The book I finished last night is titled Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, by Chris Roberts, which I found most interesting and informative as it covers a subject near and dear to my heart, being about the real meanings behind well-known nursery rhymes; that subject that has fascinated me for some time, since my college days. I even took a course in Children's Literature in hopes of exploring the subject further, but was disappointed when this turned out not to be the point at all. Anyway, when I was in college I bought a book on the same subject matter, but that one was so very scholarly and so very in-depth that it was nearly unreadable, although it did become a wonderfully handy cure for insomnia.

Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, on the other hand, is entertaining to read and explores generally the most likely (and on occasion, the most interesting) of the possible meanings behind nursery rhymes, in friendly and straightforward language. Obviously the discussion of crown intrigue, the Great Schism and events in history are integral to these explanations but the author never gets so mired in the complexities thereof that the point, and the fun, of nursery rhymes is lost.

For example, that college tome was so very detailed about 14th- and 16th-century politics and so deeply intrenched in the need to explain fully the vagaries of court intrigue and crown politics that half the time I forgot which nursery rhyme was being discussed or how Martin Luther figured into things anyway, or who the heck Cardinal Woolsy was in the first place. Dang it, I just wanted to know if Little Boy Blue was a real person and if so, was he merely a naughty boy who didn't like chores or was the rhyme allegorical??? Real. Allegorial. Charles II. Answers I owe to Chris Roberts and Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, as my heavy learned textbook of nursery rhymes never allowed me to get past Oliver Cromwell before being seized by Morpheus.

Verdict: for me, fascinating subject matter and objectively, very approachable, straightforward writing style. Easy to read, fun to read, interesting and well-researched.

Blogging is getting too complicated for me. Back at the beginning of the month, Afton had a post and I wanted to put a comment. She was lamenting the fact that her kids couldn't play Nintendo for 5 minutes without fighting and crying and hitting. I had a funny comment in mind about how she shouldn't worry, that no matter how old one was, this behaviour was simply a natural consequence of MarioKarts - it's the fault of the game, you see. But you have to register to comment, and either the site or my computer took so long I got distracted (admittedly, not hard for---oooh, what's that? Hey, shiny!) er, um, and now Flippy and Leigh-Ann and Nancy and Lisa all have Vox blogs and the other day Nancy wrote something real sweet about my wedding and I'd love to comment on Lisa occasionally, but apparently you have to BE a Vox to talk on a Vox, and it's all getting too much for me to handle, when I can't even update this one regularly and when I do, half the time it's not even funny or interesting.

I'm playing Fantasy Football this year. Intrigued by my stellar performance in finishing dead last in their hockey league, Flippy and Leigh-Ann invited me to play football with them. Actually, I wrote that trying to be funny - I wasn't that disappointed in my hockey team. Obviously, winning is better than losing and sure, I'd have been happier with a better finish, but I was dead last by half a point, it was the first time I'd played fantasy hockey and I feel that I know the major things I did wrong (mostly, wasting a roster spot for weeks on weeks while I hoped Hasek's "day to day" injury would end instead of trading him for a lesser, but participating, goalie). Anyway, I'm playing football which I feel both more and less confident about, since I know more about football, but I've watched less the past season than probably any season in my entire life. I was busy with that whole "getting married" thing. Pathetic excuse. So I'd take under advisement any hints or tips the casual reader cared to toss my way, but I already have a great team name. My football team is the Hong Kong Phooeys. Phear Me.