Mission Frog

Once upon a time I bought a Yoga Frog statue at Cracker Barrel, and that frog solved a crime.

 I wrote a book about the story called "Prayer of the Laughing Yoga Frog" and then Yoga Frog went to live with his new friend Alex Lehr and watch over him.

I think it's time to ransom the frog back, at least for a visit. Maybe the frog will bring Alex with him?

 Anything is possible, right?

Our mission is to send boxes to Alex full of stories and entertainment (details below) and so much happiness that he wouldn't mind sharing the laughing praying yoga frog for awhile.

 I know I could definitely use a frog hug and some magic these day. Couldn't you?

DETAILS:
 Students must email me soldanim@Tcc.fl.edu  to discuss their qualifications  and request Alex's address etc. * I will have this ready November 1st.

I am Her.

Dear Diary,

Today I became THAT lady,
home alone on Halloween,
hiding from Trick-or-Treaters.

AMH2020 Exam 2 Study Guide Part 2

AMH 2020 Exam #2 will be in 2 parts 
1) Free Response @ 150 2) Geography @ 50 = 200 points total

A total of $20 class money can go towards this Exam. 

 Part 1- Monday - 10 x 5 point Questions and 5 x 20 point Questions. All the 20 point questions are posted on Part 1 of this study guide; most of the 5 point terms are posted on Part 1, and the rest of them are posted below.

Part 2: FRIDAY- Geography  25 countries @ 2 points each
Maps and list of countries posted below. 
______________________________________________________________

Additional 5 Point Terms for Part 1 of Exam #2 (Monday) -
Identify/explain/discuss significance for full credit*

• Executive Order #9066
• Potsdam Conference
• Tehran Conference
• Yalta Conference
• Victory Mail, Victory Girls
• Going steady with Hitler?
• Operation Overlord/D-Day 
• Potsdam Ultimatum
• Truman Doctrine
• Marshall Plan
• NATO

-----------------------

Study Guide for Part 2: Geography

Below each map you will find a list of countries. On exam day (Wednesday) you will get these same maps with #'s in 25 countries, and you will correctly identify those 25 countries @ 2 points each.

Europe:

 Spain, Portugal, France

 United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands

 Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Russia

 Turkey, Greece, Italy

Genovia (Genovia?! skip Genovia) 

Denmark, Sweden, Finland 

Middle East

Syria

 Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia

 Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan

 South America

 Brazil, Argentina, Chile

 Peru,  Cuba (just kidding)

Bolivia, Columbia, Venezuela

 Paraguay, Uruguay

Asia

Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India

 Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam

 Indonesia, Malaysia

Philippines, Cuba (nope, no Cuba here. Sad face.)

 China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Russia

Mongolia

The Dog Ate My Umbrella

I have no umbrella in my car (the dog ate my umbrella, I can't make that up), and even if I did have an umbrella I wouldn't be able to use it because both of my hands are occupied holding myself up on this scooter. I'm thankful for the scooter - it is SO much safer and better than crutches -- but I'd rather just be regular me again, walking.

Normal is not an option and  this is a sad thing because it is RAINING in Tallahassee today and I absolutely must get from my car across traffic down a sidewalk and into my building without falling off the scooter and/or  getting drenched.

The only way to do it is to do it.

Other people have it worse, right?

I get out of my car, limp to the trunk, pull my scooter out, get on it and cross from the parking lot to the sidewalk and head towards my building.

A young short brunette wearing rain boots, a rain jacket and carrying a matching Tiffany blue umbrella crosses my path and she thinks (I imagine she thinks) as she passes me, "thank goodness I'm not HER!"

 I keep going as fast as I can, moving through the raindrops while dark spots mark my red shirt and smack my forehead.

"President Jackson decided not to run for re-election in 1968."

AMH 2020 Chapter 31 Quiz Bloopers*

• Berlin Wall separated the USSR and the US.
• Two African Americans riding a subway.
• This wall was put up to separate the USA from the Soviet Union.
• Blacks being transported by military men.
• A man and woman looking at the jail.
• This was used to separate the US and Russia.
• President Jackson decided not to run for re-election in 1968.
• Man is in distress as WW2 is going on and it is overwhelming for him.
• Two men on a bus boycotting busses.                                                       
• High school kids on their way to an integrated high school.
• Photo of segregation. These men are being forced to sit in the back.
• This is FDR struggling with the Great Depression.
• Martin Luther King having a toast with some of his buddies.
• Factory. War jobs.
• Bus boycott movement.
• Improvements in racism.

AMH 1041 Exam #2 and 10/30 Quiz Study Guide

AMH 1041 Quiz on 10/30 will come from the images posted at the bottom of this study guide. 

5 images will be on the quiz @ 4 points each*

Exam #2 AMH 1041

 Format: 200 Points total:

·       8 sets of 2 from the list below (explain each AND connect them) @ 20 points = 160

o   I will give you the pairs of terms on exam day

o   Yes, there are two questions below that are worth 20 points each.

·       8 images @ 5 points each = 40 ...  18 images are posted below the list of terms. 

1.      “Masterpiece”

2.      Compromise of 1850

3.      Shadrach Minkins

4.      New England Emigrant Aid Society

5.      Bleeding Kansas

6.      Dred Scott Case

7.      Story of Anna Catherine

8.      Potato famine and St. Patrick’s Day Parades

9.       Great Disappointment

10.   Mother Ann Lee

11.   Oneida

12.   12 Golden Tablets

13.   Maine Law 1850

14.   Female Moral Reform Crusade

15.   World Anti-Slavery Convention

16.   Seneca Falls Conference

17.   Middle Passage

18.   Fictive Kin

19.   Jumping the Broomstick

20.   How did Slaves resist?

21.   Why wasn’t there a huge slave uprising in the US?

22.   Missouri Compromise 1820

23. How did the Civil War start?

25. Which slave states stayed in the Union during the Civil War?

26. “My Paramount Object in this struggle…”

27. Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

28. Civil Rights Act 1875

29. Plessy vs. Ferguson

30. Sharecropping

31. American Colonization Society

32. “To my master….”

33. Explain the 3 alternatives to traditional marriage that emerged in the 19thC. – 20 points

34. Connect the Haitian Revolution & the Louisiana Purchase & Manifest Destiny – 20 points

AMH2020 Exam #2 Study Guide (Part 1)

I will post Part 2 of the Study Guide on Friday by 6pm*

Part 2 will cover 10/29 and 10/31 lectures and geography*

AMH 1041 October 28 Quiz Study Guide*

5 will be on your quiz at 4 points each*

This list is 50% of your study guide for Exam #2 

1.      “Masterpiece”

2.      Compromise of 1850

3.      Shadrach Minkins

4.      New England Emigrant Aid Society

5.      Bleeding Kansas

6.      Dred Scott Case

7.      Story of Anna Catherine

8.      Potato famine and St. Patrick’s Day Parades

9.       Great Disappointment

10.   Mother Ann Lee

11.   Oneida

12.   12 Golden Tablets

13.   Maine Law 1850

14.   Female Moral Reform Crusade

15.   World Anti-Slavery Convention

16.   Seneca Falls Conference

17.   Middle Passage

18.   Fictive Kin

19.   Jumping the Broomstick

20.   How did Slaves resist?

21.   Why wasn’t there a huge slave uprising in the US?

22.   Missouri Compromise 1820

This Time I Can't Blame the Puppy.

The sun has set and both kids are off doing things that don't involve me.

 I am free, free, free which means that I can a) start reading book #100 b) write up reviews for the last 9 books I've read c) go to Target or d) take a nice walk with my puppy.

I choose fresh air. I choose health.

Plus my Mom sent me super cute Sketchers that are specially made for walking and I love how bouncy they are so I slip the choke chain over Mia's neck and take her for a walk under the stars.  She's grown up a lot since this summer and she knows to walk next to me and not tangle the leash around me.

We go down a steep hill then turn around and run back up just because we can.

 They sky is inky blue and cloudless; if there is a moon tonight it is shy.
  No deer cross our path. No cats lounge and judge us.

 All and all it's a very nice walk.

And then I saw the flashlight ahead.

I can't see who is holding it, but I can see a white poodle on a leash, staring at me and my happy puppy as we jog towards it.

The flashlight doesn't move so I figure that I should yield the sidewalk and give the poodle its space.

Mia and I cross over grass into the street and just as I pass the flashlight's glare, unaware it has temporarily blinded me I trip into a hole I can't see and fall so hard that somehow I flip over and end up on my back.

The flashlight hovers over me.

