March 30

Word of the day : obviate
                                          : to anticipate and prevent (as a situation) or make unnecessary (as an 
                                            action) 

What's going through my mind right now:

End of March upon us.  Hope Julia gets job at Lamar or DuPage or Salem St.  Would love to move to Beaumont, TX, Chicago, or Boston.  Want Gabriel to get over his cold.  Praying that my hemorrhoids continue to get better.  Need septic tank to keep working.  Great games last night - amazing comeback by Michigan.  Will take Daisy for a walk soon.  Probably should cut grass this weekend.  Don't know what to watch tonight but glad that HBO and Cinemax are free this weekend - got a bunch of movies recording.  Can't wait to watch the American Masters program featuring Philip Roth. 

Julia and I re-watched The Namesake last night, our first time seeing it since we saw it in an Evanston movie theater six years ago.  If you haven't seen it, you should.  It's a delicate, smartly-directed, faithful adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's first-rate novel, with two great, moving performances by the wonderful Indian actors Irrfhan Khan and Tabu as a husband and wife who move to America in the late 1970s to work and raise a family.  How much you believe or like Kal Penn in the crucial role of their son Gogol might determine the level of your appreciation of the movie, but, regardless, his understated turn is overshadowed by the tremendous work of Khan and Tabu.  Very sad and deeply felt.  Directed by Mira Nair. 

Anna Sewell was born on this date in 1820.  I've never read Black Beauty, the book she is most known for but I do own it and I will read it soon.  Her mother was a successful children's author, and, throughout her life, Anna helped her edit her manuscripts.  She herself wasn't published until she was 57!  Published about a year before her death, Black Beauty was written as a way to "induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses."  Born in Norfolk, England and raised in a family that moved around a lot, Anna found a role model in her hard-working, pious mother who taught Anna a love of animals.  Anna had chronic ankle problems and never walked normally.  She never married or had children.  She traveled as well as she could, to health spas throughout Europe, and even taught Sunday school.  She had no idea that her novel would become a best-seller and have a big impact on the burgeoning anti-animal cruelty groups popping up in England at the time.   

(Thanks: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/anna-sewell-author-of-black-beauty-is-born)

Picks for this weekend:

Ohio State over Wichita St.
Syracuse over Marquette
Louisville over Duke 
Michigan over Florida 

(So Far:  Correct - 40 ; Incorrect - 20)
                           
  




Image courtesy of: 

http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/image/detail/Black-Beauty-Anna-Sewell.jpg