Atchafalaya Houseboat

I regret missing the PBS special about Gwen Roland's book Atchafalaya Houseboat: My Years in the Louisiana Swamp, but I did hear her speak about her book on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

Thoreau's experiment at Walden Pond and his journals recording his close observations of nature do not contain the exuberance and pioneering spirit in Roland's book.

Gwen Roland, writer and editor, now works at the University of Georgia. She and her friend, Calvin Voisin,construct living quarters, grow and harvest their own food, hunt wild hogs, light oil lamps, collect fresh water, read poetry, fish, watch sunrises and sunsets, and endear themselves to locals . . . during eight years of living in the Atchafalaya basin.

Bayou Chene resurrects for her mystical memories of her grandmother's stories and her life growing up on a gravel road near Bayou Chene. The village she remembers at Bayou Chene no longer exists.

Roland also chronicles her experience as the cook on a 3300 horsepower riverboat on the Mississippi River to earn money for the swamp existence. Her daily menus consist of Cajun meals prepared for the crew. This Mark Twain experience allows her some free time to posit notions about relationships, people, small towns, and life on the river.

Falling in love with the riverboat engineer ends Gwen's relationship with Calvin. She and Preston marry, lose their fascination with willderness living and move to Breaux Bridge then to Georgia.

If you love Louisiana, this book should remind you of the uniqueness of our state.

GROWING UP CATHOLIC

Most children are born into a religion. As a Catholic born in a French Catholic village in southwest Louisiana in 1946, I had limited knowledge about other religions. My perspective changed as I married and moved to other states. My southern Baptist friends attended mega churches, my Lutheran friends sang really loud hymns, my Episcopalian friends and I noted similarities in our faiths, and my Jewish friends suffered guilt which I clearly understood as Catholic guilt about sin could be as enervating.

Amazing that with such a small population in a town where Main Street measured one mile, our Catholic church resembled a cathedral architecturally. A massive main altar, two side altars, marble columns; large, beautiful Stations of the Cross, comfortable wooden pews, life-sized statues of saints, stained glass windows, seating for hundreds, and a commendable choir loft. The church atmosphere was devout, quiet, and respectful. How did so few people fund that magnificent church?

In a predominantly Catholic environment, most community activities were church-centered. Pre-Vatican II Catholicism involved sacrosanct traditions, including the Latin mass. Very few people, except for the priest and some scholars understood Latin. We sang Latin hymns and recited Latin prayers reverently pretending we knew exactly what the lyrics meant. SACRAMENTUM was easy to translate, but what the heck did PACHEM mean? In our Cajun culture, some words took on strange meanings.

As creatures of habit, families filed into the same long pew every Sunday. The church atmosphere was devout, quiet, and respectful. At the Offertory, ushers thrust long-handled collection baskets into each pew, shaking them loudly to inspire parishioners to toss more money to the Lord. Women wore hats and gloves, and men wore suits. Our bodies were fully clothed. I recall one pastor's fiery sermon chastising our high school cheerleaders for inappropriate uniforms. Their skirts were knee length.

Despite the acknowledged separation of church and state, public school students marched down main Street one block to attend CCD [catechism] classes at the church hall. We memorized and recited passages from the Baltimore Catechism, a staid theological text boiled down to an elementary- grade reading level. Recitations included questions/answers such as "Who made us? God made us." Priests and nuns in cassocks and habits instructed us. Our minds wandered as we stared into the pictureless texts. "Did Sister Beatrice shave her head?"  "Was she married to a priest? Girls looked at our drop-dead gorgeous pastor and thought, "What a waste!" Misbehavior resulted in a knuckle rap with a wooden ruler and a command to confess our sins.

Community activities held on church grounds included bazaars: good food, music, alcohol, and fund raising.
During the month of the Rosary, October, townspeople gathered at the high school football stadium. Parishioners, each representing a rosary bead, formed a circle on the football field. A cleric, our Pastor or the Bishop or his envoy, led the gathering in a recitation of the rosary. An amazing mix of church and state.

In May, the month of Mary, a religious procession/parade traveled down Main Street culminating at the church where a pious young female child surrounded by less pious angels crowned a statue of the Virgin Mary as we sang, "O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today."

