The Daily News

1   Wow. Can you really tell me it's Wednesday, AND almost March?

2    I ain't complaining.

3    So in yesterday's DN I boasted about treating my students to Ticonderoga pencils, by their company's own admission, The World's Best Pencil. Number 2's, no less. Caviar and champagne.

4    Before I gave yesterday's bubble test, I held the package up to my students and bravely announced that I had spent my own hard-earned coin to get them the very best in pencils. I was sincere. It was heartfelt, as you might well imagine. I received applause. I basked in my own glory.

5    The District gave a test and failed to provide pencils. I decided to provide the best pencils in the known world, at least according to the manufacturer.

6    Twenty seconds into the test, one of my smartest students walked up to me. He held his pencil out. The lead had fallen out of the end, leaving a gaping hole.

7    I broke into an enormous smile, and said glibly, "The irony is dripping!" He laughed, and shared a great moment. A few students saw what had taken place and laughed along with us. I muttered silently, "The World's Best Pencil."

8    Somewhere in there is a story which can be matched by everyone reading this.

9    Proof of God.

10  Moving on, Part the First: I love everyday stories. They just happen, and they happen to all of us.

11   Yesterday morning, for example, I saw a chair that had an enormous crack right between the back and the seat, rendering it pretty useless.

12    In this economy, this is somewhat of a tragedy, since getting another chair could be an eternity. Fortunately, I had another, but this is the second broken chair in two weeks.

13    I took a piece of printer paper and a black marker, and wrote the simple word "Broken" and then taped it to the chair. I put the poor fellow in the hallway, hoping the custodians would feel sympathy, put the lad out of his misery, and then replace him with  a new chair.

14   I knew instinctively that the chair was a male, by the way. I figured only a boy would be able to break a chair so poetically.

15   I put him outside my door, against the wall. He looked lonely and confused.

16   I gathered myself together and moved on, as we all must do.

17   Later in the day, I packed all my stuff ready to go to rehearsal, and looked at the lonely chair sitting against the wall outside my door.

18   Penciled under the word "Broken" were the words "Like my heart. =(  Mariano."

19    It was a poem. I took a pic, but it didn't at all capture the immenseness of the wall framing the chair. It wasn't a chair. It was a guy in the throes of eternal turmoil.

20   We've all been there.

21   I hope that tomorrow the prettiest girl in school asks Mariano if he enjoys ice cream, and then hands him a flower.

22   Some Winnie Cooper might just go up to this Kevin Arnold and make his day.

23   Those are the little stories that go on day by day.

24    Sweet.

25   Moving on, Part the Second: I was reminded of our difficulties years ago in trying to block Godspell yesterday. We went down to the Theater and another group was rehearsing something or other. We wound up having to block in the dance studio, very similar to the piano lab at YB.

26   David, our director, casually moved the Grease cast into this much smaller area, and blocked acts five, six, and seven with no tables, chairs, or props. I had done that on many shows when groups needed to use the stage.

27   It always makes for a difficult rehearsal, but the students displayed tremendous patience and laughter. At the end of the rehearsal, David had us gather in a circle and join hands. He gave notes, exactly the same way I used to do "Under the Clock" only this was mid-show. He told the students that we were on the verge of something truly special, the first musical in our school's history. He told us to hang tough for the ride.

28   It was amazingly similar to everything we ever didat YB. The cast was solid, and beginning to bond. David turned what could have been a disasterous rehearsal into a cause. I loved being a part of it, because I had a hand in trying to get a musical in that building for years. It was my first dream when I arrived at the Chill, and yesterday made that dream a potential reality.

29   The kids were great, and quite cooperative. Scenes were silly, but somehow with a show, we all knew that it was going to be a fun ride.

30   David had everyone bend over and do a sort of paleolithic grunting and stumbling, and the cast backed way out, still with hands joined, and then back in, screaming, "Wooooooooo!" and then when they almost crashed, threw their hands in the air in a pretty fun ritual.

31   It reminded me tremendously of the Hokey-Pokey that we used to do Under the Clock.

32   And I remembered Godspell in particular, the one I directed so many years ago. I remembered the frustration of trying to block a play in a classroom, having students stand on flimsy tables just to give an idea of how it would work.

33   We had been sequestered for almost three weeks, maybe more. I recall vividly when we finally got into theTheatre taking all sorts of acting blocks and stairways and hurling them into the pit, creating a wonderful acting area where we could break loose.

34   The set design was made by hurling platforms, blocks and stairs right below the apron. I don't think I ever changed it. Our rehearsal that day was sensationally creative, setting the tone for the remainder of the Show.

35   Yup.

36   That one is capitalized.

37    Godspell went on to become my favorite Show ever. Colorful, powerful, and with lightning timing, that show mesmerized audiences. The same audiences came each night, making them a part of the miracle. Circus music, clowns, singers who loved to sing, and colors changing everywhere turned our Theatre into a magical, mystical palace.

38   All Good Gifts.

39   Godspell was always magical. My very first year at YB we did Godspell, but I didn't direct it until years later. JoAnn Olvera Trembath directed it, and did a dandy job.

40   I was the musical director of that one, and it had the same magic. The incredible band became Daffy and the Ducks, and we used to jam like crazy in the band room. Tremendous fun, reeling and rocking. The Workshop grew out of those roots and never looked back.

