Triply Tagged!

Well, I'm not a big meme fellow, but today I was tagged and tagged and tagged again. I can take a hint! Behold, then, the 8 Things Meme....

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1) There's an X-Files character who shares my name.

2) I have held an Oscar. It was heavy!

3) I now know a frightening (to me) amount of Dewey Decimal numbers... and what they mean.

4) I have a copy of Winnie the Pooh in Esperanto. At one point in time I was convinced I'd learn Esperanto. Then... uh... I don't remember what happened, but I can safely say it's never been a problem that I'm not fluent.

5) I have seen every Abbott and Costello movie multiple times... but have definitely not seen a single one of them in the past 20 years.

6) Every year, I attempt to decaffeinate for two weeks. Please note the word "attempt."

7) At Christmas time, I can do The Grinch off book. The rest of the year, I can do far too much of The Lorax off book....

8) I have never met a Game Seven of a best of seven sporting event that I didn't like. Team Handball, Albania vs. Malta, Game Seven??? Let's make the popcorn!


I don't enjoy tagging others (hey, this is like a bonus factoid/habit!), but I'll give a meme-tag to Tina, Terry, all three Mermaids, and Alan, assuming they've all been tagged anyway (though please note that NONE of their blogs have proof of my supposition!).

Fib talking...

I don't talk about Fibs here as much as I'd like. I still write 'em, still enjoy 'em, and still am fascinated by how they spread... and continue to spread. I've seen Fibs in syllabi, in poetry journals, in poetry books, and all around the web, not just in the comments of my blog. In fact, this week alone I stumbled into a page devoted to fabulous Fibs, and learned of fellow blogger Minge relaunching his Fib Sundays.

As always, I love to hear about places y'all have encountered Fibs (of the poetic kind!), and in particular I love hearing stories of Fibbing in the classroom. So if you've got a good story, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me. Thanks!

And the survey says...

What better on a long weekend (well, long for those of us in the States, at least) than a report from the trusted news source... the Onion? Exactly. Nothing. And so...

Study: 38 Percent Of People Not Actually Entitled To Their Opinion

an excerpt:

"While people have long asserted that it takes all kinds, our research shows that American society currently has a drastic oversupply of the kinds who don't have any good or worthwhile thoughts whatsoever. We could actually do just fine without them."

More soon, but now I gotta book....

Oddaptation: If I Ran the Circus, If I Ran the Zoo, On Beyond Zebra, Scrambled Eggs Super

It's been a few months since my last Oddaptation (and if you're new to the concept, please see the label below or the links over on the right hand side of the blog to understand what an Oddaptation is (hint: attitudinal cliff notes) AND to see prior ones). In the interim, I'd gotten a couple notes asking me to Oddapt more Seuss. So I figured, huh, why not do a bunch of Seuss at once? I could probably add to this title (Happy Birthday to You, anyone?), but four books at once seemed enough. But if you feel the need for more than four, feel free to add to the list!


IF I RAN THE CIRCUS/IF I RAN THE ZOO/ON BEYOND ZEBRA/SCRAMBLED EGGS SUPER
by Dr. Seuss
Oddaptation by Gregory K.

These books share a gist:
Each works as a list.
The plots don’t much matter,
Though sometimes kershplatter.
You don’t know that word?
Then it’s time that you heard
These books invent things
Like pwabackalecklings.
So read ‘em aloud
To any size crowd
Or just son or daughter...
And wish they were shawter.




A Wrung Sponge has the Poetry Friday roundup! Get thee hence....

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C'est Impossible!

That's what it seems like to me when I realized that there's a whopping three weeks left to the school year... and when I realized that that type of thing has an impact on my life! Gone are the days, I guess, when school was but a distant memory....

So now I ask my fellow librarians/teachers -- any favorite end of the school year read-alouds? Think K through 3, and please hit me with your best shot!

Boom, Boom - Out Go the Lights!

So, last night was gonna be poetry writing night hereabouts. Don't get me wrong -- I write poetry all the time, but I never seem to have contiguous hours to do it, so I have been trying to reserve one or two nights a week to do nothing else. OK, maybe I pay bills if needed. Or a few other things. But the point is, it's poetry night!

