The World’s Oldest Blogger

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If the Super Adventures of Ben and Noah and Maggie’s Blog don’t prove the Internet is ageless, then surely Olive Riley’s The Life of Riley will. At 107 years old, Olive is the world’s oldest blogger:

Good Morning everyone. My name is Olive Riley. I live in Australia near Sydney. I was born in Broken Hill on Oct. 20th 1899.Broken Hill is a mining town, far away in the centre of Australia. My Friend, Mike, has arranged this blog for me. He is doing the typing and I am telling the stories. He thinks it’s a good idea to tell what’s going on. He already made a film about me a few years back and people liked that, so they might like this blog too, he says. We’ll see.

[tags]Olive Riley, blogging[/tags]

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Thinking Blogger Award

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Thinking Blogger AwardRoger nominated me for a Thinking Blogger Award. I was kind of surprised, as I don’t think of this blog as particularly thought-provoking, but who am I to turn down an award? According to the rules, I now nominate five bloggers who make me think for this award.

  1. Western Dragon: Nepotism doesn’t hurt, I suppose, but until I encouraged her to write, I had no idea my daughter could write so well. In fact, she writes much better than I did when I was her age. She seems to intuit characterization. She really makes me think. Don’t miss her creative writing.
  2. The Genealogue: Chris Dunham bills his site as “Genealogy News You Can’t Possibly Use,” but I have spent quite a lot of time enjoying his posts and learning how to do things. Plus, he’s a nice person and shared his thoughts about the Salem Witch Trials with my class, which I really appreciated.
  3. Baghdad Girl: This blog is written by a girl who until recently lived in war-torn Baghdad. Her frequent posts of cat pictures are sometimes punctuated by reflections about life in a war zone, and I find that when I hear about Iraq now, I often think of her, and children like her.
  4. Sarah*n*Dipitous: Sarah Hodsdon writes this blog, a reflection of her artwork and thoughts. She homeschools her children, Ben and Noah, and does a great job, judging from their own blog posts.
  5. Things in Your Head: This blog is written by Wendy. She reflects on life, her family, her past, her present, you name it! I find her writing to be enjoyable, whether she’s being funny or serious.

I would like you all to know that there are plenty of bloggers who make me think, aside from these five, but I was unfortunately limited to five.

[tags]meme, thinking blogger, blogging[/tags]

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This is for Lara

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My sister Lara and I were talking about American Idol on the phone the other day, and I mentioned how cool these guys were:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ilg_lLZebLU" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

What did you think, Lara?

I like Chris Sligh and Blake Lewis.

[tags]American Idol, Chris Sligh, Blake Lewis, Rudy Cardenas, Thomas Lowe[/tags]

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A Thousand Acres

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A Thousand AcresIf you read Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Thousand Acres, I recommend that you read Shakespeare’s King Lear first. Several versions of the play are available, including a subscription in forty parts from DailyLit.com, but I recommend the Folger Shakespeare Library’s edition for portability and explanatory notes. You will enjoy Smiley’s novel all the more if you realize what a loving, painstaking homage it is to one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. You will enjoy it in its own right, but it’s power is diminished, I think, without the side-by-side comparison to King Lear.

Smiley’s version centers around Larry Cook (Lear), a farmer in Zebulon County, Iowa, and his three daughters Ginny (Goneril), Rose (Regan), and Caroline (Cordelia). Larry decides to divide his thousand-acre farm among his three daughters, insisting he is saving them an inheritance tax. The daughters do not want him to do this, but Larry possesses a single-mindedness that will not be crossed. When Caroline objects more firmly, she is cut out of the deal. The family gradually implodes under Larry’s seeming madness, a suit to get back his land, and Ginny and Rose’s competition for the affections of neighbor’s son Jess Clark (Edmund).

Smiley’s story deviates from Shakespeare’s in providing Ginny and Rose with reasons — physical and sexual abuse — to hate their father. I have to admit that they seemed almost saintly in their accommodation of him after what he had done to them. Shakespeare’s Goneril and Regan were simply, as Lear put it, “unnatural hags.” Thus, I felt that Ginny and Rose had depth of character and complicated layers that Goneril and Regan lacked.