41   My Godspell fed off that tremendous energy all those years ago.

42   Through the years I would bring to other Shows that would feature at least three or four Godspell songs.

43   They became almost religious to me as the years went by. I still play them on guitar to this day.

44   So I'm enjoying being a part of Grease. David cast me as Teen Angel, so I have been a nervous wreck about perfecting Beauty School Dropout. I keep experimenting with different versions. Yesterday I found a version online that is completely in my key, and I nailed it. I've practiced for weeks, but my feeble and frabjous mind just can't seem to memorize lyrics. Never really could.

45   But the past few years I've learned around seven or eight Sinatra songs, and that has helped. The version of Beauty School Dropout I heard yesterday dovetailed with that.

46   My deadline for nailing it is Thursday, so I'm pretty close. Yesterday it sounded good, at least to me. When you sing, you know when you have it and when you don't. I have a mic and all set up in my house. It's fun, but it's also stressful, in a benevolent way.

47   Yesterday the entire room swooned and swayed, which hadn't happened until, well, yesterday. I'm still nervous about the song, but at least I got one good rehearsal in before my deadline.

48   Anyway, we've miles to go before we sleep, but it is fun being a part of this reasonably historical Show, and I am happy to capitalize it.

49   Too many similarities. It's fun to be back in the mix.

50   I'll keep you posted. It's been six or seven years since I've been a part of a Show, so this is really fun.

51   Have a good Wednesday.

52   It IS Wednesday, right?

53   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

  The Daily News

1   Yesterday I saw some guy in a red van speed up and ride some other guy, then without signaling, swerve into my lane, and then swerve back over, only to arrive at the stoplight one car away.

2   This no longer bothers me, with the exception of the safety factor. When my daughters were learning to drive and we'd see a guy like that, I used to say, "Where ya goin?" WHERE YA GOIN'? See ya at the light." Always worked.

3   I also told them that should we get side-by-side, to take a peek, because that's what a moron looks like. It was like being in a Goofy cartoon.

4   I don't know about anyone else, but either I'm just turning crotchety, or driving has become ridiculously dangerous in the past four years.

5   I'm convinced it's a little of both. I'm also convinced that it has a LOT to do with cell phones. People can't seem to put them down. It's almost as though the Facebook/Twitter/Tumbler society thinks it needs to be communicating at all hours or they might miss something.

6   That's just plain stupid.

7    My extended family goes to Tahoe every summer, and I spend two weeks up there. I have always jokingly said that when we reach the peak that gives the first view of the Lake off Highway 50, that we should all meet on one of the lookouts, and on the count of three heave our cell phones into the canyon.

8   I came close to doing it one year. I used to have a cardinal rule that when I was in Tahoe, I was on Mars. Can't be reached. I would bring a cell phone up, but would avoid all things electronic, at least all things that would put me in touch with the rest of the world.

9   Last summer I broke that rule. I brought my phone and my laptop. I had nothing but trouble not only with those items, but with all things electrical. It was uncanny. My laptop kept turning off. My phone wouldn't allow me to unload pictures to the laptop on the rare moments when it worked. My iPhone dock simply stopped right in the middle of a song. My electric fry pan went kaput. My car battery died.

10   I think someone was trying to tell me something. I took a hike in the woods, and my feet worked. The fresh air worked. The splendor of the mountains worked. At night, the stars worked.

11   So this year I'll probably haul all those things back up. I've replace each item, but for some reason we have this absolute need to keep them near us. But I will try to avoid them whenever possible.

12   How did we ever get by without these things before they were invented?

13   Moving on, Part the First: Not really moving on, just dove-tailing. Yesterday I ran into our Activities' Director, Virginia Yenter, who is awesome. I instantly remembered how all school activities stop during vacations. I remember likening it to dying and floating up into the clouds.

14   I asked her how her break was, and she looked like someone had lifted the world from her shoulders. I expected to see her levitate. I personally had a great week, actually worked and was remarkably productive. But I remember the days of doing activities, and how those breaks were true breaks.

15   She had gone somewhere where cell phones don't work well, and she totally loved it. No internet access, no outside world. It's almost unheard of in 2012.

16   It's almost unheard of that it IS 2012. And in 2017, I'm going to re-read this and say, "Oh, brother!"

17   Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana, so they say.

18   Moving on, Part the Second: Is it Friday yet?

19   Moving on, Part the Thoid: Teaching!

So the ESUHSD ELA people have decided to launch an English benchmark test beginning today. The big word around education these days is "data". Every time they need accountability, they go to testing. So today my students are going to have a sort of pre-test on what we are going to teach them for the rest of the year; at least that's what I think it is.

20   They will take the same test the last week of school. Hopefully we see an improvement which will show that they learned what we taught.

21   Makes sense on paper.

22   What kills me about a lot of testing is that there is a lot of testing. A LOT of testing, especially in the second semester. So while we are trying to hit all the standards, we keep getting interrupted with testing, with weekends, with holidays, and with anything else that can slow students down.

23   I remember learning about variables in science. One variable that doesn't seem to play into all of this is common sense: the last week of school, the students are pretty much checked out. It's a benevolent death watch. All they want is for the year to end. They are burnt out on tests. My Mom once told me, "There is nothing common about common sense."

24   Isn't it possible that after all our work trying to get those scores up, that they might just go down? I know my support class last year had LOWER scores, even when I rode them to do well on one of those tests. I monitored, stood over them, pointed at their answer sheets, and some of them still yawned and stared blankly.