Anyway, I'm getting mentally ready as the hour draws near. Sharpen the pens, start yellow pad number 28 (each pad having only 2 or 3 pages scrawled on it, of course), clear the brain of other thoughts. And all of a sudden -- it's dark. I mean TOTALLY dark. I mean the type of dark that you don't experience unless your power is out, and all your little green and blue and red lights that dot your house and indicate "power on" disappear. Because our power wasn't on. It was totally, utterly off.

I had a romantic notion of lighting candles and scribing in the flickering light. I saw myself dipping a quill into ink and working anyway. I visualized myself telling the story of brilliant poetry spewing forth the night the lights went out.

But it was really dark!

So, I followed the muse of Ben Franklin and went early to bed. This morning, indeed, it was early to rise (a blinking 12:00 if my clock is to be believed). And yes, the power's back... so pretty soon I expect to be healthy, wealthy, wise, and well lit. I'll let ya know how it goes, but now I gotta book.

It's a Fiesta. It's a Carnival. It's a blast!

Get thee to Chicken Spaghetti and view the 14th Carnival of Children's Literature. There's a great selection of posts that line up with the theme of the event, then there's a bunch of slackers like me who simply picked something not quite on point! But mix 'em all together, and it's a mighty good time.

Dusty... dirty... done.

With a big ol' contingent of hardworking fellow volunteers, we managed to recover from a month or two of library neglect, bring a slew (defined officially as 1500) of books out of their staging area and onto the shelves, and kicked up a lotta book-dust. All in all, a good time.

But as we put books on the shelves, we started to have piles of the great unknown. Those books that defy classification for the un-Dewey indoctrinated... or maybe for anyone. What do you do with a book that's written in two languages, but the name of the second language is never identified and sure doesn't look familiar to anyone around. And does our library really need -- and where should we put -- a copy of The Courtin', a poem by James Russell Lowell illustrated by Winslow Homer. Yes, that Winslow Homer.

In the end, sans internet connection, we ended up with a few boxes that returned from whence they came, awaiting another day of volunteering fun. But any day you add hundreds and hundreds of new picture books to the shelves is a good day in my book.

Friday. Poetry. They mix, I tell ya.

My attempt this week to write an "end of school year" poem was, well, it was an attempt, but not a successful one. So instead of posting an original poem on this lovely Friday, I direct you to Kelly's blog for the Poetry Friday roundup!

Shelving. And then some.

So, here as we approach the end of the school year, finally, at long last, we're getting a day in the library to organize, re-organize, alphabetize, and shelve, shelve, shelve. Yes, with 5 weeks to go! Still, I'm excited, as the beast has gotten out of control, and this is the chance to tame it.

I recently typed up a list of the read-alouds from the last two years, and realized that I have, indeed, spent at least some of my time well. It's a fine list of around 160 titles, with a great range, I must say with everything from the funny to poignant, silly to sublime, fiction to non-fiction, poetry to wordless picture books, and a lot of stuff in between. Have I hit my goal of making sure that every student in the school has seen their life reflected in something we've read? It's surely possible, though there's room for improvement there. I hope to spend the summer reading tons of books I don't know, so I can find the ones that hit sweet spots I've missed.

But for now... boy, do I want to simply get everything put away once! Here's hoping....

A quick spin...

... around just a tiny bit of my blogroll leads me to

Remind: it's the upcoming Carnival of Children's Literature at Chicken Spaghetti. Submit a link by Thursday.


Don Tate deserves kudos!

I'm sure I missed linking to The Edge of the Forest, and that's just plain wrong, cuz it's mighty fine reading.

And... oh, heck. There's too much! Get thee to my blogroll and enjoy!

Moms, you should know...

... that late at night, your spouses and children and others who love you are plying the internet...

Searching...

Getting increasingly desperate...

Hoping to find a love connection with...

A poem for you.

Yes, a poem, if the Google searches coming my way are to be believed. And the odds are, whatever they find, you deserve it and then some.


So happy Mother's Day to all the moms in my life... on and offline!

Hmmm. I want to...but should I?

Oh, heck. I must.

