The Best of Mary Schmich

In the B trimester of English I, we are going to be studying various columnists and the art of column writing.  Each freshmen English teacher took on the task of reading one collection of columns.  I chose The Best of Mary Schmich and I could not be happier with my choice.  Mary is a columnist for The Chicago Tribune and I loved her writing style.  I felt such a strong connection to her and kind of feel like we should be friends.  So many of her columns were ones I connected with on a personal level.

The book as a whole is divided into various categories where you see her best columns, respectively.  For example, one section contains all columns on her mother (they are hilarious), another is titled "Holidays", yet another "Chicago."  She has a way of taking the small things in life and making them seem important, big.  I think my favorite column was one she wrote about her mother and her obsession with leftovers and not wasting anything.  So many of her comments reminded me of my own grandmother and her obsession with filling her doggy bag with the remnants of the bread basket.  Mary Schmich's column captures this essence of someone who has lived through the Great Depression perfectly.

Here is the column in its entirety.  Enjoy!

My mother's motto: You are what you reheat By Mary Schmich, August 27, 2004

 Millions of words have been written about the difference between the so-called greatest generation and we wimps who have followed, but after a recent visit from my mother I realize that one aspect of the gap has not been fully addressed:

Leftovers.

To my mother, a refrigerator packed with leftovers is a Goodwill of edibles, a place where second-hand meals unwanted by the persnickety are thrilling to those with more generous attitudes toward food.

To put it another way, reaching into my refrigerator when my mother's in town--or into hers when I'm visiting--is like diving for hidden treasure, only the treasure is apt to be borderline moldy and the only sparkle comes from the tinfoil wrapping.

During any visit from my mother, and for a while after she leaves, I'm apt to reach into the fridge and wonder: What's this? Ah, a foil-covered coffee cup containing five spoonfuls of leftover canned vegetable soup. It wasn't good to begin with. It has not improved with age. But my mother couldn't stand to see it go to waste.

And this? Oh, that's right. It's half a cup of rice Mama scraped off her dinner plate, with a few specks of other food collected in the harvest.

Lifting a piece of foil from a bowl, I recall the conversation that led to the preservation of its contents.

"Honey," my mother had said as I headed toward the disposal with the salad. "Don't throw that away."

"Mother, it's three leaves of greasy, soggy lettuce and one really sorry-looking cherry tomato."

"I'll eat it for breakfast."

"Breakfast? Breakfast is for cereal. Eggs. Scones. Fresh food for a new day."

She had beamed a maternal smile, the kind suggesting that one day when I grew up, I'd understand. "Breakfast is whatever you make it."

That's a beautiful philosophy as applied to life, but some things are hard to stomach at 7 a.m.

Obviously, lovers of leftovers are of all ages, races and creeds, and saving leftovers is the proper thing to do. But I'm talking about the radicals, people who not only save every uneaten molecule of every meal but later eat every last one. And even though we live in an age of sophisticated, disposable, zipping, locking products designed to conserve leftovers, those radicals are likelier to belong to my mother's generation.

Like many people I know, I often forget leftovers I've saved. Until my mother visits.

"Mother, what are you eating?" I'll say when I discover her at some lunch she has rustled up on her own.

"I found this in your refrigerator."

"Oh my God. That's been there for weeks. Doesn't that look a little blue-green to you?"

"It doesn't smell bad. Would you like some?"

My mother also goes to restaurants primarily to hijack leftovers. To her, a restaurant is not a place to eat a meal; it's a place to stock up on future meals. No sooner has the waiter set the plate on the table than she exclaims, "Oh, I am going to have some good leftovers!"

She often leaves with a box containing the leftovers of everyone at the table, as well as the remains of the bread basket. She also likes to stuff her pockets with packets of Sweet'n Low and butter.

"But it's free," she'll say when I note that her jacket is bulging with contraband as we leave.

In truth, I admire that she doesn't take food for granted, and I once asked her to speculate on her passion for saving and consuming food others would deem past its prime. Was it having lived through the Great Depression? World War II?

Maybe, she said, but it was also the result of raising eight kids. She wouldn't eat until we were done, and then she would settle for whatever was on our plates.

She's left town now, and my refrigerator is looking a little less mysterious. But when I tossed out a moldy bread end the other day, I couldn't help a flush of shame as I heard her voice, kind and reasonable: "Honey, that would still be good if you just trimmed the edges."

