What's Sheduled for this Week:

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING TASKS:

• First, listen to my short weekly audio lecture. You can listen to the lecture in Real Audio format or you can listen to the lecture in Windows Media format.
  
• Next, explore the following links:
  • "Xerox Lore" Here's one a local teacher (with teenage kids) shared
  • Visit a site on chain letters. Have you ever participated in one?
  • Visit the Hoaxbusters' page on chain letters (they also have great information about pyramid schemes and the dangers of hoaxes
    
  • Water witching (dowsing) is still quite popular. Visit the Amercan Society of Dowsers home page and look around. On the other hand, you might also want to visit the Skeptic's Dictionary for a more skeptical view of water witching.
  • Visit the UCLA Folk Medicine database. There are some very, very interesting traditional "cures" you might enjoy looking at--though I do not suggest you try them!
  • Can one really predict the sex of an unborn child using the Chinese Calendar test, the fetal heart test, and the Drano test? Read an interesting emperical study on the issue.
  • Take a look a few common superstitions from Europe
  • Visit a site that cover many aspects of Filipino Folklore--including Filipino Superstitions
  • Visit a site that has information on amulets, talismans, and lucky charms from around the world and all eras.
  • Visit a very informative site that has pictures and background on Arabic amulets, their importance, and how this folk medicine/magic relates to some very basic human concerns and needs. Be sure to look over the "Points for Discussion" section after you look around the rest of the site.
    
  • Take a look a short article on psychological strategy used by competitive gymnasts--and one of the strategies is using superstition to win.
  • Visit a site that has a short summary of many common superstitions--do you believe in any of them?

• Complete homefun on Superstition (not a graded homefun option)
• Take a short quiz on superstitions. Before you take the quiz, you should be able to define superstition and its utilization of magic.
• Post your second creative work to the appropriate discussion board. You have the option of posting either a cowboy/cowgirl poem, an etiological narrative or a tall tale. Remember, if you did a poem last time, you must do either a tall tale or a narrative--your first and second creative works must differ in type.
• Read pp 405--435
• Only if you dare! Try my Super Superstitious Crossword Puzzle on this week's reading. If you get this right, you have mastered the terminolgy.
• Make weekly posting to discussion board