The Daily News

1  What day is today?

2  Do you do that?

3  You get so mixed up with everything you have to say and do that you have no idea what day it is?

4  The only day of the week where that is a nice thing is Saturday.

5    I always love that moment where you think you have to get up and do something, and then realize, "Ah, it's Saturday!"

6   And then you plop your head back down and smile and rest.

7   That didn't just happen.

8   What day IS today?

9    Wednesday. Oh thaz right. <trying to pry left eye open>

10  Wednesday is called inappropriately "Hump Day."

11   It is the largest hurdle of the week, and we are to get over the hump. Oh. I get it. Lol.

12   Some guy invented that probably because he was too frustrated to campaign for the elimination of Tuesday as a day of the week, a campaign I have fought for years.

13   Nobody ever listens. I coo into the night. Nobody listens.

14   It's like trying to campaign for free pizza. Or Ron Paul.

15   Ah, vell.

16   No matter what they call today, I usually feel like a stale piece of white bread by Wednesday.

17   Half a minute.

18   I just jumped over to AOL to check the major news stories, always a lark.

19   These are legit headlines. Here is what constitutes news these days:

Queen May Not Like Camel's Name. What's his name? Elizabeth? Betty? Joe?

Man Protests All-You-Can-Eat Fish Fry For Cutting Him Off. Dude.

Chaperones Accused of Spraying Lysol On Dancers at Prom. Seriously? Who made that call?

Robbing Internet Cafe? Check Out of Facebook First. There's a reason I have a job.

Truck Crash Unleashes 18 Tons of Yogurt on Highway. Sign of the times. It used to be booze and ciggies.

20  So there you have it.

21  No news.

22  As I have often said, good news.

23  Journalism is in the toilet, folks.

24  We make up news on a daily basis.

25   Oh, once again, some celeb was wearing some sexy dress at some celeb benefit, which happens every other day. Too funny. Lol.

26   Tom Cruise is getting reamed for being a Scientology nut. When hasn't that happened?

27    I'm guessing Maury Povich found once again who the husband was, in his usual macabre fashion. That guy is a walking freak show. I imagine him in Hell standing next to Rupert Murdoch.  Rupert, not aware of Maury's fame: "So, how'd you make YOUR money?"

28   Going South Way too Fast Dept. Here's another headline: Alleged Weapons Dealer Ordered to Write Book Reports. I probably ordered the guy to do book reports ten years ago. Probably my fault. What an exquisite punishment.

29   I remember when news was news, and when all this sensationalism had a name in the journalistic circles. It was called yellow journalism, and was frowned upon by anybody with any sort of common sense.

30  All news is pretty much invented nowadays, until something worse comes along.

31  Welp, I'm not going to go into a rant about it. I'm of an age where I simply shrug my shoulders at the mountains of stupidity that surround us on a daily basis.

32   If mountains of stupidity grew like wildflowers, today would be be the Spring of idiocy.

33   I love mixed metaphors. People think you're ingenious.

34   It sort of is the Spring of idiocy when you take a look at the news.

35   Stupidity has reached pandemic proportions.

36   Moving on, Part the First: What day IS today?

37   Oh yeah. Wednesday. Stupid day.

38   What the hell do we do with Wednesday except call it something banal like Hump Day?

39   Some boring fellow on Facebook is sure to write, "Happy Hump Day Everyone!"

40   <yeesh>

41   Is it possible just to pull the blankets over my eyes and sleep through this stuff 'til Saturday?

42   Probably not.

43   It's already into the 4 a.m. and pretty soon I'm going to have to put shoes on.

44   There's always a chore, right?

45   Well, I just got up, went out front, and then out back, saw that all was actually pretty peaceful despite Facebook, and am ready to get back to sleep, despite having miles more to go.

46   Robert Frost would have had about two hits on a blog. People would have ignored him on his name alone. The Facebook fam-bam would have sent the guy to Farmville.

