It’s Sunday, which means that all our students will be arriving back in Chicago, ready to begin the new quarter tomorrow (we’re on a system of three ten-week quarters). It’s still cold in town today, with temperatures predicted to be just below the freezing point; but outside Hili’s house in Poland it’s a chilly -14°C (7°F). On this day in 1962, Pope John XIII excommunicated Castro (I’m sure Fidel cared), and, in 2000, the last original Peanuts comic strip was published, a strip I followed obsessively as a pre-teen (I cut out every day’s strip and put it in a scrapbook). Finally, on January 3, 1892, J. R. R. Tolkien was born, living until 1973.
And some news from the BBC. In San Diego, USA, a pair of twins were born at the end of the year, one at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31 and the second four minutes later. They not only have different birthdays, but were born in different years!
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili engages in an abstruse dialogue with Malgorzata (she usually talks to Andrzej) that has been given a title:
Schrödinger’s Philosopher
Hili: You have translated a lot of articles.M: Quite a lot.Hili: Could you translate an article about a philosopher in an ivory tower who exists or doesn’t exist?
Hili: Dużo tych artykułów przetłumaczyłaś.
Małgorzata: Sporo.
Hili: A czy możesz przetłumaczyć jakiś artykuł o filozofie w wieży z kości słoniowej, który jest albo go nie ma?
Meanwhile, Leon, out for a stroll, discovers 2016:
Leon: So that’s how the New Year looks like!
Oh dear. Tree cat meets windowsill cat.
Hili is barking up the wrong tree.
I wonder what Leon would do without the restraint of the leash?
Meowing up the wrong tree.
Not to get too pedantic but there are four quarters in UofC’s academic year. Most people take the summer quarter off. But there are indeed four ten week quarters – plus an exam week at the end of each.
I like the pace of quarters more than semesters. In a 15 week semester, there is a lull at some point. No lulls in quarters. And UofC likes to cram a lot into a quarter. I thought we would cover the same amount of material in three quarters that would be covered in two semesters at other schools. Not true. We usually did more in a quarter than others did in a semester. For me, the comparison was easy. I was a math major as an undergrad and then went to business school. Material is fairly standard. And we were doing more in a quarter than others were doing in a semester.
What? Tolkein is dead? But … but … but … there are so many more of his books coming out year after year. It’s almost as if a mine of old paperwork were being re-hashed time and again.
Castro was excommunicated by Pope John 13th.
Now that’s what I call foresight!