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Beautiful Tarquinia: Tombs in the Italian Countryside

Posted By booksnbackpacks 1127 days ago on Literature

https://booksnbackpacks.com - Where is Tarquinia? Why should you visit? And how do you get there? Read all about beautiful Etruscan painted tombs in this fun virtual tour. The Etruscan necropolis (burial ground) of Tarquinia is the perfect site for an inexpensive day trip from Rome. Visiting ancient tombs might not seem like your idea of a fun …
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Shonda Rhimes, Master Class, and Bridgerton

Posted By LaurelLit 1152 days ago on Writing

http://laurellit.com - For my birthday, I was given a subscription to Master Class, which is great, because I am the sort of person who reads course catalogs for fun.  When I first logged on to Master Class, I was asked to click on the courses I was interested in, and, well… if Master Class was a dating site, I’d be that gal who right swipes for anyone who has a pulse & doesn’t appear to be a serial killer.I was especially eager about the cooking courses and the writing courses. I&rs [...]

Kittens in the Time of Covid 19

Posted By LaurelLit 1153 days ago on Writing

http://laurellit.com - We all have quarantine stories to tell; this is mine.​​In a time of loss, we must find joy.This might be too easy for me to say. I’ve had it good, comparatively. I haven’t lost my home, or my livelihood. My loved ones are safe and healthy, as far as I know. For me, the loss that came with quarantine was secondary. On the Monday of the second week of March, I got news that my dad had suddenly died (not from Covid.) My brother, stepsiblings and I told ourselves that [...]

So Bad It's Good- Analogies Written by "High School Students"

Posted By LaurelLit 1154 days ago on Writing

http://laurellit.com -  If you teach high school English, I expect you've seen this list before. I'll bet you even showed it to other members in your English department, and you all shared a good laugh one afternoon, as students left the building and you braced yourself for an hour or two of essay grading before you headed home.That's how it happened for me, when I saw this list for the first time, but that was toward the beginning of my teaching career, before there was Facebook. Since then I have seen it posted [...]

Massive Human Error (a short story)

Posted By LaurelLit 1155 days ago on Writing

http://laurellit.com - I’ve never been the type to carefully read instructions. I don’t have the patience. Or, maybe it’s more like most of the time, I don’t understand. I’m not a visual, step by step sort of person. I’ll just assume I know what I’m doing enough to figure it out, that through some combination of instinct, common sense and magic, everything will come together.That strategy worked in the Before-Times, back when there was room for human error because there [...]

A Condensed History of my Last Four Years

Posted By LaurelLit 1155 days ago on Writing

http://laurellit.com - A little over four years ago, I promised Pauline, my daughter who was six at the time, that we would soon have our first female president.Then, that damn New York Times election needle that kept moving in the wrong direction. I had a sleepless night and had to break it to Pauline the next morning that Trump would be our next president.I went to school and saw the scared, deer-in-headlights expressions on my students’ faces. They were sure that they and their families would be deported s [...]

Sausage Apple Pie and Working Girl

Posted By LaurelLit 1156 days ago on Writing

http://laurellit.com - Normally over Winter Break, my big "me-time" outing would be going to a movie by myself in the afternoon, seeing something that neither Rich nor the kids would want to see, and which I would thoroughly enjoy partly because it's such an indulgence, to sit alone in a movie theater in the middle of the afternoon. However, that was obviously not happening this winter break, so I had to find a new way to indulge myself.The solution was to lose myself while following the recipe for a sausage-ap [...]

Tucker Carlson Is A Karen, and Other Guys Are Too.

Posted By LaurelLit 1157 days ago on Writing

http://laurellit.com - lLet’s talk about “Karen”. Karen is a white woman who takes her privilege for granted and she uses her power by diminishing or degrading others in the process. Conservatives think Karens are women who consider themselves woke, and that Karens go around telling others that they’re not anti-racist enough. To them, Nancy Pelosi is the ultimate Karen, because she is a woman who uses her gavel, rips up Trump’s speech, and claps at Trump slowly and maliciously. Mea [...]

A Girl's Guide to Turning 50

Posted By LaurelLit 1157 days ago on Writing

http://laurellit.com - First, a disclaimer: I realize using the word “girl” in regards to turning 50 is both inaccurate and a bit diminishing. I am a woman and I should be proud of my wisdom, sophistication, and life experience. I am proud. However, using “girl” in regards to my 50th birthday slaps a bit of youthfulness onto the occasion, and if I can’t be young anymore, I can at least feel youthful.So, how do I celebrate turning 50? I’ll be honest; I’d really rather no [...]

Dear Jake Tapper: What do you Know About Teachers' Feelings?

Posted By LaurelLit 1158 days ago on Writing

http://laurellit.com - Dear Jake Tapper,I feel betrayed. I tweeted but you didn’t respond. Rarely do I have time to watch your show, but I’d worked ahead on my lesson plans and grading, so I could finish early to make a birthday cake for my son. I had on "The Beat" while I was in the kitchen, and you did this segment about “Do Teachers Need to be Vaccinated for Schools to Safely Reopen?” Dr. Paul Offit was your guest, and you asked him if there was any reason why a “normal, he [...]