So, the woodchuck saw his shadow yesterday (at least in PA; the one from Staten Island bit Bloomberg, bless his furry little heart. I bet he made a tasty stew for some homeless people by evening), which is supposed to mean six weeks of winter, as opposed to spring being “right around the corner.” Hate to break it to these people but – at least around here – if spring is here by mid March, that is right around the corner. It’s when we get 8 inches of snow on Mother’s Day (and we have) that winter seems to be dragging on a little bit.
I feel kinda sorry for the mother of the octuplets. Looks like Michael Phelps doing a bong hit has totally ended her 15 minutes of fame. And now she’s stuck with 14 kids. I hope it was worth it. It appears that Phelps’ endorsement career may be in danger (he was pretty god awful in the Rosetta Stone ads he did anyway; maybe he was “rosetta” stoned). I guess he can try to get a gig promoting High Times magazine, or become the official spokesman for the EZGro Hydroponic Gardening System.
I’ve never wanted to live in Arizona (no offense, KP; I’d shrivel up and die in the heat, and there are too goddamn many Republicans there for my taste), but Tuscon area Comcast subscribers got a little bonus during the Super Bowl Sunday night: 30 seconds of porn. Kind of makes Janet Jackson’s Sheriff’s badge encased nipple seem a bit tame, doesn’t it?
In other news (not that it’s exactly new), it was 50 years ago today that the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and pilot Roger Petersen died in a plane crash near Clear Lake Iowa. It was just a little before my time, coming about a year before my conception and 11 months before SU won its only football National Championship (immortalized in “The Express,” which was a box office bomb, but I highly recommend you rent it; my wife couldn’t care less about football – or sports in general – and even she liked it), but their music (among others, like that guy that was named after Elvis Costello) was the music of my very early childhood (though if I never hear “La Bamba” again, it’ll be OK with me).
Everything changed, of course, around 1965 or so, when the Beatles took America by storm, opening a beachhead for groups like the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and many more. Makes me want to break out my stack of singles (first I’d have to find some 45 adapters, though; I wish I still had our old, massive Stereophonic (with its detached second speaker; the sound was great, once the tubes warmed up. Didn’t the Tubes warm up for Iggy Pop?) with the dildo-looking thing that allowed you to play a stack of singles. Not that we knew what dildos were back then.
But you folks in Tuscon know now, doncha?
Staten Island is the most Republican borough of NYC, so I think it is a wonderful act of protest for little Chuck to have bitten mayor Bloomberg. Bloomberg, has had term limits overturned so that he can run again because, he says, only he can run the city in a time of fiscal adversity. So what unique thing is he doing? Cutting programs and laying folks off. Of course Bloomy was mayor during the good times and somehow did not use those times to plan for a downturn. Chuck spoke for many of us, yesterday. Way to go Chuck!
I was watching Cspan’s coverage of the Commission on Wartime Contracting which is charged with investigating what happened in Iraq. It’s quite a story. $500 BILLION or more was spent on private security. That of course is no problem for the Rethugs. Spending money on disadvantaged Americans is the only sin in their rule book. (Will I ever be able to look at a Retug without gagging?)\
I’d better get to work. Perhaps I’ll visit Chuck this weekend and bring him a treat.
Maron not a fan of sports from yesterday’s BRL. Albuquerque is the place to grow up if you don’t want to be indoctrinated to pro sports.
I wonder if Sam had the same experience as mine. In HS, the jocks were pretty much a club of right wing thugs. It turned me off to sports for years. I got sucked back in after somebody took me to a SF Giants game and then the 49ers became such a thing of beauty.
Maron, on the other hand, has bounced around a lot since NM.
BRL yesterday was really really good, even brilliant. Janeanne was there and the three discussed Bill Hicks and Dave Letterman among other things. Nothing went on too long at least for my taste. Marc was over his cold and very engaged.
Portland is supposed to be sunny and 50s for the next couple of days.
Yes good BRL show from yesterday.
I got my “Bad Situationist” DVD in the mail today, direct from the Seder compound along the Hudson.
The math program used in NYC and it surrounds is so poor, I just gotta complain.
The little kids are exposed to a wide range of topics. I.e. telling time, estimating, finding the missing number, counting by 2’s, 5’s etc. (Notice I didn’t mention addition. I’ll get to that in a minute.) However, they see each topic for no more than 2 days. The theory is that the kids aren’t expected to be able to do any of this but that they should be exposed to it. Of course the homework requires them to be able to do all these things and to apply their knowledge in differing situations. :rofl2:
This leads to very frustrated kids, parents and teachers.
There is also research, I was told, that shows that kids who go to college know algebra. (You should be seated for this.) Therefore, say the math whizzes, get them familliar with algebra right from the start, but do not teach them how to add columns of numbers. Before they do that they should understand the underlying concept of base 10. (I guess the research didn’t mention that kids who go to college can add.)
The older teachers lock their doors and teach the kids how to “do math.” The newer ones try very hard to make the crazy math program work. When the students who have been taught how to “do math” test better, the administration assumes that their teachers are just better at getting the crazy math program across.
NYC children have been doing very poorly in math. It must be the union’s
fault.
Poor math skills have long been a problem in NYC. Look at Giuliani… he added 9 and 11 and thought it would get him to 44.
:rofl2:
I know I’m stealing a little from Joe Biden, so if he wants to borrow that joke, he’s welcome to it.
kevin- you should copyright that and sell it. :rofl2:
No offense taken, most people I know don’t want to live here. My internet was out for the last 2 days and I checked the damned plugs, I really did, and the tech came over and said it was unplugged. :smack: