Tuesday, April 12, 2011

[bearshorty]

Happy 50 years of people in space, Earth! When I was little I remember how much I loved reading a novelization of Yuri Gagarin’s childhood. Maybe my fascination with space and those early space explorers started then. I do love space and the idea of space travel. It goes hand in hand with my love of science fiction. So in honor or day, and April 12 has always had special significance for me as a date, an article from Yahoo on words that were recorded in that first flight around the Earth.


It is spring outside my kitchen window. I need to take a picture tomorrow. It is rainy and grey but right outside are little leaves and new color and I love spring.

I spent the morning grading 11 papers and afternoon teaching. In one class, we had a discussion on Boyarin which most of the class found boring and having too many new vocabulary words they needed to look up (you know, in college, you should look up words, students. How did they do their SATs?). In my second class we went over Jewish concepts and they were fascinated by the concept of kosher.

HIMYM is really declining in quality. I watch it out of habit now. I won’t miss it when it is done, I don’t think.

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ reviews on Mark Watches started today and they make me want to stick with the series. I watched the second episode today. Again, it has its moments but I’m not hooked yet.

I got wine for Passover today, I can’t believe our Seder gathering is next week already. I need to send out the food shopping list.

Comments

[birgitriddle]

In my books, to be honest, April 12th has a far, far more important anniversary for me, especially this year. It marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War as well and in American history, our Civil War is pretty much the most important war and yes, I'm putting that over the Revolution due to the fact that what the Civil War did was test the unity of our country and solve some significant issues the founders of America left behind for other generations to deal with, the biggest one being the slavery issue.

[bearshorty]

I didn't know that the Civil War started on April 12. I do love learning facts like these. I know some American history but it has been awhile (I took AP US history in high school, "US in the 60s" in college and lots of women's history in grad school that talked about US.) When I was on a trip to Richmond, Virginia I went to visit the White House of the South - that was a great tour.

I do agree with you that Civil War was the most important war in US history because it did cement the idea of one country and not separate states and end of slavery too. (I had one of those questions "Why did US fight the Civil War?" on my US citizenship exam twelve years ago and the only answer that was expected was slavery).

[birgitriddle]

Well, the first shots at Fort Sumter in South Carolina was fired on the 12th of April. To be honest, I learned that it was yesterday while watching the news last night (it also mentioned the first man in space as well). I already knew it was early April, I just didn't know the exact date. It's a big thing here in Gettysburg, the Civil War that is. The 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg is July 1st through 3rd 2013, so there's going to be a huge influx of tourists here around that time.

I hope I didn't sound too antagonistic to be honest because I'm not having an awesome time mentally. But yeah, you kinda grow up knowing at least some vague level of knowledge about the Civil War here.

[bearshorty]

You didn't sound antagonistic at all. I actually love learning new things like this, especially history related.