Someone asked me if they could put some of my poetry on their blog for Poetry Friday! Well, yes. Of course. Look, there I am a few entries above Shakespeare....

I know. I know. I could add witticisms here, but instead I need to direct Mom to a computer....

Hip Writer Mama has the Poetry Friday roundup right here.

And thanks again, Tabatha!

Poetry Wednesday?

Why not? So, a little shout out and tip o' the cap to Straight Goods, Canada's leading independent magazine, for running my Mother's Day poem in their current issue. It's under "humour" which makes me happy both by the title and by the extra U for us under the border types. Good times indeed!

Searched out... but why?

So, I admit that every now and then I look at the search terms that drive people here. Stop laughing! I can define "now and then" however I'd like, thank you very much. Mostly I do this for amusement and education. But there's ego gratification, too, as I get a lot of folks searching for specific poems of mine along with my name. However, this weekend got me something different entirely:

Someone entered a complete poem of mine in Google. Not my itty, bitty Pluto one, either. Nope, this was a longer one, and they entered the whole text. So the question is... why?

My first reaction is cynical -- it was a teacher who had a student turn this poem in as their own and decided "Hmmm. This has rather sophisticated wordplay. I wonder...." Does anyone else share this idea? Teacher-readers o' mine... does this happen?

Now, it's also possible someone had copied the poem and couldn't remember where they'd gotten it and wanted to see from whence such witty or putrid verse came. Or they wanted to give me fair attribution in a report/paper/email. Or... well, I'm open to other reasons.

Anyone got any? Curious, indeed, at least to me....

Ooooh. The Summber SCBWI Conference!

Perhaps it's not with the same excitement that Steve Martin greeted the phone books in The Jerk, but I was quite jazzed today to see that the SCBWI summer conference information is up!

As always, the highlights are numerous. Lee Bennett Hopkins is back! Lisa Yee! Linda Sue Park! And... and... AND! I can't go on. Too much. But what's truly exciting is the nice showing from the kidlitosphere. Among those highlights are Kelly, Cynthia, and the Class of 2k7, and... and... and...! This means, hard as it is to believe, that the Conference will likely be even more fun and more blogged than last year.

Will I be seeing you in LA from August 3 to 6? I hope so....

A Search Fib for Poetry Friday...

This is certainly an original composition, though as with most Search Fibs, it's not clear that it's a poem, per se. But heck, some mighty fine search terms have rolled in of late, and this is as good a way for sharing as any. And again let me say... boy there are a lot of different search mechanisms out there!

Kelly's been nice enough to round up the Poetry Friday links today. Go on and check it allll out.


Fib
Flib
Tell fibs
Prune bathroom
Good scrotum supports
Is Mother's Day time to play sports?

Link overflow...

So, after the extravaganza of last month, I find the links on the right hand side of my blog looking pretty... well... linky. I mean, there are a LOT of links over there. My blogroll, full of remarkable places everyone should visit, has slid farther down as my links of poems has grown to around 80! Then again, I remember when my blogroll was three or four. Times change.

Still, I'm trying to come up with organizational techniques for those poem links. I do want them all there, since they get a lot of action, so to speak, but there must be more efficient ways to group them. Anyone with thoughts on this, feel free to send 'em my way.

And don't get me started on how many other fantastic blogs there are out there, with new ones popping onto my radar all the time. Today, thanks to Barbara Jean Hicks (out with the wonderfully titled (and living up to it) The Secret Life of Walter Kitty), I learned about the chock full o' info and anecdote Editorial Anonymous -- another must read for us kidlit writer types. Good stuff out there, indeed. If only there were 25 hours in a day, with one hour designated "blog reading time." Someone call Congress and make it so!

He speaks!

OK, it's not like I was silent in April. In fact, I probably had more total posts in the month than any other one this year. But I felt a tiny bit out of touch. So...

How are you? I'm fine. What's been going on? Oh, that's nice. Same here.

May promises to be exciting around these parts, just cuz I say so. Poetry will continue (and I thought it would be funny if I'd simply posted another poem today). I'm overdue and Oddaptation (requests?). And... well, you gotta stay tuned.