Weekend Assignment # 345: Give Thanks

NOW CLOSED!

Here's another simple, seasonal one:

Weekend Assignment # 345: Give Thanks

Thanksgiving is upon us, the time of year when we're asked what we're thankful for. Let's take the opportunity to interpret this literally, and actually thank someone! Tell us about someone in your life, past or present, whom you would like to thank for what they did, and why.

Extra Credit: Suggest a Weekend Assignment topic, because I'm running dry! Also: would you prefer that the topics be mostly literary, or is a variety better?

Here are the guidelines if you'd like to participate. Please note that while Carly is on hiatus I've loosened up the deadline just a little.

**1. Please post your response no later than than 12:01 AM on Thursday morning, November 24th, your local time. You can do this either in a blog entry of your own or in the comments section of the assignment entry. No submissions will be accepted after that time unless I really want to.

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." Help me out, folks, because sometimes I run dry when doing this week after week!

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.

For Weekend Assignment #244: Fall Favorites, I asked what you like best and least about this time of year, a topic which apparently failed to inspire most of you. Please click on each person's name to see the full entry:

Anne said...

This year was kind of a bust, because it was raining, but I look forward to picking apples at the orchard. There is a place on the border between Illinois and Wisconsin that does the pick-your-own thing that I have been doing with my brother and nephew every year. Then at the end, they have the shops with cider, meats and cheeses, and cider doughnuts.

Karen Funk Blocher said...

First off, autumn is my annual chance to pursue my "pumpkin anything" obsession. Pumpkin bread, ice cream, yogurt (frozen and otherwise), butter, pies, tarts, cookies, and variations on most of the above have all passed my lips at some point in recent years. Last weekend I combined the remains of my pumpkin steamer from the Starbucks counter at Safeway with a small vanilla shake from Whataburger, and made myself a pumpkin shake. It was good, too. Overall, though, I haven't indulged in much Pumpkin Anything this year.

That's it for now. I realize it's a busy time of year, but please jump in with an entry if you can. Have a great week!

Karen

Weekend Assignment # 344: Fall Favorites

NOW CLOSED!

Let's do this:

Weekend Assignment # 344: Fall Favorites

Some people like autumn leaves. Others like foods associated with this time of year, particular holidays, sports, weather, or even the run up to Christmas and Hanukkah. What is your favorite thing about Fall? (Note: if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, tell us about Spring instead!)

Extra Credit: What do you like least about this time of year?

Here are the guidelines if you'd like to participate. Please note that while Carly is on hiatus I've loosened up the deadline just a little.

**1. Please post your response no later than than 12:01 AM on Thursday morning, November 17th, your local time. You can do this either in a blog entry of your own or in the comments section of the assignment entry. No submissions will be accepted after that time unless I really want to.

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." Help me out, folks, because sometimes I run dry when doing this week after week!

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.

For Weekend Assignment #243: Read It Again, I asked about your re-reading habits, if any. Please click on each person's name to see their full entry:

Julie said...

Haven't had much of a chance to participate in this lately, but this one is timely for me as I just exhausted the last new book in the stack and I'm up tonight with asthma issues. (Oh, I'll be fine. I started in on what I hope will become a new fitness routine today and I was over-enthusiastic. I just need to take it slow.) So yes, I frequently scour the bookcases for things to read again when I've hit the bottom of the TBR stack.

Anne said...
I love re-reading. I love to re-live a plot and take another look at the characters and see the things that I didn't see the first time when I just wanted to know what happens next?! However. If I had the luxury of three lifetimes, I would not get to all of the books I want to read. So I don't indulge in it as much as I'd like.

Florinda said...

I was a frequent re-reader for much of my life - up into my early thirties, actually. As a kid I re-read my favorites often; as I got older, I didn’t do as much of it, but there were still a few books I took back off the shelves every few years. Some had become literary comfort food, while I was hoping to find something new in revisiting others.

Karen Funk Blocher said...

Once I buy a book, I am almost certain to read it more than once, probably three or more times over a period of decades. In fact, aside from a basic collector's mania, that's why I buy all the books I read, and have borrowed a total of one book (I think) from a library in the past two decades. I figure, if it's worth reading, it's worth owning, so that I can read it again at a moment's notice. I mean, really! If I'm thinking about the Harper Hall Trilogy at three in the morning, I can go right to the shelf my Pern books are on, and start reading it again.

That's it for now. I look forward to reading about your favorite fall celebrations. Have a great week!