Minstrels included black-faced characters singing, "Old Man Riv-ah¿ accompanied by Myrt Cabrol's rousing piano playing. The nuns also scheduled a square-dance performance by students. Even then, I thought it strange that Sister Bernadette knew the choreography to hillbilly music. Those of us who twirled our skirts too high on stage were reminded that sin led to hell.

Members of the Knights of Columbus who dressed in royal regalia at mass staged a popular fundraiser, a Womanless Wedding. Some of these church leaders wearing wigs, makeup, dresses, and heels looked like Vegas performers. I tried to remember, even then, that our huge, Cathedral-like church was funded by such bizarre events.

My mother dragged all seven of us to confession every Saturday. How many sins can a five year old commit in a week? I told myself, "Go through the motions. Kneel. Disguise voice and say, "Confess me, Father, for I have sinned . . . ." Confess sins. Speak rapidly so persons in line don't think you are filled with sin. Say Act of contrition. Wait for penance and hope priest does not recognize you. Listen as priest slides door shut. Kneel at altar and say penance. Run to vestibule of church and check Legion of Decency for movie titles listed. Leave church feeling cleansed and saintly.

Rituals, says Joseph Campbell, strengthen society. Interesting to perceive and recall the past of our formative years.

ZEITOUN

At right, Dave Eggers, author of Zeitoun . . .

Several nights ago, I watched the National Book Award ceremony on Book TV, a cable channel. One of my favorite authors, Dave Eggars spoke about the significance of writers and writing.


When I discovered Dave Eggars' book, Zeitoun, published in 2009, I recalled the shock, horror, anger, and despair felt in the aftermath of Katrina's devasting destruction and our country's worst national disaster. This non-fiction testament of the courage of the Zeitouns will move you deeply, especially if you are a Louisiana native.

Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Muslim who worked in New Orleans as a painting contractor, grew up in Syria. Spending ten years as a crewman or engineer working on cargo ships, he came to the US in 1988 on a tanker from Saudi Arabia destined for Houston. Later, working for a contractor in Baton Rouge, a Muslim friend introduced him to Kathy, a twenty-one year old  divorced woman from Baton Rouge who had converted to Islam. Although Zeitoun was thirty-four, he was taken with her striking looks and confident manner. They married, moved to New Orleans, and added two more girls to the family which included Kathy's daughter from an earlier marriage.

As Katrina moves inland, Zeitoun demands that his wife and children escape New Orleans as the hurricane category assessments increase. Left alone, Zeitoun tries desperately to save his home, rescues drowning pets, and, in a small watercraft, checks on neighbors and offers assistance to stranded homeowners. Trapped by the worsening conditions, Zeitoun takes in three other men who try desperately to survive the aftermath of the storm.

Alarmed by the looting, rapes, and gang activity, a New Mexico team headed by Gonzales, a cop fron Alberquerque, organizes a team of men armed with M-16s, to check out a house believed to be occupied by four men involved in drugs and robberies. Previous missions had been search and rescue, but the increasing violence and anarchy in the city prompts Gonzales to check out this information.

What happens next is one of the saddest examples of post 9/11 hysteria. Zeitoun and his fellow refugees are arrested and incarcerated at Angola Prison, the country's largest prison, once used "for the breeding of slaves . . . and considered one of the most dangerous, most hopeless prisons in the United States." Zeitoun's wife and children, unable to communicate with him, have no idea of his whereabouts. Zeitoun's brother, in Syria, works unceasingly to communicate with officials and friends in the United states to locate his brother.

In retrospect, this arrest was clearly a horrific example of racial profiling and zenophobia. In an earlier conversation with family, Zeitoun laments the fear and distrust generalized toward Muslims in the US. He questions, "When a crime is committed by a Christian, do they mention his religion? . . . And what about African Americans? When a crime is committed by an African American, it's mentioned in the first breath: 'An African American male was arrested today.' What about German Americans, Anglo Americans . . .?"

Kathy gave birth to son Ahmad in 2006 at East Jefferson hospital. Zeitoun kept in touch with the people he rescued in his canoe. He chose to stay in New Orleans. Every day he gets in his white van and works with his crew on building projects in the city. His life has regained some normalcy. He credits his faith, his family, and his belief in progress for his strength.

Historically, the the United States has been compared to a great melting pot of cultures. In the past, that term conjured images of the American Dream and a land of opportunity. Sadly, today, society's distrust of differences, has been propagated by fear about our safety, by media images of hatred for America, and by our reluctance to acknowlege human rights issues. This book is a page-turner.