 A man's voice asks if I'm OK.

There is no good answer.

I lay there on some stranger's kind soft grass for a minute catching my breath and concentrating on not calling out for my Mom.

My right knee is bloody and my left foot - the one I broke in June -  won't hold my weight for a single step. I'm 99.9% sure I've refractured my foot and I feel equal parts stupid and sad.

The flashlight continues to beam over me.

 I think the man thinks he's helping me by lighting my path but he is still just blinding me.

 I haven't answered his first question so he repeats himself, Are you OK Miss?

I'm too proud to cry. I'm too proud to ask for help.

 I thank him very much for his help and for making sure that I was OK. By the time he walks away I've convinced him that I'm truly grateful our paths crossed and I wish him the best.

After that make the longest walk of my life, going five, six, seven inches at a time, thankful for the cool breeze that was cheering me on.

.

"Fidel Costco, coming to power." - Chapter 30 Quiz Bloopers

Chapter 30 Quiz Bloopers

For bonus fun this time, I'll let you guess which answers goes to which image.

• This is Tupperware, celebrated by some women.
• Tubbleware party in suburbia.
• A bald man with glasses singing a pretty song.
• In the 1920s, women’s ideal role was to be houseware.
• Soldiers celebrating.
• A bad guy.
• William Churchill giving a speech.
• Truman giving a speech.
• Women meeting about politics.
• The German Army celebrating winning WW2.
• This is from when the US aided Cuba in the Middle East.
• Jack the Drooper demonstrating famous painting technique.
• US army celebrating bombing Japan.
• Crazy dude making off playing.
• The annual party for all the rich girls in America.
• An American soldier painting with blood.
• FDR was one of America’s greatest presidents.
• Women’s equality meeting.
• This shows the newer guns. Made war worse.
• This was the leader of the Soviet Union after Fidel Castro.
• This is President Hoover giving a speech during the war. He looks serious.
• This is Fidel Crisco.
• She is serving food so they came over.
• President Eisenhower.
• This is a tubbaware party.
• Soldiers going to war to fight for their rights.
• Fidel Costco, coming to power.
• Gorilla warfare in the regime.
• Women sold things in their house to raise money for their rights.

100 Book Project: Book #90 - Mama Day by Gloria Naylor

Mama Day by Gloria Naylor was assigned to me wayyy back last February and I've kept it on my "read soon" pile but other books kept jumping over it.

 I'm thankful I read it this week because now I know what to give my Mom for her birthday

This book is so good I would give it to Isabelle Allende, Zora Neal Hurston, Margaret Atwood and Tina Fey.

Set in Willow Springs, an island off the Georgia-South Carolina coast, this scary smart historical tale will have you cringing, giggling and believing in magic.

Something happens in 1823, someone wills ALLLLL his property to his slaves and then dies.

From there, generations of boy are born in the Day family, but few women.

It reminded me of Shakespeare's Tempest -- crazy storms setting off changes in lives that bang into each other like dominoes falling. The story is narrated from at least three voices, maybe four,  spinning the reader through almost 200 years of love, betrayal, herbs, family and healing. There is a crazy sheriff from "across the bridge" and an independent woman who leaves the island for New York City.

Explaining the plot to you is like tracing a vine.

The ending is not happy, nor is it sad, and so it very much fits this tangled thorny sweet wise-woman tale.

My Mom loves when I add quotes to juice up the reviews, so here is a juicy bowl of sentences, blended  together out of order so that I wouldn't ruin a single piece of this delightful book for her because I'm sending her this book for her birthday (shhhh, our secret) (thanks).

“Time is a funny thing. I was always puzzled with the way a single day could stretch itself out to the point of eternity in your mind, all while years melted down into the fraction of a second.”

“She could walk through a lightning storm without being touched; grab a bolt of lightning in the palm of her hand; use the heat of lightning to start the kindling going under her medicine pot. She turned the moon into salve, the stars into swaddling cloth, and healed the wounds of every creature walking up on two or down on four.” 

"You waited until the plane had landed to tell me that the man who would be waiting for us at the gate was a little strange.  And since your "little strange" turned out to be chicken feathers in his hat, a string of white bones around his neck, and a name like Dr. Buzzard, I spent that half hour in his truck with a growing suspicion of your "pretty little island."

