Things to get you through the day...

I was thinking about why I valued Trivia night and NOOMA videos so much. Oh yes, because I can think about them between 8:35 and 9:50 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Since I'm now a student again and paying tuition, it is highly probable that I might actually itemize my deductions this year and actually be able to take more than the standard deduction.
There is a deduction teachers can take of $250 on their income taxes for things like classroom supplies and things that are needed for the classroom. For expenses beyond that we must submit reciepts. I feel that I have work related expenditures that exceed $250 and I'm considering claiming the following things on my taxes, arguing that I do actually need them to do my job.

Happy hour on Friday
Trivia Night drinks
NetFlix subscription
A winter coat
Once a month massage
4 lbs of coffee per month
New soles on three pair of shoes

For those lawyers and accountants out there reading, please advise.

The War on Weather

These days I'm not totally up for writing much that is original. I could satiate you, my dear reader, by assembling a "best of Pearls" post, but I might as well just mail my dear reader all the books. So instead I'll continue to point you to posts I've recently been told about on other people's websites. This one is "Fox takes fair and balanced look at weather war" which just seems like a paradox to begin with.

In other news, Kinky Friedman is still selling t-shirts.

From CNN.com:

In a sloppy, exciting, rainsoaked NFL title game, the Colts defeated the Bears 29-17 to become the new Super Bowl champions. It was the first time the game was played in the rain, the first with opposing black coaches and the first with the opening kickoff returned for a touchdown.

Sometimes I agree with CNN, but honestly I think I'll have to say the word "exciting" is overstating it a bit.

Tinkling for a fix

Brought to us from our fine friends up north:

Meth Users Turning to Urine to Get High

At what point do you turn to your buddy and say "man, I bet I can reuse that!"?

I <3 Garrison Keillor

Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House. That's the farthest anyone who wears a dress has gotten since J. Edgar Hoover.

The real reason you can't have the Ten Commandments in a Courthouse is that you cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of politicians… It creates a hostile work environment.

Saddam Hussein tells his jailer that he wants to write his memoirs, and he needs a stenographer. The jailer returns with a laptop computer. Saddam says, "I cannot write my own memoirs! I AM A DICTATOR!!"

What's the difference between "Congress" and the "Library of Congress"? n the Library of Congress you can't mess with the pages.

President Bush's State of the Union speech got higher ratings than American Idol. Millions of people tuned in thinking they could vote him off.

In his State of the Union address President Bush said the economy is on the move . It's moving to India.

Jesus and his disciples were walking around one day, when Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like 3x squared plus 8x minus 9." The disciples looked very puzzled, and finally asked Peter, "What on earth does Jesus mean -- the Kingdom of Heaven is like 3x squared plus 8x minus 9? Peter said, "Don't worry. It's just another one of his parabolas."

Have you heard of the new chainsaw, it runs only on a single double A battery, and two cups of salt to run all of its electrical systems. It is charged with a salt and battery.

What did the nuclear physicist have for lunch?
Fission chips.

Thanks for indulging me. There's more here.

"Mon petit chou"

Upon seeing The Queen, I was left to wonder why Prince Phillip would call his wife "cabbage." It seemed to be related to her hairstyle, but apparently it is a general term of endearment.

I'm not sure how I'd feel about being called "cabbage," given I spent most of my life being called "punkin'" and "sweet pea." What is this affinity for vegetables?

Economics class

Since I know you WANT to be in my economics class I thought I'd give you a taste. We're analyzing commercials to look at how advertising works. To do this, of course we have to watch some samples.

So which are your favorites? Which advertising techniques work on you?????

Great antifascist literature

On the far-away island of Sala-ma-Sond,
Yertle the Turtle was king of the pond.
A nice little pond.  It was clean.  It was neat.
The water was warm.  There was plenty to eat.
The turtles had everything turtles might need.
And they were all happy.  Quite happy indeed.

They were... untill Yertle, the king of them all,
Decided the kingdom he ruled was too small.
"I'm ruler", said Yertle, "of all that I see.
But I don't see enough.  That's the trouble with me.
With this stone for a throne, I look down on my pond
But I cannot look down on the places beyond.
This throne that I sit on is too, too low down.
It ought to be higher!" he said with a frown.
"If I could sit high, how much greater I'd be!
What a king! I'd be ruler of all that I see!"

