Doomed to repeat it

A few ramblings:

1. Ken Burns came and gave a great lecture at our university forum on Tuesday. While I could write a whole long post about it (and probably should), I’ll just mention one thing that struck me: our idolization of the present. He said that a huge percentage of high school graduates (was it 60%? I can’t remember) don’t know that we fought against Germany in WWII, or who the Allies were, or what the Axis was. They can’t name the presidents of the U.S. They don’t know where Utah Beach is. He was talking primarily about WWII, of course, but our ignorance of the past is embarrassing. And, more importantly, unwise. I’ll write a post about the importance of the study of history sometime soon…

2. I was reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion last night and came across mention of a Mrs. Carteret. My very first thought on seeing her surname was “third conjugation imperfect active subjunctive” (in Latin). I need help. :)

3. For the BYU folk among you: did you know that the Benson Building fishbowl is officially called the rotunda?

4. General Conference starts tomorrow. They’ll be talking about food storage. Just wait and see.

Moments before reading your post, I found this podcast of free Jane Austen audiobooks, including Persuasion:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory/Literature/European-Classics/Jane-Austen-Season-Audio-Books-Podcast/22759

I would like to thank Scott for posting the podcast link. This information came in the nick of time. You may have saved my daughter’s life and prevented me from burning down the library because I was planning to commit at least one of the crimes just as soon as my daughter gets up this morning and it would have totally ruined the spirit of general conference.

It’s not that I don’t like books…I actually love them. I have 56 linear feet of books decorating my living room walls. The problem is that I made the mistake of stopping by the library on the way home last night …all I wanted to do was to check out some old movies. My daughter cheerfully volunteered to run in a make a quick selection for me so that I wouldn’t have to park. And that’s when the trouble began.

I should have known better than to sit in the car while my daughter went in to a library unattended. Did you know that there is actually a limit to the number of books that you can check out at one time? My daughter discovered that when she was writing one of her many ancient history papers. It’s not that I mind transporting tons of books to and fro even though my car groans under the weight of the load. I don’t mind waiting in the parking lot for hours while my daughter makes marathon trips between the Wilk parking lot and the library to load or unload the precious cargo. I don’t even mind – in fact I rather enjoy it when she reads the books out loud or talks for hours about what she’s learned from the reading and what she thinks about it. But! Yes BUT! That’s where Jane Austen comes in.

Last night my daughter checked out Jane Austen…now I don’t mind her having an occasional date with Jane Austen, the trouble is that when it comes to Jane, double dates are not allowed… and what’s worse, she stays out all night, getting to know Jane from cover to cover, while insisting that I go to bed early because I need my sleep. Sure she tucks me in and reads me a story (from The Book of Mormon); she even makes sure that I say my prayers. The problem last night was that I wasn’t sleepy.

After a sleepless night, sneaking out of bed to pace the floor of our library – knowing that my eyes were too tired to pick up a date of my own, jealousy had completely overcome me and this morning I had several torts on my mind. Now, thanks to the podcast link, my only crime will be a crime of passion…that of listening to books all night and going to work late because I’m sleepy.

Scott: Thanks! I can’t wait to check it out. :)

J: LOL :) You should start writing a blog. Seriously.

[…] 2. Ben on April 1st, 2007 at 9:59 am […]