Amelia

I just saw that Reading Rainbow ended Friday after 26 years on PBS. As a child of the 80s, Reading Rainbow played at least a part in my love of reading and books.

This NPR article discusses why the show ended.

Grant says the funding crunch is partially to blame, but the decision to end Reading Rainbow can also be traced to a shift in the philosophy of educational television programming. The change started with the Department of Education under the Bush administration, he explains, which wanted to see a much heavier focus on the basic tools of reading — like phonics and spelling.

Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that's not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do.

"Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read," Grant says. "You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read."

I'm starting to panic a bit about exams. I know some of you know this. Also they've turned on the heat in our building. Even though the heat in our apartment is off since it's 85 degrees outside our apartment is 95 degrees. I can't sleep.

So what do I do when you can't sleep and are worried about exams? Read? Sadly, no. I can't focus that much.

I buy books online. Some of this is reasonable since these are books I should have in my personal library. Some of this is stupid since I can borrow (or have already checked out!) these books for free from the library. But somehow owning them will make me feel more comfortable? Since I don't have to worry about returning them (even though I think my due dates are next May or something.)

On an even more pathetic note, after I spent way too much money ordering books, I emailed my mother with a list of "useful early birthday presents." At least I included more of the pretty exhibition catalogues on her list, because it's nicer to give someone a pretty book than a boring theory book? (and, okay, the lovely illustrated catalogues are way more expensive.)

I think I just spent all my shoe money on books. My brown heels broke last week (the ones that broke earlier and I had the heel reattached. Well this time they broke in the middle of the heel so there's no fixing them.) This means that I cannot wear half my wardrobe until I get a pair of brown work-appropriate shoes. A rare time when I actually need new shoes. But I have little-to-no motivation to go shoe shopping. A stress-induced tragedy of sorts.

At least I'm gaining good spouse credit by taking the 8-noon shift at the bonspiel tomorrow morning so Denis can sleep in a little and be to work on time. Which means I have to get up really soon. Bother.

Random stuff from last week:

-at work ended up in our extended storage area and the people who run it are also doing some work for Jim Henson and guess what was out on the shelf? The original Bert and Ernie!!! So cool!!! I wish we had been able to poke around the boxes but no luck.

-went to my first ever modern dance class with J. Thursday. A lot of fun, but a challenge. The stretching and warm-up were great. The choreography went pretty fast but I faked it and had a good time.

-spent my first weekend in two months at home with Denis. It was nice to just have a quiet restful couple of days. (Bonus he made delicious potato and leek soup (with spinach and bacon) that we have been devouring all weekend.)

-thoughts on some random books: Really liked Omnivore's Dilemma highly recommend it, made me feel awesome about my CSA membership (especially after last week's delicious peaches). I finally finished Blindsight by Peter Watts. It was excellent, harder sci-fi than I usually read, but really interesting characters and great aliens.

-and movies: Silent Hill was better than I expected (good imagery if you ignore the "plot"), Shopgirl was worse than I expected (Lost in Translation without the chemistry or character development), and The Prestige was just as good as I expected (and I wasn't spoiled, nifty casting Bowie as the Croatian Tesla).