25   Districts run on data; it seems to be our number one means of accountability and placement. And there is much to be said for data; it does indicate some things.

26   So I will again be watching students take bubble tests today.

27    I wonder if the District is going to pay me back my sixteen dollars plus tax I had to spend on number 2 pencils? Yup. Opened up the testing packet yesterday and no pencils. I made a special trip to Walgreens on the way home. I treated my students to sixteen dollars worth of Ticonderoga number 2's. They declare these "The World's Best Pencil". Only the best for my students.

28   Data, baby.

29   I can't wait 'til I can start teaching again. Do-do wop. Do-do wop.

30    Well, maybe I could spend my day Twittering, Tumbling, Stumbling, Facebooking, or heavens, monitoring.

31   I sometimes look at all the silliness in education and have a laugh.

32   Testing, testing, testing. Standards, standards, standards. Data, data, data.

33   That stuff's all fine and good, but when we get down to it, engaging students, pulling them in with laughter and good times, listening to wiseguys yell out, "CAW!" when I say, "And what did the Raven repeatedly say?" It's those things that make it happen. Too bad our time is taken from those sorts of moments.

34   But I will march in today and do what they want me to do. The students will be monitored. They have sharpened Number 2 Ticonderoga pencils, neat in their boxes.

35   The Great Big Mean Education Machine will crank up, and I will watch over it to see to it that we remain strong as a nation. I won't let these young people down. I will stay off Twitter, off Tumbler, off Stumbler, off Facebook, and I will monitor like a goose protecting its hatches.

36   I do this for youth, for God, and for Country.

37   I am, after all, that Yankee Doodle Boy.

38    <Yankee Doodle plays>

39   Go into this day with everything you got.

40    I know I will.

41    Happy Tues, everyone. And God Bless America.

42    Peaceout.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

  The Daily News

1   We're baaaaaaaack!

2   I forgot that occasionally teaching gives us breaks.

3   They aren't really breaks. They're opportunities to make the bed, clean the garage, and get life in order.

4    My house finally looks like a house instead of a place taken over by papers, paper clips, staples, pencils, and what was becoming my favorite drink, brandy and cough drops.

5   Yeesh.

6   That's six fingers of brandy and one Hall's sugar-free lemon drop.

7    Don't try this at home. It's atomic, and you won't be able to handle it.

8    I somehow found myself feeling astonishingly like Leslie Howard.

9     I kid, but thank the Lawd for handing me a bit of time. This was probably the first time I've ever had time since jumping up to the Chill-on-the-Hill six or seven years ago, who's counting?

10   The years, they just keep on flying past, don't they?

11   It clearly must be the brandy and lemon drops.

12   Moving on, Part the First: For the umteenth time in my life, I ignored the Oscars. Don't know why. Maybe it's because I taught drama for so many years, and have seen talented people my entire life. Maybe it's because ironically, I never have time to go see movies, or even watch them on teevee. Maybe it's because I watch classic films in the two a.m. on Hulu, and nothing modern comes close.

13   Or maybe it's because the blue-collar guy in me doesn't want to watch a bunch of egomaniacs congratulating themselves for going to work.

14   Not sure, really. I just don't give a hoot. I especially don't give a hoot about who wore what, or who came off as an idiot. Same stuff, every year. I sort of glance at it, and then blow it off as a glorified lava lamp.

15   AnywayZ, that's my word on the Oscars. Couldn't care less.

16   Moving on, Part the Second: Well, it's great to be back. I maintained my insomniacal ways; in fact, I worked on behavior modification that would awaken me at certain hours so that I could control my sleep.

17   The nice thing about having ten days off is that you could experiment with your sleep habits. I enjoy getting to sleep early these days. I find it refreshingly different than mainstream sleepers.  If I awaken at one or two a.m. I know full well that I will already have gotten enough sleep, and that everything else is just energy to enjoy the following day.

18   It's sort of fun watching others stay up late and then dragging themselves through the day with utterly no sense of energy. To me, it's all about pacing and balance.

19   It took years to embrace my insomniacal ways, but it is almost a formula that has been perfected.

20   Interestingly, my Dad used to do this as well. I remember him conking out at eight or nine, awakening at 3 a.m. to grab a spoonful of ice cream, and then going back down until six a.m.

21   My Dad is still my hero. He worked hard, and was always there for all of us. He never complained, and he still has those incredible ethics to this very day.

22   As of last week he was out doing gardening and enjoying things. I'll be spending the weekend with him later this week. Maybe that's why I couldn't care less about the Oscars. If I'm going to hero worship, it's gonna be about my Dad. He's the very best.

23   He is polite, classy, funny; he respects women and children, and rarely uses foul language. He is every bit a hard worker, a dandy bit of a sweet person, and a large bit of a witty person.

24   He is also Mr. Lucky. We once got him a hat that said that when we were in Tahoe years ago. He has crashed in an airplane, been hit by a car, has battled cancer, diabetes, and about six thousand other horrid diseases, and still gardens and makes children smile and laugh.

25   I stand amazed at him.

26   And it is nice that I had this week to conquer all my work so that I could spend the weekend with him. I can't wait. He makes me smile.

27    All you dads out there take heed: a true role model walks the walk. They are polite, caring, funny, and classy. They can utter words all day sans cussing. They can be classy and quietly sensational.

28   That's my Dad.

29   I thank this week for allowing me to put all that paper grading and school stuff to bed so that I could begin living again. That's what this week off did.

30   I worked so that I could finally be caught up. And even though a week off usually means a horrid Monday, I am refreshed and ready to roll.

31   Wowzers.

32   And my focus for the week is to make it my own. I allowed the school to completely dominate me this year, and for the past six. I truly feel that I got my life back this week.

33   It's amazing how refreshed a person could get in one week. It is also pretty nice to catch up with virtually everything.

34   Oh, I'm still a week behind. But I've always told younger teachers that in this profession, if you are a week behind you are a week ahead.

35    A truer word was never said.

36    With that, I think I'll climb in bed.

37    It's moving to the 3 a.m. so I'm an hour earlier, and that's awesome for a Monday morning.

38    It's good, because I was beginning to sound like Dr. Seuss.

39    So it's good to be back, making you read of this and that.

40    It's all becoming a very, very, very old hat.

41    Just mumbling. I once wrote a song called Old Hat.

42    It's a sort of Dr. Seuss song.

43    Dum da Dum Dum Dum Dum da Dum Dum Dum...it goes.

44    There's a reason I'm not famous.

45    Great sharing stuff with you. Hope you have a glorious day. Fly low.

46    Look up in the sky and smile at a cloud. If it smiles back, it's someone you love.

47    Ah, dear perfection.

48    Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

The Daily News

1   Look at the stars.

2   Look how they shine for you.

3   Yup.

4    I heard that song last night.

5    I love playing it on guitar.

6    For a while, I stopped playing it, because I think I overplayed it a few times.

7    But last night, it was fun hearing it again.

8    I sang along.

9    My voice worked again, the same way it did at the dress rehearsal for the talent show rehearsal last week.

10  My voice even hit the high notes.

11   Yay.

12   It sort of worked spiritually too, because I have enjoyed taking my life back.

13   I always felt that the song went out to everyone who struggles and stresses life.

14   I hope the stars shine for everyone who knows they can make life happen, no matter what.

15   Today I simply give tests, and then I go into an entire week off where I can look back on this miraculous week and finally get some rest sans grading anything.

16   So this DN will be it for a short while.

17   The stars are shining.

18    They are real.

19    If that sounds a bit corny, so be it.

20    Things are good. Coincidences continue to mark time. I listen to coincidences.

21    It's late, or early, or whatevs.

22    But stresses have calmed. They never seem to go away, but things are perfect, at least for the moment.

23    There is time to breathe.

24    Not much, mind you, but enough to make me smile for a bit.

25    I'll keep this one remarkably short.

26    But somehow, I feel I simply must say to everyone out there: the stars are shining for you.

27    It's true.

28    Look how they shine for you.

29    Look how they shine for you. And for Betty Grable.

30    Look how they shine.

31    Have a wonderful weekend, and an even more wonderful week.

32    See you again.

33    Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYuyar-rrNY

The Daily News

1   Perfect day.

2   Every now and again, we have perfect days.

3   They are few and far between.

4    Yesterday that happened.

5     After I finished writing the DN, I tried getting to sleep.

6     I couldn't.

7     Normally I can, but for some reason or other, I lay awake the remainder of the evening and morning fretting.

8    I guess we all do it  on occasion.

9    My philosophy about insomnia is that it often occurs as a result of healthy, alternative habits,  and not necessarily from worry.

10   Ben Franklin said, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." It takes a lifetime of worry to realize that it is sage advice.

11   My insomnia is actually a planned event. By the time I awaken at 3 a.m. I have already bagged five or six hours of sleep. My philosophy is this: I cannot control things in the middle of the night. I cannot allow normal life stresses to keep me awake, because I can do nothing during the wee hours.

12  The most intelligent approach is to have a mantra that will put me back to sleep.

13   My mantra used to be quite simple. It was this: "Ommmmmmmmmmm..."

14   Cliché, I know, but it always worked.

15    Now it is this: "Sleeeeeep."

16    I learned in recent years to write the DN the second I awaken, knowing full well that I am sacrificing my worrying with putting this stuff up.

17   Works, in most cases.

18    Yesterday, not.

19    That's the downside of this.

20    I had a lot to worry about yesterday, none of which I care to share.

21    Grades were due yesterday. I knew that, and I also knew the pressure that rides along with that one.

22   So yeah, that kept me up. So did every mild pressure, and all else that we all stress about on a daily basis.

23   It was just one of those things.

24   Eventually,  yesterday turned into a perfect day, even though I had remained awake from 2:30 a.m. until 9 p.m.

25   Nuts.

26   Amazingly,  everything turned around.

27   I finished my grades in no time. That's what should have happened, because I worked hard to make that happen.

28   A meeting got canceled.

29   Always a pleasure.

30   I had a chance to enjoy the choreography of Grease, the music, and a grand moment when I sat in the house and closed my eyes while our accompanyiest practiced in the wings.

31   Sitting there I found myself sitting in every theater I've ever been in. Shades of drama entered my being. I heard the roar of the greasepaint; I appreciated the smell of the crowd.

32   I napped lightly while delightful piano music came off stage right.

33   I awakened and checked out the ellipsoids and fresnels. I dreamed the lighting design. I remembered doing lights for my daughters' dances. I remembered Godspell, and Wizard, and the Midsummers. I thought of all the shows, which to me were always one huge show. Grease is officially a part of that thought process.