So Yertle, the Turtle King, lifted his hand
And Yertle, the Turtle King, gave a command.
He ordered nine turtles to swim to his stone
And, using these turtles, he built a new throne.
He made each turtle stand on another one's back
And he piled them all up in a nine-turtle stack.
And then Yertle climbed up.  He sat down on the pile.
What a wonderful view! He could see 'most a mile!
"All mine!" Yertle cried.  "Oh, the things I now rule!
I'm the king of a cow! And I'm the king of a mule!
I'm the king of a house! And, what's more, beyond that
I'm the king of a blueberry bush and a cat!
I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler of all that I see!"

And all through the morning, he sat up there high
Saying over and over, "A great king am I!"
Until 'long about noon.  Then he heard a faint sigh.
"What's that?" snapped the king
And he looked down the stack.
And he saw, at the bottom, a turtle named Mack.
Just a part of his throne.  And this plain little turtle
Looked up and he said, "Beg your pardon, King Yertle.
I've pains in my back and my shoulders and knees.
How long must we stand here, Your Majesty, please?"
"SILENCE!" the King of the Turtles barked back.
"I'm king, and you're only a turtle named Mack."
"You stay in your place while I sit here and rule.
I'm the king of a cow! And I'm the king of a mule!
I'm the king of a house! And a bush! And a cat!
But that isn't all.  I'll do better than that!

My throne shall be higher!" his royal voice thundered,
"So pile up more turtles! I want 'bout two hundred!"
"Turtles! More turtles!" he bellowed and brayed.
And the turtles 'way down in the pond were afraid.
They trembled.  They shook.  But they came.  They obeyed.
From all over the pond, they came swimming by dozens.
Whole families of turtles, with uncles and cousins.
And all of them stepped on the head of poor Mack.
One after another, they climbed up the stack.
Then Yertle the Turtle was perched up so high,
He could see fourty miles from his throne in the sky!
"Hooray!" shouted Yertle.  "I'm the king of the trees!
I'm king of the birds! And I'm king of the bees!
I'm king of the butterflies! King of the air!
Ah, me! What a throne! What a wonderful chair!
I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler of all that I see!"

Then again, from below, in the great heavy stack,
Came a groan from that plain little turtle named Mack.
"Your Majesty, please... I don't like to complain,
But down here below, we are feeling great pain.
I know, up on top you are seeing great sights,
But down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.
We turtles can't stand it.  Our shells will all crack!
Besides, we need food.  We are starving!" groaned Mack.

"You hush up your mouth!" howled the mighty King Yertle.
"You've no right to talk to the world's highest turtle.
I rule from the clouds! Over land! Over sea!
There's nothing, no, NOTHING, that's higher than me!"

But, while he was shouting, he saw with suprise
That the moon of the evening was starting to rise
Up over his head in the darkening skies.
"What's THAT?" snorted Yertle.  "Say, what IS that thing
That dares to be higher than Yertle the King?
I shall not allow it! I'll go higher still!
I'll build my throne higher! I can and I will!
I'll call some more turtles.  I'll stack 'em to heaven!
I need 'bout five thousand, six hundred and seven!"

But, as Yertle, the Turtle King, lifted his hand
And started to order and give the command,
That plain little turtle below in the stack,
That plain little turtle whose name was just Mack,
Decided he'd taken enough.  And he had.
And that plain little lad got a bit mad.
And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing.
He burped!
And his burp shook the throne of the king!

And Yertle the Turtle, the king of the trees,
The king of the air and the birds and the bees,
The king of a house and a cow and a mule...
Well, that was the end of the Turtle King's rule!
For Yertle, the King of all Sala-ma-Sond,
Fell off his high throne and fell Plunk! in the pond!

And to say the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,
Is King of the Mud.  That is all he can see.
And the turtles, of course... all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.

The Gospel of Wealth

I like to go into bookstores and find out "what's new" and "what's hot." Sometimes it reminds me that I need to do my taxes. Sometimes it reminds me it is Black History Month.

