Falling and fire

What must it be like, in the last moments of a relatively normal life, to have to choose how you will die? There must me a moment of stupefying horror at the realization that your remaining choices aren't anything as mundane as tall or grande, but whether you will stay and burn or jump. I can't imagine what people went through making this choice 5 years ago today. But I do hope, for one of them, that the choice wasn't just over this way of death or that one. Maybe there was someone that decided, for 10 seconds of a life cut too short, to take control of a chaotic day and chose to fly for the experience of it - a last chance to hold and have life, however briefly, rather than have it turned to ashes. The photos and images of the jumpers are what stay with me from that day; the inferno and collapse are too much at times to encompass, but the righteous humanity evident in taking charge of those last moments is something I mourn. Peace to them all and their families.

Thanks to Mike Faurote for sharing the fallen leaf image on Flickr.

Limericks and road trips.

I'm travelling this weekend to Chicagoland. I've packed Seize the Daylight for the trip; this is my light road-worthy reading. My hardcover copy of Team of Rivals is too darned nice to risk scuffs in the totebag.

Today, I did a brief presentation titled "13 feet in 5 minutes." It went fairly well. The topic was Limericks. This gave me reason to read one of my favorites, by an anonymous person:

There was a young lady from Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside,
And a smile on the face of the tiger.

In the presentation, I emphasized the use of limericks as a vocabulary-building exercise; that reading limericks by authors who use obscure words can make those words lodge more permanently in your gray matter, and that by writing them you can revitalize little-used words in your own memory when trying to complete an interesting rhyme. I also learned a few things about the topic myself. I never imagined, for example, that my favorite could be disparaged due to having a repeated word and a sight rhyme - the best sort of limericks avoid these crutches, according to some. For more fun - and very original limericks, see The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form.

They're back! Hooray!

Prisoner of the Ant People by R.A. Montgomery (ISBN 1-933390-10-7)

They're back! I found this gem yesterday at the local library and ooh what a treat! I just loved these books when I was younger. I picked up this one and was flipping through it when, to my pleasant surprise, offspring the elder wandered over to see what had my attention. I read aloud to him for about 10 minutes, and he was hooked. We brought the book home for a visit along with 2 other CYOA books and worked through to one of the endings last night - O the E was particularly tickled by the story ending of flushing the ant leader out the garbage chute of the spaceship. Bravo, R. A. Montgomery! I am not sure what brought this series back ( labeled "classic" ala a Coke) but I applaud the effort. For my game-oriented nascent reader, these look like they may catch his interest. I found a few sites earlier this summer that had similar text-based adventures along these lines. I contributed some to Quest of the Magician, as I appreciated the tongue-in-cheek adventurous sensibility; look for my text in the crabs vs. the leopards storyline.

'readin, writing, and cipherin

I'm reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals now, and a section about Lincoln caught my attention:

Though untutored in the sciences and the classics, he was able to read and reread his books until he understood them fully. "Get the books, and read and study them," he told a law student seeking advice in 1855. It did not matter, he continued, whether the reading be done in a small town or a large ciry, by oneself or in the company of others. "The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places... Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing."

So, bearing that in mind, I am puzzled over how to get offspring the elder to read with grace and appetite. Entering 1st grade, he loves mathmatics of any nature - will attentively listen to discussions of statistics, and can already complete pre-algebra work. Of course I'm proud about that! But the reading thing has me stumped. I can't imaging anyone, much less a child of mine, not eagerly approaching the written word. What can I do to foster a love of reading? Can it be done by example?