24   I didn't give the canceled meeting a thought.

25   I awakened, and found that I had time to practice a song from the show.

26   I have been cast in Grease, and it's an awesome cameo.

27    Every now and again we all have a catharsis. A catharsis is a positive nervous breakdown.

28    I'm pretty sure that's what happened yesterday.

29    I had a day where everything went right, and I almost didn't know what to do about it.

30    Paul Simon wrote a song years ago called Something So Right. It's theme was this: we don't know what to do with ourselves when everything suddenly goes right for us.

31   Simon's song is brilliant. It has this line, just so you know: "I can't get used to something so right, something so right."

32   I had suddenly found myself with time on my hands. I sat in the audience as I have so many times before. I listened to piano music, and a distant sax. I closed my eyes and fell into a wonderful peace.

33   I worked hard all year, and finally had a moment.

34   Reflection.

35   Yeah, the Disney one.

36    It isn't important if you are a girl, a boy, or an Old Brown Shoe.

37    What's important is when any of us can arrive at a moment like that. They are few and far between, but they happen.

38   Perfect day.

39   I stopped the world.

40   You can too. Jerry Garcia then entered my thoughts.

41   Oh well the touch of grey, kinda suits you anyway.

41   That is all I have to say.

42    It's all right. I will get by.

43    We will get by.

44     Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

The Daily News

1   So...Freddy Solomon walks into a bar...

2   Former Niner, great human being.

3   Freddy died of colon cancer at the age of 59. A sensational player who started out his career as a quarterback, Solomon was an outstandingly fast wide receiver, famous possibly for being the guy who was originally the intended receiver on the famous Catch by Dwight Clark in the 1982 National Football Conference Championship game against Dallas. On that play, Solomon slipped, so Montana went into a play called Sprint Right Option and found Clark in the end zone for one of the most famous passes in NFL history.

4   Freddy was more than that though. He was THE star prior to Jerry Rice, and to this day is considered one of the best ever.

5   It's ironic that his passing made little news. It must have been that he didn't do drugs, nor get pulled into the cocaine/heroin-soaked world of stardom and of Hollywood glamour. Instead, he went on to become a fastidious coach who insisted that players tuck their shirts in and stay focused.

6   Here is a nice article from yesterday's online New York Times for those of you who might wish to read more about Freddy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/sports/football/freddie-solomon-receiver-with-49ers-and-dolphins-dies-at-59.html

7   Moving on, Part One: I'm glad Valentine's Day is over. Valentine's post-candy sales always rock. I'm not a big candy eater, but right now, you can get chocolate almost for free. I strongly suggest you do so. All you need isn't love; all you need is chocolate. And Betty Grable, a great man once said.

8   Plus the flowers that would have cost you nine-thousand dollars yesterday are probably about a buck-twennynine today. Valentine's Day is up there with worst nightmare holidays, right beside New Years Day and April Fools. I always felt sorry for people who had no Valentines, or who maybe had just gone through a traumatic break-up, even when I was but a lad.

9   Don't get me wrong. I never suffered a lack of Valentines. My Dad worked for Wonder Bread/Hostess, which meant we had free Twinkies, Cup Cakes, Ding-Dongs, Suzi-Q's,Sno-Balls, Ho-Ho's,and all the rest. He would get all the leftover stuff and bring boxloads of that healthy stuff home, making me one of the most popular guys in the neighborhood.

10   It never occurred to me that I wasn't the coolest guy in town, because I had utterly no problem finding friends, nor Valentines for that matter.

11   You got sweets, you got friends. I was pretty cocky for a guy who was otherwise just another neighborhood schlep. I learned all about social skills at a very young age: just dazzle them with Twinkies.

12   Ironically, in my adult life, I haven't had a Twinkie, Sno-Ball, or Ho Ho in a billion years. I don't know if it is because I had so many of them as a child, or if it because I just outgrew them.

13   It may have something to do with the nation's obsession with dieting and healthy eating. For some reason, things like Hostess sweets swim against the tide.

14   Can't imagine why.

15    While cruising the web for pictures and things, I did stumble upon a Hostess wedding cake, which gave me hope for mankind. Here ya go:

16   Amazing.

17   Moving on, Part the Second: I have often been accused of having had a Leave it to Beaver childhood, which is pretty close to true. I sometimes think my life was much closer to Kevin Arnold from The Wonder Years, a show that was named after an old commercial for Wonder Bread.

18   The commercial began, "These are the Wonder years, the growth years..."

19   I never associate my Dad with Twinkies and stuff. That was all fluff. The Twinkies and stuff existed in a huge box that lived in the garage and that was re-loaded almost every other day. I think of that stuff as almost work-bench food. It was pretty much a part of the garage.

20   But I do think of the Wonder Bread when I think of my childhood, and of Kevin Arnold. The red, yellow, and blue balloons were cool to me. When my Dad drove a truck in San Francisco, I used to get to go on deliveries, not the least of which were hot dog bun deliveries to Candlestick Park. We would get to go into the stadium and sit out in left field after a delivery and watch the Giants' batting practice.

21   I loved it. Dad once got me a toy Wonder Bread truck, and I absolutely loved it. I don't know if it is still at the house, but it's a perfect excuse to get up and see him again. Greatest Dad in the world. Some might argue otherwise, and why wouldn't they?