47   And that's life. <plays soothing Sinatra tune.>

48   I'm out yo.

49    Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

Have a little Francis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqhYchnDNfA

The Daily News

1   Congratulations, Miss Harrington!

2    My daughter Nicoley was told yesterday that she was moved to teaching first grade. She has wanted this forever. She is an excellent teacher who uses professional research to motivate and engage her students. She knows more than I will ever know about how to be a good teacher, so her school made the absolute right choice putting her in that important position.

3   I can't wait for this school year to finally close down so that she and I could talk shop. Our plan is to both work out and figure out how to become better teachers in an economy that is trying to make that impossible.

4   So congrats, Nicoley Boley!!! Daddy's proud and looking forward to spending a lot of the summer with you!

5   Moving On, Part the First: Yesterday we got word that the District and the Union came to an agreement that to me looks REALLY good, given the times. I'm a union assembly rep, and I'm almost more than happy that we are maintaining our status quo, and that our benefits were protected.

6   I'm sure there are people who will be upset, but in this economy, I think we got a good deal.

7   The trend not only in education, but in all businesses these days is to get rid of good workers and to dump on everyone who is left.

8   Anyone out there feel that?

9   So if you get a contract that is going to make it so that won't happen, even if for a year, you feel a sigh of relief, however short.

10  That's America in 2012.

11  I really expected WAY worse, to be honest.

12  We're still ridiculously understaffed, especially in the area of support staff, but it looks like the cutbacks are on hold. I never in my life thought I would be happy about that, but I am.

13  Somebody will read this and want to kick me in the seat of the pants, but I'm happy, because I can afford new pants. All of this is, as the great John Miller put it, "Imho." That's "in my humble opinion." I can't tell people how to think or how to vote.

14  Over here, a sigh of relief. School employees work really hard for your children and deserve to be treated fairly. That hasn't always been the case, and this entire negotiation could have really turned horrid.

15  For now, it looks as though we can all breathe, and plan a bit for our students next year. Imho. John Miller's Facebook humor.

16   It's sort of sad when you have to say, "Thank God. It could have been worse."

17   But that's the way it is in education.

18    And yes. Thank God. It could have been worse. Imho. Lol. LMFAO. Fml. LOFLMFAO. How'd we get here? More on that.

19    Moving on, Part the Second:  I had another dream where the DN wrote itself. Woke up in the 2 a.m. and realized that I hadn't typed out a word.

20    Fortunately, my early-to-bed mentality bought me the time. It also helps that I am a Giants' fan, because we tend to sleep between the second inning and the eighth.

21   If you're a true Giants' fan, you probably do the same thing.

22   Moving on, Part the Thoid: I'm about ready never to check my emails again. Yesterday morning I was going in on a Monday minding my own business when I looked at my emails.

23   Forgive me. Sunday I decided to put school on the shelf and enjoy Mother's Day with my Dad. You would think I had shot up the village. I had two pages of emails with people planning my week for me.

24   I have been ridiculously busy lately and was already flying by the seat of my pants on planning alone. I'm actually pretty good at staying ahead of the school when it comes to watching the ever-changing calendar. I learned that from running school activities. I plan WAY ahead for lots of things, but the rest of the world waits until the last minute to throw roadblocks in front of those of us who actually plan.

25   I kept waiting for certain dates to be decided, but still had to plan these last two weeks knowing that other people's last-minute decisions were going to come crashing in on my plans.

26   So yesterday morning I must have had twelve different people tell me I had to be certain places at certain times in the next two weeks. I was having enough trouble timing the transition from Taming of the Shrew to my rather intense poetry reading on Friday, as well as readying the students for finals.

27   I was completely shaken by the time my second class hit yesterday, but I kept fouling off a thousand pitches.

28   It all paid off, because things have now lined up pretty nicely for the rest of the week. I got my pitch.

29   Still, everybody else's scrambling was driving me crazy. I had my own stuff to worry about, and last-minute ideas of others don't always take a precedent.

