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If you listen to only one tango today about being attacked by snakes, let it be this one.

Two days until I see “Wicked” on Broadway.
Ten days until The Dresden Files premieres on Sci-Fi.

Priscilla is a happy camper.

This semester is getting off to a promising start!

The Good:

• I’m definitely not taking that hideous-sounding particle dynamics physics course that Norm suggested I take. I went to the first class, and the professor greeted us with “Now, I assume you’ve all had Physics 230.” I had not. When it became clear that this was going to be very important to the class, I got up to leave. The professor stopped me and asked me about myself, and when I told him I’d signed up for the course because of an interest in fluid simulation, he told me they wouldn’t even touch on fluids. HUZZAH!
• My Digital Figure Modeling class made it, and the times are actually quite nice! Monday 7:30-10:30pm (I’ll have to DVR Heroes and Studio 60) and Tuesday and Thursday 12-1:30. I talked with Scott and Laura about my Senior Project, and I’m really excited about it.
• My “Myth in Ancient and Modern Society” class looks super cool, and my friends Lisa and Elaine are also taking it! Yay! Course description, for those curious: In this course we will explore the mythologies of selected peoples in the Ancient Near East, Africa, Asia, and Native North and South America and examine how the gods function in the life and belief of each society. The study of mythological texts will be accompanied, as much as possible, by illustrative slides that will show the images of these deities in art and ritual.

The Bad:

• In order to avoid having Digital Figure Modeling class on Saturdays, I had to give up my Astrophysics course. Now I have to find a new Natural Science course, and they all sounded unbelievably dull. As all the other Natural Science courses that look interesting conflict with my Myth in Society course, which sounds awesome, I’m stuck with a Psych course called “Judgments and Decisions” (Judgments, decisions under certainty and uncertainty, problem solving, logic, rationality, and moral thinking.) But I’d rather take that than give up Myth in Society, so it’s all good.

The Neutral:

• I’m giving up the Computer Vision class. It looked interesting and valuable, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to take five classes this semester, with my senior project and everything.

Incontestable Fact: If Ko were a stuffed, dead chicken, she’d be the hottest stuffed, dead chicken EVER.

Several people have asked me for the reading list from last semester’s amazing Feminist Fairy Tales class, so here it is!

The First Class
Early Versions: “Bluebeard” (Charles Perrault), “Beauty and the Beast” (Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont).
Revisions: The Bloody Chamber (Angela Carter)
Essays: “Notes from the Frontline” (Angela Carter), and “When We Dead Awaken: Women’s Writing as Re-Vision” (Adrienne Rich).

Cinderella
Early Versions: “Yeh-hsien” (Chinese), “Cat Cinderella” (Giambattista Basile), “Cinderella” (Charles Perrault), “Cinderella” (Brothers Grimm)
Revisions: Disney, “Ashputtle” (Angela Carter), “Ashputtle” (Peter Straub), “Cinderella” (Anne Sexton), “Cinderella” (Broumas).
Essay: “America’s Cinderella” (Jane Yolen).

Snow White
Early Versions: “The Young Slave” (Basile), “Snow White” (Grimm), “Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree” (Jacobs)
Revisions: Disney, White as Snow (Tanith Lee), “Snow, Glass, Apples” (Neil Gaiman), “Snow White” (Broumas), “Snow White” (Sexton), “Snow White to the Prince” (Delia Sherman).

Little Red Riding Hood
“Little Red Riding Hood” (Perrault), “Little Red Cap” (Grimm), The False Grandmother (Italo Calvino), Golden Flower and the Bear (Chiang Mi), “The Story of Grandmother” (Delarue).
Revisions: “Little Red Riding Hood” (James Thurber), Company of Wolves (movie), “Little Red Riding Hood” (Broumas).
Essay: Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood (Zipes).

Sleeping Beauty
Early Versions: “Sun, Moon, and Talia” (Basile), “Sleeping Beauty” (Perrault), Brier Rose (Grimm).
Revisions: “Briar Rose” (Anne Sexton), Thorns (Tanith Lee).
Essay: “Tactics of Revisionary Mythopoesis” (Blau DuPlessis).

Rapunzel
Early Versions: “Petrosinella” (Basile), “Rapunzel” (Schultz), “Rapunzel” (Grimm).
Revisions: “Rapunzel” (Anne Sexton), “Root of the Matter” (Gregory Frost).

The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf
Early Version: “The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf” (Hans Christian Andersen)
Revision: The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf (Kathryn Davis)

Donkeyskin
Early Versions: “The She-Bear” (Basile), “Donkeyskin” (Perrault), “All Fur” (Grimm), “The Princess in a Suit of Leather” (Bushnaq).
Revisions: Deerskin (Robin McKinley), The Armless Maiden introduction (Terri Windling), “Allerleiraugh” (Jane Yolen), “Donkeyskin” (Windling).
Essay: “Donkeyskin, Deerskin, Allerleiraugh: The Reality of the Fairy Tale” (Helen Pilinovsky).

Hansel and Gretel
Early Version: “Hansel and Gretel” (Grimm)
Revisions: The True Story of Hansel and Gretel (Louise Murphy), “Gingerbread” (Buffy episode), “Hansel and Gretel” (Sexton).

Witches Abroad (Terry Pratchett)

Beauty (Sheri S. Tepper)

12 Dancing Princesses and The Snow Queen
Early Versions: “The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes” (Grimm), “The Snow Queen” (Andersen).
Revisions: “Twelve Dancing Princesses” (Sexton), “The Girl Detective” (Kelly Link), “Travels with the Snow Queen” (Kelly Link), The Ice Puzzle (Catherynne Valente).

Exactly two weeks from now, I’ll be watching The Dresden Files on Sci-Fi. If you’re not, you’d better have a good excuse. (Hint: If “Desperate Housewives” is your excuse, watch the rerun at 11/10c. :D )

And this Saturday, I’ll be seeing Wicked on Broadway! Bweeeeeeeeeeeee!

This is a surprise! Jennifer Morrison and actor Jesse Spencer are engaged! Yes, Cameron and Chase on House. Also, Gina Torres and Laurence Fishburne are expecting a baby! Good for them, doing their duty as really, really pretty people to fill the world with more really, really pretty babies. :D

Hey, Alanis! Say one of your ears got infected shortly after you got them pierced, and you’ve been faithfully taking care of it for months with Bactine and Neosporin. Then upon returning home for Winter Break, you went to the dermatologist to get allergy testing, only to find out that it was not Nickel as you suspected you were allergic to, but two substances that happen to be found in Neosporin and Bactine.

I’d say that’s ironic.