Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the third day of the month is "Direction."
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Before I get started with the meat of this post, let me remind you that we will be starting our A Tree Grows in Brooklyn book club one week from today!
July 10 (Chapters 1 - 5)
July 17 (Chapters 6 -10)
July 24 (Chapters 11 - 18)
July 31 (Chapters 19 - 26)
August 7 (Chapters 27 - 32)
August 14 (Chapters 33 - 37)
August 21 (Chapters 38 – 41)
August 28 (Chapters 42 – 45)
September 4 (Chapters 46 – 51)
September 11 (Chapters 52 – 56)
September 18 (entire book wrap up)
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North: There's an apartment complex directly across our street to the north and the river is just past that.
East: Neighbor lady Robyn, she of beautiful yardwork and constantly telling us what to do with our own landscaping, her duplex is next door; followed by the guy with the two pitbulls who need saved; there's a street after that, and on the corner is a toddler playground for the Lutheran school.
South: The church. Enough said.
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West: Our neighbors with the adorable poodles (Phoebe and Petra, yo) have a gorgeous green Victorian. There's also a giant pine tree that is going to destroy both of our houses if it falls down.
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Did you learn the Never Eat Soggy Waffles acronym in school? Do you have a giant tree in your yard that you're kind of scared of?
I use Never Eat Shredded Wheat!
ReplyDeleteI discovered that you can get (in Canada, anyway) the Kindle edition of ATGIB for $1! That's one CANADIAN dollar! Hot tip from me!
I have heard Never Eat Shredded Wheat, too! I wonder if it's regionally divided.
DeleteOoohhh...$1 for ATGIB! A bargain! It is $13.99 for a Kindle version through Amazon here in the States. Go get your bargain, girl!
Thanks for the reminder! My copy of ATGIB is in at the library and I'll pick it up today.
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved into this house we had three huge trees, one in the backyard and two in the front. The one in the back had roots that grew under the patio and started to crack it, so we had to cut it down. The two in the front had roots that grew into our sewer pipes and caused all sorts of problems, so they had to go too. So sad! No wonder there's no shade in Florida.
We love the trees for shade and birds, but I do worry about them causing plumbing problems and I really worry that they're going to fall down and hurt someone. Ugh. Adulting problems.
DeleteHey reading Nicole and Jenny's comments gave me an idea - we should all send in pictures of our copies of ATGIB. It would be fun to see all of the different editions and who's reading the physical book vs Kindle.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time that I've heard of Never Eat Soggy Waffles so I've learned something today.
Oh, that's a fabulous idea! I'll make it homework that everyone send me a photo of their book and I'll make a collage!
DeleteLove this idea! I have my grandma's copy on my bookshelf
DeleteI'm pretty sure I never heard that! I can't think of any way I was taught to remember directions. Though I do remember the one for planets (my very educated mother just showed us nine planets), so my memory does work sometimes!
ReplyDeleteThat tree does make me nervous! Where I lived in MA, there was a tree across the street from my bedroom window, and I was so sad when they took it down, and I was looking straight at the house across the street instead of into the leaves. But I'm sure they did it because it wasn't safe, and I would rather have no tree than one that came down on my building!
I have all the mnemonics down, I think. PEMDAS, FANBOYS, the planets one. I just always feel like there's something out there everyone knows but me!
DeleteThanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteI never had anyone teach me the directions (that I recall). I must have learned them from maps in school at some point.
That huge pine tree! The pollen must be hellacious.
I mean, the pine cones are hellacious, but the real pollen comes from all the other nonsense in our yard. Ha! I love it, though. The jungle appeals to me.
DeleteI was taught "Never Eat Soggy Wieners"
ReplyDeleteAs much as I miss the lovely large shady back yard of our first house, I do *not* miss the leaves to clean up in the fall and the constant fear of a tree falling on our house.
We have a tree on the west side of our house that probably should come down, but my husband and one of our neighbors sort of refuse to admit it's at the end of its life cycle. Someday we'll have to have someone come remove it.
DeleteI joke about being scared the pine will fall on us, but we had an arborist come out and look at our trees a few years ago and he said it was the healthiest tree in the yard and would outlive us and our houses, so...
OMG, I almost forgot about Never Eat Soggy Waffles! Were you taught HOMES for learning the Great Lakes? Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. ❤️
ReplyDeleteYES! HOMES is another great one! I did learn the Great Lakes that way.
DeleteI never learned Never Eat Soggy Waffles! I always sort of remembered it as NEWS which is, of course, stupid because it isn't clockwise. The only mnemonics I remember are My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas (or Nachos, now that there is no Pluto) and FACE and Every Good Boy Does Fine for the notes of the treble clef.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do have a giant tree in my yard that I'm afraid of. Less afraid since I had an arborist come out and check its health and trim the branches. But when the lightning cracks and the wind howls, I still worry it will crush us all in our sleep.
My daughter and I STILL haven't made it through Chapter 1 of Brooklyn, so I'm wondering if we'll be able to keep up. Maybe I need to read ahead on your schedule (since it sounds like there are some Icky Topics I would like to be aware of in advance) and then read to her more slowly.
Ah, yes, I am reading ahead a bit to make sure that I have time to devote to each of the ATGIB posts and, man, MY PARENTS LET ME READ THIS WHEN I WAS TWELVE? There's so much sexual assault, Sissy's dead babies, and ugh. It's kind of intense and I don't remember it being that intense? Maybe our young brains just sort of skate over what we don't understand? I would definitely recommend you read ahead!
