otoselkie. May you have a fantastic day and many more to come! Happy birthday to sailingwest, as well, with hugs and best wishes. I hope to catch up with you one of these days soon in person, my friend!* Representatives of the Graduate Organization for Students in the Humanities, which will host Tennessee Tech University's third annual English Studies Symposium, have asked me to be the Keynote Speaker for their 2009 event, and I have accepted their kind invitation. I will be giving my presentation on March 21 at the Tennessee Tech campus in Cookeville, Tennessee. The conference theme is "Pandora's Box: Pushing the Boundaries of English Studies."
* My parents' visit was great fun. One of the highlights was taking the Ghost and Haunt Tour of historic downtown Asheville, NC. Here is my favorite picture from the tour, showing an autumn moon in an overcast sky above an abandoned dance hall:
"There is music in the meadows, in the air --
Autumn is here;
Skies are gray, but hearts are mellow,
Leaves are crimson, brown, and yellow;
Pines are soughing, birches stir,
And the Gipsy trail is fresh beneath the fir.
There is rhythm in the woods, and in the fields,
Nature yields:
And the harvest voices crying,
Blend with Autumn zephyrs sighing;
Tone and color, frost and fire,
Wings the nocturne Nature plays upon her lyre."
- William Stanley Braithwaite, Lyric of Autumn
