The Story of Ms. M. and the Italian Shipyard

The Port of Antibes, France

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago - o.k. not that long ago - Ms. Mountain, known to you as Patti Mountain for the purposes of this story only, went backpacking around Europe. While in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, she heard about working on private yachts on the Cote D'Azur in France. So, Patti headed off to the south of France and went to a huge port called Antibes, where interestingly and irrelevantly, Picasso once lived and worked. There, she met Giacobbi Giancarlo, or Captain Carlo, who hired her, after her job interview in French, as a deckhand and stewardess to work on the motor yacht, Kiss. 
As luck would have it, the aforementioned Kiss was in Genoa, Italy in the shipyard, Cantierri Marsic. So, because Patti was, at that time, considerably more naive and trusting than she is now, she got into the 52-year-old captain's Alfa Romeo with him and sped at 150km/hour down the twisting coastal highway to Genoa. Not entirely idiotic, she did phone some friends in France and tell them that if they didn't hear from her by 9:00 a.m. the next morning to call the police. Then she slept overnight in the boat, docked in a port that was closed and deserted for the winter, in the same cabin - different bed - as the captain. Keenly aware of the potential danger of such a situation, she slept with one eye open and her Swiss Army Knife at the ready in her pocket. Fortunately, the captain was a genuinely good, fatherly figure, and he took Patti to work in the shipyard on the boat with the Italian shipyard workers until it was ready to set sail for Sardinia. Unfortunately, he hired another deckhand named Ivo, who was a nice enough guy - naive Patti really liked him and lent him money -  but he was a heroin addict, and he had to be fired. No, Patti didn't ever get that money back, but she learned a valuable lesson about drug addicts and cash. And so, that is the story of how Patti Mountain, destined to become your English teacher, once worked in an Italian shipyard. Next time I see you, I'll tell you about the Arabian Prince and Princess. Seriously!

Sardinia; scene of the Arabian Royalty

So, in APE today, we wrote a metacognitive journal - that sounds so impressive - about the strategies you use for comprehension when reading a text like R.W.E.'s. Then we read the essay titled "The Uncommon Reader" and examined, in depth, how reading is an active process. 
For homework: please do the Questions on Rhetoric and Style, page 108, # 6, 10, and 12. Then please write a paragraph or multi-paragraph response (not an essay) to question # 1 or 3 from the Suggestions for Writing section. Remember there will be an in-class essay, AP style, next day.