THE ZEITOUN FOUNDATION
Foundation founded in 2009 by the Zeitoun family, Dave Eggars, and the McSweeneys to aid in the rebuilding of new orleans and to promote respect for human rights in the U.S. and around the world.

Capturing Minutes

Capture the minutes not the milestones.


Time goes by so quickly. I discovered today that the last note I wrote in the journal I so diligently kept when our seven year old granddaughter was born was written three years ago.

I have so many pictures of milestones we celebrated with our grandchildren: holidays, school events, birthdays, vacations. Pictures capture images that we must connect to a special time. Notes we write in a journal, however, tell us more. Reminiscing about the summer day we caught a butterfly or sat on the backyard swing and told stories will resurrect real life minutes of ordinary days we spent together.

One of my journal entries recalled a conversation I had with my five year old granddaughter. We were covered with mud after spending an entire morning potting herbs. As we walked into the house, she told me that this was the funnest day she had ever had. I know my  heart was glowing.

Picture of grandson Jake, 2, helping me to water plants.

AVATAR

If you haven't seen Avatar, see it soon before you get inundated with media reviews of the movie. My husband and I chose to watch the regular version, because we feared almost three hours of 3-D might be a too traumatic given the movie trailers we'd viewed.

James Cameron's spent fifteen years conceptualizing and creating this fabulous film. The story line follows the hero [Jake's] archetypal journey from Earth to Pandora, a fictional moon in another planetary system. A paraplegic, Jake signs up to participate in a capitalistic enterprise to fight the Na'vi humanoids on the alien Pandora to mine an indigenous valuable mineral. Jake and other humans who travel to Pandora must be genetically engineered in coffin-like contraptions so their bodies will resemble the blue, long-tailed, humanoid Na'Vi. Jake regains the use of his legs during each transformation as he becomes a hybrid Na'vi, an avatar. The term avatar means a reincarnation of a god in human form, as Krishna and Rama are two of the ten avatars of Vishnu, in Hindu theology.

Sigourney Weaver plays the botanist, Dr. Grace Augustine, who heads the Avatar program and mentors Jake. The capitalist Parker, representing the mining corporation, uses heavily armed sci-fi artillery to battle the peace-loving Na'Vi. Jake, transformed into a Na'Vi body, is left behind after being attacked by an alien predator. Rescued by the beautiful Na'Vi princess, Naytiri, Jake learns customs, earns trust, and soon fall in love with Naytiri.

Archetypes abound: the ancestral Tree of Souls transmits voices of generations of deceased Na'Vi; clan gatherings, hymns of praise to a Mother deity; hero tasks/ordeals that Jake must perform, such as taming a flying beast, the Toruk; resurrection: Jake's consciousness is transformed so he can serve as leader of the clan; good vs. evil [Mining company vs. Navi]; green theme: Na'vi closely living in harmony with nature; underdog theme [Na'vi fighting with arrows against an impersonal war force using missles and terminator-type warfare]; man's relationship to man, as the peace-loving Na'Vi are trivialized by the humans from Earth. Pandora has all the connotations from the Greek myth: beautiful Pandora who unleashes the evil when she opens a mysterious box the gods insisted she guard. A terrible enemy opens the door to Pandora, unleashing evil on the beautiful, fantastical, Eden-like environment. And, finally, the hero is awarded with the elixir. For Jake, the elixir constitutes his realization of his transformation. He is no longer wounded emotionally or physically. He has come to terms with his new role as leader and protector of the Na'Vi.

This movie is so chock-full of meaning that I felt like an awed primitive viewing it the first time. I was so taken with the beauty and fantasy that I realize I must view it again and again to understand all the nuances I missed. Titanic falls very short as compared with this amazing Cameron production. I totally disagree with the reviewer who labeled this movie Smurf porn.

A Child's Perspective of Travel -- December 2009

My seven year-old grandaughter, Talia, jumped and screamed with joy when she opened one of her favorite Christmas gifts, a set of pink polka dot luggage with matching luggage tags. Anticipating the annual trip to Palm Springs with her mom, two year-old brother Jakie and Grandpa Bruce, she spoke excitedly about the five hour flight from Atlanta to California. Abruptly, her mood changed. She addressed Papa Larry, "If the plane crashes into water, I have to save Jakie because he can't swim." Papa assured her that she would not be flying over an ocean on this cross-country trip. Later, as we two grandparents discussed her concern, I thought, "Had media coverage of the airplane landing in Hudson Bay so innundated the airways that she internalized those frightening television images? Had we spoken in her presence about the incident?" She is so innocent. Her conversations about Santa Claus,Elf on the Shelf, and family holiday traditions such as Hanukkah and Christmas entertained all of us. The reality of life seen through the eyes of a child . . . .

FREE PUMPKIN CARVING PATTERNS

http://www.ehow.com/halloween/templates.html#carvingPatterns

My grandson Jake, 2007 Halloween costume. Keeping this pic to use in his high school yearbook. Think he'll forgive me?

AMELIA EARHART

 Hillary Swank, in the movie AMELIA, does a magnificent job of portraying Earhart's daring, independence, and wanderlust. 

Amelia Earhart preferred not to live in a gilded cage. Her marriage to a Putnam Publishing heir afforded her a glitzy lifestyle, but her love of flying stretched her ability to conform to the accepted roles designated for women in the early nineteenth century.

I didn't know the specific circumstances about her ill-fated round the world flight in 1937. Apparently, a bad decision about stripping her plane of necessary equipment to lighten the load, the ineptness of a communications officer on a ship monitoring her flight, and perhaps mislaid trust in her navigator contributed to the disaster.

Interesting that the name of the first woman to achieve a solo flight around the world is not commonly known. Geraldine "Jerry" Mock, in 1964, flying "Spirit of Columbus," earned the distinction of being the first woman to fly solo around the globe.

Amelia Earhart paved the way for women to become recognized in the aviation field and inspired countless young female aviators to seek the endless bounds of earth.


http://www.ameliaearhart.com/

HEALTHIEST COMMUNITIES IN THE US

Depending upon the source published or promoted by the media, certain cities in the US rank high as the healthiest places to live. An AARP report lists Ann Arbor, Michigan; Madison, Wisconsin; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Fargo, North Dakota-BRRRR!
Longest life expectancy and most affordable health care: Ames, Iowa; Skinniest-Boulder, Colorado.
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/lifestyle/healthiest_hometowns.html?CMP=KNC-360I-GOOGLE-ATM&HBX_OU=50&HBX_PK=healthiest_city

I'm not planning to move EVER since my family lives in Atlanta. The criteria used in researching cities varies. Southern cities rank high in charm, friendliness, dining, and good weather, but not so high in terms of healthcare access, employment, and education. US News and World Report set up a search tool for Best Places to Live in the US. If you're planning to move . . .

http://www.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/real-estate/articles/2009/06/08/methodology-how-we-chose-the-best-places-to-live.html

Lowest on the scale of healthiest cities based on a report by Centrum Healthiest Cities Study is, GASP, New Orleans! One of my favorite cities achieved the worst scores based on Physical Activity and Lifestyle Pursuits. Somehow, when I'm visiting this city of cuisine and culture, jogging and vegetarian entrees are not high on my list of pursuits.
http://www.bestplaces.net/docs/studies/healthy.aspx

What is your feeling about this study?

JAZZERHON ATLANTA 2010

Countdown to JAZZERTHON ATLANTA 2010 to benefit the Susan Komen Foundation.
http://www.jazzercise.com/pdfs/susan_g_komen_atlanta_flyer.pdf

WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER

http://www.cobbk12.org/CentralOffice/picasso/ResearchGuide1Document.doc

BREAST CANCER- CLICK FOR MAMMOGRAMS

AUTUMN

Dylan  Thomas, in "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" talks about the death of his father. When I think of that powerful poem about death, the line, "Rage against the dying of the light," reminds me of  metaphorical images of fall-autumn.


"Then summer fades and passes and October comes. We'll smell smoke then, and feel an unexpected sharpness, a thrill of nervousness, swift elation, a sense of sadness and departure."
- Thomas Wolfe



Growing up in the deep South, in lower LA [Louisiana], fall meant Grinding Season [sugar cane], pecan picking, the Sugar Cane Festival, bonfires, and cool evenings.
Now I love searching for the perfect pumpkin with my grandchildren, cooking crock pot soups, and gazing at fall leaves.

Ideas for Fall

Plant pansies.
Pansies, a fashionable Victorian flower, were meant to be the flowers of lovers. People believed that pansies could transfer lovers' thought without spoken words. The derivation of pansy is French, pensee, meaning thought. Pansies have colorful face-makings in the petals. Plant now for blooms that last through the winter months.

