January 25: Shoveling Snow and Book Club, Classic Saint Marty, New Cartoon

It is a little after 4 p.m.  I have spent the day preparing my home for the invasion of book lovers.  The members of my book club are showing up at 6:30 tonight to discuss Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See.  A great book, probably headed for at least a Pulitzer Prize nomination this year.

So, Friday night I cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed.  Last night, I swept and mopped the hardwood floors, and then I made a double batch of mini crescent weenies.  And, this afternoon, I shoveled my front yard and driveway.  (Split my pants in the process.  I took a spill in the street and felt the seams of my pants give way.  There was a brisk breeze blowing through my nether regions for the rest of the shoveling.) 

In a little while, I will heat up my weenies (please refrain from any crude jokes) and put out some plates and utensils.  It will be a good night with good friends.  A nice way to end the weekend.  And there will be plenty of good food to eat.

Today's episode of Classic Saint Marty first aired two years ago.  I was teaching poetry to a group of second graders...

January 25, 2013:  My Best Subject, Second Graders, Poetry

...All I said was English was my best subject.

"Oh, really?  Oh, I'm so glad!" the one with the glasses, that taught English, said.  "What have you read this year?  I'd be very interested to know."  She really was.

Holden is speaking to a nun he has met in a restaurant.  The nun teaches English, and she strikes up a conversation with Holden about Romeo and Juliet.  Her enthusiasm reminds me of many of the middle and grade school teachers I've known.  They have unbridled enthusiasm for their students and subjects.  And they fill me with their enthusiasm.


This morning, I taught poetry to a class of second graders.  Their teacher, "Ms. Rita," was my daughter's kindergarten teacher.  I've been teaching poetry lessons to her classes ever since.  Six years in a row, and I've loved each time.  There's something very uninhibited about six- and seven-year-olds.  They are game for almost anything.  I've had Ms. Rita's students write poems about colors and animals and themselves and similes.

This year, I had them write found poems.  Basically, a found poem is a poem assembled from the lines and words of another source.  I did a poem based on Jack Prelutsky's work.  I did another based on Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.  And I did a third one based on words I found on a package of Dove chocolates.  Then, the second graders had to "find" their own poems.

The class had just finished reading the story of the Gingerbread Man, so a lot of them chose that as a source.  It was fun and a little out-of-control.  We talked about chocolate and hippo chips and math.  And, after an hour, they sang me their "Thank You" song.  It was awesome.

Saint Marty wishes his college students were a little more like second graders, or maybe Saint Marty needs to be more like a nun.

I'm not sure this would be a good look for me

Confessions of Saint Marty