Re: [tips] Holiday story

[sblack]

David Hogberg quotes from a poem by Gerald Locklin of University  College of 
North Wales at Bangor:

> >The government gives them a small grant
> >From which to buy books.
> >We are encouraged to require
> >Very few books.

Allen commented:
 
> This is really weird. The government doesn't give students "grants", 
> and hasn't done so for more than ten years.

That was read on National Public Radio yesterday, as David 
noted. The source is given as a 2008 book. But He-Who-Has-
Too-Much-Time-On-His-Hands has discovered (or thinks he 
has, as it's not directly verified) that the original publication of 
that poem was in a 1991 book called "Yank at Bangor: Poems 
>From the Welsh Teaching Experience" which was published in 
1991. Possibly the poem was written even earlier. That would 
place it beyond Allen's ten-year limit.

As for Christmas stories, I nominate Frederick Forsyth's  1976 
aviation story "The Shepherd" as read by Alan Maitland on the 
CBC radio programme "As It Happens" each year at Christmas. 
Still gives me chills.  I tried but failed to find an on-line version of 
it. Oh, I think I see why. They're selling it for $17.95. Bah, 
humbug. Wikipedia has a spoiler, but let's not go there. Literally. 

Stephen


-
Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.  
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus   
Bishop's University   
 e-mail:  sbl...@ubishops.ca
2600 College St.
Sherbrooke QC  J1M 1Z7
Canada
---

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Re: [tips] Holiday story

[Allen Esterson]

���David Hogberg quotes from a poem by Gerald Locklin of University 
College of North Wales at Bangor:

>Most of my students here are very poor.

>As winter hits they have to decide whether
>To spend their shillings on the coin-operated heaters
>Or on food.

>I suspect that heat often wins—you can
>Freeze to death quicker than you will starve.

>Their incentive is that they will presumably
>Have more comfortable lives if they survive
>The minimalist conditions of college.

>The government gives them a small grant
>From which to buy books.
>We are encouraged to require
>Very few books.

This is really weird. The government doesn't give students "grants", 
and hasn't done so for more than ten years. In order to afford their  
longterm aim of 50 percent of children attending university, the 1997 
Labour Government brought in a system of student loans for England and 
Wales in place of the previous grant system: http://tinyurl.com/ye8p7d6

This is far from satisfactory, but the rate of interest is generous, 
and after graduation they don't have to start paying back until their 
income reaches a certain minimum.

>I seldom see them in the pubs: they
>Cannot really afford the prices.

That must be because students nowadays don't go to pubs as they did in 
the past, they go "clubbing"! And if they're having difficulties in 
buying booze in North Wales they are untypical of students in the UK, 
possibly because they haven't taken out a large enough loan. ;-)

Allen Esterson
Former lecturer, Science Department
Southwark College, London
http://www.esterson.org
--
[tips] Holiday story

David Hogberg
Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:51:27 -0800
 from today's *The writer's almanac* by Garrison Keillor:   (Originally, 
I'd
intended to send only the Updike piece, but the others included might
interest you, too.)  DKH

 At the University College of North Wales at Bangor

by Gerald
Locklin

Most of my students here are very poor.

I seldom see them in the pubs: they
Cannot really afford the prices.

As winter hits they have to decide whether
To spend their shillings on the coin-operated heaters
Or on food.

I suspect that heat often wins—you can
Freeze to death quicker than you will starve.

Their incentive is that they will presumably
Have more comfortable lives if they survive
The minimalist conditions of college.

The government gives them a small grant
>From which to buy books.
We are encouraged to require
Very few books.

A book is a valued art object here.

I never hear a complaint here
And no one misses a tutorial
Without the most profuse and formal
Of apologies.

In California my students and I and everyone else,
Also including the movie stars and politicians and
Pro-athletes,

Seldom stop for breath
In the midst of a constant bitching.

"At the University College of North Wales at Bangor" by Gerald Locklin, 
from
*New and Selected Poems*. © World Parade Books, 2008. Reprinted with
permission. (buy
now)


It's the birthday of the poet *Robert
Bly
*, (books by this
author)
born in Madison, Minnesota (1926). He said, "One day while studying a
[William Butler] Yeats poem I decided to write poetry the rest of my 
life. I
recognized that a single short poem has room for history, music, 
psychology,
religious thought, mood, occult speculation, character, and events of 
one's
own life."

It's the birthday of author *Norman
Maclean
*, (books by this
author)
born in Clarinda, Iowa (1902), but he grew up in Missoula, Montana. He
taught English at the University of Chicago, and after his retirement 
from
teaching, at the age of 70, he focused on writing. He published two
autobiographical essays, and then he wrote his famous autobiographical
novella, *A River Runs Through It*.

It begins: "In our family, there was no clear line between religion and 
fly
fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western 
Montana,
and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied 
his
own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being
fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all
first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that
John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman."

It's Christmas week, *and we're celebrating with Christmas stories. John
Updike(books
by this
author)
wrote a story called "The Carol Sing,"* about residents of