Plant bulbs: Oct 15-Dec 15.

Rake leaves, talk to your children about leaf colors, the jump into leaf piles with them.

Carve a pumpkin. Purchase a pumpkin carving kit at a drugstores or other retail store.

Make pumpin bread. Por batter into cute leaf-shaped bakeware.


Make a pumpin cake. Pour batter into a fluted bundt pan. Add orange food coloring to white frosting. Frost cake. Turn flat-bottom ice cream cone upside down in center of cake, add green food coloring to white frosting and frost green--voila--the pumpkin stalk!

Read a book about fall to your grandchildren: Autumn Leaves by Ken Robbins. Check out the library for more titles.

UMBRELLA UNIVERSITY

Coorinating colors is a passion of mine. My seven-year old granddaughter discovered these umbrellas in the trunk of my car. She opened each and displayed them in rainbow fashion in the driveway.

I asked her what she thought. Her comment,"You like to match everything." I admit that I match umbrellas to my clothing.

She has inherited my eclectic style of dress--no pinafores, hair bows, or plaids for her. Her closet is packed with glitzy fabrics, peace symbols, leggings, and other trendy styles. I love her zest!

FASHION FORWARD

COVET FASHION http://www.covet.com/

Catchy name for a fashion site! Check it out. Easy to enroll. Fun to find out your fashion style. Mine is Couture Modern, Couture Glam, and Couture Eclectic.

MEMORIES OF MY HOME TOWN, LOREAUVILLE, LA 

Few people I have met over the years have had the privilege of growing up in a village as wonderful and nurturing as Loreauville. During my forty year career as an educator in three states and twelve schools, I introduced myself to my new students on that first day of class by relating some of the following vignettes of my years growing up in Loreauville.
They were spellbound by my heartfelt stories about
• amazing teachers, nuns and priests who guided our social and religious development
• the anomaly of being served delectable cafeteria food
• being taught to drive by my paternal grandfather who propped me up on a huge road grader
• convincing the principal to let me drop a physical education class so I could take an additional academic class
• wading in knee deep water on Main street after a torrential rain
• being enveloped in insecticide as we chased those “mosquito-spraying” trucks
• eating organic food [fresh vegetables, fresh milk, and all manner of meat and fish] dad obtained bartering with customers
• plucking kumquats and mandarin oranges from a friend's yard
• playing marbles and handling snakes
• collecting flattened pennies from the railroad track
• shopping for school clothes at my grandfather's General Merchandise Store,
• keeping track of the summer reading books I checked out from the public library
• being taught to dance by our household help
• riding horses
• skiing at Lake Dauterieve
• jitterbugging
• driving my granddad's black Bat mobile recklessly around town with my friends as they recited Hail Marys in the back seat
• wearing couture dresses fashioned by my artistic, talented grandmother to prom
• sitting on the porch swing at my best friend's house, pretending we were famous actresses
• checking the cash register at my dad's business to figure out how much his other daughters were extracting from the till
• being mentored in flute and piccolo by the principal's son
• wearing hats and gloves to Sunday mass
• drinking cokes with our family at a neighborhood bar after mass
• eating lunch at Masso’s
• sitting on bar stools watching Mr. C cook hamburgers
• watching Mrs. C painstakingly repair rosaries
• dancing to the jukebox
• speeding away from our only policeman  as he tried to hunt me down for any manner of traffic violations
• riding the bus to school so I could socialize with friends
• dating my first love
• laughing at Robbie’s jokes as we commuted to USL for summer sessions
• watching my great uncle repair horseshoes in his metal shop
•  enjoying the scented smoke from uncle's cigars
• tasting a slice of ham from my grandfather's meat deli
•  being awakened by the scent of gardenias wafting up to my bedroom window
• hanging freshly-laundered clothes on  clotheslines in the back yard
• singing “Lullaby and Good Night” to my baby brother  as I rocked him to sleep
• watching my youngest sister chomp on  newly-purchased tube of lipstick
• drinking fresh rain water from grandmother's cistern
• acting as an angel in the May religious observance of the Holy Mother
• serving as a Hail Mary rosary bead on the football field as our pastor recited the rosary
• sitting on my godmother's porch poring over beautiful clothing from Spiegel’s
• listening to my Catholic mother remind me that Jesus or the Kennedys might visit so I would clean the house extra well
•  listening to our talented neighbor play a rousing ragtime rendition on her piano
• participating in a minstrel at the church hall
• being scared stiff by grandmother as she navigated Main Street by driving on the sidewalk to buy fabric at a local store
• listening to a town character talk about  myriad  subjects and watching him drive away on his brightly festooned bike
• spending the night at a classmates' house at a nearby lake
• cramming for tests in the First Aid room near the stage during recess and lunch
• being anesthetized by the smell of the oil-mopped floors at our high school
• tasting succulent sugar cane stalks plucked from a cane field
• picking pecans in the fall
• being assaulted by flit can spray during mosquito season
• and my most-treasured memory, being nestled in a cocoon of safety, warmth, support, and encouragement by my village family and friends


