they had a "new orleans" theme dinner today in the dining hall. the dining hall servers were masked and there were beads everywhere. food didn't look that promising, however. i asked for a very small helping of everything. the jambalaya was unexciting, the gumbo unappetisingly salty, and the muffaletta, which made me think of poach immediately (we'd shared a huge one on the river bank in new orleans last thanksgiving) was unsatisfyingly unlike the original. i had some crawfish, but that was rather bland, and at some point so prawn-like i abandonned it. so i give them a last chance and ask for the pork loin. one bite and my life was transformed. tender juicy insert expected adjectives here. had a second helping immediately. good mood somewhat dented on the way back. was caught in a snow scuffle that i was trying to keep away from, nonetheless much snow came my way, nevermind i didn't know any of the boys involved, chi2 yu2 and all that you know. (there su-lin, that's another proverb for you to fill in the blanks) anyway i'm sitting here fatly contented and not very willing to start on my greek homework or my readings (for some reason, they assigned the castle of anthlin and dunabyr together with one of jonathan edwards' sermon and gray's elegy. that is VERY weird. time to go to lecture to find out how they'll put it all together) started an entry about green herrings and jakobson this morning, but by the time i came back from class and thought to finish it my brilliant insight looked rather foolish. sigh. another day. addy's good friend urvashi is coming to visit tomorrow, and i'm looking forward to meetiing her. she's a miltonist and has got in here and will probably be studying with professor nohrnberg. one day, this planet will be overrun by nohrnberg devotees, and half of them would be my recruits. *glee* i wonder if i should go and look at that pooh bear in barnes and noble again. yen and su-lin encourage me to get him, but minyin is shocked that i would want any other bear than bear. i also don't want to hurt the feelings the already out-of-favour mouse and louis the duck (who is named for louis in trumpet of the swan, not macneice!!!) not to mention robert dudley, the brown mediocre overdressed bear. (my dad said to name him dudley, but i said everyone would think he was harry potter's snivelling cousin, so i called him robert dudley, which no renaissance scholar better laugh at me for!) and vimes the esso tiger. although only bear and mouse are *real* in the velveteen rabbit sense. incidentally if i buy a pooh, can i name him, or is his name intrinsically pooh? i want to name him w.h.r. rivers. i have decided i don't really want more bears or any other kind of stuffed animal except so that i can name them (sort of like, when we had to do that project on the computer game civilisations/age of empire whatever it is called, and i only liked it so that i could name cities after boys i liked, and the one i liked best got the library) but su-lin took all the good names already. i should learn to give literary names, like she does.

aha. i submit what i found from an old su-lin mail for your edification

appendix a: list of bookish names albus (the wise bear) alexis (the cat with green stars) almanzo (the ditzy turtle) antony (the shiny caterpillar) ashley (the sweet eyed turtle) barkis (the dog on the basket) digory (the bemused dog) fledge (the clay butterfly) fitzwilliam (the shell-less turtle) gilbert (the timid owl) oliver (the new-hatched dinosaur) peepiceek (the wooden mouse) pip, pipsqueak and pirrip (tiny bear, tinier bear and their friend)
the one that nobody gets is alexis, so i might as well tell you it's the one from antony and cleopatra.

i have a revived interest in janacek. have i already said this? oh well. i do. very discovery of heaven.