Karen

Weekend Assignment #343: Read It Again

NOW CLOSED!

Hi, folks! Did you think I forgot?

Weekend Assignment # 343: Read It Again

Some people like to read a book once, and then they're done. The plot is resolved and they know whodunnit, so it's time to move on to the next book. Other people reread a favorite book every few years, and still others keep it on their shelves in case they may want to read it again someday. Are you a frequent re-reader, an occasional one, or are you "one and done"? How do you decide what to reread, and when?

Extra Credit: What was the book you reread most recently?

Here are the guidelines if you'd like to participate. Please note that while Carly is on hiatus I've loosened up the deadline just a little.

**1. Please post your response no later than than 12:01 AM on Thursday morning, November 10th, your local time. You can do this either in a blog entry of your own or in the comments section of the assignment entry. No submissions will be accepted after that time unless I really want to.

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." Help me out, folks, because sometimes I run dry when doing this week after week!

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.

Last week's Weekend Assignment #242: How Do You Do Halloween? inspired just two responses, which surprised me a bit. Please click on each person's name to see their full entry:

Anne said...

I spent the afternoon on the couch, flipping between football, The Rocky Horror Picture Show marathon and the marathon of something called The Most Terrifying Places in America, on the Travel Channel. Apparently, a devil baby once lived in Jane Addams’ Hull House. Here is what Ms. Addams had to say about that.   And I handed out candy to the few trick-or-treaters that bother to come all the way down my street.

Karen Funk Blocher said...

Last year I made a wizard's study, wore the purple cloth as a cape and put on a wizard's beard, or possibly the one mask that I did manage to find this year but did not wear.  I had real occult books and fake potions. And by the way, I injured my shoulder tripping as I carried my chair outside. Another year I had a spooky forest, with spiders and snakes as well as my squeaky plastic rats. There was a year in which I made and wore a Tiki mask to go with the two Tikis we still have on display out there. Still another year we had a Styrofoam graveyard, and twice we had Black Rose Kate come to visit, pirate flag and all. But this year was our make-do Halloween, and I think I'm the only one who was really disappointed.

That's it for now. I look forward to reading about your re-reading habits. Have a great week!

Karen

Weekend Assignment #342: How Do You Do Halloween?

NOW CLOSED!

Hi, folks! It's that time of year again!

Weekend Assignment # 342: How Do You Do Halloween?

Each year at this time, we are told that Halloween is second only to Christmas in its commercial impact. Once an amalgam of religious holidays, it has grown over the years, at least in the U.S., and it's not just for children as it may have been half a century ago. What, if anything, do you personally do to celebrate Halloween? Have you ever participated in an alternative or related holiday, such as the Dias de Los Muertos, Samhain, a church Harvest Festival, etc.?

Extra Credit: What was the last Halloween costume you wore, and when?

Here are the guidelines if you'd like to participate. Please note that while Carly is on hiatus I've loosened up the deadline just a little.

**1. Please post your response no later than than 12:01 AM on Thursday morning, November 3rd, your local time. You can do this either in a blog entry of your own or in the comments section of the assignment entry. No submissions will be accepted after that time unless I really want to.

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." Help me out, folks, because sometimes I run dry when doing this week after week!

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.

Last week's Weekend Assignment #341: Overexposed inspired three responses. Please click on each person's name to see their full entry:

Anne said...

Anyone who was ever made “famous” by a reality TV show. I am pointing in particular to The Hills and the Housewives shows. I have not watched any of them, but I have seen enough commercials. I will also throw in Paris Hilton, Omarosa, and whatever show “The Situation” is on.

Florinda said...

I couldn’t limit myself to just one response to this, and I suspect I’m not the only one who has a list of people they wish would just go away. There are some I hope will go away by November 3rd, but that’s not really what this question is addressing, so I’ll stay away from the politics today.

Karen Funk Blocher said...

Frankly, by the time Twilight became ubiquitous as bestselling books and movies, I was so sick of the whole thing that I never gave the franchise the chance. What I've read or heard about Edward and Whatshername does nothing to entice me. So to tv producers and book publishers, here's my plea: don't you think this vampire glut, and by extension the zombie glut, has reached the point of diminishing returns? Can we have something else now please?

That's it for now. I look forward to reading about your Halloween celebrations, or lack thereof. Have a great week!

Karen

Weekend Assignment #341: Overexposed

NOW CLOSED!

