Tuesday,
21 February 2012 (21.2.12, if you will)
Greetings
Upper School Community:
In
addition to being the first day of MVS Immersion, today is also Fat Tuesday,
better known as Mardi Gras down yonder in New Orleans. Check out the full schedule of parades, history of Mardi Gras, and the announcement of the King of
Rex.
“Throw Me Somethin,’ Mister!”
18
February marks the 127th anniversary of the publication of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. An interactive
edition, including the full selection of drawings from the first edition of
this masterwork of American fiction (pardon my humble bias), is available at
the UVA e-text site.
The
Wall Street Journal article, “Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker,” introduces the musical device called "appoggiatura" to
explain why Adele’s songs are so
effective at conjuring sadness. Appoggiatura has my vote for word
for the month.
In
honor of Presidents Day, NPR carried a fitting homage to Honest Abe, in the form of a 34-foot tower of books built
of volumes about our 16th President.
As
a point of Ohio pride, 20 February marks the 50th anniversary of John Glenn’s Mercury mission in Friendship 7, culminating in 3 orbits around the earth. At a recent NASA event, Commander Glenn harangued the space agency for not making better use of the International
Space Station. He continues to be
feisty, even at the awesome age of 90!
And
as culminating “wicked cool” news, researchers in Siberia succeeded in reviving and growing a plant from a flower frozen over 32,000 years ago. How about that, Mr. Birdseye!
That’s
all for now. Have a safe start to
Immersion, stay warm, and keep in touch!
Sam
Wagner
Head of Upper School