22   A few years ago I went into some dollar store and found a Wonder Bread sandwich holder that snapped shut. I thought it was the greatest. I got it for Dad for Christmas. He doesn't want junk. He just wants a mild laugh. He smiled. It worked.

23   Ironically, I haven't bought a loaf of Wonder Bread in my entire adult life.

24   But I do enjoy watching re-runs of The Wonder Years. A couple of years ago they had re-runs playing at around ten at night in Tahoe. What a perfect show about growing up in America. What a perfect thing to do at ten at night in Tahoe.

25   As I recall, it holds up pretty well.

26   White bread. I'm tellin' ya.

27   I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy.

28   Yankee Doodle-Do or Die.

29   Moving on, Part the Thoid: We again approach the 4 a.m. Can't seem to stop it. This means putting today's DN to bed, or perhaps in the oven for a few. Short shrift, but kind.

30   Life goes on.

31   Hope you all have a wonderful day.

32   See you again.

33   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com 

The Daily News

1   Tell me more; tell me more.

2   We had our first rehearsal for Grease yesterday.

3   Incredible.

4   The students came to play. They did the Alma Mater that opens the show. I expected soft voices and lots of work.

5   This cast sang out from the opening notes. Incredible ensemble. The girls in particular got it fast, but the boys, while a bit more shy, sounded pretty good toward the end.

6   A couple of things sent the rehearsal soaring in a different direction. First, we had to postpone Hand Jive because our Johnny Casino character was absent. Rachel, our vocal director, had to switch gears rather quickly.

7   She decided to tackle Summer Nights, a much more complex tune with a lot of "shoo bop bops" and background interchange. One of our student accompanyests, a rather shy girl named Perlynn (hope I spelled her name correctly) got on the piano and assisted with utterly no practice. She was a champ. She is one of my former English students. Awesome student.

8   The ensemble had to practice a song that wasn't scheduled until later, but Rachel and Perlynn stepped up and rescued what could have been a wasted first rehearsal. It knocked me out. The company didn't completely nail the tune, but from my perspective, they took care of a massive amount of work in one day.

9   I didn't have a copy of the music, so it was a bit tough for me to contribute much, but when boy parts needed to be more clear, I was able silently to assist.

10  One dreadful event happened. One of our cast members, a guy named Kyle, had his backpack robbed. Someone had somehow gotten to the rehearsal and stolen his laptop. Most of us assume it was someone who knew he had it in his backpack, and we are hoping it was nobody in the show.

11  I don't think that it was. Everyone came in and left backpacks in the audience. We all proceeded straight to the stage right wing. Someone must have known that he had his laptop at school and also knew that he had it at the rehearsal.

12   Plus it was only his backpack that was targeted. He and two student assistants were in the audience looking for his laptop, which very well might have been ditched in a bush, or somewhere around the theater.

13   I told them that we couldn't look in backpacks, but that they had every right to feel backpacks for laptops. Nothing surfaced, so I still like to  think it wasn't a cast member.

14   The laptop was never found. Kyle was pretty upset, but not in an accusing manner. He's in my third period class and is an awesome student. He is also the lighting design guy for the show.

15    Sidebar: Ouch. Sustained leg cramp on old injury.

16    Owwowwowwow!

17    M' bad. But it hoits. Right now. Right this instant.

18    It's the middle of 4 a.m. and my leg is cramping up a storm. So sorry to have to report this. But yoiks!

19   An oak table fell off my truck years ago and struck me in the exact spot this is happening. It hoits!

20   Two swift glasses of water. Yes, we have no bananas.

21   Water. Miracle. Not fatal. Immina live.

22   That's the way you think in 2012.

23   End of Sidebar: Back to the story: the bottom line is that Kyle's laptop was stolen at our first rehearsal.

24   On the good end, I made it past 4:20. Whew. 

25   The other bottom line is that we came away with an awesome first rehearsal. 

26    And since the DN now goes out not only to YB alumni, but also to current teachers, family, friends, and even current EV students and staff, any word from anyone about who might have stolen Kyle's laptop will be greatly appreciated.

27    We sometimes think of the DN as a quaint "back-in-the day" memory thing, but the reality is that it is still current and active. It still works with some students, although I don't advertise it too much. A few of my students know of it, and probably ignore it since it doesn't directly affect them.

28   I'm quite fine with that; keeps me outta trouble.

29   So that's the first rehearsal of the first musical at EV. It might also be the first rehearsal of what very well might become a community theater in the Evergreen area.

30   That was my first mission when I arrived at EV in 2007. So it was exciting to hear all those good voices already harmonizing and coming together.

31   Moving on, Part the Second: I should also report that the parallels with YB are sometimes striking. For years, the YB Theatre was ice cold during winter shows. I complained for years, and eventually wrote the Merc News. Within one day of the article, our heater was fixed, but many old skool YB peeps remember parents bringing electric heaters, toasters, blankets, etc. to shows. As always, the news article painted me as a madman, which I naturally loved. It got the job done.

32   EV's theater is just as bad. It is run from a computer that evidently nobody knows how to control, so our stage right rehearsal was literally pretty "chill" yesterday. I recall working a Nutcracker event a few years back and running into the same challenge.

33   I recall that our heating will go up only so high when a natural fire-prevention sensor shuts the heat off, but leaves the blower on. At the end of the first act of Nutcracker, it felt like real snow was falling on the cast.

