Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #263

WHAT I ENJOYED THIS WEEK . . .

  • HA, BILL! IT’S SUNDAY MORNING!
  • Seeing Biscuit at The Biscuit! We forgot to do a selfie, so I had everyone take a picture when we all got back to our homes — just pretend this is one picture:
  • Finding a bass drum on Facebook marketplace for my Deaf professor, who wants to use it for our assignment to create a school fight song, which has a long tradition at Deaf schools. Here’s an example from Gallaudet University.
  • Interpreting on stage (no Deaf consumers present for these) for a speaker invited for Black History Month.
  • Continuing to work on a puzzle Nick got me for a present at some point. We have no clue what the final image will look like, because it doesn’t look like the box.

WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK

  • What “that is cap” means.
  • That I tend to smile between sentences while interpreting, even if the speaker is not happy.
  • That I need to write a letter to the interpreting agency in Dallas — internship will be here before I know it.
  • That the American alligator was on the endangered species list in the 1960’s, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has done underground operations to take down poachers. — per Gator Country by Rebecca Renner.
  • That the X and Y chromosomes do not look like the letters X or Y most of the time. X was the original name given to the chromosome when discovered because it was a mystery. Another scientist found the next chromosome and labeled it Y simply to follow the alphabet. Most of the time the X and Y chromosomes are balled up. — per the audiobook The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson.

WHAT I WATCHED THIS WEEK

  • Bed Rest (2022) — free on Tubi, which has quite a few Tubi original horror movies directed by women.
  • MasterChef Junior, season 2, episode 2. Such a great show with supportive, confident kids. I especially like what Oona, age 8, said about the pancake challenge: “I’m not the maestro of pancake flippery!”

GROUP ACTIVITIES THIS WEEK

  • Music bingo date night — no wins
  • Orientation with a virtual relay interpreting company, a form of interpreting I am interested in.

REACTIONS TO MY REVIEW

Reactions to my review of Villette by Charlotte Bronte were lovely! Folks seem reinvigorated to pick up this novel, and I’m glad you all took so well to my thoughts on the book.

Where are his lips going???

FORTHCOMING REVIEW

SHOPPING AT THE LIBRARY PHOTO

I didn’t hit up the library this weekend because I spent almost all day Saturday getting the drum, saving Biscuit after she got a flat tire, going to get lunch, taking Biscuit back to her truck/repaired tire, and driving home 75 minutes. If you’re wondering where my dad was, Biscuit had dropped him off at the airport on her way to see Nick and me because he’s flying to the west coast to do some snowmobiling with his friends.

Someone asked me if I actually read the books I check out at the library. Oddly, I read more now that the pile is there, and I’m also happy to pick up a book, read a few pages, decide it’s not for me, and take it back.

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Published by Grab the Lapels

I'm a graduate of the MFA fiction writing program at the University of Notre Dame, which inspired me to follow along with trends in teaching, publishing, and reviewing. I also have an MA and BS from Central Michigan University. I used to teach composition, creative writing, and literature in higher education, then did a brief stint at a civic theater, followed by two years at a references desk at a public library. I'm now working toward my ASL Interpreter license.

26 comments

  1. I thought that the Villette cover seemed a little risqué!

    Fascinating about the x and Y chromosomes! I need to read more Bryson.

    It’s so lovely to have a big stack of books to choose from! The library never knows if you read them or not, but they appreciate the circulation! It helps keep doors open and budgets flowing!

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      • I didn’t like the Villette cover at all. Publishers never know what to do with covers of classics – they either go with classy plain (perhaps with a bit of gold) but this is mainly for hardbacks, or with some sort of famous or relevant old work of art, or with something tacky. So rarely do we get stylish covers.

        That 8-year-old MasterChef contestant is fabulous – “I’m not the maestro of pancake flippery!”

        I’ve never heard “that is cap”. Why did you need to look it up? That is where did you hear it used?

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  3. I’m afraid your being back on schedule was wasted on me, I was driving all day. Now it’s Mon morning (my time) and I’m off to do a trip for our friend Dragan (what could possibly go wrong).

    Good on you for rescuing Biscuit. I had some problems along the way and got rescued a couple of times myself.

    Australian saltwater crocodiles are protected too now and are proliferating all across the north.

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    • Heh, it wasn’t just for you, but you make my heart happy, so I called you out by name.

      Biscuit said I shouldn’t have written that I rescued her, because it sounds like I did a lot, something heroic. Really, all I did was pick her up at the tire repair place. But, you know, the more dramatic story always makes for the better story.

      I’m glad to hear that the Australian saltwater crocodiles are protected now. They are beautiful creatures, and it fascinates me that they’re even more aggressive than the American alligator. I wonder what the poaching situation is like where you are.

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    • I get mad sometimes, but then I just put all the colors that are the same together, and I literally take one piece and go around and try to make it fit with literally every other piece that’s the same color. For example, there was a big white area in the puzzle. Now, finally, it’s done. The white part, not the puzzle.

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  5. You can’t say you learned what “that is cap” means and then not tell us what it means! You are sooo cruel Melanie! But I admit it was fun reading about the history of the word in a slang dictionary. 🙂

    The Gallaudet song was super cool to watch. Good luck on your class assignment to create one for your school. Please share!

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    • Ayyyyyy! Good job researching, you other librarian, you. I suppose I could have told you all.

      The Gallaudet song changes every so often. Typically, there’s two leaders and one drummer. I’ve been the designated drummer for a while now, so it feels fortuitous that I’m the one who ended up buying it in a fancy house back in the woods in the middle of nowhere, which happened to be 15 minutes away from where I was meeting Biscuit.

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    • Aww, that’s nice of you to say. Most people argue whether I look more like Mom or Dad, but in reality, neither my brother nor I look like the spitting image of either of them. Some people have what I call “mini me” babies. My brother looks Middle Eastern, in fact. 🤷‍♀️

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      • Genes are so funny and strange. I definitely know what you mean about the mini me babies. I don’t really look much like either of my parents but I apparently look a lot like my paternal grandmother. To me, Pearl looks a lot more like Peter than me but Rose reminds me of myself at that age. My oldest niece looks like me but I also look like a girl version of her dad!

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  7. Part of my disappearance from the blog in the last month is that I’ve been binge reading again. Finally! How many books on average do you think you read a month? I only ask because I know that you don’t post about male authors, but I know that you still read books by men.

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    • I looked at my StoryGraph records, and it says I read 10 books in February. However, some of those were books I started in January, sometimes even earlier. 3 were comic books, 7 were nonfiction or fiction or audiobooks. Of those 7, I’m positive 4 of them were started in January, if not earlier, because I do long audiobooks or read a chapter to Nick each night, etc.

      So far, in March, I’ve only finished one comic book and have a whole bunch of other books going at the same time.

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