Sometimes it just scares me.

I thought you should see that; cause I know I wasn't expecting it to exist. Then again, if I'd thought about it a little longer I should have guessed it was out there.

Out manipulated

I have at least two weddings to go to this summer.

My cousin Margaret is getting married at St. Patrick's in New York. It should be a pretty nice little shindig. That is if she can do anything little. It is at St. Patrick's after all.

This was all set until Neal decided to go off and get married this summer too.

I was given the assignment of making sure the two did not occur on the same weekend. The Wrights can't be in New York and in San Francisco on the same day. I thought about how to tactfully manipulate this. Neal hadn't picked a day yet, so it wasn't as though I was telling him to change the day or anything like that. Sometimes a preventive strike is the best sort.

So I sent Neal an e-mail:

Not that we're invited or anything but I wanted to let you know that between my cousin's June wedding in New York and yours in San Francisco we'll probably pick hers. Not that we like her more, but she's more likely to have an open bar. You did say you were going to be cutting down on "auxiliary costs" like food and alcohol.... but hopefully I'll just be traveling too much to get a summer job. Not that I'm invited or anything.
As always,
Kate

Neal's response was appropriate. He put his wedding the week before my cousin's (see preventive strikes do work sometimes) and to make sure we wouldn't not go to his wedding for some reason like: "I'm going to Mexico" or "I'm in grad school" or "I can't afford to go to three weddings in two months," or anything like that he simply asked Sam and I to be in the wedding.

Funny thing is I didn't think they were going to have attendants; now Neal claims there are twelve. I wonder if plans will change after I get my plane tickets or how bad these dresses might be.

Linguistics lesson of the day

My classes are comparing and contrasting North Kora and South Korea to study the advantages and disadvantages of command economies and market economies.

Strangely enough the question to come out of this lesson in two of my classes (out of three) was, "what is the difference between pigs and pork?" Guess if you can't eat them anyway there really doesn't need to be a different word.

Which brings up the question, what is the difference between ham and pork?

Ham is the thigh and the butt; pork is anything from a pig. So when I went to Birmingham and found "the best butts in town..." that was a ham sandwich.

Odoriferous coffee

Question:

I'm currently reading Memoirs from an Antproof Case, a novel by Mark Helprin. It is pretty good reading, interesting to say the least. There isn't much plot development though... except for one point. The main character (who has more pseudonyms than Liz Taylor has husbands) doesn't like coffee.

This wouldn't seem compelling if he disliked coffee to the degree that say, my dad dislikes coffee. My dad says he'll drink it when it gets back under a dollar a pound. He drinks tea with two Sweet 'n' lows and extra lemon. The main character here abhors coffee. He has killed over it and lost two great loves to it. There is little character development outside of coming to understand that he really really really abhors coffee to a degree that no one can truly understand. There being no plot of character development, the driving question to discover is just why the character holds such distain for the beverage that brought about the Industrial Revolution.

So I must ask myself, if I finish this book am I too going to dislike coffee? Am I prepared to accept the ways that this book may or may not change my life? Is it going to be good enough for me to put off starting Harry Potter V again?

Why maps are better than directions...

I started my library databases class today. I was to be there at 9AM. Heh.

It takes about 15 minutes to get to the Med Center from where I live. I've been there before, I knew what I was doing. I looked up directions to my parking garage, and because I didn't have an address I settled for driving directions from I-10 going east. I then found walking directions from the garage to my classroom. There is a whole website for these sorts of things. Kinda cool.

The website however did not take into account that three major thoroughfares were blocked by a fun run. Who the hell runs in a fun run through the Medical Center in the rain?????? All those people annoyingly trying to raise money for some sort of charity. They probably thought they were curing cancer when they were really just in my way. Aren't you all going to be back in the Med Center when you get pneumonia? Adding to my luck even more so, for some reason the garage I needed was locked making all subsequent directions irrelevant.

My directions were irrelevant, as were all my maps since they are older than the hospital itself. The cops weren't helpful either. They weren't really familiar with the Med Center, they just knew I couldn't turn left. Bah!

