I'm not, like, a regular tutor. I'm a cool tutor.

Professional Teenologist | NYC

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Haruki Murakami hosted a bossa nova jam over the weekend—and you can watch it online now.

It’s well-known at this point that Haruki Murakami loves music. Music features heavily in his writing; he’s published Absolutely On Music, his music-related conversations with Seiji Ozawa, former c…

When I was 17, a friend gave me a copy of Norwegian Wood for my birthday, and I proceeded to read the entirety of Murakami’s oeuvre to the point where I was unable to easily distinguish some of his works from others due to how many tropes and themes and motifs he reuses.

I’m woefully behind on current Murakami—I’m fairly certain the last work of his I read was Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013), although I own Men Without Women (2014) and an advance copy of Killing Commendatore (2017).

That said...I’m still a Murakami fangirl at heart, and this is awesome.

[katefishernyc]

Because how happy can anyone really be, all the time? How could there be time for that? Mostly we're just trying to get through the day.

Fredrik Backman, Anxious People (2020)

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My super-speedy book review—Is this a thing? It has to be a thing; I can’t be the first person who thought to use Tik Tok for this—for Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (2020).

Favorite quotations:

“No one in Chinatown able to separate the past from the present, always seeing in him (and in each other, in yourselves), all of his former incarnations, the characters he’d played in your minds long after the parts had ended.”

“Nothing like an empty stomach to remind you what you are.”

“Some people think it isn’t the worst thing in the world to die. Because if you never die—if you play the same role too long—you start to get confused. Forget who you really are.”

“A toast: to not being other people anymore.” 

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It’s, like, really hard to find literary couples who end up both happy AND together. Go watch some Nora Ephron or Nancy Meyers instead maybe.

(Also, very proud of two runners up for the Not So Much column: Oedipus & Jocasta and Captain Ahab & Moby Dick.)

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Why are Jane and Rochester included in the NOT Happily Ever After category??

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OK, this is 100% a fair question. Jane Eyre can be considered an early work of feminist literature if you tilt your head and squint your eyes, but if you look at it within the context of 21st century mores, for much of the novel, she’s portrayed as inferior to Rochester and yes, reader, she marries him, but I’m of the mind that this particular ending is more an adherence to the literary trope of the marriage plot than anything else.

Also, they only get married once, like, a whole mess of bad things happen. So, yes, perhaps happier than others included in the Not So Much column, but happily ever after sans any major bodily harm or other traumatic hullaballoo? No. 

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I’m of the mentality that “it ain’t a happily ever after without a few bumps along the way” but I’m also a Jane Eyre fangirl that would have pushed Bertha Mason off the roof myself to snag Rochester all for myself 🤣 (But if we’re going to pull hairs then Ron & Hermione also went through some traumatic things and ended up married and in the happily ever after category)

About the Jane being inferior to Rochester part, I really like a line in ‘Mr. Rochester’ by Sarah Shoemaker: “I discovered that if I played the role of master too broadly, and pushed her too imperiously, she became stubborn and annoyed, so I took care to apologize where I could, to treat her not as an inferior, but as a younger, inexperienced equal, for there was something in this Miss Eyre that I could not resist prying into.” and I squealed when I read that because!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!! Not inferior, inexperienced, that’s one thing that always bugged me about Rochester’s attitude in Charlotte Bronte’s work.

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As soon as I posted my original response, I was, like, well, wait. Am I saying that Ron/Hermione don’t have PTSD? 

If I had room for a middle column, Jane & Rochester would have gone there 😉

[katefishernyc]

It’s, like, really hard to find literary couples who end up both happy AND together. Go watch some Nora Ephron or Nancy Meyers instead maybe.

(Also, very proud of two runners up for the Not So Much column: Oedipus & Jocasta and Captain Ahab & Moby Dick.)

[omgitsobsessivelyme-deactivated]

Why are Jane and Rochester included in the NOT Happily Ever After category??

[katefishernyc]

OK, this is 100% a fair question. Jane Eyre can be considered an early work of feminist literature if you tilt your head and squint your eyes, but if you look at it within the context of 21st century mores, for much of the novel, she’s portrayed as inferior to Rochester and yes, reader, she marries him, but I’m of the mind that this particular ending is more an adherence to the literary trope of the marriage plot than anything else.

Also, they only get married once, like, a whole mess of bad things happen. So, yes, perhaps happier than others included in the Not So Much column, but happily ever after sans any major bodily harm or other traumatic hullaballoo? No. 

[katefishernyc]

It’s, like, really hard to find literary couples who end up both happy AND together. Go watch some Nora Ephron or Nancy Meyers instead maybe.

(Also, very proud of two runners up for the Not So Much column: Oedipus & Jocasta and Captain Ahab & Moby Dick.)

[katefishernyc]

Part 2 of my Hamilton parody about CollegeBoard getting rid of SAT subject tests and the SAT essay. 

Part 1 here.

[katefishernyc]

Part 1 of my Hamilton parody about CollegeBoard getting rid of SAT subject tests and the SAT essay.

Part 2 here.

[katefishernyc]

Basic trig intro. Weirdly proud of those SOH CAH TOA bubbles.

In a right triangle, we use sine, cosine, and tangent to relate the ratios of a triangle’s sides to its angles. 

SOH means that sine equals the length of the side opposite from the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.

CAH means that cosine equals the length of the side adjacent to the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.

TOA mean that tangent equals the length of the side opposite from the angle divided by the length of the side adjacent to the angle.

Hint: We use these ratios for a right triangle’s acute angles only (the two non-right angles; remember: an acute angle is less than 90 degrees). 

[katefishernyc]

I had so much fun doing micro-reviews of my favorite reads from 2020, that I decided to do a monthly round up. Here’s what I read this January and my quick thoughts on each. Stay tuned for February’s list next month.

January 2021 Reading Round-Up

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (2020)

genre-bending

important commentary about Asian identity in the U.S.

what is real vs. performative

weird, but I liked it.

Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener (2020)

well written and interesting

memoir that reads like a novel

sometimes self indulgent (but, ok: memoir)

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (2020)

loved the multiple timelines

gorgeous writing

Shakespeare is never mentioned by name → cool

caution warning: bubonic plague

Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey (2020) 

probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but I liked it

every chapter is a different conversation in the narrator’s life

I like unlikable narrators, so

The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon (2018)

has been on my bookshelf a long time

cults, fire, college

a debut novel

some great writing

didn’t really “get” parts from cult leader’s POV 

[katefishernyc]

The SAT and ACT can feel scary, or at times, even like bullies á la Regina George. Take it one step at a time. Practice. Focus on both your strengths and the areas where you can improve. And don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it. (And, yes, this GIF/meme was 100% inspired by a conversation with one of my students.)

[katefishernyc]

“She generally gave herself very good advice (though she very seldom followed it).” - Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

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I was talking to a friend earlier and said I wasn’t sure why snow days still exist when many schools are now equipped to teach remotely. She replied, “If there’s more than four inches of snow on the ground, children should be playing in it.” Stay safe, stay warm, stay cozy, and don’t forget to stop and smell the snow.

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...for when a memory is retold, its particulars, inevitably, are brightened or muted depending on the arc of the story of which it is a part...

Miranda Popkey, Topics of Conversation (2020)

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Collaborative note-taking using GoodNotes to help a seventh grade student study for a science quiz on elements, compounds, and molecules.

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Every life has its kernel, its hub, its epicentre, from which everything flows out, to which everything returns.

Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet (2020)

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We were too old to use innocence as an excuse. Hubris, maybe. Indifference, preoccupation. Idealism. A certain complacency endemic to people for whom things had, in recent years, turned out okay.

Anna Wiener, Uncanny Valley (2020)