The fourth anniversary of Shameless Spelling came and went without fanfare on April 1, no fooling. I had intended to acknowledge it with a post that day, but alas, I was sick in bed, out of state unexpectedly, without my laptop.
This coming June will mark three years since the Pop-Up on the Fry List that gave rise to Sixty-Five weeks. I am optimistic that everything will be printed and shipped by that anniversary, but I've been wrong before. Many of the creative and professional things I've done in my life don't end up looking exactly as I think they will when I start. They often take longer. That's definitely true of my dissertation, and it's true of my self-employment in general. It's also true of my long-ago Orton-Gillingham trainig, which I originally intended to hit and quit once I was certified; instead, I spent 15 years running one dyslexia center and opening a second. Likewise, when I first started writing about Poppy in this space, I expected that I would continue to write about our studies together over time, but our lives have both changed in ways both big and small, making it difficult to impossible, and largely unnecessary, for us to continue on a regular basis.
When I first started Shameless, I had pledged to post on or near the first of the month, every month, and I haven't done so, but the sum total of posts is far greater than 48, so I am confident that readers are still well ahead of the game. Once you figure in Pop-Up classes, it's a pretty good bargain. Since starting this site four years ago, I've offered almost three dozen Pop-Up classes, only repeating a few, very popular topics. It wasn't my original vision for this site, but it's become one that's really valuable for me as much as for those who attend.
This (northern) spring, I am offering three Pop-Up classes. One class – One and Two-Letter Base Elements – is a requested repeat, so I hope folks can make it who wished to take it last time and couldn't. I'm also offering a Pop-Up on Paradigms, Inflection, and Derivation, and one on Vowel Variations in IPA. The dates, times, and comments where you can sign up are below.