34   We had to control the heat and then deliberately shut it off right before intermission so that it could cool back down and be re-started for the second act. I had to call a district guy to come in on a Sunday. We had to walk across to some computer room above the gym in order to keep the audience and dancers comfortable.

35   That guy retired, so the situation remains. Yesterday cast members of Grease wore coats, scarves, and anything else to keep from freezing. And like good ol' YB alumni, they said things like, "Ah, it's always cold in here."

36   Pretty unacceptable, but that's the district. Our theater isn't a top priority.Some things never change.

37    So there you have it; the first rehearsal to the first musical in the school's history. There was much more good going on than there was bad, that's for sure.

38    It is now the second part of 4:30 so I think I'll drift back to sleep for a few.

39    I'll tell you more as things progress.

40    Meanwhile...who is Sal Mineo again?

41    Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

The Daily News

1   So....Whitney Houston walks into a bar...

2    Sweet, sweet,sweet talent, and sweet, sweet, sweet singer.

3    She is one for the ages.

4     I don't wish to join the people blaming it on her, or on other people, or on show biz in general.

5    She was young, beautiful, and unquestionably one of the voices of the ages.

6    Her story is tragic, but real.

7     And she will be missed.

8     Everything else has already been said.

9    That voice, and that personality say more to me than everything else being said.

10   Stop a moment and think of Whitney.

11   She brought great joy to all of us. There is too much sadness in the world. Let's remember the love and joy we all know lived inside her, and thank the heavens that she lived in our generation.

12   Moving on, Part the First: Sad weekened. We lost a local treasure last week, Kathy Garcia, who was my daughter's dance teacher, and an amazing choreographer, friend, and mom. I remember when my daughters were tiny dancers, I would pencil small checks in the dance programs about which dances I thought were particularly incredible. In most cases, they were Miss Kathy's dances.

13   My heart goes out to everyone touched by Miss Kathy. Caitlin, Nicoley, and her dance friends gathered together this weekend to pay tribute to the memory of one of the most talented and incredible people I've ever known.

14   To all those in Miss Kathy's world: her spirit and inspiration expanded to places nobody will ever know. Her passing isn't our loss, it is heaven's gain. Let her spirit and smile take you through the week.

15   Moving on, Part the Second: Crazy days last week. On Thursday I had to get a sub for my last period of the day, go to an IEP meeting that lasted around two weeks, get to a dress rehearsal for the American Red Cross talent show, AND somehow sing that night.

16   I probably wrote about it on Friday, but on Friday I had to get up to my Dad's to learn his routine now that he is on dialysis. This meant getting up at around four a.m. so that I could get to his house by seven.

17   Helene took the day off with me, and we managed. We spent the entire weekend experiencing a brand new learning curve, but also enjoyed a few hours sitting at Ocean Beach goofing on people and eating awesome sandwiches from Clancey's Deli on Irving Street.

18   We had no internet access for three days. That couple of hours worked, because life provides plenty of lemons, and we have sometimes to provide the lemonade.

19   Dad came out of the dialysis reasonably unscathed. We all got home, watched Stephen King's Christine, of all things, and somehow all got through it.

20   The teevee got stuck on some channel that was having horror movie marathons. Yesterday we watched Halloween: Twenty Year's Later. It was lots of laughs. At one point, my Dad said, "How's yer wife?" "I don't know, I'll axe her."

21   Dear ol' Dad.

22   I wonder where I get it from?

23   Anyway, we somehow made it; I slept through the night, and now feel tanned, rested, and ready.

24   Moving on, Part the Thoid: Grades are due tomorrow at four in the afternoon. Fortunately, I pounded those down last week, knowing at some point I would need to help with Dad. I graded papers during Grease auditions, and while watching Mike Myers slasher movies.

25   Somehow it all worked.

26   I was even able to make a couple of vocab lists for my classes, although I had no time to put pictures, an added feature that my students have enjoyed in recent weeks. When I insert the pics, I Google the word "sketch" after each entry, so that pictures that resemble dictionary pictures will surface. Last week, I gave the word "edifice". I put the words "edifice sketch" in the Google search. I got a picture of a building that killed its father and married its mother. M'bad.

27   It's all good. We are in a drama unit right now, and I can't think of a nicer thing on a Monday.

28  Today will be whatever it will be, but I know one thing: it will be a classic zombie Monday.

29   Completely consistent with that monster marathon on whatever channel we hooked into.

30   Sounds like a great transition to a Monday. We are all the walking dead on Mondays anyway, so who'll know the diff?

31   So think sweet things today; reflect on the good things, and fly low. Have a laugh.

32   Gottago.

33   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

Next Episode

The Daily News

1   It's Frideeeeeee!!!!

2   What a week.

3   Lotsa good came out of this week. My personal history will mark this as a life-changing week.

4   The story of the lockdown seems tame, since nobody really is that much interested in somebody else's life.

6   Human nature. Happens to everybody. We are stuck in these bodies, and with these lives, and nobody sees your life from your perspective, no matter how much they think they do.

7   If you go on Facebook, for example, you probably take a look at my "status" or whatever the thing is called, and skip through it quickly with the thought, "Ah, he's talking about the lockdown." Scroll.

8   It's cool.

9    Interestingly, that was a day I truly thought I was targeted. Sometimes we embellish our stuff just to be drama queens. I've certainly been guilty of that, especially in my younger years.

