""Good Morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.
"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"
"All of them at once," said Bilbo. "And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. ... "Good morning!" he said at last. "We don't want any adventures here, thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water." By this he meant that the conversation was at an end.
"What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!" said Gandalf. "Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won't be good till I move off.""
--JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit

I am reminded how much I loved this book. There is an elegance to the writing that one sees so rarely these days. I think perhaps I shall have to re-read it, when Jason is through with it, of course. He decided, and truth to tell, I am not sure why, that he wanted to read 'The Hobbit' and the Rings Trilogy. I am a little leery of this -- the books have some darkness to them and he is a creature of light but he is unconcerned. So I will, as Eliza says 'Save my breath to cool my porridge' and watch. I cannot complain, however, as regards the quality of his choice. If he must read, then reading something that is well written with graceful prose would seem to me to be the best way to go. I remember noticing, in grad school, that I often wrote in much the same style as the authors I was reading at the moment... osmosis, perhaps? It will be interesting to see how Tolkien affects Jason's writing/thinking.

Ah well, off to 'defend the day' -- may all of you have a wonderful one.