BOI-SE STA-ATE (clap clap clapclapclap)

Sufjan Stevens, Come on Feel the Illinoise.

He was going to do an album for each state, but that has yet to happen. Great album title, anyway.

Very nice folksy, mellow-ish stuff. Check it out.

Juniors: You learned a little about satire, which mostly seems to come in the animated world these days. Yes, that is a gross exaggeration, but The Boondocks,  South Park, Family Guy, The Simspons, maybe even Metalocalypse come to mind before anything else.

With permission, check out also The Onion online, the fakest news money does not buy.

This all leads into Jonathan Swift, the master satirist, whose Gulliver's Travels we begin in earnest tomorrow. Have your book & I guarantee you some reading time.

Speaking of "reading," as for the "outside reading" requirement . . . the advent of "Forward Fridays" has caused me to re-think Literature Circles & the assignments for the class.

Choose one of the books your classmates have presented, & get started reading. You must read 500 pages per quarter, which I know some of you do weekly.

Some assessment is to come, but it will be a few weeks away.

Just make sure you are reading.


Sophomores: you got your class-ring info, & don't forget --IF YOU ARE ALLOWED--to text that message & get in the raffle for the free ring.

We almost wrapped "A Very Old Man . . ." & you got back your "marginal notes" from that story, the OR 1.2, & unit 1 synonyms. I gave you a break, & if you turned in the "Completing sentences" today you could have earned 2 bonus points .  . . tomorrow, they will be collected for full credit.

 Unit 1 vocabulary quiz Thursday: definitions, synonyms, & "completions." The words will be on the quiz, & it's a veritable matching assignment.

Oh, & I have been a documented Boise St. fan for more than 10 years, for those of you who see the title & think "front-runner."

The list of "McB's  favorite college FBS teams":

1. Florida St.
2. Pitt
3. Boise St.
4. Oregon
5. LSU
6. Michigan St.
7. Georgia

be cool