Ogged’s Ode to the Mommy Blogs. There are lots of new and exciting things about blogs, but for my money, they most significant development so far in blogdom is the rise of the mommy blogs. Yeah!
I Love the 70s. Michael Berube doesn’t entirely hate Elton John. I’m not convinced, but enjoyed the flashback to middle school.
I received an e-mail last week with a subject line “money sex and marriage.” Hmmm. What to do? Could be a porn offer to check out barely legal teens doing nasty things to farm animals. Opened it anyway. Turns out it was a new blogger inviting me to check out her work. She has interesting posts on money, sex, and marriage, but nothing about farm animals (too bad). Still, good stuff. (If you have a new blog that needs some traffic, leave a note in the comment section below. I’m going to try to do a better job with the links.)
Navel Gazing 101. Academics start blogs. Write academic papers about how important blogs are. Sounds like good, objective research to me. Which reminds me, I have to get my new survey on blogging in order by Saturday.
Tim Burke and I totally had the same beginning French book. He quotes, “Michel, Anne, vous travaillez? Euh, non [maman], nous regardons la television.” But I remember the rest…. “Allez, goutez la desert.” Other dialogs that Madame Angen drilled into my brain: “Ou est Sylvie? Elle n’est pa la. Ou est Etienne? Il est a la piscine.”
That, of course, isn’t the point of his post which was actually quite excellent on the art of the lecture. Really interesting in light of all the e-colleges that are sprouting up.
Between the Berube post and Burke post, I’m sitting here at my computer with a big comb sticking out of my back pocket, in corderoy overalls, and big frizzy hair (no hair product back in the 70s).
Apt. 11d 
What aren’t you convinced by, Laura? By Berube’s extremely qualified and reluctant defense of Sir Elton, or by his depiction of him as a man who’d lost all his talent by 1973?
Berube is way, way too hip for the likes of me. I’m hardly a huge Elton fan, but I listened to him in the 80s, and thought he was putting out decent stuff. (Sleeping with the Past is a fine album.) And it’s not like the Lion King soundtrack is some kind of crime against nature of anything.
But, hey, what to I know? I’m sitting in my office, listening to James Taylor. How much more MOR can a man get?
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Ok, I think that comment may have come off sounding harsh. If so, my apologies. No offense intended; it’s just pop music, after all.
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Hey, I just had a song by ENYA on, so you can’t go any lower than that. Now it’s moved to Lucinda Williams, so I’m back on safer ground.
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Sorry, but I have to come out four square against Elton John, though Ihave to admit to one ENYA album in our collection. The shameful music that I had on today was a collection of cover tunes by the Marshmellow Peeps. Got to ween the little off that stuff and put on They Might Be Giants for him more often.
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Hey Laura,
If the point of the blog is, in fact, to be read by others, then I’d love your input on mine: elevatedumbrella.blogspot.com.
It’s mostly my way to make sure that there’s still a whole independent person in here, in spite of working full time, raising a child and generally overcommiting myself to volunteer causes and social events. Some recent posts have been about living in an old house, moving to a more community-oriented neighborhood, losing the rest of this #$&@#($ baby weight, and my slightly obsessive compulsive tendencies. Enjoy!
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It’s not “Allez, goutez la desert.” “Go taste the desert.” That’s a good way to get dry mouth.
The full dialog was something more like:
Michel! Anne! Vous travaillez?
Euh, non. Nous regardons le television. Pourquoi?
Les Dupont arrivent dans une heure.
Mais nous manquons toujour le fin.
Pas question. Il y a beaucoup a faire.
D’accord. Anne prepare le dessert, moi, je gout.
and of course, Sylvie was not “n’est pas la”, she was “Au lycee” while Phillipe was indeed “A la piscine.”
Ecoutez et repete!!
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This is awesome–I was just googling to find out if anyone else remembers this book.
Ou est Sylvie?
Au lycee.
Ou est Phillipe?
A la piscine.
Avec qui?
Avec Anne.
I can’t believe that it’s been 25 years since I learned this and I can still quote those and the one with Michel and Anne.
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Devant la stade:
Est-ce que je suis en retard?
Oui, Mais ca ne faire rien….
Ce qu’il est lait (?) ce bebe. Boy is that baby ugly
Eh doucement C’est moi. Hey easy, that’s me.
Goes back 37 years…
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