Source: http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2010/07/mefs.html

Early Reading

This picture was taken last Friday at MECC when I went to guest read to my daughter's kindergarten class (Doesn't she look so much like me?  Ha ha).  Little kids are sooooo excited about books.  I swear they had comments about every page of The Halloween Queen.  This is a cute little story of a protagonist (a little girl dressed in a bumble bee Halloween costume) who is scared to go trick-or-treating to the spookiest house on the block.  She (oddly) has no parents with her, even though she looks quite young.  Nevertheless, she travels door to door and finally gains the courage to go up to the scary house.  When she knocks, a woman dressed as a witch answers and waves her inside.  To the bumble bee's surprise, there is a fun (and not-so-scary Halloween party inside).  The bumble bee girl has fun with all her friends and at the end the witch takes off her mask to reveal......

Drumroll please!

That it is really their favorite teacher in disguise.   It is a cute read.  We got it from the Mason Public Library and had been reading it all week so Tessa really wanted me to read it to her class. 

I am impressed that only two months into kindergarten she is reading simple books aloud by herself.  These little minds are sponges and I'm sure she'll be reading Romeo and Juliet like all my 9th graders in the blink of an eye.  

Weekend Update

I finished The Kindness of Strangers a few days ago...and I have to be honest.  It was a sad book.  It almost reminded me of Pelzer's A Child Called It but instead of just physical child abuse, it was sexual abuse.  Knowing that, the details were not particularly graphic (which I appreciated).  They were more about the emotional effects the abuse had on Jordan, the victim.

I read a few other articles about childhood abuse that I found interesting and wanted to link to:

APA:  This link is very informational about what do do if one suspects abuse and how to help a childhood victim.

Facts and Frequency:  This site offers a number of facts and statistics regarding sexual abuse of children and astounded me.  I didn't realize the numbers were as high as they are.

I think this book is definitely more for adults of mature high school students due to the subject matter.

My new book is called The Midwife's Confession.  It was another goodreads suggestion and though I'm only about 5% in, so far it is very well-written and intriguing.  The author, Diane Chamberlain, is one that shows up frequently on my goodreads recommendations, so I'm looking forward to trying her out!

Watch this video to check out Diane Chamberlain talking about where she gets her inspiration for her books!  I'll update as I read more!

Blog of the Week

This week I'd like you to check out Ashley's blog here.  I really like her post from September 26, where she uses images and pictures to discuss theme.  Such a unique idea!  Make sure you check out her blog and leave a comment!

The Kindness of Strangers

I just started The Kindness of Strangers last night.  It was one of my suggested books on goodreads and I'm so glad I downloaded it from OverDrive through the Cincinnati Public Library.  I have to say though, it is sad, sad, sad.  And I'm only about 25% of the way through.  The title sounds like it might be an uplifting read, but well...it is not.  I think it may turn that way though.

Basic plot is there are two families that have grown close over the past four years when one of the two families moved near the other one.  In one family. there is a mom and her two sons (her husband, Roy, passed away of cancer two years prior).  The other family is a mom, dad, and Jordan, an only child.  The first mom find Jordan walking to school in the rain one morning and picks him up, insisting he ride with her to school.  But he was acting all out of sorts and insisted she stop at a gas station so he could use the restroom; he says he is going to be sick.  She does.  He goes inside, but never comes out.  After waiting for awhile, she decides maybe he needs help or is really sick.  She finds something else completely - Jordan has attempted suicide by stabbing himself with a needle filled with drugs in his neck.  He is foaming at the mouth and unconscious.  She drags him to her car and hightails it to the nearest hospital, calling to say they were on their way.  And what the doctors and nurses uncover is long-standing sexual abuse.  After a home search, they find that he has been a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of his father for quite some time.

This book is gripping.  It is sad.  And definitely for mature readers.  The summary on the back of the book suggests that the other family is going to foster young Jordan, which I think will introduce more conflict, as the kids are not exactly friendly with each other.  And I hope and pray for a happy ending this time around.  It is one of the saddest beginnings of a book I have ever read...

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? By Maria Semple

There were a number of young women in my 9th grade English classes that chose to read Where'd You Go, Bernadette? for their summer reading novel, so I put it on my goodreads list and it finally became available on OverDrive last week.   It is written in a multi genre format, which normally I love, but I'm not sure I do this time around.  The plot is unique - It takes place in Seattle, where a bigwig Microsoft exec's wife, Bernadette, basically goes off the deep end.  After living in Seattle for over ten years, she has not a friend to her name, except Mandala, a women she has become friends with online, who it ends up is a scam trying to get her money.  (So far, Bernadette has sent Mandala social security numbers of her family members, bank account information, credit card numbers...it's not looking pretty).  Meanwhile, her husband is trying to get a doctor to commit her to a temporary hold in a psychiatric hospital, both against her will and without her knowing.  Meanwhile, their teenage daughter narrates the part of the story that isn't written in the multi genre format.  She is just like any teenage girl, trying to fit in and find her place among her friends.  I am about halfway through at this point and am really curious about what is going to happen next.