Hi, folks!This week's WA question is a simple one:

Weekend Assignment # 341: Overexposed

Some things (or people) explode into the culture, are really big for a while and then overstay their welcome. Who or what are you really tired of seeing, hearing or reading about these days?

Extra Credit: What discarded bit of pop culture do you remember fondly?

Here are the guidelines if you'd like to participate. Please note that while Carly is on hiatus I've loosened up the deadline just a little.

**1. Please post your response no later than than 12:01 AM on Thursday morning, October 28th, your local time. You can do this either in a blog entry of your own or in the comments section of the assignment entry. No submissions will be accepted after that time unless I really want to.

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." Help me out, folks, because sometimes I run dry when doing this week after week!

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.

Last week's Weekend Assignment #340: How Far Would You Go? inspired three responses. Please click on each person's name to see their full entry:

Anne said...

Oh, am I sorry to say I am in the “don’t even bother” category. It starts with music – I had really bad concert luck at an impressionable age. I live outside of Chicago and went to college in Washington DC. So inevitably, any time that a band I loved was touring at home, I was at school. Also, the only artist I loved more than Bono was Freddie Mercury, who died just as I was coming-of-concert-age. I would have gone pretty far to see Freddie Mercury live.

See also Anne's response to the previous Weekend Assignment, newly-added to the entry below this one.)

Stephen Watkins said...

Who’m I kidding?  I’ve never really gone anywhere to see anyone even remotely bordering on famous.  Heck, I’ve lived in Atlanta, now, for four years, and yet I’ve never even taken the time to go to Dragon*Con - a fantasy and sci-fi convention that regularly draws celebrities of various kinds (writers, actors, directors, etc.) involved in the production of many of my favorite fantasy and sci-fi entertainments.  That’s right… I’ve never even gone to the trouble of driving downtown to catch my favorite writers, actors, and characters.

Karen Funk Blocher said...

Back in 1990 through 1993, I used to drive the 500 miles or so to the Los Angeles area a couple times a year, indulging my Quantum Leap and Doctor Who habits. I think there were two years in which the Gallifrey One and Quantum Leap conventions were the same weekend, and my friends and I scrambled to attend both. Other times we drove to Universal Studios and managed to talk to people in the production office, interviewing writers, actors, producers or directors, or some combination thereof. On one of our last Leap trips, my car's transmission died forever north of Palm Springs. I sold the Capri to a junkyard and we flew off to Los Angeles, where we watched filming on the Universal lot, and interviewed Scott Bakula for the first and only time. Oh, and I lost our return airline tickets and hard to borrow money to buy more. It was a heck of a weekend, but absolutely worth it.

That's it for now. I look forward to reading what you're sick to death of, and what you wouldn't mind seeing back again. Have a great week!

Karen

Weekend Assignment #340: How Far Would You Go?

NOW CLOSED!

The stars of my favorite tv show, Doctor Who, are coming to the U.S. next month for five days of location shooting in Utah, a mere 600 miles from my home in Tucson. My urge to drive to Utah and find them is the inspiration for this week's Assignment.

Weekend Assignment # 340: How Far Would You Go?

Some people travel hundreds of miles (in extreme cases, thousands of miles)  to see a concert by a favorite performer, or to meet their favorite writers at a convention, or to attend some other kind of public appearance by someone they especially admire. Other people don't even bother to go downtown to take advantage of such an opportunity. How far would you go to meet one or more of your favorite writers, actors, musicians, comedians or other artists, and to attend a performance by him or her or them?

Extra Credit: What is the farthest you have ever gone in a similar situation?

Here are the guidelines if you'd like to participate. Please note that while Carly is on hiatus I've loosened up the deadline just a little.

**1. Please post your response no later than than 12:01 AM on Thursday morning, October 21st, your local time. You can do this either in a blog entry of your own or in the comments section of the assignment entry. No submissions will be accepted after that time unless I really want to.

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." Help me out, folks, because sometimes I run dry when doing this week after week!

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.

Last week's Weekend Assignment #339: Happy Endings inspired only a few responses. Please click on each person's name to see their full entry:


Stephen Watkins said...

It was spent frantically packing.  My roommate, a buddy of mine, had just gotten married.  I was renting a room in his house, but he was coming home with his new bride, and I needed to vacate the premises, and pronto.  This was another reason why I felt that the time was right for my move to “A-town”.  If I was going to have to move out of my buddy’s house anyway, why go back to renting a small apartment in a dead-end town?

