What Kind of Punctuation Are You?

quotation marks
You scored 69% Sociability and 70% Sophistication!

There is a lot more to you than meets the eye. You certainly get plenty of "action," but you'd be happier if those who lusted after you were more selective. You hate being used as a general intensifier; haven't these people ever heard of underlining? Italics? And yes, you remember the cruel words Mr. Joyce directed at you. But you let none of this get you down; those who abuse you are destined for a "special" reward, sooner or later. You feel particularly warm toward periods, commas, exclamation points, and question marks, and usually wish to have them next to you. Parenthesis can sometimes trouble you.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 92% on Sociability You scored higher than 72% on Sophistication

The Which Punctuation Mark Are You Test written by Gazda on OkCupid

"My Lobotomy": Howard Dully's Journey

In the context of my course on representations of mental illness, questions often come up about various medical procedures that were once used to treat psychiatric patients. During our discussion of Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, students were appalled by the institution's use of shock therapy and transorbital lobotomy. They asked many questions about both procedures and were amazed to learn that some doctors still use electro convulsive therapy--otherwise known as ECT--and that more than 50,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States between 1949 and 1952. In answering some of their questions, I directed them to a recent series of NPR stories about lobotomies, the most interesting of which includes oral histories from lobotomy survivors. Though current methods of treating mental illness might not be ideal, they've certainly come a long way.

Turkey Day

Aviva and I went to Akron to visit her family for Thanksgiving. Though we were only there for a few days, we did manage to fit in plenty of shopping and lots of eating. Aviva's aunt, Rhonda, fed us like kings. Until I ate Thanksgiving dinner at the Harrison's last year, I'd never actually tasted sweet potato casserole; I'd just seen it referenced in many movies and television commercials. Well, it's worth all the hype.


In addition to making a fabulous Thanksgiving day feast, Rhonda also cooked something different for breakfast each day: biscuits with pumpkin butter, muffin tops, a spinach-tomato-egg casserole. All delicious, of course. It was quite an indulgent departure from the usual cold cereal or oatmeal! In fact, the entire weekend involved a lot of eating, including a trip to Aviva's favorite Akron restaurant, Swenson's--a drive-up hamburger joint that makes killer milkshakes.

The weekend also involved a lot of laughing over bird antics. We introduced Jezebel, Aviva's parakeet, to Peepers, Rhonda's cockatiel, and their first encounters went remarkably smoothly. There were some interesting moments, however, with both birds attempting to dive bomb the other like fighter pilots. In a particularly spectacular attack on Peepers, Jezebel ran smack into Rhonda's cheek and almost fell into my cup of coffee.


Though we avoided the stores that are really popular with post-Thanksgiving shoppers (Wal-mart, Best Buy, etc) we did visit the outlet mall where I found a few Christmas gifts. Before we knew it, the weekend was over and it was time to return to Rochester. Sigh. Now we are both feverishly marking students' papers and preparing for the end of the semester.

Audio Books

I woke up this morning and decided to do something adventurous--purchase my first audio book. I've been contemplating this for a while, thinking it might be nice to shake up my ipod listening routine. I use my ipod a lot during the winter, when the weather forces me to rely on the gym to get in my workouts. Though I don't mind the treadmill and the track, I sometimes feel like a pathetic pet hamster, especially on days when I'm trying to get in a really long run. The gym does have televisions but they tend to set the channels to ESPN or MTV--not exactly my style. So, I thought listening to NPR's This American Life or an occassional audio book might make the whole experience a bit more interesting. I did a bit of research on Audible.com, which has been receiving mixed reviews, to say the least. Even so, it seemed like most of the bad reviews were coming from people who'd set up "free subscriptions" and were not able to cancel the subscription before being charged for one or two months. Others complained about compatibility problems with their MP3 players and still others found the selection of books too limited. So, I had some hesitation, wondering if signing up for their service was going to turn into a huge headache. I decided to take my chances and try something simple to start: purchase an episode or two of This American Life and see how it goes.

After downloading the software that would allow me to listen to the files via iTunes, I made my audio selection and waited for it to download. The whole process took only a few minutes and I quickly headed out the door to try it out. The weather was beautiful here in Rochester, high 60s and clear, so I went out on a long walk with Fargo, listening to the second part of "Teenage Embed," about a California teenager who returns to his family's hometown in Afghanistan, where his father is now governor. Well, I think I'm hooked. The audio quality was fantastic, just as good as listening to the program on my AM dial, and the program was just what I've come to expect from TAL--engrossing and educational. At first I felt a bit guilty, like I was sbeing a bad dog owner, walking along in my radio bubble while Fargo snuffles through fall leaves and points at squirrels feverishly collecting their nuts. But then I realized I'd walked more than twice as far as we usually go on our morning walk. So, I'm thinking he won't really mind if I muti-task as I walk him. After all, he seems only too happy to reap the benefits of a longer walk!

So, since that went so well, I think I'll purchase something else. They currently have tons of books on sale for $9.95, which is a real bargain, and you can burn them to CD for listening in the car, etc. And there seem to be plenty of unabridged fiction, including Nicole Krauss's The History of Love, and Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, both of which I've been dying to read. The question is, can I actually say I've read these books after I listen to them? Mmmm. I'm sure I'll still stick to the paper versions for books I'm really interested in. I can't imagine getting more than a cursory understanding of the text from their audio versions. Still, I think it'll keep me from avoiding the gym over the dark, cold winter months. And I might introduce myself to some interesting new writers.

Pumpkin Carving and Cemetery Walks

Rita and Fred were visiting for a few days and we suggested that they do what every Rochester visitor has to do at least once: visit the Mount Hope Cemetery. And, given that it was Halloween, such a trek seemed even more apropos. In addition to visiting some of the cemetery's most famous residents, Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, we wandered around and enjoyed the beautiful fall landscape.


Because the week before Halloween was so busy, Aviva and I neglected to complete one very important item on our to-do list: carve pumpkins. Last year, Aviva bought three or four beautiful pumpkins for carving but someone stole them off our front porch before we had a chance to unleash our artistic sides. Too disgusted to go out and buy new ones that year, we saved the carving kits and vowed to revisit the task in 2005. Unfortunately, real-life obligations prevented us we from getting around to the actual carving until Halloween evening. So there we were, at about 6pm, just getting started on the carving. And we decided to pursue lofty goals--carving elaborate stencil designs using this set of tiny carving tools purchased at Target. Kids tend to come to the door in droves in our neighbourhood and we were determined to get the work done before all the trick-or-treaters had come and gone. We finished just in time to put the jack-o-lanterns out on the step to greet the last few bunches of kids. Mine is the witch one on the left; Aviva, surprise surprise, insisted on the horse design.

Rita got into the spirit of things, donning a harlequin costume that earned her the title of "scary lady" from a few visitors. Word quickly spread about her costume and one girl expressed her severe disappointment when I appeared at the door. She asked, "where's the scary lady," like my jeans and tank top (covered in pumpkin guts, I might add) were a total rip off.

Although Fred decided not to wear his costume, he got the brilliant idea of making Fargo wear it; unfortunately, Fargo didn't like the clown shirt, in large part because the sleeves were too long and prevented him from walking. He didn't seem to mind the clown neck ruffle, however, so he greeted trick-or-treaters as "clown dog" until we turned out the lights and shut down the candy buffet at about 8:00pm.

After distributing four five-pound bags of candy, we decided it was time to call it a night. By that time, Fargo was exhausted and we managed to catch a shot of my dog looking more lethargic than I ever thought possible. Here he is after what looks like a long night of saving the world as "super dog."