As this is told from the viewpoint of Ginny, Larry’s portrayal is never sympathetic, and though he cuts an imposing figure from Ginny’s point of view, he never quite reaches Lear’s stature with the reader. I was impressed, however, by how Smiley was able to take plot elements from the play and seamlessly incorporate them into A Thousand Acres without making the story seem stilted or forced. In the back of my mind, until Part Four or Part Five of the novel, I was sure she wouldn’t find a way to incorporate some part or other of the King Lear story, but she managed to do it every time. The story differs in the end, but not substantially so, and I suppose one could argue the difference is moot — the family is no less destroyed in Smiley’s One Thousand Acres than in Shakespeare’s King Lear, but in either case, you’ll enjoy two well-written works and explore timeless themes of “truth, justice, love, and pride,” ultimately making a universal story “profoundly American.”

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The Roadhouse 105

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Tony Steidler-Dennison has posted his 105th Roadhouse Podcast. You can read the show notes or listen at the Roadhouse 105, or you can listen here:

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/9075573/view]

[tags]Roadhouse Podcast, blues[/tags]

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Kelly Richey Live

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Thanks to my parents, who watched the kids last night so I could go out for a change, I got to see the Kelly Richey Band live at Darwin’s. Kelly was awesome. If you get a chance to see her, you should. Here is a repost of a clip of Kelly playing Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe”:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ab8St0qZuD8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

When we saw her at Darwin’s, she played behind her head, just like she does here, and it was so cool.

I have to tell a little story — when we walked in the bar, we sat down in the back. I looked around the room a bit, then noticed Steve was sitting right next to Kelly Richey. She and the band were at the next table. After the show, I got a chance to meet Kelly and talk with her. She was very nice and approachable, and so gracious.

I’m a fan for life, and now I can’t wait to see her again when I get a chance.

[tags]Kelly Richey, blues[/tags]

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Book List Meme

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This one looks fun (via the Classical Bookworm). Here is how it works:

  • Books I’ve read
  • Books I want to read
  • Books I wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole
  • Books on my bookshelves
  • ? Books I’ve never heard of
  • # Books I’ve seen in movie or TV form
  • ! Books I’ve blogged about
  • Books I’m indifferent to
  1. ! The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
  2. #! Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
  3. #! To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
  4. #! Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) (Lara took my copy!)
  5. #! The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
  6. #! The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
  7. #! The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
  8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
  9. ! Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
  10. ? A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
  11. #! Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
  12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
  13. #! Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
  14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
  15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
  16. #! Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
  17. ? Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
  18. # The Stand (Stephen King)
  19. #! Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
  20. ! Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
  21. #! The Hobbit (Tolkien)
  22. ! The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
  23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
  24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
  25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
  26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
  27. # Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
  28. # The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
  29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
  30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
  31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
  32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
  33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
  34. 1984 (George Orwell)
  35. #! The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
  36. ? The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
  37. ? The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
  38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
  39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
  40. ? The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
  41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
  42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
  43. ? Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
  44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
  45. ! Bible
  46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
  47. #! The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
  48. ! Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) (tried it; too depressing)
  49. # The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
  50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
  51. ! The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
  52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
  53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
  54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
  55. #! The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
  56. ? The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
  57. #! Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
  58. #! The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
  59. ! The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
  60. The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
  61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
  62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
  63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
  64. #! Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
  65. ? Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
  66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
  67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
  68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
  69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
  70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) (tried to read in French, but didn’t get far)
  71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
  72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
  73. Shogun (James Clavell)
  74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
  75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
  76. ? The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
  77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
  78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
  79. ? The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
  80. # Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
  81. ? Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
  82. # Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
  83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
  84. ? Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
  85. Emma (Jane Austen)
  86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
  87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
  88. ? The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
  89. ? Blindness (Jose Saramago)
  90. ? Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
  91. ? In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
  92. # Lord of the Flies (Golding)
  93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
  94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
  95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
  96. # The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
  97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
  98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
  99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
  100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

[tags]literature, book, meme[/tags]

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DailyLit

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Are you a busy mom who has always wanted to read the classics but has limited time?  Do you have a full-time job that saps your energy and leaves you unable to read at the end of a long day?

Have I got a site for you!  DailyLit (via Anne).

I’m finally tackling Moby Dick, but choosing a book was hard.

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