I'd left twenty extra minutes to get to class; I got there ten minutes late. Bleh.

Somehow I'd also forgotten my coffee in the car and all my notebook paper on my desk. I'm the class ditz.

So anyway I need some practice finding information so send any questions my way. Trivia type questions, not "what made Hitler nuts?" questions. Some of them I'll be able to answer, others I won't - but it is practice. Thanks.

The best of cloze notes of U.S. History

Real answers from a real test.

sigh

The 1930s was a more difficult time for America and the world. The Great Depression was caused by the stock market crash, a banking crisis, and a worldwide depression. President Dust Bowl (first name dust, last name bowl I guess) believed that this was part of the natural Hoover and took little action to assist the recovery of the stock market. Meanwhile New Deal rates continued to rise as many turned to food lines for relief. Cities around the country suddenly featured bissiness, shantytowns outside the city. 1932 saw the election of president Charlie Chaplin. He started the John Steinbeck which attempted to fix many of the problems of the Great Depression. As had as the nation tried to get back on it's feet, nature would not cooperate. The Hoovervilles literally lifted the earth from the ground over miles of the central United States, causing many to migrate. 1930s culture was also dictated by the Depression as well. Roosevelt filmed moves that allowed people to laught at themselves, while unemployment wrote about the hardships many suffered.

Yet another library joke

I've had three librarians forward this to everyone they know in the field in the last week.
I'm annoyed the protagonist is frumpy. You have to go to the link here.

So I couldn't find the original, and it should be documented for posterity's sake

One of the problems with xanga is that you can't really find anything that you've posted in the past. Unless you know what date you wrote it. I don't so I can't find it... and this needs to go somewhere 'cause well it is a

NEAL STORY
from
REBECCA'S WEDDING

Hopefully years from now when I'm looking this it will be properly tagged and easily found.

Anyway.

The month was July of 2004. I don't know where I was when I heard it, but I had been given the monumental task of sewing a bridesmaid's dress. I was to be in the wedding of one Rebbecca, a girl I've known longer than I could say Rebecca, and so I spent the first years of my life calling her Baggit. Her older brother Neal called her Baggit for ten years. I couldn't talk, he was just mean.

Once Becca put a bat through Neal's door when she swung at him and he slammed the door in her face. It was a lovely relationship, or at least an interesting one.

It came to pass that Rebecca was to be married in August of 2004 and while the mom's were going about preparing the festivities Neal was safely tucked away in San Francisco, not to bother the occasion until his arrival. It also came to pass that while Neal was in California he was hit in the temple by a Frisbee... detaching his retina. His repair surgery was successful and he spent several weeks on the couch with a gas bubble holding his retina to his eye. I don't know how many people he called, but yet again he was forgetting the timezone difference.

The problem was this: when one has a detached retina it is generally considered unwise (as well as stupid) to experience much of a change in elevation while the glue is adhering. Apparently the glue isn't the super glue I use and it takes a bit longer for it to dry. Long enough that he wouldn't be able to change altitudes until after Bec's honeymoon. So Neal couldn't fly.

Driving was an option, but the lowest pass in the Rockies is 1,000 feet. Exactly what the doctor had told him, well a little over by about ten feet. Had this wedding taken place before such continental shifts Neal would have been able to be there, but as it was he was given a fantastic choice: his sister's wedding or sight. Neal chose sight. Can't blame him.

Time went on, there was a hope for a better prognosis - or that the doctor would say "just kidding!" or Neal would say "just kidding!" but alas, that didn't happen.

But Neal was a groomsman, more specifically my groomsman. I'm taller than him when I wear heels. I'm not tall. He is short. Heck, Becca's taller than him when he's wearing heels.

Somewhere in there someone came up with the idea of a cardboard cutout. Not one to just stand in the corner, but one to stand up at the front of the church while the vows were being read. The groomsmen brought him in on the side and most of the church laughed. Some old women were incensed that Neal was a) not dressed appropriately and b) not facing the right direction... and so the wedding continued. The pastor pronounced them man and wife and I got to escort Neal back down the aisle.



