Isla Cromartie
My new Chromebook arrived a day early. What with the Scottish TV I’ve been watching, I named her Isla Cromartie.
The good: compared to my previous Chromebooks, Isla is built like a tank.
The bad: she loses power faster. And she has a touchscreen for Samuel and Daniel to interfere with. Perhaps this feature could be disabled.
She is a Dell. I considered naming her Adelle. Also: Philadelphia, after Philadelphia Bobbin, a character in Nancy Mitford’s Christmas Pudding.
It’s unlikely but possible that one day I’ll sire girl-triplets: Philomena (“Mena”), Philippa (“Pippa”), and Philadelphia (“Dee”). Karin hopes not.
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The Drake Passage, in a nutshell (National Geographic).
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An exam from a class taught by Hannah Arendt in 1955. (Click on the image to make it sharper.)
When I was growing up and aspiring to become an academic (among other things), I read a few books from the 1970s and ’80s – whatever I could find in Ecuador – on how to teach in college. These books had sample exams. One basic type was Arendt’s: Here is your chance to demonstrate what you have learned.
For the student who’d learned little, there was nowhere to hide. For one who’d at least absorbed a few key lessons, arriving at a decent launching point for subsequent, mostly unguided study, this was an arena in which to shine.
I was enamored.
This was not what my exams were like in college or graduate school.
If memory serves, just one exam, a take-home from my second semester of college, was remotely like Arendt’s.
The good: compared to my previous Chromebooks, Isla is built like a tank.
The bad: she loses power faster. And she has a touchscreen for Samuel and Daniel to interfere with. Perhaps this feature could be disabled.
She is a Dell. I considered naming her Adelle. Also: Philadelphia, after Philadelphia Bobbin, a character in Nancy Mitford’s Christmas Pudding.
It’s unlikely but possible that one day I’ll sire girl-triplets: Philomena (“Mena”), Philippa (“Pippa”), and Philadelphia (“Dee”). Karin hopes not.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The Drake Passage, in a nutshell (National Geographic).
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
An exam from a class taught by Hannah Arendt in 1955. (Click on the image to make it sharper.)
When I was growing up and aspiring to become an academic (among other things), I read a few books from the 1970s and ’80s – whatever I could find in Ecuador – on how to teach in college. These books had sample exams. One basic type was Arendt’s: Here is your chance to demonstrate what you have learned.
For the student who’d learned little, there was nowhere to hide. For one who’d at least absorbed a few key lessons, arriving at a decent launching point for subsequent, mostly unguided study, this was an arena in which to shine.
I was enamored.
This was not what my exams were like in college or graduate school.
If memory serves, just one exam, a take-home from my second semester of college, was remotely like Arendt’s.