My students were instantly mesmerized as I recalled memories of my growing up years, and thanked God that this was going to be an easy class, not so. I taught a World Religions Gifted Honors class: holy books and epics on a worldwide scale--Old and New Testament studies, Sumerian and Egyptian literature, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, Persian-Arabic, and Chinese-Japanese studies.


My challenge was to engage and excite these students to reach beyond their comfort zones, to obtain an understanding of the importance of religion and history on a global scale, and to inspire them to love learning. And so, I told them specifically how my small town education had inspired and motivated me to life-long learning.


I recollected for them how my educational life was framed by my nurturing and sometimes excitingly eccentric teachers:


• Mrs. Gonsoulin, who in first grade, taught memorization with her piano playing sing- alongs and read memorable stories.


• the spinster Boutte sisters: dark-haired, stout Antoinette, who taught students to memorize and recite history passages,


• and her gray-haired sister Camille, who began every class with a dose of powdered B.C. powder poured into a coke bottle. One day we noticed she skipped the medication and promptly snipped off, with scissors, a peeking slip strap that refused to stay inside her dress. She was a solemn woman who loved us and taught us to love reading.


• Mrs. Segura, a perpetual dieter, ate boiled eggs every day, and to this day, I loathe the smell of eggs. A fantastic teacher, she taught learning strategies, organizational skills, and self-esteem through her lessons on the importance of note-taking, organizing notebooks, and individual student presentations. I still have the family history project she assigned.


• Mr. Dressel, affectionately labeled Mr. D, taught me that good teaching involved knowing students’ learning styles. I developed a subdued interest in science, and I studied relentlessly, so I could make A’s in biology and chemistry, because I knew those classes were important. My forte was always English classes. And to this day, I realize how much content I remember from his classes, and how his unique teaching ability to create camaraderie among students helped us to work together as a class and helped me to realize the importance of knowing my students.


• Mrs. Gerhardt appeared later in my high school career. As Mom Wick would have noted, “She is an Ah-mer-ee-kan [sic], ” meaning that she was not a resident of Loreauville, an outsider. But what an amazingly mature climate she created in our English classroom! I had always loved reading, but she was able to inspire me to appreciate the nuances of literature that most students would not be able to discern. I realized later how she created an atmosphere of mutual respect between student and teacher.


• Mrs. Lalonde, my Home Economics teacher, taught us civility, femininity, style, modesty, moderation and sewing, and cooking in her Home Economics classes. I made a lined wool suit as my senior project. When I first married I sewed all my clothes, my children’s clothing, and created all the window treatments for our many homes. Today Home Economics teachers are seldom part of the curriculum in large schools. What a treasure she was! She administered essay tests on home economics content [writing], showed us how to follow recipes [math], taught us how substitute ingredients [science], how to hide figure flaws [remember her postage stamp girdle? I always envied her tiny frame], taught us how to set a formal table, encouraged us to enter sewing and cooking competitions, and to use fresh ingredients in recipes. I still use my Home Economics book to this day. She asked me to study for district Rally competition at USL. I escaped to Mom Wick’s house, locked myself in her guest bedroom for an entire month one summer, and studied for months, pouring over lecture notes, books, and demonstration notes. I won first place at USL, then first place at State completion, and was awarded the Betty Crocker Homemaker Award my senior year. Mrs. Lalonde taught Home Economics 1-4 in a four-room white cottage attached to the school by a walkway.


