Monday, December 13, 2004

Fun, isn't it? At Muhlenberg College, we have a Lucia Fest for the children of college employees every year (sponsored by a Swedish organization). Gotta love those hats! And we still haven't figured a good way to get the candle wax drips out of Lucia's hair!... We are no longer Lucia Day novices. At 6:50 a.m., the sparkling-clean Wilczeks jumped back into bed and turned off the light. We were, of course, wearing our "dignified pajamas." (Since I'd had no time to buy new pajamas in Stockholm, we had put on our heaviest and still-unwrinkled long underwear.) Soon, we heard the Lucia knock at our door.... The Lucia singers were escorted by two ladies from the Grand Hotel's "guest services," so we didn't have to get up to unlock the door. Soft singing and candlelight slowly progressed into our darkened bedroom. The Lucia girl had a headdress with real lighted candles--her attendants all carried candles in their hands. (I later found out these were students from a local music college--their voices were lovely!) The Lucia attendants wore tall pointy hats (the "star boys") or green wreaths with flowers ("maids of honor"). They sang "Santa Lucia" (in Swedish, that's pronounced "Loo-see-ah" rather than "Loo-chee-ah"), a bit more Swedish Christmas music, then slowly filed out singing "Santa Lucia" again. David Gross told me later that one year a laureate was really surprised by this Swedish custom. The sleepy laureate woke up to melodious singing by handsome young blondes in long flowing robes and jumped to the conclusion he'd died and gone to heaven. The Grand Hotel Lucia singers also brought us coffee, saffron buns, and a wrapped Lucia gift that turned out to be a ceramic Lucia. At the time, the coffee was much less exciting than their singing. Which, for coffee-addicts like Frank and me, suggests some kind of miracle. Later, I saw the same singers down in the lobby and snapped a few photos. The singers are serious but the people they sing to are smiling from ear to ear--I know we were. [Betsy Devine: Funny Ha-Ha or Funny Peculiar?] 9:04:43 PM  comment []  Trackback []     Are We Puppets or Free Agents?. Interpretations of the insanity plea have changed through the ages, but advances in neuroscience promise to redefine free will and personal responsibility, and change the way we think about punishment. By Rowan Hooper. [Wired News] 9:02:17 PM  comment []  Trackback []     Red Thai Vegetable Curry. This week I purchased the ingredients for Red Thai Curry, a fantastic dish I was first introduced to at Bangkok Pavilion in my wonderful home of Kansas City. It has fantastic, varied texture, a medley of rose-tinted colors, and a scent sure to get any curry enthusiast's saliva glands working overtime. After returning from the grocery store with my bag of goodies, I wasted no time in preparing my meal. My shopping list included: 1 bag sticky sushi rice 1 can coconut milk Red Thai curry paste fresh basil leaves fresh anise leaves 1 green bell pepper 1 red onion 1 tomato 1 bag frozen peas lemon grass Total time from preparation to serving is about 45 minutes, so set aside at least an hour just in case there's an unforeseen complication. [kuro5hin.org] 9:01:41 PM  comment []  Trackback []     The Network is the Blog. This image of blogging speaks well of its application to the learning process: The Network is the Blog: "Just as telephones are meaningful only when connected to the telephone network, so blogs are meaningful only when connected to the blog network...The blog network is made of people. We are the nodes, actively filtering and retransmitting knowledge. Clearly this architecture can help manage the glut of information. More subtly, it can also help ensure that no vital inputs are suppressed because nobody has to rely on a single source." [elearnspace] 9:01:07 PM  comment []  Trackback []     The Anti-Lecture. Most people in education recognize the value of facilitation as an augment/replacement to lecturing. Facilitation: The Anti-Lecture provides a simple overview of the values of facilitation. [elearnspace] 9:00:26 PM  comment []  Trackback []     Improvements in Organic Photovoltaics. Jamais Cascio: One of the drawbacks of traditional silicon-based photovoltaic cells is that they are hard. While it's possible to embed traditional solar cells in fabric, it's... [WorldChanging: Another World Is Here] 8:59:19 PM  comment []  Trackback []     AOL Got Some Balls. According to this AP story: The walls surrounding America Online Inc.'s well-manicured gardens are crumbling. In a move both risky and essential, AOL is abandoning its strategy of exclusivity and will free much of its music, sports and other programming to non-subscribers in hopes of boosting ad sales. Welcome back to the world of the relevant, AOL. It's a bold move, but it's about time you woke up and noticed the World Wide Web. It'll be interesting to see what... [Jeremy Zawodny's blog] 8:58:51 PM  comment []  Trackback []

© Copyright 2005 Gail Marsella. Last update: 1/2/2005; 5:51:56 AM.

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