I might add that the very generous Neal paid for the honeymoon suite. Friends of Neal were responsible for getting the room while everyone else was at the Astros game.




The cutout later appeared in the shower.

Incentive Pay

The Chronicle posted my bonus before HISD told me. That means my mom knew before I did, since she reads the news earlier in the morning. Taxes paid for it so its public record.

Yeah, I'm buying the drinks.

The Test Bank

I have question for my dear readers.

You stumble on the test bank for the trivia game you play for free beer... the test bank also explains why Czechoslovakia is still a country... What do you do with this information?

Hypothetically of course.

Lee Soccer

Lee boys soccer kicks butt!!!!!

"The Boys Varsity Soccer Team defeated Pearland 3-0 on Friday morning. Later on that day we went against Klein High School the number 1 ranked team in the state and top in the nation. Our boys played one of the best games of their lives and pour their heart out. We ended with a tied 1-1 and went to shoot-outs. We won 2-0 on shoot-outs. Today Saturday we are going against Langham Creek High School for the finals. Please give your support to these group of guys when you see them. Thanks for everything."

...then we took 2nd place in 5A soccer in the tourney.

'Iraqification' vs. 'Vietnamization'

Listen to the NPR story, is Iraq another Vietnam?

This seemed appropriate...

Fortune Cookies

Last night I went to Pei Wei Asian Diner for some grub. It was tasty, though what I really wanted was a fusion of my friend's meal and my own - yellow curry WITH pineapple. It could have been requested easily enough, but that was neglected. Guess I'll have to add curry block to my shopping list.

I like to make Asian food (this process would be known as cooking). I even learned how to make sushi. I don't make it often because to make it worthwhile you have to make a lot. And eat it fast. So, like tapas, I'll save it for parties. But that wasn't the point of my story.

At the end of every Americanized-Chinese meal there are these cute little cookies known as fortune cookies. I tried to make them once, a process that will not likely be repeated in this lifetime. I wound up with these little shells, some burned, some gooey, and some that didn't have space for me to easily add the fortune. Mine hereafter will come in a box. But that isn't the point of the story either.

My fortune cookie read "Your luck will soon change." That's nice. Then I considered, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I consider one of myself to be pretty gosh darn blessed, but is that luck? Is that fortune? Is that divine providence. I believe in luck in card games, but I also believe in strategy. This cookie was no good. A defect. I ate the perfectly glossed prophecy and stole another one.

It really isn't stealing if they are all sitting in a basket by the utensils.

Fortune cookie number two. The one I always get. "You're nice" phrased in some sort of proverb. This time it was "your happy heart brings joy and peace where there is none." That's nice, but not a fortune. Am I going to have to get out my Magic 8 ball?

So I pocketed another one on my way out. "The best times of your life have not yet been lived." That sounds good, considering I like my life and I wouldn't trade it for anything. If its going to get better even better.

This is still legit because it elucidates the first cookie... ambiguity is something that cannot be tolerated in fortunes. Thats why Nostradamus is still on the rack at grocery stores... be vague and you will be wise.

Ol' Abe

Spent

I worked three days this week.

Monday was MLK day, no school. Wednesday was an "ice day." School was called at 5:00AM. I gave three quizzes, played a review game, helped some kids through a worksheet on the New Deal, and showed clips from "Family Man" for my minilecture about opportunity cost. Nothing for me. The double block means my classes are three days apart.

Still, I am spent.

I found out three more of my girls are mothers than I had known, I found out one will be a father in August. Another is about to pop. One of my new fathers never came to school this week, his wife should be at BYU. I know. I had her. I got two kids suspended. One of my kids (17!) is filing for divorce. Four of my students have disappeared, two more reappeared. A third of my students never made it to school this week. I think one of them is in jail, and I'm betting I never see three of them again. I don't have working numbers to dial.

Anyone want to write a soap opera?

They write an "If_, then _" essay on opportunity cost and half of them are about dropping out of school.

Did I mention the newly published statistic that the graduation rate in four years is 17%?

My Model UN club is up to fourteen... we can finally have a Security Council. Somehow I wound up in a debate with the uber-far left kid that seems to think everything is a conspiracy. He seems to think the entire Congress is in a conspiracy against the rest of the world; that Israel should be blown off the face of the planet, and whatever genocide might happen in Iraq should go ahead and happen. All while the child kept looking at me and calling me "the U.S." and "you guys." What in the world is that child watching? I didn't know Al Jezzerra was available on stolen cable. They ate all my peanut butter cupcakes.

My Liberian orphan wants to tell me something, she keeps walking in and out of my class with a look on her face. She's got this grin that she's not sure what to do with. She said she'd buy 40 lollipops because I didn't have change. I'd adopt her if I could.

My New York trip kids are well over halfway to their goal and telling me to buy cookies to pay for my trip... I love those kids.

And that's just school.

Outside of that, I found out one of the guiding lights in my life (though one that encouraged me not to follow in his footsteps, or his wife's for that matter) tried to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. Another woman I know, younger than my mother, mysteriously died after elective surgery. She was fine and forty-five minutes later she was on the floor not breathing... she's got two orphaned daughters now. Another didn't return my phone calls this week... she's in the hospital too. Another friend had her baby and has almost named her after me (heh! did name her after me :-) ), another got engaged... and four others want new jobs.

So I'm going to curl up and watch a movie tonight.

{phone rings}

Er... or hang out with Brenda. :-)

Thanks. That's better.

The License Plate Game

For those of you who play and are looking for Hawaii I have a guaranteed place you can pick up Hawaii M-F 8:00-4:00 in Houston, TX.

The newest social studies teacher just moved here from the Aloha state. Who would move from Hawaii to Texas???? To HOUSTON???? In an ice storm? Turns out my work doesn't hire geniuses.

For those of you who don't feel like running by my work to finish the game:

Cooking vs. Baking

I started my online class today. Given that I had a whole day unexpectedly free I felt the compulsion to balance it with freedom as well as giving-freedom-later work. Good thing too, cause my first assignment was due at 11:55PM tonight. They aren't messing around.

Still it wasn't a hard assignment, it was a typical "Hello, my name is Kate. I am a third semester student in SLIS and I teach..." blah blah blah. With the exception of having to fuse the whole thing in with a description of how we ourselves are managers I could have copied it from any one of my other online classes; and thus I began. I typed, figuring 200 word wouldn't be hard to stay under. Three hundred words later (ooops, I guess I'm verbose) I had some editing to do, and a lack of desire to make my piece as flat as all the other entries I'd read so far.

I was successful. One shortcut I didn't take though was lumping together "cooking" and "baking." It is often tempting. Most people would. I won't. They aren't the same. About the only thing they have in common is that they are activities that usually take place in a kitchen and they usually produce products that are consumed orally or thrown down the garbage disposal.

I'm going to steal a couple definitions from Alton Brown:
1) food + heat = cooking
2) food x mixing + heat = baking

You cook stir fry. You bake cupcakes. You cook a lasagna. You bake a cheesecake.

Cooking is a relatively forgiving process. As long as you don't get too crazy with the flavors, add too much heat or not enough you will generally wind up with something edible. You can substitute like crazy. You can use chicken instead of pork, you can use pears instead of apples. People might look at you strange, but then you can just say you got the recipe from Rachel Ray and they will contentedly eat your concoction.

Baking however is not a forgiving process. While cooking is an art and can truly be done with "a dash of this and a dop of that" baking is NOT. Baking is a science. Ignoring a small detail, like leveling mounding cup of flour or packing/not packing the brown sugar can change everything. You might blow up the lab. The ingredients are indeed cheap, but you got to know what you are doing. You can over mix and you can under mix and either can yield holes in the cupcakes or rubbery cookies. Yes it matters if there are large eggs at room temperature. It matters that the butter is creamed and not melted and it matters that you use shortening, margarine, or oil... even if they are all from corn.

