feelings about it, together with one of my photographs, in a coherent way. The essence of an Haiku is about linking nature to human nature, and that's what I have gone for here. I don't know, I think I am much more of a visual person, than a competent writer of poetry or prose, but sometimes one has to stretch out the creativity muscle.

Kaitlyn wrote...

Here’s a confession: in college, I wrote a paper explaining how “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a bisexual poem. (That’s not the confession. It’s coming up.) I had written a short piece earlier in the semester complaining that queer criticism, at least as described in our textbook, left no room for bisexuality. My professor agreed and said I should use that idea for one of the major papers. Prufrock seemed the obvious choice. I spent a week and a lot of fun writing the paper, including some biographical details (I’m convinced Eliot and Pound were sleeping together).

Sandrine wrote...

My 10 year old daughter, ever tuned in to my swearing under my breath, asks what's up. I said I have to write a Haiku and will probably have to give up on this week's assignment. "Don't be stupid, she says. It's really easy. All you have to do is think of a subject then express yourself about it in 5-7-5. I open my mouth to scold her for, well, knowing better than me, when a light shines and I ask sweetly: 'Would you write one for me?'. 'Sure. I'll write a few and you can choose one. How about Istanbul and other places?' 'Ok'.

Duane wrote...

When I was a young tyke, my mother went back to school. One of her textbooks treated some of the pop and rock lyrics of the day -- Simon and Garfunkel, the Byrds, Bob Dylan songs -- as poetry. As I leafed through the book and picked out songs I knew, it gave me a deeper appreciation of them -- that they were important enough to be considered "poetry." Even now, I sometimes have the crazy notion that some of our greatest poets are not exactly poets after all -- they're songwriters.

Mike wrote...

You know, I don't have a favorite poet. I'm not really a poetry fan, actually. Not that I'm knocking it, not at all; it's not poetry, it's me. Really. Maybe I've never found a poet that really speaks to me, or maybe it is due to the way was forced into reading poetry in school. You know what I mean, right? It's your sophomore year in school and you come to that point in Lit class where you study poetry and the feeling of dread washes over you. See, the teachers I had never let us enjoy them, or find something we liked. Instead they picked out what they liked, or thought was important, then forced me to read them and figure out the deep, underlying meaning of the poem. It was not fun for me since I was never able to do it right.

Karen wrote...

I only meant to check the magazine rack for the last Doctor Who Magazine issued before my subscription, but some people from a local poetry club had just set up a microphone in the magazine area, and were introducing an open mike poetry reading. Well, I couldn't resist! Shortly after the reading started, I recited an E.E. Cummings poem from memory....

Trevor wrote...

Me and poetry have had a long, storied, and semi-tragic love affair. I took creative writing twice, and both times flunked. Lowest scores? Big heaping vats of iambic pentameter. I could do free verse, but I wasn’t a big fan of most. The first poem to rock my world, truly was called Something as it really is.

Nice range of opinion and personal taste here! I encourage everyone to check out everyone's poetry, original and otherwise, and anti-poetry stories too. Welcome, Freda, and thanks, all!

Happy writing, everyone! Let's meet back here soon!

Karen