And More Owls

Rice Owls (part 4)

Tommy LaVergne took this picture of the 3 little owls on the Rice campus.

Rice Owls (part 3)

Rice Owls (part 2)

And then there were 2.

Rice Owls

With the help of the circ staff, I found this little owl right outside of the Fondren Library this morning.

Ginger with her Cats

Ginger loves our little cat family and they seem to like her too. She enjoys finishing up the cat food they leave on the plate and they like playing with her leash. When I open the door every morning they all rush in the apartment but only the male siamese lets me pet him.

Old Pug

Ginger

Last night the gray kitty I call Cinza wandered into our apartment and she and Ginger touched noses. That reminded me of this really cute picture of Ginger touching noses with a calf on John's farm in Anderson. Of course as soon as the calf's mother saw what was going on she charged and Ginger and I had to run to get out of her way. The farm where we spent so much time is in the middle of all the wild fires in Grimes County and the surrounding areas and I have no idea whether the house is still there or has burned down. I'm pretty sure the beautiful pond that Ginger and the other dogs used to swim in has dried up. We haven't had any rain in this part of Texas in months and have had record breaking temperatures.

Here is a picture I took of New York from a plane as we were taking off after a trip in 1998 or 99. I hope to go back someday and see the 9/11 memorial site.

Fourdogmom the Tiger Mom

I have always loved cats, especially big cats like the one in the 2nd picture so when I had the opportunity to actually be this close to one I jumped at it. My long time significant other, John, wasn't so happy about me doing this. He was afraid I would get mauled. I did it anyway and had a great time.

My mother with her nieces Beverly and Eileen Herring and her nephew Russell Dan Herring.

I've always loved this picture of my mother and me.

Student Runs Secret Banned Books Library from Locker

Found this great story on Care2:

Student Runs Secret Banned Books Library from Locker
by Anna K.
September 2, 2011

A Catholic school student who identifies herself by the avatar name “Nekochan” started an unofficial library of banned books that she runs out of her locker at school. She began to lend books to her classmates when her school banned a long list of classic titles, including The Canterbury Tales, Paradise Lost and Animal Farm.

Concerned about getting in trouble for violating school rules, Nekochan wrote a letter to an online advice column to ask if it was “ok to run an illegal library” from her locker.

Nekochan wrote about the recent book ban: “I was absolutely appalled, because a huge number of the books were classics and others that are my favorites. One of my personal favorites, The Catcher in the Rye, was on the list, so I decided to bring it to school to see if I would really get in trouble. Well… I did but not too much. Then (surprise!) a boy in my English class asked if he could borrow the book because he heard it was very good AND it was banned! This happened a lot and my locker got to overflowing with banned books, so I decided to put the unoccupied locker next to me to a good use. I now have 62 books in that locker, about half of what was on the list.”

I understand the appeal of reading banned books because they are banned. When I was eleven, I bought a banned books poster at a school book fair and proceeded to read each of the titles on the poster, crossing each one out as I went. It still hangs on the wall of my childhood bedroom.

Books are banned for many reasons, but in a lot of cases, such as Nekochan’s, the complaint originates in religion. Amelia T.’s Care2 post discusses the case of a public school that banned books for “contradicting the Bible.” In that case, only one member of the school board had read all of the books under consideration for banishment. Books are often banned by school boards whose only knowledge of the books is a brief, out-of-context quotation.

Nekochan recognizes the risk that she could get in trouble for supplying her classmates with banned books, but she believes that she is in the right. “Before I started [the library], almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on. So I’m doing a good thing, right?”

I hope that this brave student can keep her contraband library a secret from the authority figures at her school. The thrill of a “secret” library is surely driving her classmates to read the very books that their teachers and parents do not want them to have access to. Her violation of school policy is in the spirit of bigger and better things — literature, freedom and the eternal fight against censorship. Well done, Nekochan.

Staying Cool

Sisters

A very happy birthday to my sister!
(even if she doesn't read my blog)