Here are a few questions I have:

• Where is Bernadette going to go?  Is she going to leave in the physical sense, or is the title referring to her "leaving" mentally?
• We just met her dad's brother, who is going to be staying with the daughter while Elgie (the big wig) attempts to get Bernadette placed in a psychiatric hospital.  Van (the brother) lives in Hawaii and definitely seems to have a free spirit.  Is he going to become a main character, or will his visit be short-lived?
• Will Elgie be successful in committing Bernadette?
• What is going to happen to their Antarctic adventure?  (They are currently planning and about to leave on a trip to the southern hemisphere)

This book is okay so far.  I don't love it, but I don't hate it.  It is a relatively easy read with a unique plot, but it doesn't keep me on the edge of my seat.  I should finish it this weekend and then I will update my thoughts.
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Update on 10/14/2013

This was a very quick read and I finished it earlier this weekend.  I thought the book was okay, and if you don't want any SPOILERS, do not read on.  I just want to model for my students how when I have questions (see above) I can go back and answer them.

1.  So Bernadette ends up going on their previously scheduled trip to Antarctica.  She escapes when her husband and others try to stage an intervention to get her help at a mental treatment facility.
2.  Elgie's brother ended up being a very minor character.  In fact, once Bernadette disappeared and Bee and Elgie started searching for her, I don't think Van was mentioned again.
3.  Elgie was not successful in committing Bernadette, but it seems by the end that she wasn't really as crazy as the author had originally made her seem.
4.  The Antarctic adventure was one plot twist after another, but all three of them did make the trip and there was a happy ending.  (I don't want to ruin everything for you if you decide to pick this one to read).

Sidenote: I don't ever want to go to Antarctica.  The description of the cold and how it felt on their faces.  Not fun!  I think I'm more of a beach-goer when it comes to vacation!

Blogs of the Week!

Lots of great blogs out there!  A few of my favorites to check out include:

-Marcel from bell 4.  Check out his post titled "Androids with a Side of Aliens." The title says it all, and if you like sci fi, you may want to check out Marcel's blog!

-Nicholas Sparks fans, be advised that Kayla has a great recommendation for Safe Haven on her blog.

-And for a multi-sensory blog experience, check out Caitlin's blog.  She knows how to do a lot of cool features on her blog!

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!  Be safe at Homecoming and have fun!

Before I Fall

You know the phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover?"  Yea, well I kind of did that...in a way.  I started reading Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall because I noticed that several of my female students were also reading it.  And at first, I (sorry in advance) thought it was not so good.  It was cheesy and unrealistic and the main character, Sam, was very unlikeable.  She was superficial, arrogant, and cruel.  Basically a mean girl. 

At the very beginning of the book, she is in a car accident and "dies" after a night out drinking with the rest of the senior class from her high school.  The first chapter took us through her entire last day and basically shared example after example of how superficial she was.  For example, her and her friends think they rule the school and basically cut another girl off for a parking spot (the other girl was there first, but not as cool, so they stole the spot).  The author shows Sam cutting class to sneak off to "The Country's Best Yogurt," and playing a cruel prank on the school "loser," Juliet Sykes.  She and her friends send Juliet a single rose with the note, "Maybe next year."  It is Cupid day at the school, where freshmen and sophomore girls deliver roses to the students.  It is basically a popularity contest to see who gets the most roses.

After her "death," she wakes up the next morning and it is still Cupid day.  Sam gets the chance to relive the day over.  And over.  And over.  I think right now I'm on the 4th do-over of Cupid day and I am finally starting to like Sam.  At first, she used her do-over days to be a complete snob, overspend with her parents' credit card at the mall, seduce a teacher (yes, that really happened).  But then she realizes how stuck-up she is and actually starts to change.  One of her days she tells her mom she is sick and spends the entire day hanging out with her  younger sister.  And the next she realizes she has to help Juliet change the path of her life to prevent her from committing suicide.  And you know what...she becomes a likeable character, a girl I would respect and maybe even be friends with.  This book reminds me of Groundhog Day, a movie from the 90s where the main character keeps waking up and reliving the same day.  Here's a trailer for that movie.  Most of you have probably not seen it:

Both the book and this movie show how characters and their decisions are really able to change plot events and influence other people. I love this line from the book: "It amazes me how easy it is for things to change, how easy it is to start off down the same road you always take and wind up somewhere new.  Just one false step, one pause, one detour, and you end up with new friends or a bad reputation or a boyfriend or a breakup.  It's never occurred to me before; I've never been able to see it.  And it makes me feel, weirdly, like maybe all of these different possibilities exist at the same time, like each moment we live has a thousand other moments layered underneath it that look different."  I couldn't have said it better myself!