Mr. Jolly’s Room

Enjoy an interview with Beverly Cleary.

Stacey’s water broke yesterday at around 12:30PM.  After a brief visit to the doctor to confirm what happened, we were off to the hospital, where Simon Elliot Jolly (yes, we changed the middle name) was born at 3:31PM–just one hour after settling in our room!  Everyone seems amazed at my wife’s ability to give birth quickly and efficiently.

Simon is 7 lbs., 12 ozs. and 19 inches long.  Pictures are forthcoming, but I’m kind of busy right now.

STILL NO BABY!!!!!!!

However, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan has been assassinated.  She was the former prime minister and a voice of dissent in a country that has been looking increasingly unstable as of late.  With Osama Bin Laden most likely hiding somewhere in the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, this development is not a sign of good things to come.

Also, the Library of Congress has announced its inductees into the National Film Registry.  This means these movies will be preserved as examples of American cinema.  Among the lucky 25 are Back to the Future, 12 Angry Men, and Walt Disney’s “Three Little Pigs.”  Not every film inducted is a “classic”; some are picked for their historical value, such as “Our Day,” a short film depicting a family’s life in Kentucky in the 1930’s.

STILL NO BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please tell me you want to think about something other than Jamie Lynn Spears.  Here are a few ideas:

• This movie is getting enthusiastic praise.
• And here’s a different kind of animated film.
• Get better gas mileage.
• The great Oscar Peterson has passed away.
• Los Angeles is on track to have its lowest homicide rate in nearly forty years.
• I’m guessing this isn’t real, but here’s Russian President Vladamir Putin discussing Harry Potter.

The Mrs. had a contraction at around 3AM on Sunday, but only one.  When will Simon show up?

Merry Christmas.

Still no baby, but Mrs. Jolly has been getting some new pains here and there.  At this point, I think I’d rather have Simon come after Christmas, because you can’t really go anywhere with a one- or two-day old baby.

By the way, on the Norman Mailer post below, a student posted an interesting story about an Italian couple who were prohibited by court order from naming their child Friday.

Freshmen: Keep reading Great Expectations!

Seniors: Keep reading Henry V!

Norman Mailer, one of the most visible and confrontational writers of the twentieth century, is dead at 84.

Mailer’s personal life sometimes overshadowed his writing: he once headbutted another writer, Gore Vidal, backstage at “The Dick Cavett Show.”  He also stabbed one of his six wives.

My experience with Mailer is somewhat limited–just a couple of essays and his Pulitzer Prize-winning, 1000-page The Executioner’s Song, a “true-life” novel about Gary Gilmore, a career criminal who was famously executed in Utah in the late 1970’s.  The story is true (and told with journalistic detachment), but the novel is a work of fiction, complete with fabricated elements.

If you want to learn more, try The New York Times, which has both an obituary and an appreciation.

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is a great movie about young people who stand up to an oppressive political regime.  In 1943, Sophie Scholl and two other university students were arrested for spearheading a passive resistance movement in Nazi Germany.  The three of them were tried, convicted, and executed within three days.  The film is at times demanding (most of the first half is set in an office with just Scholl and her interrogator), but watching Scholl’s refusal to back down is inspiring.  If you’re willing to watch a foreign film, check it out.

aesthetic

aloof

archaic

assuage

belie

contentious

daunt

debilitate

discord

dissemination

…goes to Anne Enright’s novel The Gathering.

How would you like $1000 for scoring a 5 on an AP test?