Korea

I forgot to show you my best gift. One of the kids gave me a nicely wrapped bottle of vitamins. It’s actually an ideal gift for a teacher considering that your kids sneeze on me and cough directly at me all day long. A bottle of valium would have been better but this thoughtful.

“I have great lesson and English Happy Day” - Mark, grade 3

“Dear Martha Teacher hello teacher I’m Jay” - Jay, grade 1

“You make me fun and exciting” - Cindy, grade 5

Today is Teachers’ Day so now I have more lotion than I will ever know what to do with. Here are some fantastic cards that the kids wrote where I’m adressed as everything from Martha Teacher to Mayju Teacher.

alexn92:

pull-out:

A new book-cover design of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita by Jamie Keenan Among the problems Nabokov’s Lolita poses for the book designer, probably the thorniest is the popular misconception of the title character. She’s chronically miscast as a teenage sexpot—just witness the dozens of soft-core covers over the years. “We are talking about a novel which has child rape at its core,” says John Bertram, an architect and blogger who, three years ago, sponsored a Lolita cover competition asking designers to do better. Now the contest is being turned into a book, Lolita: Story of a Cover Girl, due out in June and coedited by Yuri Leving, with essays on historical cover treatments along with new versions by 60 well-known designers, two-thirds of them women: Barbara deWilde, Jessica Helfand, Peter Mendelsund, and Jennifer Daniel, to name a few. They don’t shy away from frank sexuality, but they add layers of darkness and complication. And like Jamie Keenan’s cover—a claustrophobic room that morphs into a girl in her underwear—they provoke without asking readers to abdicate their responsibility.

—Recovering Lolita

This is my Korean twin, I just remembered why she stood behind me in the photo, she had insisted that she has a big face (which is the worst possible thing that can happen to you), very crafty technique. Also my shirt is untucked - I wondered how long this went on.

We went to see Asobi Seksu on Saturday, they played well, it was a long set and there was a really cute Korean opening band called LoveXstereo that did a good cover of Wave of Mutilation.

Iris Apfel is so very.

(Source: dollarmakesmeholla)

I’ve had enough of this whole “Aiden, Hayden, Jaden, Cayden” phenomenon. How the hell have the Korean parents caught on to this heinous naming trend when just a decade ago they were giving out names from the forties like Janice and Terrence. I already have a Jaden and an Aiden in my afternoon kindergarten class and then the other day I was delivered a kicking and screaming Hayden. I almost told the mother that I do not accept this name and to take her child and leave forever. I told the co-teacher that I will be referring to everyone in this class by their Korean names but then I realized that the boys and girls alike are all named Jee-Yu. There’s no way to win unless I start calling them Ginger, Baby, Scary, Sporty and Posh without their parents noticing. (Also I got my wish and Hayden was withdrawn because he could not stop screaming.)