Thanks to all who sent the kind birthday regards. My birthday coincided with the last day of classes at my college and the morning was packed with review sessions prior to exams and a couple of phone calls about matters that needed to be figured out by today (meaning Wednesday, i.e., yesterday) and some missing files of a rather important nature. (Two found, one still missing.) At 11am a student came in to talk about her graduate school applications; she had a bag lined in red tissue paper (a little soggy from the rain) and gave it to me. Inside …read more

As of this Wednesday, the fall semester is underway at my college and I’m explaining how to pronounce v as w in Latin to one class, and leading another in reciting and writing the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet. I’m teaching early in the morning thanks to Charlie being in middle school, which starts much earlier than his elementary school. I’m a quite energetic teacher, a necessary feature (I think) if you’re going to instruct college students in “dead languages” with complicated grammatical systems. At some point, some student’s attention will seem to waver, as indicated by eyes focused …read more