Sometimes I feel like a chef. I like the creativity, the art and the tolerance. Things go together, they work out and I can improvise much more. Sometimes I feel like a baker, I like the directions and the rigidity of it. You can't play with it unless you know what you are doing; but when you do know what you are doing the product is much more... sweet. Sometimes I like the big picture. I like thinking about making pesto and noodles but I'm not going to concern myself with all the little details. Sometimes I like the art. Sometimes I like the science, I like being told exactly what to do here and there without questioning or improvising, emerging with Sarah's 4-H cookies. But what I really want to do is make the sweet stuff my own.

Three Sources

I've been taunted recently.

I had a three day weekend for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It was nice, I actually had a weekend. There were rumors, plenty of rumors from news stations and from my fellow teachers that there just might be an ice storm on Tuesday morning that would close the schools and give me a fourth day. I know, I know... I just was off for two weeks for winter holiday. I know a lot of people didn't have MLK off. I know I should be grateful for what I have. I know I like my job. I know... but having the prospect dangled in front of you only to have it rudely taken away by a man on the radio:

"Despite weather predicting freezing rain, sleet, and ice last night the roads in Houston city limits are dry and clear." It was unwelcomed news.

I went to work to enjoy half empty classes. I gave quizzes and passed out worksheets. It was great fun. The kids asked me to check the weather at the end of every class. Thirty-two all night kids, we're teetering on the possibility, but I wouldn't count on it.

Alas I was awakened this morning to hear that within most of Houston city limits there was no ice. That rude man on the radio was giving me information I was prepared to hear. I went to the bathroom and returned to hear the unexpected news "all HISD schools are closed, as well as private schools..." but those didn't matter. The man said all HISD schools. That can't be right, HISD never closes schools for a few ice patches in the city. They'll tell us all to come in, half the kids will have convinced their parents they live in Waller (or something) and they will have failed to turn on the heat. I was supposed to spend my day half-teaching in a parka. HISD never closes schools.

So I check my sources. This is, for instance, the best website on the web right now. Then at six another source came, the HISD automatic phone system called to alert me to my full glee.

Yipeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Teaching the Holocaust: Anecdotes

To teach the Holocaust I usually present to the class the after school special "The Wave" which is based on a true story in Palo Alto, California. I followed this with some (permission granted) film clips from Schindler's List and Life is Beautiful. We discuss mob mentality and look at the poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

It is one of those "moral lessons" of history that highlights that cliche "you study history so that history doesn't repeat itself... or rhyme." I like it, it is interesting... the kids get mad... they don't understand... I've done this every year since I started, in World History, in U.S. History and in Sociology. It is a big part of the curriculum and kind of something you can't skip.

Sometimes though, I learn a lot more...

My first year of teaching I forgot to explain what being a "Jew" meant and dove straight into the Holocaust. At the end I wound up with some really weird answers: Q: "Why were the Jews targeted by the Nazis?" A: "Because they had that star lookin' thing."

In my first Sociology class one of my sweet Guatamalan students had never heard of the Holocaust. Ever. I gave her Night to read and she tore into it... but she'd never heard of it before. Ever.

One year one of my Bosnian girls couldn't watch Schindler's List. It reminded her too much of the nightmare that had taken her brother and her uncle away. I learned a lot from her relaying her experiences over the three and a half years she was in my classes.

Last year a young man from Syria was in my class. He watched my film clips, he listened to my statistics and my spiel on why Hitler got away with it. The next day he brought me stacks of paper to prove to me that the Holocaust never happened. Ever. "It is fiction" he said and there was no arguing any other way no matter what evidence was presented or textbook it was in. It was all lies, and any further discussion was fruitless... This year his sister is in my class. She's never heard of Hitler or the Holocaust either.

The channel that called wolf

So it didn't sleet last night, nor did it rain. It might be freezing out, but the world is not covered in ice this morning. Tree branches are still on the trees and powerlines are still in the air.

School is open, at least for today. The problem is everyone hoped it would be cancelled and psyched themselves up for another day in the weekend. We're back, but that doesn't mean the school secretary isn't on the phones saying:

"Yes, the school is open; si, classes hoy," a hundred or more times. Watch the TV folks, listen to the radio... it is your friend.

Poor planning

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Tomorrow I'm not working.
Tomorrow they are fixing my boiler.
Tomorrow I won't have any water.
Tomorrow it is raining and maybe starting to sleet.