“If you can read this, thank a teacher.” This is how a post linked to by my friend and colleague Joan Vinall-Cox began.

While blogger Ralf Schwartz suggested that the best way to thank your teacher is to teach others “by further developing what your teacher has taught you,” I think an equally excellent option is to say thank you.

And so I found myself digging through old report cards to remind me of the name of my grade 7 teacher. Mrs. McLelland was also the school librarian, and she recognized and nurtured my own love of reading by giving me first dibs on incoming books she thought I would enjoy.

I found a link to the school, which I attended for just that one year, on my high school web site. From there was a link to an e-mail address for Mrs. McLelland’s son. I sent him a note, sharing my fond recollection of her kind actions and asking about her. He responded promptly, telling me that sadly, she died in 2001, but she “would certainly be happy that she had a positive influence in your life, which I think is the goal of all good teachers.”

He added that her own first love was reading, something she had instilled in him and his eldest daughter, who was now teaching grade school.

I recalled that one of the books I enjoyed way back then was Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Thinking I might like to read it again, I took the book from my library shelf and found inside, in the handwriting of that shy 13-year-old, a note that Mrs. McLellan had given it to me at the end of that school year. How cosmic is that?

My point, and I do have one, is that if you have had a wonderful teacher who succeeded in touching and making a difference in your life, please let him or her know. Say thank you. The best teacher gift is not a mug that says “World’s Best Teacher” but the heartfelt note that describes how you’re a better person for having been in that particular class with that particular teacher. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to tell Mrs. McLelland that, but something tells me that she knew.

Yesterday (Jan. 27) was Family Literacy Day, “a national initiative that promotes the importance of reading and learning together as a family.” I celebrated by reading while Son #2 studied for exams today.

I’m a big reader so it’s especially important to me that our two sons are readers, too. When they were small, I loved to have one or both on my lap reading a treasured book. They delighted in finding the gold bug hidden on pages of a Richard Scarry book, or tracking the little mouse in Goodnight Moon. We read together until they were past being able to read themselves; Son #2 could have read the early Harry Potter books himself but we read them together for the pure enjoyment of it. Plus I do dramatic voices and accents. And when we came across big or unusual words, they could check the meaning. Their teachers always told me they could tell which parents read to their children, and one of the clues was a well-developed vocabulary.

The funny thing is that my husband is not a reader. He reads work-related stuff of course, but you will seldom see him with his nose in a book just for pleasure. The rest of us just don’t get it!

Like many households, ours is on Harry Potter alert. The (perhaps) final book in the series is due out this Saturday, and we’ve had it pre-ordered for months. The reading plan has been discussed and settled. Because mornings find Son #1 at work and Son #2 asleep, that’s when I can have a half-hour or so to read it before starting work. When Son #2 gets up, the book is his. When Son #1 gets home from work, it’s his turn. We’ll have to use Post-Its to make sure our places stay marked, but if it’s anything like the last book, we’ll burn through it in no time.

And we’ll have to, because apparently already the book has been leaked and the entire thing is online, uploaded by some heartless and thoughtless idiot. I’m doing the equivalent of putting my fingers in my ears and singing loudly. I don’t want to have a good read spoiled. Wish me luck. I may have to take next week as vacation just to read!

You just never know what you’re going to learn from reading. Today I found this interesting tidbit in Natalie MacLean’s well-researched, informative and often quite funny e-newsletter:

Researchers at Glasgow University have discovered that if you consume two glasses of wine, members of the opposite sex appear more attractive by about 25%.

(From Nat Decants, free wine e-newsletter at www.nataliemaclean.com)

Of course, we’ve all observed that same phenomenon in the local bar! I wonder how they measure the exact percentage?