10  It's sort of like the boy who cries wolf. You throw your little life thingys out there each day, and you get nods and "I know, I knows" all the time.

11   Know why?

12   Because EVERONE is going through the same exact daily struggles. There is a courtesy factor that is wonderful in people.

13   Yet we still have to view the world from our own eyes, and from our own daily sruggles.

14   Sometimes, when our worlds get insane, we learn things. Two weeks ago I thought I was going to die. I thought a student had snapped, and that he wanted to shoot me, and then  to shoot up the school.

15   I had a threatening note. I barricaded my room. The administration had said that we were in a full lockdown. I notified the office that I had been threatened. Within five minutes, the full lockdown was in place. Police. Helicopters. Reporters.

16   I wrote my family and told them that I loved them.

16   I fully protected my students. I was oddly more worried about them and my family than I was about being shot.

17   It took two days before I got the straight story on what went down at our school.

18   That day changed my life.

19    I suddenly decided that I had to change my daily routine, which was teaching with all my power each day, grading papers and planning on weekends, and having absolutely zero time for anything else.

20   Since that time I signed up for the Red Cross Talent show, became active in the site union, practiced new guitar tricks, went on a healthy diet, hopped on board our current drama production of Grease, and most important, made time for my Dad.

21   I think it's high time.

22   Moving on, Part the First: Somehow, the DN dodged all those bullets.

23   The DN has traditionally been targeted to former staff and students, particularly my former students who had gone through performances, talent shows, band concerts, choir concerts, and all the rest.

24   This past year, I brought in family and friends. I never figured they would care about my life as a teacher, because it's exactly the same as anyone's life as anything.

25   It's fun to know that people sometimes are interested in how different professionals get on in life. I always thought it would be interesting to hear how a police officer's daily routine goes down.

26   I'll bet it's nothing like what they portray on television.

27    I have never seen a television show or movie that ever got teaching down. Well, maybe the 1984 classic Teachers, starring Nick Nolte as a burnt out teacher. While obviously quite dated, that film is truer to the real deal than any other thing I've seen.

28   The book Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman is another, but it is from the point of view of a beginning teacher.

29    To this day,Teachers remains the closest portrayal of how it truly is.

30    A number of teachers read the DN. I'd be interested in their insight as to what the best movie or book about day-to-day teaching is.

31   For me, it's constant working, planning, and caring about lessons, and about making things happen in the classroom.

31    It's also about outside demands that pull us in every direction, and that take us away from our real work. It's about meetings, accountability, supervision, and ridiculous tasks with few resources. It's now also about job worry.

32   The thing is, I'm pretty sure that nearly everything that happens in the teaching profession happens in every job. We have all been told in no uncertain terms that we are all expendable.

33   Moving on, Part Two: I watch stuff like Glee, and Teach Tony Danza thing that was on, and neither really gets it. Glee catches the essence of performing arts, but suffers from small class sizes, teachers who seem to have only thirty students, and eight-million dollar budgets for shows, which they could choreograph in five minutes and master in ten seconds.

34   As for Danza, the irony of an actor being a teacher is striking. He even declared himself "a schmo who thinks he's a teacher."I won't even dignify that one with a comment.

35  It's an interesting world, because the media has a certain idea as to what a teacher does. We as teachers sometimes have to play those roles. The one thing that is always left out of film and television shows about teachers it that we have close to a hundred-fifty students each year, and that number is climbing.

36   So when Danza tells the students that the essays they turned in weren't good, the missing scene was his going through a hundred of them and getting a neck ache.

37   Television teachers have time to care about each and every of their fifteen students. I wish I could have that gig.

38   Parents sometimes think that we have that sort of time, that we see their children with as much depth as do they.

39   Some think we should spend an extra hour a day helping their child.

40   There's nothing I would rather do.

41   But what happens to the other hundred-forty nine? Because in that hour, I could have graded maybe six essays.

42   The world wants to think that teachers can care about their individual students, and honestly, many of us try.

43   Reality says it's impossible. Reality says the numbers are too great.

44  And yet, I see teachers caring about individual students all the time. I see two counselors at our school of over 2,500 (I mistakenly thought we had hit 2,700 earlier this year, but what's a couple of hundred among friends?) try like mad to make every single student feel that they are cared for and important. They do this with grace, and with rolled eyes.They are my heroes.

45   I do the magazines and the fun things in class. When I read my students' autobios, I feel that I'm sitting in a lawn chair chatting with them. I get to know them that way. I then talk to them about soccer, about baking, about skateboarding, about acting, and about anything that is important to them.

46   I also take my time when I grade their papers because I actually read what they have written. It takes forever, but each time a student writes something about their lives or their interests, I take notice.

47   All of us do. But it isn't in a class of fifteen, a class that evidently on television episodes, follows one teacher for eight or nine years.

48   What television really needs is a program that ficticiously follows the life of a teacher, with the students coming and going in four years, instead of staying in high school for eight.

49   Interestingly though, a good teacher does get to know as many of the hundred-fifty as possible. We also need each student to think that he or she is special.

50   They all are.

51   I gottago. I'm ditching school today to go up and see my Dad.

52   When the sub service asked me my reason for absence, I said "illness".

53    Truer words, truer words. This cough just won't go away. It needs rest.

54     So I'm out. Have a great Frideeeeeee!

55    Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com