The Painful Nowning Process

As one who’s always been interested in words, I was interested by this WSJ article about trends in baby-names. I’m named very traditionally after my grandmothers, in case anyone’s interested. And for mysterious reasons, my husband’s & my combined extended families have an absurd number of Jameses, Davids, Williams, Sara(h)s, and Louises.

Nature news!

1. The Durrell Wildlife Preservation Trust has saved India’s pygmy hog. My family read all Gerald Durrell’s nature books when we were living in the Congo. He started out collecting animals for zoos, and eventually established the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust on the Isle of Jersey to preserve endangered species. We visited once—what a pleasure! Funny AND educational books, highly recommended, but I was never able to take his brother Lawrence Durrell completely seriously after reading My Family and Other Animals.

2. Hummingbird species discovered. I just like hummingbirds. I’m thinking of putting up a feeder on our front porch to entertain the cat, who sits on the landing looking out the window, wishing he were chasing things.

There’s always too much to do and not enough time to do it in. Some student will lose track of the schedule and turn up late for the exam, or not at all. I know I’m not the only professor who’s still grading research papers that were turned in a week ago, or longer, but I’m not going to name any names. If we’re lucky, we get a “free” day in the midst of it all. I’m using mine to grade those papers. At home. Which isn’t as easy as it might seem when the cat wants to play. He repeatedly pushes his toy into some inaccessible place–under the couch, under the pantry door, behind my husband’s boots. Then he meows until I retrieve it and throw it for him to chase. Five or ten minutes later, the cycle repeats–except that the toy isn’t actually lost this time. The cat just wants attention. Eventually even he gets bored and takes a nap. And I take a break to write this!