Lia Ascendant

Since 2003 Lia, more an antique Spartan than a Dane, has been making due with a round brush the handle of which had fallen out and been replaced by a fasces of pencils and pens. Recently she broke down and bought a new brush, disappointing the shade of St. Francis but marking an important epoch in her scaling of the social ladder. In the spirit of the fiery feminist poster that adorned her freshman wall, Lia is unmistakably a "woman on the rise."

Another recent highlight for Lia came yesterday when she was given a birthday present of a handsome pair of shoes from the inestimable Gretchen Cheney, before the altar of whose fashionable incomparability Lia has long paid her devotions. Gretchen also gave her a card--a cow with a number of holes in it, together with the punning inscription, "Holy Cow! It's your birthday!" (she also got a very clever card from Justin's sister, Jeni, the pun of which was more involved and hence harder to translate into the blogosphere).

Not much happened today, at least not much that any cares to write or read about (pressed for a summary, Lia responded, "Lots of crying; lots of whining; lots of accidents; lots of drama"--which sounds like a teenage blockbuster, so one wonders why she was unhappy about it). In the middle of Justin's civil law class the cell phone of a female classmate rang out in the stentorian tones of "R-E-S-P-E-C-T," which marked a new low in the always gravitationally-challenged realm of cell phone etiquette.

It was a good day for Justin in other respects: He managed to snatch and re-check out from the law school library the 5-DVD, 15-episode History of Britain, written and hosted by Simon Schama, before any of his classmates could get it. He had reached the maximum for on-line renewals but managed through deft maneuvering and a quick hand to beat the system. And to top it off, the a new edition of The Economist is now available on line. What a world.