“Home. It's being new and old all rolled into one. Measuring your new against old friends, old ways, old places, Knowing that as long as the old survives, you can keep changing as much as you want without the nightmare of waking up to a total stranger.”

"Miranda climbs the veranda steps and enters the front door of the other place. She closes it securely behind her. The lightning is flashing in the clouds. She's asleep when the clouds get lower and the lightning nears the earth.  It dances around the silver trailer, but it hits mostly along the edge of the forests, scarring a pine or two. It hits the bridge... It hits Ruby's house twice, and the second time the house explodes."

"She was tall and thin, brown skinned, with flecks of amber in her eyes. And she was lifting her dead child, dressed in a raincoat, out of her convertible. It was one of those moment when your mind simply freezes to protect itself from the devastation of a thousand contradictions, which freezes the body as well. If this was reality, it meant I was insane, and I couldn't be -- and she couldn't be, because I had met that woman."

"No headstone for Jonah Day.... He waits under a blanket of morning glory vines tangled among the sweet peas. They know he's there 'cause they listen."

"Tears catch in the back of the pale woman's throat as she brushes the dried weeds away from her mother's headstone.  Grace Samantha Day: I gave the first and only baby my grandmother's name. Ophelia.  I did it out of vengeance. Let this be another one, I told God, who could break a man's heart.... If I had known then what I was knowing all along, I woulda named her something else. Sapphira. My grandmother only softly broke a heart. My great-great-grandmother tore one wide open."

"Miranda stands still and listens. There is something funny going on. The graveyard is just up at the turn, but she won't go past it today.  Tomorrow maybe or the day after. She heaves a deep sigh. I ain't up to all this, Lord. I'm and old woman. And I'm tired, tired of knowing things I can't do nothing about.  Whatever is waiting in here today, I just ain't ready to face."

"And I decided I wouldn't speak to you again even if they held the Super Bowl in Havana."

Excellent.

Read this book!!

AMH 2020 Chapter 31 Study Guide

AMH 2020 Chapter 30 Study Guide

100 Book Project: Book #89 - #blamejameis

Dear student who assigned me And Then There Were None (Originally "Ten Little Indians")  by Agatha Christie but didn't write your name in it,

Thank you, this book was delicious.

I kinda sorta remember seeing the play at Parker Playhouse when I was in Middle School in 1980 on a field trip and I vaguely remembered little statues disappearing and gasping and general tense drama. I think the statues were Indians and the play had "Indians"in the title, but that was 1980 and we weren't as enlightened then. But I digress.

This book was much better than the play.  Of course it was. Agatha Christie is a genius and reading this book makes me wonder as I reach the end of this project if I should start sorting the books into genres and looking at things like how many of the 100 books my students have assigned me have been by women or by men or by fictional characters (Ron Burgundy is a GREAT writer; Tina Fey is better).

 And Then There Were None is  fast smart read that delivers a sinister but satisfying and surgically violent multi-murder mystery that reminded me of Dexter from Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

Basically, the all the guests who have been lured to a remote  Gasbyesque mansion on an isolated British  island in 1939 where they find reasons to kill themselves and/or each other.

 Because of all this death and murder and such  they're all dead when the police get to the island. Hence, the police are confused and blame Jameis Winston.

Just kidding.

The police are confused and don't have twitter in 1939 so they just go on with life and wait for WW2.

The final chapter  And Then There Were None is a confession of the "crime" by the mastermind, who scribbled it down, put it in a bottle and sent it out to sea.

Because that confession is "found," the reader learns how one character plotted here and there, did this and that and deserves credit/blame for it all.

This book was a delightful escape to a world where no one is taking about ebola, no one is forwarding tweets about ISIL, no one is taking selfies or updating their status with this and that like and trying to #blamejameis for it all.

Grading: Harriet Truman is the guy in this picture.

• This is Dewey holding up a paper showing how he beat Truman
• Basically Dewey defeats Truman
• I think he’s missing a tooth
• Go Dewey!
• No one expected Dewey to win the election, but he did.
• FDR holding up a newspaper.
• President Truman loses and the other dude looks happy
• The Russia man.
• Harriet Truman is the guy in this picture.
• Dewey beat Truman. Great news.
• Dewey is holding up a picture about beating someone in a trial.
• Important guy seems proud of the Chicago Daily News.
• This man is happy that Dewey defeated Truman.