Elusiveness in Eliot, Middlemarch Madness and Thesis Thursday

My Dad sent this to me near the end of my freshman year with a fresh box of tea to keep me going during finals. That was obviously before I started drinking coffee my sophomore/ junior year. I love post-it notes. They are so multi-purposeful! Heather and I, for example, have a quote wall where we write funny things we say or hear people say on post-it notes. People like to come in our room and read them, even when we're not there. We also prank people with them (usually the inhabitants of KKG 10), write to-do lists and leave little encouragements around the room for each other. The are like mini-epistolary communications!

Monday I had a precis due for my Southern Lit class on my research paper, Tuesday I had a paper due for my journalism class and Friday my thesis is due. It is easy to say I have been a busy and highly caffeinated little bee lately! Last night was the Trace Buncy concert, which was awesome and then Taylor, Zach and I had a thesis writing party into the wee hours of the morning (say, 5 a.m.? That made my 8 a.m. interesting, to say the least), with guest appearances by Mitch, Trevor and Henry, the Delts' mascot. I've made really good progress and am feeling good about it. I started my entire thesis over because I decided to re-organize the information. This is easily my 8th draft/ version to better follow the format of the Moynihan Report. We'll see how far I get today.

No matter what happens tonight though, I'll be home tomorrow, and that's what's pushing me through. Spring Break is coming very late this year. It normally happens around my birthday, which is nice, because then A) I'm home to celebrate my birthday with my family and B) Dad and I could have gone out to the pub for a beer on St. Pat's Day, like we did last year. That would have been really great. Oh country roads, take me home! This SB10, I'll be writing two papers, two articles and catching up on reading, etc. so it won't be a relaxing break per se, but I will be home with my family, dog and friends, and what will be wonderful. :)

Thursday poem: "Macavity: The Mystery Cat" by T.S. Eliot

Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw--
For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime--Macavity's not there!

Macavity, Macavity, there's no on like Macavity,
He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime--Macavity's not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air--
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity's not there!

Macavity's a ginger cat, he's very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly doomed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
And when you think he's half asleep, he's always wide awake.

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square--
But when a crime's discovered, then Macavity's not there!

He's outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard's.
And when the larder's looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke's been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair--
Ay, there's the wonder of the thing! Macavity's not there!

And when the Foreign Office finds a Treaty's gone astray,
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scap of paper in the hall or on the stair--
But it's useless of investigate--Macavity's not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
"It must have been Macavity!"--but he's a mile away.
You'll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs,
Or engaged in doing complicated long division sums.

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macacity,
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibit, or one or two to spare:
And whatever time the deed took place--MACAVITY WASN'T THERE!
And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
(I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!

First Things is hosting a Tournament of Novels! (Middlemarch Madness, shall we say?) Definitely vote, it's good fun. Warning: there are lots of good books, you may be forced with near moral dilemmas picking between them.

Here's some music to soothe y'all through Thursday and into Friday...

Johnny Flynn's "The Wrote and the Writ"


Regina Spektor's "Laughing With"


The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"


and this was good to hear since we're entering into the specialization of science epoch in History of Science and Christianity:


Happy Thursday! One week till Holy Week officially begins!

"Lent is a time when we relive the passion of Christ. Let it not be just a time when our feelings are roused, but let it be a change that comes through cooperation with God's grace in real sacrifices of self. Sacrifice, to be real, must cost; it must hurt; it must empty us of self. Let us go through the passion of Christ day by day."
--Blessed Teresa of Calcutta