How to read literature like a professor

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Why did I spend countless hours and $$ for a degree in English when I could have just read this book?



David


View all my reviews.

Starbucks with my 11-year-old daughter

i rewarded my daughter with a "starbucks" this morning. it's sorta our thing. she doesn't get anything high in sugar unless she really earns it.

she ordered a vanilla creme frap and i ordered a tall espresso somethin-er-other.

we sat down to enjoy. i found this to be a perfect opportunity to philosophize freely about everything that didn't matter one single bit to her.

dad: "what's your purpose in life?"

daughter: "i don't know. i'm only 11."

dad: "well, you can't just go through life every day wondering what's going to be on the next hannah montana, can you?"

daughter: "i don't, dad."

dad: "so what's your future? what will you fight for? you've got lots of choices. end poverty. end child abuse. end hunger. human rights. women's rights. the environment. help find a cure for cancer. what will you do? a daughter of mine needs to do something, not do nothing. what do you wish for the world? what do you think the world needs?

daughter: "i think starbucks needs smaller cup sizes. how much caffeine is in your tall?"

dad: "too much."

Do vampires exist?

Son: Do you know vampires could exist?

Dad: No, they couldn't.

Son: Yes, they could because mosquitos suck blood. There's no reason
why vampires couldn't have evolved to suck blood and... [long
explanation about how vampires might have evolved alongside humans].

Dad: OK, but the real questions is, "Do vampires produce sperm?

Son: What? I don't know.

Dad: I mean, "How do vampires reproduce?"

Son: By biting people's necks.

Dad: That seems pretty effective to me. Don't you think evolution
would have concentrated on that and pretty much done away with sperm?

Son: Dad!

David: I'm just saying that if vampires did exist, they wouldn't be
going around making out with high-school girls because they wouldn't
have the balls.

Son: You're embarrassing me.

Dad: Sorry.

what i learned at origins

i'm nothing but an insignifant spec on a pebble of a round, pale blue
planet in an expanding, flat universe.

i might of never happened had carbon molecules not come in closely
to each other and reacted to form a replicatable existence that
eventually produced all life.

also had life not eventually produced the primate, and had that
primate not had gone through trial after trial, almost foing extinct,
then i might not be able to think about all this now.

there was a certain dark theme at origins, which may or may not have
had to with the existence of actual dark matter or the string that may
hold all of this together.

a sense of mischief throughout the event could be felt, because there
was work being done there that, while grounded in science, would send
a strong message to the world: science is back.

it was really never gone. research has continued into the origin of
humans and the universe. but its significance has laid dormant
awaiting a revolutionary resurgence.

Sent from my iPhone

Couldn't believe my luck

Somehow, I got a press pass to the Origins Symposium at the Boulders resort in Phoenix, an event with some of the top scientists in the world

Boulders 4/4-5/09 11:06 PM

gilbert riparian birdfest

eatin pizza, birdwatchin, seein raptors

kids played bird bingo

kelsea and torie both got bingo, thanks to finding a verdin and a
snowy egret

kelsea lookin at avocets

torie spotting a ring-necked duck

aster trying to spot a green heron

walking the dog

te gusta?

torie & analeigh

soulmates

our lovebirds, lucy and debbie

hi i'm mickey

i'm a bit of a loner. but always searching for a nice meal. favorite
food? i like to maintain my nimble physique with a structured diet of
pellets and supplements. favorite hobby? spinning wheels

Kelsea's thumb

Dear Mr. Zarnick,

I'm afraid Kelsea will have trouble writing anything tomorrow. And she
won't be able to attend PE this week. Her thumb is sprained, possibly
worse. It was sacrificed graciously to save her young cousin from
flying into a pile of rocks. She was giving the boy a ride on a
scooter when he decided to make an unsuspected jerk.

Rule of thumb, never ride a scooter with a four-year-old.

David

after

before haircut

move over nadal, welcome nono

nono rocks at wii tennis, and the exercise is good for his blood
pressure

the only way she eats