Scattered Musings, first week of school edition

• Good heavens--I have something on the order of 40 students in Brit Lit II.  That hasn't happened in...several years, I believe.   Five or six, maybe? 
  
• I do not have anything on the order of 40 students in Bibliography, but I do have a number of advanced students in what is supposed to be the "Introduction to Graduate Studies" course.   Somehow, I'm going to have to jigger the assignments so that the advanced students remain relatively interested while the new students learn the ropes.  Of course, given that our MA thesis candidates frequently collapse under the heavy burden of MLA style, perhaps a refresher course is in order anyway...
• Must.  Finish.  Short.  Article.  Now. 
• Short article would be easier to finish if the book I'm explicating (this is for a Victorian studies companion) had a full-blown narrative. UPDATE 8/30: Hooray! Short article is now finished and sent off.
• I really dislike asking people for letters of recommendation, but must grit my teeth and persevere.  It's time to do some serious writing for external grants.  Or it will be time, once I finish Short Article (see above).
• It occurs to me that asking students to read Wordsworth's "Expostulation and Reply" and "The Tables Turned" at the beginning of the semester might not set the desired example.

Comments

[Lydia]

Ah well, begin as you mean to continue. Stick it to the little squirts. ;D

[Anatoly]

Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks,
Why all this toil and trouble?
Up! up! my friend, and quit your books,
Or surely you’ll grow double.

[...]

Books! ’tis a dull and endless strife,
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music; on my life
There’s more of wisdom in it.

Hmm, where have I heard it before? Ah yes:

What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.

Put down the knitting,
The book and the broom.
Time for a holiday.
Life is Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret...