The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have had a baby boy. It would be hard to overstate how little I care about the British royalty, but I do have two thoughts on the subject:

1. I remember that Mrs. Sheidy, my high school British literature teacher, was disappointed when Prince William was given that name, so I hope for her sake that this new baby will be be given her preferred name, Arthur.


2. I hope that President Obama visits Great Britain soon and meets the baby so we can get another picture like this:
   
   
   
   Partly because we can always use more pictures of President Obama being adorable with little kids, and partly because I'm curious to see the right-wing freakout that would inevitably ensue.

Speaking of Mrs. Sheidy, when I Googled her name to make sure I was spelling it correctly, I ran across an ERIC listing for a journal article she wrote, about teaching contemporary young adult books alongside Dickens and Salinger in high school literature classes. I think I'd like to read that! Unfortunately, the online archive of the journal in question only goes back to 1994, so if I want to read it I'll have to pay a visit to UW-Madison's Cooperative Children's Book Center to read it on paper. Maybe they'll let me look at the original manuscript of The Westing Game while I'm there!