Some More Pretty Pictures

So today, class, we are exploring some American painters. I hope you enjoy (I certainly did).

Inness "Home of the Heron"

Don't you just feel it? That brooding expectation?

Cassatt "Breakfast in Bed"

Isn't this just beautiful and wonderfully understated?

I love her profile, and for some reason her right arm. It's very elegant, but that right arms adds a great deal of reality to the piece.

Apparently she was quite the scandal, with numerous affairs and possible abortions (very daring for the time period). You know women of the age would sometimes put arsenic on their skin to make it translucent (so you could see the blue veins underneath. How strange!)

Whistler, "Blackboard"

I love her dress, the texture and such.

The British Language

Here are some fun British phrases I hope you'll enjoy:

Lollipop man: The crossing guard in front of schools.

Jam tomorrow: a common expression meaning that if you do something today you'll be rewarded tomorrow.

nouse: common sense; intelligence

scupper: to defeat (originally it was used in the Hornblower sense, as in to sink an enemy ship)

chuffed: delighted, pleased ("chuffed to bits")

Sod off!: Go away!

moose: unpleasant, boring; ugly person

Family White Elephant

Every after Christmas and before New Year's we have a family adult Christmas party that includes the passing of white elephant gifts. This year this is what my brother brought:

In case you can't tell that is a drum cymbal with a self-help relationships video, a glow stick, and hand warmers taped onto it. It was voted as one of the worst gifts present. The other gift that tied for worst was my cousin's sack lunch that he took out of his car and wrapped up with the host's wrapping paper.

This party is usually very fun, as my family can get quite creative with what they bring. There were also some Cialis pill boxes (empty, but containing money), a plethora of dollar-store man-candy calendars, a jar full of homemade puppets' heads, and I think my personal favorite was a live lobster wrapped up in a macey's clothing box. Ah, family.