Emotions, Morality and facing our own Mortality.

I’ve always encouraged my students to express their emotions openly. Emotions are involved in our moral decisions. Our brains are actually hardwired for morality. Research in neuroscience shows that ancient synapses within the brain light up intuitively when we make moral decisions. These studies have typically used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and other neuroimaging

Le Sacre du Printemps – or the most surprising riot.

OTD 111 yeas ago, arguably the greatest musical scandal and riot took place. Unlike shock rocker Alice Cooper’s 1980 cancellation in Toronto, this performance played till the end (despite the orchestra drowned out by rioters). Introducing the OG shocker Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps The ballet, performed by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and was equally

Mathematic warmups.

With school returning next week, here’s a fun puzzle to help shake out the cobwebs. This is a yohaku (余白) puzzle designed to test ones’s number sense and problem solving skills. The aim is to fill the empty/negative cells such that they give the sum or product shown in each row and column. They can

Analysis of Bruce Dawe’s poem “Katrina”.

Katrina by Bruce Dawe Katrina, now you are suspended between earth and sky. Tubes feed you glucose intravenously. Naked you lie In your special room in Ward Fifteen. Is you life Opening again or closing finally? We do not know, but fear The telephone call from a nurse whose distant sympathy Will be the measure

Critique/analysis of John Donne’s “The Good-Morrow”.

The Good-Morrow by John Donne I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we loved? Were we not wean’d till then? But fuck’d on country pleafures, childifhly? Or fnorted we in the feven fleepers’ den? ’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be. If ever any beauty I did see, Which I

Critique/analysis of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot S’io credessi che mia risposta fosseA Persona che mai tornasse al mondo,Questa fiamma staria senza più scosse.Ma per cìo che giammai di questo fondoNon tornò viva alcun, s’i’odo il vero,Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo. Let us go then, you and I,When the evening is spread

Analysis of Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress”.

To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell Had we but world enough, and time,This coyness, lady, were no crime.We would sit down and think which wayTo walk, and pass our long love’s day;Thou by the Indian Ganges’ sideShouldst rubies find; I by the tideOf Humber would complain. I wouldLove you ten years before the Flood;And

Analysis of Sir Thomas Wyatt’s “Whoso list to hunt”

Whoso List to Hunt – Sir Thomas Wyatt Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,But as for me, helas! I may no more.The vain travail hath worried me so sore,I am of them that furthest come behind. Yet may I by no means, my worried mindDraw from the deer; but as she

Critique/analysis of Sylvia Plath’s ‘Mushrooms”

Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath Overnight, veryWhitely, discreetly,Very quietly Our toes, our nosesTake hold on the loam,Acquire the air. Nobody sees us,Stops us, betrays us;The small grains make room. Soft fists insist on Heaving the needles,The leafy bedding, Even the paving.Our hammers, our rams,Earless and eyeless, Perfectly voiceless,Widen the crannies,Shoulder through holes. We Diet on water,On

An analysis of Sylvia Plath’s “The Arrival of the Bee Box”

The arrival of the Bee Box – Slyvia Plath I ordered this, clean wood boxSquare as a chair and almost too heavy to lift.I would say it was the coffin of a midgetOr a square babyWere there not such a din in it. The box is locked, it is dangerous.I have to live with it