Guess the Play...

I spent this evening watching a very unusual performance of my favorite Shakespeare play which I will review in the next few days. Anyone want to guess which play?

Isn't It Time for Your Milk and Arsenic, Darling?

"Isn't it time for your milk and arsenic, darling," is one of the great lines of sisterly-disagreement in High Society, a wonderful musical I discussed in a previous blogpost. The reference to arsenic metaphorically conveys the hostility between the pair. Part of the reason this comment is so poisonous is that arsenic is poisonous to every known life form-- or it was thought to be, until now.

In a recent discovery as reported by the New York Times, scientist Felisa Wolfe-Simon discovered an arsenophilic (just a guess as to whether that is the right word) life form. The bacteria live in the bottom of Mono lake in an environment rich with arsenic. Wolfe-Simon brought these back to her lab and fed them on an arsenic-heavy diet, slowly swapping the phosphorus traditionally considered essential for life with arsenic.

Phosphorus is the backbone of DNA. Swapping the arsenic with phosphorus opens a number of possibilities for alternate building blocks of life, and is something never seen before. According to the article, "Caleb Scharf, an astrobiologist at Columbia University who was not part of the research, said he was amazed. 'It’s like if you or I morphed into fully functioning cyborgs after being thrown into a room of electronic scrap with nothing to eat,' he said. " (article).

This provides a greater variety of possibilities not only for alien life, but also a possible new system of life on our own planet. How cool is that?

New York Times Graphic from article.

Moving with Dogs and Other Random Thoughts

I recently returned from my Alma Mater and taught my first of the new session of SAT prep classes. I really like this new class and I am very excited. On a slightly unrelated note, one of my students told me I look like Emily Mortimer, which was extremely flattering and totally random.

Emily Mortimer [1]

Anyway, sadly I have a cold. I have spent most of the day catching up with friends and being lazy. My mother sent me this comic on Moving with Dogs to read. Most of the rest of this blog is kind of dark and creepy, but this particular one was really funny.

Endnotes

1. From Google images from this website.

On My Way Home...

I had a lovely trip back to my Alma Mater. I am so incredibly proud of the friends of mine who finished their theses this semester. It was a lovely and wonderful weekend.

I am resuming my teaching tomorrow. It's a new class so there will be new fabulous moments and challenges. I am excited to continue working on my teaching skills because those communication skills are vastly important for every part of my life, and the ability to impart knowledge will come in handy in graduate school and in my life as a professor.

A Bacchic Celebration

Today, I am going to see a couple of professors, and then there is the gigantic bonfire celebration of the culmination of theses. It should be fabulous!

At My Favorite Coffee Shop...

I am back at my favorite coffee shop. Yum. Since I described it in a blogpost this summer, it has changed a little bit. The kids playpen, instead of being a chaotic corner of brio is now enclosed by a counterspace and tall chairs that allow parents to sit on the outside and watch their children playing within. There are no children playing there right now, which is surprising from my memories of the afternoons at this coffee shop, but they probably have plenty of kids on the weekends.

There is another person from my Alma Mater sitting in here writing a paper. He doesn't recognize me. It's stranger, I remember of all of the people that I saw regularly on campus but there is no glint of recognition from any of them. maybe I look different or maybe it's just easy to forget a face when you do not see it everyday.

The coffee shop is very quiet for lunch-time. Just a lot of people reading. I am sitting on a little elevated area that is new. As I look around, I remember the different times that I spent here. Over in one corner, next to the espresso machine I revised my Judith Butler presentation in the last few minutes before class. I remember how nervous I was-- and trying to understand some of the Derrida quoted in the footnotes at the last second before going down the hill to photocopy my handout.

I also remembered when I discovered that they made espresso milkshakes. I had three in a week and decided that I should not be eating all that ice cream and I have not had one since. They were fabulous while I had them.

It is sunny and beautiful here (although cold). I should leave the confines of my beloved coffee shop soon and enjoy the day.

Off to the Old Stomping Grounds...

I'm going to be at my Alma Mater for the next few days. Cynthia and Ovid II are turning in their theses and I am joining them to celebrate. I may or may not have the time and/or internet access necessary to post over the next few days.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Actually, it's not that cold where I am, but there's still that lovely little nip of winter air and a chance to wear some fabulous sweaters and jackets.

Beside fashionable outerwear and a great excuse for wearing boots, I love December because it's cold enough to have a fire. I can sit by the fire, with a lovely cup of Earl Grey, and read. I usually do this while listening to holiday music. I am extremely picky about my holiday music. Since I was in choirs when I was young, I tend not to like certain standards (having had to sing them) or dislike most recorded versions (because my choir(s) did them better). I like some traditional choir stuff, but my favorite music from my childhood (which I listen to over and over and annoy Cerinthus), is Bruce Cockburn's Christmas. It's a lovely non-traditional album with adept guitar and a folk twang.

Since I annoy Cerinthus so much with this album, I have been interested in finding some holiday music we can both enjoy. So when I noticed that there was a Glee [1] Christmas Album I decided I would listen to one of the songs on youtube. I had never heard "Baby, It's Cold Outside," but since it was sung by Chris Colfer and Darren Chriss, I thought I should listen to their version. I found it to be charming and absolutely adorable. I also discovered that I really liked the song because it sounded like it was out of one of the 1940s and 1950s musicals which I watched as a kid, so I did some research on its history.

The song has made the Top 100s chart six times since it was put out commercially in 1949. According to Wikipedia, Frank Loesser wrote the song in 1944 and debuted it with his wife, Lynn Garland, at a Christmas party. He sold it, against her wishes, in 1948 and it won an academy award when it appeared in Neptune's Daughter in 1949.

One of my favorite things about the song is that the parts are not described as "girl" and "guy," but rather "Mouse" and "Wolf." "Wolf" is sort of a wonderfully sinister name, and perfectly captures the questionable nature of the character, who is asked by the "Mouse," "Say, what's in this drink?" [2].

I have not, as of yet, found any other versions I like of this song. Some fabulous people sing it, but often the great voice of the "Mouse" is undermined by a problematic "Wolf" or the annoying and cartoonish-sounding "Mouse" overwhelms the crooning "Wolf." However, there are some pretty amusing versions, such as June Carter's ridiculous country trio version and some absolutely absurd individual did a techno-remix of Louis Armstrong's version (which should be more aptly titled "Mama, It's Cold Outside). I have no idea what the person was thinking.

Endnotes

1. I started watching Glee when Ana Marie Cox tweeted about it. I confess, I started watching the campy series, and enjoying it. It's thoroughly predictable and overly moralizing, but I really enjoy the campiness and I love the character of Kurt (Chris Colfer), who is also endowed with an amazing voice.
2. On the other hand, it might not be as sinister as I see it, because I do not think that there was a lot of GHB in the 1940s, so perhaps this is simply a reference to more alcohol than normal. Furthermore, the "Mouse" is certainly not as mousy as (s)he appears, since (s)he seems more concerned with the appearance of wanting to leave than the reality ("I ought to say 'no, no, no, sir' / at least I can say that I tried") and the "Wolf" reports that the "Mouse" touches his/her hair.