• Mr. Lissard was a phenomenal math teacher. As a particularly right-brained learner, I struggled in math classes and had to work particularly hard to rise to the challenge. He gave good explanations to those of us who may not have caught on immediately to a math concept. He taught me that not all students learn the same way. It was the first exceptional challenge I had in my entire high school career. And, he drew football plays on the board; football players in his classes must have served as a particular challenge to him since he was head Coach for many years. I had the privilege of learning football concepts as well. Today educators use the term multi-dimensional learning to describe a class such as this.


• Mrs. Olive Shaw,our British Literature teacher, loved Shakespeare. I remember reading Macbeth, unedited and unadapted, in our senior year. Many years later when I taught British Literature to my students, I told them how I struggled with Shakespeare’s language in high school but came to appreciate the mastery of his language later in life as I poured over all 37 plays during my teaching career. I showed them my high school English textbook, and they wanted to know why there were no pictures. Mrs. Shaw had us recite lines, broke the play down into segments [today called chunking], and assigned lines that we had to explain in front of the class. She expected us all to read the play and come to class prepared. Some students, thinking she would not notice, read the comic book or Cliff Notes versions of Macbeth. From her class, I learned to inspire students to challenges and to eviscerate a student verbally in a nicely-worded manner.


• Ms. Breaux, the LHS librarian, was an enormously powerful force in the Loreauville community. As the public school librarian and community activist, she knew all of us, or parents, our friends, and our acquaintances, much more than we expected anyone to know about us. She was omnipresent—we couldn’t escape her. She attended meetings, church events, hunted us down in classes, followed our extra curricular school activities and served as a prototype of the Renaissance man. Encouraging us to read and learn was her forte. She brought the outside world into our lives by suggesting reading titles and scheduling slide show presentations at the church hall from her world travels. I marveled at her ability to use media other than books and pictures at a time when media presentations were not the norm. She kept us on task when we used resources in the school library and prevented any sort of shenanigans students had in mind. She taught me about classifying books by explaining the Dewey Decimal System. I had three majors in college: English, French, and Media, at a time in the sixties before the arrival of the Information age. She encouraged, motivated, and cajoled me to learn beyond my greatest expectations. I often wondered how she maintained such a vigorous, healthy lifestyle and an amazing physique. She was at the forefront in our town in terms of meditation, travel, gardening, reading, and learning. I marveled at her quest for knowledge. She wanted to master everything she learned. I recall her asking my grandmother, an expert seamstress, to help her learn to sew. She took canning classes at the school cafeteria and showed us how to pray to specific saints for important causes. She was not subtle; she did not mince words, and although her strong personality may have offended some people, I loved her the way a child loves a mentor. All of my teachers inspired me, but she is the reason I chose teaching as my lifelong profession.

TUTORING

WEIGHT GAIN WEIGHT LOSS

DID YOU KNOW THAT
--fat in your belly is linked with greater health risk than fat in other part of your body?
--a waist size of greater than 35 inches for women is considered high risk?

In my quest to stay healthy, I have tried to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Weight Watchers five times, Dr. Perricone, South Beach, Grapefruit, Suzanne Sommers, a nutritionist,  Acai [pronounced ah-sah-ee].I learned what to eat to stay healthy. The problem is in the implementation and staying with it. All healthy diets profess similar solutions: whole wheat products, fruit, grains, low fat, lots of water, exercise.

I don't get drawn in to photo-shopped skinny girls on magazine covers or in advertising, and I understand marketing techniques and subliminal messages. Recently, on the Today Show, a style expert showcased a fall trend: leggings. First words out of her mouth: "Leggings look good even on overweight women." Then the models, all hijacked from the ladies' room throwing up their lunches, modeled different styles of leggings. Tall, skinny, beautiful young girls modeling leggings. Where were the overweight/plus size models?

Exercise and more exercise. A good friend of mine is a muscle with a mouth. She exercises longer than I sleep and considers a leaf of lettuce wrapped around tofu a meal. I tried the vegetable diet, but after consuming three heads of lettuce and four bags of carrots for lunch, I grew afraid that I  would grow buck teeth and a tail.

I Jazzercise six days a week and add Zumba every Thursday. My husband, Lovey Dovey, runs on a very fancy treadmill every night. Bor-ing! And he looks great. He can lose ten pounds in a couple of weeks. His diet consists of carbs, sugar, and fat when I am not there to monitor. I gain a pound just dreaming about Hershey Bars.

