Water colors.

Kitchen with upgraded table and tablecloth

I’ve always felt a bit awkward posting some information about work on a personal blog.  I’m not one to get my panties in a twist about little things, and the big things are often of the type that are probably best left off of an internet forum.  I’d like to keep this blog updated with general information on my academic and professional life, but perhaps leave the critique of my experiences for a more personal blogging sphere.  That being said,  on to something else!

My new favorite quote of recent times comes from 19th century travel lecturer John L. Stoddard.  I am still ironing out details of his life, but I’m crashing my way through his printed lectures on the British Isles.  His chapter on England initially got me a little nervous about committing to this topic – he was rocking the antiquated British writing style a little too heavily!  Eventually his charm and wit won me over.  I’m particularly enamoured of this gem, which he claims belongs to the French (generally):

“Flirtation is merely love in water colors.”

Took me a minute to get it, but once it sunk in my brain gave a little appreciative sigh because of the visual image this conjures up.  Love in pastels.  Pretty, but lacking permanence.  (Not to knock water colors at all, of course!)

The Travelogues of Stoddard and his successor Burton Holmes (who upgraded to film, sound, and color) are my new replacement topic for paper (b) from the last post.  My original topic turned out (two months into class) to not sit well with the professor anymore, so I jumped ship just in time to leap into a Stoddard and Holmes lifeboat.  So far the lifeboat floats pretty well.

How my roommate opens champagne bottles! Okay, not really.