Karen Funk Blocher said...

I thought that, this being my last day in the F-M school district, it would be nice to visit a few teachers from when I was younger - much younger. The school in which I went to fourth through sixth grades was long gone, and the junior high had moved even further toward the edge of town several years earlier. But Manlius Elementary still existed, and was right across the street from Temple's Dairy Store in the village of Manlius, about a mile from my house. So that's where I went.

And oops! We missed out on Anne's entry!

I had mismanaged my on-campus dining funds, such that I had a couple hundred dollars left on my i.d. So we went over, ordered pizzas and I let the kids go grocery shopping in the cafe. That was a lot of bags of Doritos. Then we sat down to eat, and figure out how the heck we would manage to keep in touch: with me going home, Christine going home to St. Louis, etc. The difference this year was that Christine and I weren't coming back to school in the fall.

That's it for now. I hope some of you will take the time to tell us how far you would go, or have gone, to see your favorite celebrities. Have a great week!

Karen

Weekend Assignment #339: Happy Endings

NOW CLOSED!

A week ago Wednesday was my last day, at least for now, as an independent contractor helping out with the accounting at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church. That's the inspiration for this week's Weekend Assignment:

Weekend Assignment # 339: Happy Endings

Tell us about the last day of anything: the last day of school or a job, your last day as a smoker, the last day before you moved or got married, the last day before you got that car you always wanted, or even the last day of a particularly memorable vacation. Here's the catch: I'm looking for happy memories here, happy endings rather than tragic ones.

Extra Credit: What happened the next day?

Here are the guidelines if you'd like to participate. Please note that while Carly is on hiatus I've loosened up the deadline just a little.

**1. Please post your response no later than than 12:01 AM on Thursday morning, October 14th, your local time. You can do this either in a blog entry of your own or in the comments section of the assignment entry. No submissions will be accepted after that time unless I really want to.

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." Help me out, folks, because sometimes I run dry when doing this week after week!

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.

We had a great response to last week's Weekend Assignment #338: A World of Their Own. Please click on each person's name to see their full entry:

Anne said...

However, there are a bunch of other variables depending on whether the planet is inhabited by sentient beings.  Can we communicate with them?  Do they welcome visitors?  What do we know about their history and culture?  Do they have wi-fi?

Florinda said...

It's funny that someone would ask that question, actually. There have been several times recently when current events - and the public response to some of them - have provoked me to tell my husband "That's it. I want to move to a new planet." Beam me up, Scotty - there's no intelligent life left on this one. Yes, I am well aware that's a Star Trek misquote...but it was one of my favorite bumper stickers once upon a time.

Stephen Watkins said...

Yeah, I’m a huge sci-fi nerd, and I’m a huge proponent of actual space exploration and all that jazz.  But I’m also terribly, personally, risk-averse.  And I like being alive.  I figure, the chances of survival for those first few colonists on this brave new world are… somewhat less than my chances of survival on my native rock.

Sandrine said...

I'm just not. It's silly. Plus they almost certainly won't have WiFi. And I bet getting pork products and the teas I like will be even harder there than it is in Turkey. So no. I'm staying put. Now if someone actually handed me a free ticket, promised exciting alien historical artifacts,decent housing, welcoming extra-terrestrials, cheap booze, and good schools for the kids, I might just reconsider.

Mike said...

If you asked me this question as a kid, there would be no doubt, I would have been on the first ship. I'd probably sleep out for tickets. I assume that would be necessary if we really could go out there. The tickets would sell out in 26 seconds and all be bought by brokers who then sell them on Space-Hub for 1000% more than face value. Am I right?

Karen Funk Blocher said...

So let's say the conditions are right. We're healthy and wealthy and bored, and we can even take our dog Ponsonby with us. Okay, then we're going! But for how long? I don't know about you, but I find the ends of vacation trips rather frustrating and depressing. I never feel we've done and seen everything there is to do and see. And a whole new planet - there should be a lot to do and see, right? If this is a human-friendly environment, there's a good chance that Horton has as much environmental variation as Earth - hot places and cold places, oceans and rivers and desert, mountains and plains, and a whole new set of flora and fauna to admire. Yeah, I think we'll take the one year package, please.

That's it for now. Thanks to everyone who wrote entries about their planetary wanderings, or lack thereof! I hope some of you will also jump in this time with an earthbound tale of your personal happy endings. Have a great week!

Karen