DeleteI think that's absolutely what happens. I started reading Danielle Steel when I was 8, and the sex stuff sort of just grazed me. I read ATBIG in 3rd grade and same.
DeleteI tell you what, I am deeply regretting getting my niece a copy of ATGIB for her birthday! I'm really hoping that all this stuff goes over her head and she doesn't ask too many questions.
DeleteI didn't know the Never Eat Soggy Waffles acronym (not surprising, since I didn't grow up here... but now I am trying to think if we had something similar in German.. I can only think of a little rhyme to remember them: "Im Osten geht die Sonne auf, im Süden steigt sie hoch hinauf, im Westen wird sie untergehen, im Norden ist sie nie zu sehn." (The sun rises in the East, it climbs in the South, it sets in the West, and you never see it in the North.)
ReplyDeleteHmmm...your German rhyme reminds me of "red at night, sailor's delight/red in the morning, sailors take warning" or "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue," which are oddly ubiquitous. Where do these things come from?
DeleteI have issues commenting on blogspot blogs unless I use my daughter's laptop (my others are mac, and I don't know why, but I have issues.) Anyway, I'm here now, and telling you that I bought 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' and will start reading it soon to participate. Yay! I've never heard the NESW acronym either. Our neighbors (a big apartment complex) have a huge eucalyptus tree that I hate. It drops leaves on our ground, which are acidic and make it difficult to grow anything, plus they are very greedy with the water and nutrients. And it periodically drops branches. Thankfully after much pressure from us, they did trim it back, so there is no longer a branch hanging over our daughter's bedroom.
ReplyDeleteYay! I'm so excited that everyone seems to be on board for ATGIB! I'm super excited to hear what everyone has to say about it.
DeleteOur yard is just full of trees plus a train track and the potential for disaster is omnipresent... and I try not to think about it too much...
ReplyDeleteI mean, you can't think about it too much, can you? Or you'd never be able to sleep!
DeleteI have never heard that acronym.
ReplyDeleteI am so ready for ATGIB. I have my copy of the book and can't wait to dive in. And on the "content" is it CRAZY to me the things I read as a tween that I just didn't think about. There are so many layers to some of these great novels and I do think that either I was really stupid or just...didn't get life. Either way, I'm so glad.
I think this was why I hated Jane Eyre so much when it re-read it this year. Now that I'm a grown, married, mother things just resonate in a completely different way with regard to treatment of women/marriage/motherhood than when I read them as a teen.
I do not think young Elisabeth was stupid! I think our brains just protect us from what we don't need to understand when we're reading something that's a bit too grown up for us. It's much more likely that you just didn't get ADULT life at the time!
DeleteI tried to read Jane Eyre in 2021 because it was on a list of great romance novels I was trying to power my way through and it just seemed like straight torture porn to me. I never read it as a child, but I can't imagine I would have thought it was okay back then, either? Would I? I guess I'll never know. I DNFed it relatively early on.
Never Eat Shredded Wheat for me (Canadian, though a few provinces over from my darling Nicole). I had July 4 in my head for the first four chapters of ATGIB and I was stressing a bit but read them in bed this morning (after reading the first bits aloud to some friends at the cottage we were at this weekend), and I am now relieved to find out I was early and afraid I will just keep forgetting the relevant dates and still be late. I will try to put them in my calendar, but my phone isn't beside me right now and it's entirely possible I will forget by the time I find it.
ReplyDeleteAh, I didn't start on the 3rd/4th because it was an American holiday and I knew I probably wouldn't get a lot of traction. That being said, Labor Day is September 4, so I didn't manage to avoid all of the holidays.
DeleteThere will be regular reminders here about the book club, so hopefully they'll get on your calendar one way or another!
I *still* say Never Eat Soggy Waffles to remember my directions, hahaha. It's such a gross-sounding acronym for me, but it works!
ReplyDeleteI think I am going to tackle the first 5 chapters of ATGIB on the plane ride to Charleston! YAY!
You know what? I actually kind of like soggy waffles when they're soaked in butter and syrup. It's probably the best part of the waffle to me - the last bit of sogginess left on the plate. So maybe now you know more about my eating habits than you wanted to!
DeleteLike others, I learned "never eat shredded wheat"! So I thought this post was going to be about soggy waffles! Ha! I'm from North Dakota so maybe we are close enough to Canada to be taught their approach to the ordinals!
ReplyDeleteI have heard both versions! I don't know which one is regionally appropriate! I'd like to be an honorary Canadian, so maybe I'll start saying shredded wheat to fit in there better.
DeleteI do remember that acronym...thanks for the reminder of it. I enjoyed this 'walk' around your home, but I'm kinda worried about the giant tree now!
ReplyDeleteAccording to the arborist, it's a very healthy tree. We should all stop worrying. (Although, none of us will.)
DeleteI read the title and thought, why is she talking about the points on a compass? So clearly, the mnemonic resonated with me! I don't know the others you mentioned above, though: PEMDAS and FANBOYS?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think you can probably relax about the 11 year old. Unless she's exceptionally mature, don't you think that she'd be like those of us who read it when we were younger - in that the more, um, "mature" content would just go over her head? You can hope, anyway. ;)
PEMDAS is order of operations in math: Parenthesis, exponents, multiplication and division (from left to right), addition and subtraction (from left to right). FANBOYS is conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) and is used to help with deciding when to use commas. There's your lesson for the day!
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