30   AnywayZ...

31    Sorry.

32    I have one shot to get this thing written, and today it is just reflecting on personal stuff.

33   I was moving along here realizing that nobody is interested in listening to some guy rant about how much work he has to do.

34   They get enough self-indulgence flying through Facebook posts.

35   Here's my quick observance of Facebook posts:

36   Just cut my toenails.

37   Got a new haircut that I hate! Please tell me it looks cute, or I'll unfriend you.

38   <video of a cat falling into a toilet> LMFAO!

39   If you know someone who has a cold and is mean but you still like them, put this on your status. I know most of you won't, but do it anyway.

40   Going to VEGAS, BABY!

41   Legs hurt from working out for three hours.

42   <picture of four girls with fake moustaches>

43   <picture of everyone jumping in the air at once>

44    Going on interview for Mama's Pies. Wish me luck!

45    GO ANY TEAM THAT'S NOT LOCAL!!!

46    Go Spurs.

47    Giant suck.

48    Done even talk, beotch who you tink what bitch you be trippin' ho fu@# that bitch just sayin'.

49    Just checked in at Walgreens.

50    I have the best hubby in the world. Mmmmmm, lobster soaked in butter with a side of garlic pasta and a salad! Nom. Nom. Nom.

51   Mandatory meeting of the Notorious Society Dance group. Let's do this!

52   <picture of empty beer bottles and hard booze> Yeeeeuh! getin my praty one.

53    A vote for Ron Paul is not a wasted vote.

54    Six essays due by morning. Wish me luck.

55    <Picture of Time magazine with four-year old on mom's boob.> Let's have a debate. 

56    The Daily News: Taming of the Shrew and Grease! 

57    See what I'm up against?

58    Peace, and VEGAS BABY!!!

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

The Daily News

1  Incident in Safeway on Mothers' Day: I get in line at a Safeway in order to buy flowers for Mom and the clerk is SO on it that he chucks a plastic customer divider perfectly in front of me without taking his eyes off his register. I didn't have to play that customer/divider thing where some guys feel they don't have to bother separating their items from mine. Already the clerk has won me over.

2   The customer two guys in front of me moves off, and the guy being helped notices that the other guy forgot his change.

3   He runs after the guy with the change and says, "Sir, you forgot your change!"

4   Good man.

5   The other customer thanks him and leaves sheepishly, as though he were the only person ever to be that stupid.

6   Clerk chimes in, "I had to chase a lady for her change once. I yelled, "Uh, Miss? Change! She walked back to me angrily and said, 'I ain't changing for you or any other man!' "

7  

8    Guy made my day.

9   Sometimes I love going back home. That store was in South San Francisco, where wiseguys are a dime a dozen.

10   I was born in San Francisco and lived in South City for the first ten glamorous years of my life.

11   My memories are of a place that was black and white, like a 50's sit-com.

12   Even when I re-visit, it almost turns black and white once again, like a doctored photograph.

13   I have nice memories of all of that.

14   I particularly enjoy that the wiseguy thing still exists.

15   As much as I love San Jose, we don't have wiseguy clerks around here.

16   Maybe it's the town, or maybe it's the economy, but most clerks are polite and robotic, quite what I call concrete-operational. They are there to do their jobs, and they have smiley managers breathing down their throats.

17   If there's anything that gets on my nerves, it's when some district manager is visiting a store and is like Joe Happy, asking, "Finding everything okay sir?"

18   In typical hypocritical fashion, I am annoyed by stores that don't help you when you obviously could use some help. I sat in a restaurant the other day with an empty coffee cup, empty water glass, and clean plate for around ten minutes before the waiter came over to give me my check. I couldn't really even get her attention.

19   I won't go there ever again. Overpriced, lousy food, lousy service, toe-up rest rooms, etc.

20  This is why we get those happy-faced general managers going into stores to make all their employees nervous. But that somehow annoys me. It's sort of like when teachers suddenly get passionate about teaching right before the WPC walks into their classrooms.

