Professor Carol
Piddling about online, I came across this announcement: The Roanoke County Public Schools is currently seeking applicants for a Latin Teacher for the 2023-24 school year. In my day, Roanoke, Virginia boasted a half-dozen middle and high school Latin teachers spread across the school system. The two who touched my life had … Read more
Last week’s story of Swiss lettuce apparently hit a chord. Not only the comments, but individual emails to me stated lovely things, including your own adventures in international grocery stores. Someone asked, did I intend to write about tomatoes next? Alas, my only tomato story … Read more
Last Friday morning I stood before a very large group of exuberant teachers to tout the priceless value of folk songs. I had been invited to give the keynote address to the Phoenix-area network of Great Hearts Classical Schools. This one-day symposium was serving as … Read more
It has been a tough week at Professor Carol. We were in Germany when sudden malfunctions hit our website: error messages, odd formatting, and the like. And then the site went completely down at several points. The problem was simple to describe. It dominates the … Read more
My train got in late to Interlaken. Disembarking at Interlaken West, I should have continued four more minutes to Interlaken East station. Had I done so, my automatic-pilot route to the hotel would have been correct. Instead, I dragged my suitcase about a quarter mile … Read more
As a child who hardly left her street growing up, I cannot fathom what it is like for children who have monumental opportunities to travel. What must it feel like to observe, absorb, and become fluent in the atmospheres, customs, and languages of places far … Read more
There is a dues of 5¢ each meeting. You must obey the president. You must come to as many meetings as possible. You must bring a message if one of the members who lives near you can’t come, and learn why if possible. [Signed] Carol … Read more
Last week my topic revolved around lilacs. This week a different topic is flying around: Pantry Moths. Encountering these fluttering nightmares evokes no beautiful poetry or songs, nor can I find paintings that portray them in all their glory. Instead, I am mired in the … Read more
May I share a melody and invite you to think about lilacs today? Composed by Sergei Rachmaninov around 1900, the song Siren enhances a poem by Ekaterina Beketova (1855-1892) who, in her short life, wrote poignant verses begging to be set to music. In the … Read more
