![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.conversiondiary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/7_quick_takes_sm1.jpg\" "\\"7_quick_takes_sm\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u2014 1 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n E.L. Konigsburg passed away this week<\/a>, so this whole sequence of Takes is going to be an appreciation of her books, especially my four favorites: The View from Saturday<\/a><\/em>, About the B\u2019nai Bagels<\/a><\/em>, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth<\/a><\/em>, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n And here\u2019s how that last one opens:<\/p>\n Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her back. She didn\u2019t like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere. To a large place, a comfortable place, an indoor place, and preferably a beautiful place. And that\u2019s why she decided upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, of course, the first time I went to the Met (sometime in elementary school), I brought my battered copy of Mixed Up Files and wanted to tour the museum and see exactly the places that Claudia and Jamie had stayed. I nearly passed out from excitement; it was like walking into Hogwarts.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 2 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n When I applied to college, one of my essays opened by explaining the premise of\u00a0The View from Saturday<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n The team they are playing is composed entirely of eighth graders. The competing team has been preparing for the Academic Bowl through a course of careful study. It is not surprising to find, in this sort of book, that the plucky, dedicated, sixth-grade students win the competition, but the process they go through to win, and the style of Konigsburg\u2019s narrative, is unexpected and full of wonder. After the expositional opening chapter sets the team at the competition, Konigsburg uses the very first question in the match, \u201cWhat is the meaning of the word calligraphy and from what language does it derive?\u201d as a transition to the first person narrative of the student who answers the question.<\/p>\n The story he tells seems only tangentially related to the question at hand. He does not tell of lengthy review sessions and dedicated study of word origins that taught him the meaning of the word calligraphy, but, rather, the story of a wedding in his grandparents\u2019 senior community. As he continues, it becomes clear that he learned both the art and meaning of calligraphy during his stay, but, by no means, was it the only thing he learned. This pattern is repeated throughout the book, where every \u201ctrivia\u201d question is followed by the story of how this concept entered the each of the students\u2019 lives. This is why the sixth-graders win; they haven\u2019t memorized the answers to questions, they\u2019ve lived them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I love when getting asked a question makes me start looking back through memories, putting them to use, and reliving them. \u00a0Temple Grandin actually describes a similar process in\u00a0Thinking in Pictures<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n If I let my mind wander, the video jumps in a kind of free association from fence construction to a particular welding shop where I\u2019ve seen posts being cut and Old John, the welder, making gates. If I continue thinking about Old John welding a gate, the video image changes to a series of short scenes of building gates on several projects I\u2019ve worked on. Each video memory triggers another in this associative fashion, and my daydreams may wander far from the design problem. The next image may be of having a good time listening to John and the construction crew tell war stories, such as the time the backhoe dug into a nest of rattlesnakes and the machine was abandoned for two weeks because everybody was afraid to go near it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Learning isn\u2019t a\u00a0sometimes<\/em> process, and it\u2019s delightful to be surprised by the connections you can make.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 3 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n I loved Claudia\u2019s choice of hiding place, but her brother Jamie was not as enthused. \u00a0(But I found their squabbling delightful).<\/p>\n \u201cWhy did you bother bringing [a compass]? \u00a0You\u2019re carrying enough weight around already.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou need a compass to find your way in the woods. \u00a0Out of the woods, too. \u00a0Everyone uses a compass for that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat woods?\u201d Claudia asked.<\/p>\n \u201cThe woods we\u2019ll be hiding out in,\u201d Jaime answered.<\/p>\n \u201cHiding\u00a0out in<\/em>? \u00a0What kind of\u00a0language\u00a0is that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEnglish language. \u00a0That\u2019s what kind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWho ever told you that we were going to hide out in the woods?\u201d Claudia demanded.<\/p>\n \u201cThere! You said it. \u00a0You said it!\u201d Jaime shrieked.<\/p>\n \u201cSaid what?<\/p>\n \u201cSaid what? I never said we\u2019re going to hide out in the woods.\u201d Now Claudia was yelling, too.<\/p>\n \u201cNo! You said hide out in<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI did not!\u201d<\/p>\n Jamie exploded. \u201cYou did, too. You said, \u2018Who ever told you that we\u2019re going to hide out in<\/em> the woods?\u2019 You said that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cO.K. O.K.\u201d Claudia replied. She was trying hard to remain calm, for she knew that a group leader must never lose control of herself, even if the group she leads consists of only herself and one brother brat. \u201cO.K.,\u201d she repeated. \u201cI may have said hide out in, but I didn\u2019t say the woods<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes sir. You said, \u201cWho ever told you that\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Claudia didn\u2019t give him a chance to finish. \u201cI know. I know. Now, let\u2019s begin by my saying that we are going to hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n Jamie said, \u201cSee! See! You said it again.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI did not! I said, \u2018The Metropolitan Museum of Art.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou said hide out in<\/em> again.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll right. Let\u2019s forget the English language lessons. We are going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n For the first time, the meaning instead of the grammar of what Claudia had said penetrated.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Metropolitan Museum of Art! Boloney!\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cWhat kind of crazy idea is that?\u201d<\/p>\n [\u2026]<\/p>\n \u201cOf all the sissy ways to run away and of all the sissy places to run away to\u2026\u201d Jaime mumbled.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t mumble quite softly enough. \u00a0Claudia turned on him. \u00a0\u201cRun\u00a0away to<\/em>? \u00a0How can you run\u00a0away<\/em> and\u00a0to<\/em>? \u00a0What kind of language is that?\u201d \u00a0Claudia asked.<\/p>\n \u201cThe American language,\u201d Jamie answered. \u201cAmerican James Kincaidian language.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/a>\u2014 4 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n You saw a reference to\u00a0About the B\u2019nai Bagels<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>on this blog last week in my post on public speaking<\/a>\u00a0(it\u2019s the source of the\u00a0Fortissimo!<\/em> advice). \u00a0But here\u2019s another nice line about friendship:<\/p>\n Sometimes I thought that Hersch was more of a brother to me than Spencer. \u00a0We each had some bumps in our personalities, but they were in different places and at least they were the same size. \u00a0That made it good; you need a friend who is a little different from you to rub against. \u00a0That way you file down each other\u2019s rough edges.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/a>\u2014 5 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n Also, when Claudia and her brother Jamie are planning their escape, the following scene occurs:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll write you full details of my plan. You must show the plan to no one. Memorize all the details; then destroy my note.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo I have to eat it?\u201d Jamie asked.<\/p>\n \u201cTearing it up and putting it in the trash would be much simpler. No one in our family but me ever goes through the trash. And I only do it if it is not sloppy and not full of pencil sharpener shavings. Or ashes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll eat it. I like complications,\u201d Jamie said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/a>\u2014 6 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking of complications, this is how the Jennifer of Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth<\/a><\/em>\u00a0goes trick or treating. \u00a0(My parents did not permit me to try this out myself).<\/p>\n This is the way Jennifer operated:<\/p>\n Jennifer did this at every house. She always drank a glass of water. She always managed to drop her empty bag. I asked her how she could drink so much water. She must have had about twenty-four glasses. She didn\u2019t answer. She shrugged her shoulders and walked with her head up, eyes up. I sort of remembered something about a water test for witches. But I also sort of remembered that it was something about witches being able to float on water that was outside their bodies, not water that was inside their bodies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n