21   The WPC, for non- DN regulars, stands for "White People With Clipboards."

22   AnywayZ...

23   It was refreshing seeing a clerk chuck a divider perfectly where I wanted one, and then pick up on a cue perfectly. Big wiseguy tone too.

24   Blue collar madness. Raised with it, love the intelligence and humor.

25   I miss old times.

26   Moving on, Part the First: Biggest mistake I have made all year was not keeping up with the DN. After fifteen years of getting this thing out no matter what, circumstances finally made it impossible.

27   It was a series of things, but mostly lack of easy internet access, what with a kitchen remodel, a wrong pushed button, a Theater with no internet access, and weekends at Dad's, who still uses typewriters. I found it physically impossible to get this out each day.

28   Unfortunately, in these times of blogs and Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Twooter and all, nobody wants to hear any extended nonsense anymore.

29   Okay, so it wasn't the biggest mistake I ever made.

30   But things change so swiftly in life that coming back to writing the DN has been a bit of a challenge.

31   For one thing, I noticed a vast drop in readers. Understandable.

32  Second, it's the end of the school year.

33  Third, people just want to scroll down Facebook Lane and read the headlines, occasionally stopping to comment on something that might rank a like or a comment.

34   Quite often they like and comment on the latest trend fashion.

35   That's why there is a picture of The Avengers at the top of this page.

36   I should have put the Time magazine up there with the mom who has a four-year old boy dangling off her boob. Because THAT'S news.

37   It's come to that.

38   Welp, it's Monday. No point in worrying about any of this. I'll just keep tacking away and tossing this nonsense out there until I can't.

39   It's back into the 4 a.m. I had a lovely Mother's Day with Dad. I had internet access but preferred boushitting with him, and then doing a little yard work.

40   We visited Mom, and it was a nice moment. Flowers look pretty. Mom rests under the American flag at Holy Cross in Colma. I took a picture of the flowers and the American flag, but I'm too lazy to get up and put it here.

41   Nothing will catch the moment anyway. Mom passed away three years ago this Thursday, so yesterday was pretty special with Dad.

42   Hope you all had a nice one.

43   I love you all, everything.

44   Time to go back to sleep. It's into the 4 a.m. and I need a few more hours.

45   Have a lovely Monday.

46    Fly low.

47    Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington 

  The Daily News

1   Somehow it's Frideeeeeeee!!!!

2   I had bouts with morons yesterday. Won't go into it, since many are related to being out on the road and driving.

3   So let's just reel it all in.

4   I associate everything that is happening out there with the ending of the school year, which includes not only my own school, but parents of children in school, kindergarten teachers, principals, school bank people (always sent from heaven!), college undergrads and grads, and on and on.

5   The focus right about now is on the ending of a school year, no matter where you try to run.

6   It is annually the most surrealistic time of the year.

7   Yesterday I brought my students into the Theater to watch TheTaming of the Shrew in widescreen with full stereo.

8   What I didn't expect was that David had his first class in the Theater to strike the Grease set.

9   I had no problem with it, since I felt lucky to have gotten to use the facility at this strange and busy time of the year.

10   He had the worklights over the stage on for safety, so the effect of the movie playing was amazingly weird.

11   Most Theater people know the effect of using what is called in the biz a scrim. A scrim is an enormous piece of cloth that if projected on, works as a screen, such as a movie screen, but if lit up brightly from the back, lights up anybody or anything there, so that they can almost appear out of nowhere.

12   So the effect yesterday was that our movie screen had Shrew playing brilliantly. In the night scene where Hortensio and Gremio were looking for a "mate" for Katharine, the kids striking the set suddenly appeared more brilliant than the film, giving Shrew a ghostly effect , with around fifteen or twenty cast members from Grease walking through the film as though they were wraiths in an odd dream.

