maureen hasall keeps referring to the "bith-gnomes" of the old english rune poem in her book. which if you stare at for too long start to make you think of some species of ugly lawn ornament. this is supposed to be a gnomic semester for me, what with ziolkowski's class and the riddling in donoghue's tutorial, but enough is enough. which brings me back to the teabags in dudley. i have lately discovered that each tea bag comes with a pithy (well necessarily, to fit onto a teabag) sententia on how to live well. well once in a while it is that; the rest of the time i get dreaddful punes, or a play on words. which has made tea-drinking a bit like opening a fortune cookie. sort of like the nel which flashes a quote each day on the platform, or the cheery inspirational messages that pop up when yen starts up her office computer.