Another segment on television recently featured a new plastic sugery process that combines two procedures in one surgical setting.  A sixty-year old woman appearing on the Today show explained why she had two procedures done at once: breast uplift and tummy tuck. She cried for weeks because of the pain. I need some science fiction doctor to help me. Think I'll wait until a Synergy Liposuction Zap Chamber is invented. Enter chamber. Select one or more buttons: Breast, Buttocks, Belly,Thighs, Arms. Then press ZAP button.  Didn't George Orwell write about that?

My internist says I am healthy but quietly reminds me that I should lose weight because of my genetic disposition to heart disease. I claim that I haven't lost baby fat from the birth of my children. He reminds me that my children are thirty-two and thirty-eight.
His nurse, Ming, is Chinese. She's a spit of a person, very intelligent and very professional. Last week for my regular exam, I told her I had a note from my therapist claiming I did not have to be weighed. Her x-ray glare said it all. So I asked her if I could weigh on the digital scale. She, instead, led me to the livestock scale, the one where she slides a bar to the right and bells start ringing. Oh, the horrors. Proud of her heritage,  her name  badge is written in English and Chinese  I think the Chinese translation is "Nurse Ratched."

http://health.msn.com/weight-loss/measure-your-metabolism.aspx  MEASURE YOUR METABOLISM

http://bmicalculatorforfemales.com/  BMI CALCULATOR FOR WOMEN

SWIM, SWAM, SWUM

CONJUGATION of ENGLISH VERBS

http://www.songsforteaching.com/grammarspelling.htm  [Songs for teaching Grammar]

SWIM, SWAM, SWUM
Present tense: I swim. ...........................I swim every day.
Present Perfect:I have swum..........I have swum in three rivers.
Past: I swam. ..............................Yesterday, I swam the entire lenth of the pool.
Past Perfect: I have swum. ............I have swum in the Olympics for the past forty years.
Future Perfect: I will have swum......By next month, I will have swum fifty laps.
Gerund: swimming.........Verb used as a noun........Swimming is my favorite sport.
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LIE, LAY, [helper verb+LAIN]  (to rest or recline)  ------no object after verb

Present tense: I lie........ I lie on the couch every afternoon.
Present Perfect:.....When I am lying on the couch, my cat snuggles up to me.
Past: I lay....I lay on the couch for two days when I had the flu.
Past Perfect: had lain....By Sunday, I had lain on the couch for three days.
Future Perfect: If I don't get rid of ths flu, by next week, I will have lain on the couch for four days.
Gerund: lying.......Lying on the couch is boring.
...........................................................................................................
LAY, LAID, [helper verb +LAID]---- (to place or put) ............requires an object---see italicized words.
Present tense: lay...I lay the book on the table.
Present Perfect: am laying......I am laying the book on the kitchen table so you can find it tomorrow.
Past: laid......Last night I laid the book on the table.
Past Perfect: had laid........By four o'clock, I had laid the foundation stone to start the job.
Future Perfect: will have laid........By noon we will have laid five organized stacks of newspaper on that table.

SPEL IT RITE!

ACCESSORY--double c. double s
ACCOMMODATE--double c, double m
AMEND--amend, amendment--single m
BELIEVE--i before e except after c
CEMETERY--three e's
DUMBBELL--two b's
EMBARRASS--two r's, 2 s's
EXCEED-- 2 e's
FOREIGN--exception to the i before e rule
GAUGE--in alpha order--a then u
GUARANTEE--one r, warranty has 2 r's
HEIGHT--not heighth
INDEPENDENT--three e's
JEWELRY--British spelling: jeweller, jewellery
JUDGMENT--preferred in U.S. British: judgement
KERNEL--all e's
LIGHTNING--no e
MEDIEVAL-- not midevil
MISSPELL--mis+spell
NEIGHBOR--breaks i before e rule
OCCURRENCE--double consonants [c's and r's] double vowels [double e's]
PASTIME--one t
POSSESSION--4 s's
PRIVILEGE-- 2 i's, 2 e's
QUESTIONNAIRE--2 n's, silent e
RECEIVE--i before e except after c
SEPARATE--e's surround the a's
SERGEANT--e in both syllables, a is at the back of the line
SHERIFF--2 f's-Picture the two guns in his holster.
THRESHOLD--thresh+old
UNTIL--one l
VACUUM: 2 u's
WEIRD--i before e except after c