13   David's first class of the day evidently is his advanced Drama class, which had many of the leads and ensemble students in it.  The sound of Shrew was loud and clear, but the images on the screen were of the final strike for Grease, all happening simultaneously with the first appearance of Richard as Petruchio.

14   It felt like I was watching ghosts of the past and of the present. People in my class were a bit confused, but I LOVED the effect. I couldn't have directed a cleaner scene.

15   All this happened yesterday early.

16   It was literally the final strike of the Grease set by the Grease cast and crew coming through the film. What an effect, especially first thing in the morning!

17   Other worldly, and just right.

18   I had missed the cast party on Saturday night due to exhaustion. I stayed a while for hugs and flowers, but decided not to stay until the 12:30 end of it all.

19   My strikes always tended to be on the Monday or Tuesday following a show. I always thought that the all-nighter strikes of yesteryear were too brutal, and that tearing the show down worked better if spaced over two days. I understand that true Theater people would look down on such heresy, but I was a lot more logical, knowing full well that a strike in a high school at 2 a.m. was impractical, but done by many high school, college, and professional companies.

20   I would usually head for Joe's with Ponch, and have Randy serve us up some Manhattans, often gratis.

21   I even looked down yesterday at the Grease strike going beautifully with Taming of the Shrew and thought that Randy might have been the author.

22   It was THAT good.

23   I really didn't give it much thought until I awakened in the 2 a.m. to write this folderol.

24   By the end of that first class, the entire Grease set had disappeared, as had David and the Company.

25    The rest of the day the film dominated, and was as incredible as ever. 

26    Moving on, Part the Foist: Cray cray.

27    Nicoley and I talked about everything being "cray cray" the other day.

28     We were two teachers trying to reconcile the unreconcilable, which isn't even a word. We talked about how cray cray school is this time of the year.

29     I think she has two weeks left, and I really have just one and then finals, which I suppose measures out to two.

30    Shrew yesterday was amazing. The Theater swallowed up my class. I felt like William Randoph Hearst giving a private screening to Hollywood's elite. David had hooked up the sound for me, so the sound system was awesome, and the brightness of the screen exquisite.

31   It prompted one student to say, "Mr. Harrington, we should have a movie at the end of the year up in here!"

32

33   Hmmmm.

34   You tell me.

35   There's a reason I have a job.

36   Okay, so it's choking into the 3 a.m. and I mightily need to have my wits about me today.

37    I think I'll push his odd week to the back burner and move into the weekend.

38    I guess I'm just happy to be walking around.

39    It's Frideeeeeee after all, and beautifully annoying weather.

40    Have a lovely weekend.

41    And as always, fly low.

42    Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

The Daily News

1  So...Randy Ritchie walks into a bar...

2   On May 2 Randy passed away after a long bout with cancer.

3   This guy was an Original Joe's stalwart. In my Joe's heyday, he would come by, sit down, eat some of my fries and talk about rock music, parties, and living the good life.

4   He was famous for writing a song on a Joe's bag if it was your birthday, and then coming over and singing it in with a gravelly voice, beginning with his back to you, and ending with taking off his jacket to reveal that he had cut his sleeves off his white shirt, almost a statement that he was not really a waiter in a tux, but a living, crooning local star.

5   The thing is, he always made you feel that you were one of the best customers in a place that has been throwing dandy meals out to people for years. Huge plates of Italian food and large steaks, wine, and home-made sourdough were Joe's staples.

6   Oftentimes after shows, Ponch and I would go to Joe's. We never hosted cast parties back in the day, but we would let it leak that as private citizens, we were going to Joe's. Students would flock to the place, almost like our own version of New York's Sardi's.

7   I always gave the Joe's waiters good tips, and in return, they would treat me like royalty. It was fun being a part of the history of one of San Jose's most storied locations.

8   Even if he wasn't my waiter, Randy would stop everything he was doing on a busy night and talk. If I would run out of soup, he'd have a second bowl in front of me, along with some fresh-baked bread. It often wouldn't wind up on the tab.

9   I haven't been to Joe's since my last birthday, or at least mini-celebration. Randy sang happy birthday to me and wrote his song on a Joe's bag, the first time ever for me. I kept the bag for a while, might still have it.

10   Jenny wrote me yesterday and told me of his passing. Sad stuff, but there are tributes to him all over the net.

11   Here is an article Jenny sent me yesterday. It's a tribute to Randy by the Merc News' Scott Herhold, written on May 7:

http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_20567971/herhold-death-fixture-at-original-joes

12    I never really saw Randy as a celebrity. I saw him as a guy who knew I was a large part of Original Joe's history, which is a part of San Jose's rich and glamorous history.

13    San Jose will miss Randy Ritchie. He said in his later years that Joe's has changed a bit. The waiters used to be in charge of the customers, and he was disappointed to see that younger waiters are bringing "the customer is always right" to Joe's.

14   What I used to love about Joe's was that sometimes I would say, "I think I just want the calamari sandwich," and a waiter would say, "No you don't. You want the scallopini sec." And I would agree!

15   Randy would often bring a large hunk of cheesecake with as many forks as people, and not say a word.

16   So Randy, we all raise a glass of house red to you this fine day. You never knew it, but you have always been a legend.

17   Peace and porterhouse steaks to you.

18   Moving on, Part the First: The oddness of the last couple of weeks of school are in full swing.

19   Yesterday I got to school, the final bell rang for my first class, and there were only around twelve students sitting down.

20   The day before, that same class had talked incessantly while I lectured, and I had to stop and berate them. I don't do a lot of berating, but they were out of hand. During testing, three guys cut out of the test early. Graffiti (okay, EV graffiti, which consist of pencil drawings that come up with one swipe of Windex) and gum on seats began to appear last week.

21   So Monday I just pointed out the rudeness, and my inability to grasp it. I made the last week of school ridiculously easy for them, but they still came in hideously late.

22   I was absolutely speechless, was all ready to light up Shrew for them, and they weren't there.

23   They understood, and it was actually a coincidence that so many came in late on the same day.

24   I eventually calmed down; they helped me hand back papers, and were respectful for the remainder of the period.

25   But yeesh! I spent half of last week trying to get the Theater for Shrew. I finally succeeded in booking today and tomorrow, but I had to get sign-offs for everyone in the school. I jokingly told the students that I had to have Obama and two foreigh diplomats sign me off in order to get the place.

26   Fortunately, I do a lot of favors for the performing arts' department, so they are all willing to let me use the Theater. The know I'm going to treat it like a cathedral.

27   So that was then, and this is now. The same class gets treated like royalty today, because that's the way I roll.

28   I was just a little stunned by the lack of respect yesterday, because I seldom get that, especially from an English 2A class.

29   Anyway, the line to Shrew forms to the left today at 8:15. I guarantee a few of those guys will be late anyway.

30   Will I care?

31   Nah. I don't take it personally. One girl who is late has to take care of her grandma, who has cancer. Another kid has to walk almost two miles to school. It's tough to herd them all in and be consistent.

32   I already started Shrew yesterday, and all the classes enjoyed it. The soundtrack has always been the harbinger for summer, and it blasted beautifully yesterday. By the day's end, I was smiling.

33   Well, it's almost 4:20, which means Phoebe is about to get up and bark at me. I nicknamed her "4:20" because she seems to know that 4:20 is a good time to shake, and then bark in my ear.

34   So I'm going to hope she sleeps through it, because I'm pretty sleepy. I went to sleep pretty early after watching the Giants' choke.

35   I don't even know if they lost, but I assume they did.

36   Am I worried?

37   Nah. Just about getting too little sleep.

38   So Iminna go now.

39   Hope you guys have a great day. Look up in the sky and give Randy a thought; he was and remains a good man.

40   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington