IT'S FRIDEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
The Daily News
~H~
Month: August 2012
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GIANTS!!!
The Daily News1 It should come as no surprise that since getting busted for juicing, the Giants' Melky Cabrerra is now leading the major leagues in hitting.
2 Amazing stuff. Indicative of baseball's fear of doing anything about any of it.
3 America's dark secret.
4 Ah, whatevs. If anyone opens that can of worms, sports will dissipate across the planet.
5 We have to turn our heads to the hypocrisy of doping, gambling, and all of that.
6 Sadly, it's just how it is.
7 Meanwhile, Melky is winning the batting crown. Does he get to keepit after his fifty days are up? Will the Melkmen have a parade?
8 Yeesh. I shudder to think.
9 Moving on, Part One: I think with a shot of brandy and a pound of Cheez-Its I can easily look the other way and watch our two bay area teams just doing it.
10 It's tough not to.
11 The A's are no longer looking at just the wild card. The A's have been the best team in baseball the entire second half of the season.
12 The Giants seem to keep pressuring the Dodgers at an astonishing rate.
13 And now Kemp and Jansen are down.
14 I worry about Jansen, because it is a heart condition, and I don't wish that on anyone.
15 You gotta have heart.
16 And compassion for anybody going through that.
17 Kemp, on the other hand, I can rib.
18 Wind the guy up and he runs into walls.
19 Moving on, Part the Second: Honestly? I'd rather have both teams totally healthy and going toe-to-toe.
20 What Dodger fans had to go through the past few years completely sucked for the rivalry.
21 I personally am glad to have it back.
22 I have good friends who are Dodger fans.
23 You tell anybody I said that and I'll moiduh youse.
24 I like Tommy Lasorda.
25 Only because I always needed at least one human being to hate.
26 It is a classic rivalry. The Dodgers looked somewhat pathetic going out and buying next year's team.
27 But the Giants brought in some great players after the Dodgers front office began their shopping spree.
28 Last night showed exactly why I was so excited to have landed Pence, who has been struggling all season. He didn't go yard last night.
29 He went moon, stars, and heaven.
30 Okay, okay, so I got a bit superlative there.
31 It's the poet in me.
32 And a lousy one at that.
33 So today it has to be totally about baseball.
34 When Zito went down and Kontos came in, I almost went over.
35 His numbers always seem good, but he's one of those guys who each time I see him, he gets in trouble.
36 Homie stepped up last night.
37 The presence of two-time loser Guillermo Mota did little to dampen the night. He just appeared briefly, like some gargoyle, to remind us of the dark side of sports, and then vanished with an audible pop.
38 Meanwhile, I'm holding on to the sport, in my own hypocrisy.
39 Baseball has been around me since for I was born. I worked around baseball, especially the Giants, for a hundred years.
40 Yesterday I talked with a friend about the game the previous night, one of the best games ever.
41 She smiled, and said, "I sort of stopped watching after Melky got busted."
42 The Game of Shadows once again reared its ugly head. I wanted to do the same thing.
43 But I'm an addict. I can't pull myself away from baseball.
44 And I'm still a Giants' fan. As most of us say, I bleed orange and black.
45 I'll watch, and I'll root for the guys who are clean.
46 The dark side of me says that there probably aren't many.
47 I will presume innocence.
48 I'll follow this amazing season to the bitter end.
49 It's the only thing I can do.
50 Baseball.
51 It ain't going away anytime soon.
52 Have a grand Thursday, willya?
53 Peace.
~H~
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1 I remember a time in my life when I loved political conventions.
2 I didn't care which party was doing them; I just loved all the partying, confetti, and razzmatazz.
3 Now it just looks silly.
4 I didn't bother to watch.
5 I'm glad I didn't. In the paper it looked like a feeble attempt to get women voters to vote Repub.
6 Ain't gonna happen.
7 I just stuck to my personal late-night snack: my Giants.
8 It gets exhausting watching them.
9 As a guy who went through the entire October baseball thing two years ago, I realize that exhaustion is a part of winning.
10 I can't imagine how those guys feel.
11 I'm guessing pretty good this morning.
12 And don't think I'm not keeping a keen eye on the A's.
13 Wouldn't that be something?
14 Hey, anything's possible dude.
15 We'll just have to watch. Both teams are determined, that's for sure.
16 Whether both teams have the horses is another story.
17 And it's only August.
18 At least I THINK it's August.
19 They have us all turned around.
20 Over in these parts, schools aren't opening until next week.
21 At least I think it's next week.
22 Who knows?
23 Somebody somewhere kidnapped summer.
24 Then we started school, but they called off the first two weeks to two of my classes.
25 The two new classes are filled with awesome students. I lucked out.
26 Ah, all students are pretty awesome when you get down to it.
27 Some are just a little tougher to inspire, but all are capable.
28 Just yesterday I had a handful of stuff, got to the door to my building, and one of my students opened the door for me.
29 I'm impressed that a whole lot of students at my school have those kinds of manners.
30 Maybe it's because I'm an Old Brown Shoe.
31 Anyway, it was awesome.
32 So not much news today. Just a bunch of Repubs having a cocktail party.
33 And a hurricane practically at their front door.
34 Once again I find myself up against the clock.
35 And I slept in this morning, which means I really have to put this DN to bed fast and get myself out of bed and on the road.
36 So I'm gonna have to give another fast so long.
37 I try each day writing this thing after school, and three days in a row it was really tacky.
38 Yesterday AOL had this horrific picture of beastly naked people with some sort of headline, "What naked people are shouting about..."
39 Something like that. I began writing it up and it was too much bad for the eyes.
40 I spiked it.
41 So this is what we get for today; not much, but at least you didn't have to even think about that one.
42 I gotta git to gittin'.
43 You guys have a good one.
44 Peace.
~H~
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The Daily News
1 I love reading the newspaper.2 It's fast becoming a lost art.
3 I've read the newspaper for as long as I can remember, which isn't very long.
4 I climb into it like a hot bath.
5 I'm Old Skool.
6 Let me adjust for the other wicked newspaper readers out there.
7 I'm "Old School."
8 Is that better?
9 It's not that I like the news; I just like the whole journalism thing.
10 I like Spencer Tracy, for example.
11 I like the Merc News, even though it is probably controlled.
12 You still have good writers.
13 I particularly enjoy the sports' team at the Merc.
14 This morning, for example, the inimitable Mark Purdy put out a piece called "Money for Nothing."
15 It was about the Dodgers' recent purchase of boxes of candy.
16 It made the Dodgers look like desperate suckers.
17 Okay, so he called them the LAnkees, which is a bit corny.
18 But telling nonetheless.
19 Great piece. Here is the link:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mark-purdy/ci_21413488/mark-purdy-san-francisco-giants-have-nothing-worry
Okay, so it looks like you'll have to cut and paste. Online news, baby.
20 The trouble with online reporting is that you don't get the feel and smell of a newspaper.
21 Also, the headline was priceless, as was the montage of pictures, none of which were in the online piece.
22 The headline read "Money for nothing?" and featured a collage of Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, and Nick Punto.
23 Purdy is pretty on the money with this article, which naturally made my morning.
24 You should buy a newspaper and read the article. It'll either make your day, or piss you off. Either way, it's journalism at its best.
25 Moving on, Part the First: Whoever invented coffee was a genius.
26 Someday when I have time, I'll look up the history of coffee.
27 I just don't have the time this morning.
28 I tried to get a beat on today's DN when I got home yesterday, but everything that came to me was nonsense and whistles.
29 So I find myself once again with a clock ticking, and with decidedly poor editing.
30 So it goes, so it goes.
31 Moving on, Part the Second: I'm still dealing with the disaster of last week. Yesterday I got two new classes, even though we are in the third week of school.
32 It was like a blind date.
33 Fortunately, I had an artillery of lesson plans which I had worked on all weekend. The trouble was, I over-planned to the point of not being able to find the sixty-thousand handouts I typed up over the weekend.
34 I finally just picked up a chair, asked the students if I could sit down, and did just that.
35 It was perfect. I stopped trying to be a teacher and just sat down to get acquainted, as one does normally on the first day of school.
36 Everyone relaxed, and I just held a Q and A with them.
37 My new freshmen were particularly relieved.
38 I still managed to get a lesson off, more than I bargained for.
39 So here we are. Two new classes, now fairly settled in, and a three-day weekend ahead.
40 Things seem to be steadying.
41 At least for now.
42 Anyway, as I said, I started this new DN this morning, so I'm up against a bit of a deadline.
43 I'd love to stay and chat, but I have a saloon to run.
44 I'll catch you on the reebs.
45 Have a great day.
46 Peace.
~H~www.xanga.com/bharrington
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1 Argggh! Thursday morning I went to school and found out that they had changed two of my classes.2 I reported last week that after our Wednesday meeting, I turned into a wretch.3 I had trouble sleeping, because we were told that because of some sort of honest snafu, some classes were going to be affected.4 Well the first days are the hardest days don't you worry anymore; cuz when life looks like easy street there is danger at your door-- Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, Uncle John's Band. The tale I'm about to tell will explain how that song popped into my mind last week. It began with Wednesday's horrific foreshadows at our English meeting. I had trouble sleeping that entire night.5 Thursday morning I was told that two of my classes were going to be changed.6 I rolled with it, but knew that I was gong to have to re-arrange a ton of planning. I also had to tell my students that they were going to lose me as a teacher, AND that all of their schedules were going to change, probably by Friday.7 On Friday, I was supposed to take three of my English 1A classes to the theater for an orientation. Third period I didn't know if I was to go to the theater, to another teacher's room, or stay in my own room. When nothing happened, I was ready to go meet my regular class at the theater when a delivery student came in with a handful of thirty-five student transfers. I guess they were to be given to the my regular students, who were in the theater.8 I decided that the most logical thing would be to go to the theater, give the students their transfers, and then hurry back to my room in case my new students would show up. Just as I was ready to leave for the theater, another teacher came in to my classroom with an entire class, my new class.9 It was like being in a 30's comedy.
10 For a minute, I thought I was being filmed.11 I thought she was just dropping off her entire class, which I was inheriting.12 I explained to her that I probably had to go down to the theater to give my own students their transfers out of my class, but she seemed confused, as was I.13 So she said, "So you're going down to the theater and coming right back?"14
15 Ah, no? The students are listening to an orientation by the principal, and I can't interrupt. I have to wait 'til the period is over, give my students the transfers, and then return to my own room to re-group.16 I didn't know what HER plans were, but I assumed that the office had given me those transfers so that my kids could get them and move to their new class. The trouble was, I had my students meet in the theater, so they weren't in my class.17 I'm still not sure what happened, but I did get down to the theater and take care of my own. I figured the other teacher could watch her own class in my room fairly easily.18 It all worked out, because all the counselors and people who knew what was going on were at the orientation in the theater. The kids didn't know which class they were supposed to go to when they got their schedules. Some went to their next class, and some went to the class to which they were transferred. One girl came back in tears because her coach told her to scram.19 These are freshmen at a school with almost 2700 students. A lot of them were scared to death.20 They were wound up and walking into walls.21 I was pretty wound up, but I sort of calmed down and thought, "It is what it is."22 During break, my department chair came in and started writing scenarios of my whiteboard as to what we were to do next. She was fast, like a football coach designing a new play.23 "So...fifth period you go to Tonoko's class, introduce yourself as their new English 1A teacher, and take them to the Theater. Kritzek will then do a post pattern, and Tonoko will heave the ball to her. By then it will be the half..."24 All I heard was the first part; I had no idea who got transferred where, or even how that stuff works. I just heard my own job, which was to jump into a brand new teacher's room, interrupt whatever was going on, introduce myself, and hijack her students down to the theater.
25 I'm pretty sure the department chair took care of my fifth period sophs, who were watching me head to another room during passing period and asking, "Mr. H, where do we go?"26 I was a wreck. Fortunately I had told the two classes that were affected that their might be some changes on Friday. Do ya think?27 By the time the day ended I was a bundle of nerves. Fortunately I had a ball game to watch, and it was a good one.28 Still, in the back of my head I knew that I was going to need a large adjustment on lesson plans, much more than normal.29 I didn't sleep well Friday night, so Saturday morning I felt like a dry towel at the bottom of a box of laundry.30 Moving on, Part the First: Ah, if those are my only troubles, I got no troubles.31 Situation normal.32 I spent all day Saturday in personal rehab, surrounding myself with pacing guides, grammar books, calendars, text books, and papers, having decided that I had better go in Monday with with all jets working.33
34 It's all good. I had spent Friday running through about sixty lanes of fast traffic and somehow survived, as always.35 Sometime around 3 a.m. on Saturday morning, I found myself bathing in the rays of my flat screen. The film was the 1938 classic Marie Antoinette, starring Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power, with John Barrymore as the stoic King Louis XV, and a dribbling Robert Morley perfectly cast as Louis XVI.36 I watched it with my right eye closed, only to find it open slightly on this line by Marie, early in the film: "Oh, mama, just think of it! I shall be queen! Queen of France!"37 Great line.38 Most people don't know a lot about Marie Antoinette, but one thing is certain: the enthusiasm on Norma Shearer's face as a sixteen-year old excited teenager can only lead one to her ultimate destiny.39 Most people do know of Marie Antoinette's ultimate destiny.40 If you don't, no need to lose your head over it.41 <groan>42 Moving on, Part the Second: Sorry about that one. I was feeling a little frisky.43 No harm done.
44 I stayed all on it the entire weekend and feel pretty ready for this next week.
45 Life, as they say, looks like easy street.
46 It's the first days that are the hardest days, right?
47 Anyway, it's Monday.
48 We're goin' in.
49 Fly low.
50 Peace.
~H~ -
1 On the second day of school, one of my best students from last year came in and told me that over the summer he downloaded a whole bunch of myriad classical music on his iPod. Some he had recognized from my playing the music when my students would have desk work, and others from playing random music when he was home.
2 He emphasized one song that had reminded him of me. It was Mendelssohn's Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
3 We shared a laugh, as I asked him if it ever came on with other people around. When I first directed Midsummer years ago, I used to play the music over and over, and Wedding March always had a tendency to embarrass me a touch.
4 Don't get me wrong; it's a fine piece of music. Most people don't enjoy the entire piece, but trust me, it moves, and is fun.
5 The experience of having it suddenly blare around a pool or something always brings a wiseguy comment from others.
6 I am a huge fan of Midsummer as most anyone knows. I personally consider it worlds-better than Romeo and Juliet. It is just better constructed, better arranged, and better delivered. The Pyramus and Thisbe scene rocks; the ending dances.
7 Yesterday during our morning bulletin it was announced that the drama kids are going to be staging Midsummer.
8 David Chavez our illustriously intense and beastly director decided to go with Midsummer.
9 He's doing it as a Fall show, which is cool. I always associate Midsummer with a Spring/Summer sort of thing, but I'm pretty excited that we are staging this.
10 Will I participate?
11 I can't see myself not, although if he offers out Theseus, I'm guessing I'll decline, even though Theseus doesn't sing.
12 To what extent could I help? I'm not sure, really. Last year I walked in and assisted a bit with Grease, and it was a complete and total blast.
13 We'll see.
14 First musical, and now the first Shakespeare...
15 Hmmmmmm.
16 David and I talked about Midsummer last year, and I told him that it's not only better constructed, arranged, and delivered, but pretty easy to direct.
17 You would think Shakespeare would be tough, but if we look at it, it has a major plot and TWO sub-plots, none of which really needs the other actors. The play can therefore be split into three sections all working on the same rehearsal day.
18 This cuts rehearsal down dramatically, if you'll excuse the accidental play on words.
19 Students also memorize Shakespeare quicker because of the rhythms of his words. His plays are not only plays, but immense poems as well, with lovely language and rhythmical lines.
20 Am I excited about it?
21 Of course I am.
22 Do I have time for it?
23 Marginally. I couldn't be in it, but I could sit in at rehearsals and grade papers.
24 Anyway, it's another exciting time. I suggested to David last year that he should do Midsummer and Godspell. What a one/two punch!
25 So we'll see.
26 Meanwhile, I'm excited for the entire school. Grease brought in the crowds; Shakespeare usually gets an extra-credit crowd.
27 And Godspell is simply wonderful. Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak wrote it. Schwartz is the same guy who wrote the music to Wicked.
28 Wicked is a show so dazzling that it lives up to its hype. The book is intelligent; the story meaningful, and the music simply out of this world.
29 I've seen hundreds of shows, and I have been disappointed with many of them. A whole bunch of them rarely lives up to their own hype, but Wicked is right up there with the best.
30 Moving on, Part One: I got off topic there for a second, if there ever was a topic. Bottom line is that David has chosen Midsummer. Pretty fun stuff. Wicked, I'm guessing, is unavailable right now. But Godspell is a gem. A combination of Midsummer and Godspell would place my two favorite shows side-by-side.
31 So I'm excited to see that Evergreen is doing its first Shakespeare play.
32 Tough to lay off that pitch.
33 Moving on, Part Two: Once again the Giants took a game way too deep, and once again I found myself up until 10:30 last night.
34 It's starting to look like they're the real deal. Zito pitched a gem, and I usually don't give him much credit. He rocked it last night.
35 I've also been enjoying watching the A's. They had a bit of a setback last night, but it's been an adventure for A's fans since before the All-Star break.
36 Moving on, Part Three: I would be remiss in my duties as a hack journalist if I didn't send some props out to Petaluma. Yesterday Danny Marzo struck out 11 for this miracle team in a lopsided 11-1 victory over San Antonio. The team will play Goddlettsville, Tennessee on Saturday in their quest for the U.S. title.
37 <sidenote> I hope Marzo isn't doping.
38 Oh no you dih-int!
39 Moving on, Part the Fourth: Sorry. I couldn't hold off that pitch.
40 In the middle of the night last night I thought I heard that Stretch Armstrong was being stripped of all his medals for doping.
41 First off, I never knew he won any medals.42 Second, I always suspected the guy.
43 I know, right?44 Where will it lead?
45 Ah, not much we can do about it.
46 Just enjoy the moments.
47 Well, I find myself up against the clock once again.
48 That's not altogether a bad thing.
49 My Giants are winning; the A's are tied for first in the wild card, and football is right around the corner.
50 We just need to tie up that Novitzky guy and duct tape him.
51 I loves me some sports.
52 Anyway, I'm outta here.
53 You guys have a sportin' day, and a sportin' weekend.
54 See ya.
55 Peace.
~H~www.xanga.com/bharrington
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SUHHHHHHHHHHHHHWEEP!
The Daily News1 Well the first days are the hardest days, don't you worry anymore.
2 'Cuz when life looks like easy street there is danger at your door.
3 Truer words, truer words.
4 Those are the words of Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia.
5 Here is poetry in motion:
6 Just thought I'd give some quality.
7 The trouble about a video that is delicately poetic is that it throws me off the tracks.
8 The video is a song written by the selfsame Hunter and Garcia, and it is one of the most incredible poems ever.
9 So much so that I couldn't write the DN while listening to all the one-liners in the lyrics, followed by maestro Garcia's bubbling jam, and the band getting into the same groove.
10 It's hard being teacher and literally wanting to inject this stuff in to students' learning.
11 Are you kind?
12 What makes Poe makes Poe. What makes Tupac makes Tupac. What makes Jerry Garcia makes Jerry Garcia.
13 Just sayin'.
14 Are you kind?
15 Moving on, Part One: Which one has three leaves, marijuana or poison oak?
16 I have no idea why it worried me, but I went out to get some air and to contemplate a bit last night, and I had admittedly a small vase of flowers in my yard, and I had put some fake flowers in it, just because I never found the time to plant anything.
17 I put three fake daisies in it, because it was under an umbrella table and a wonderful place to chit and chat.
18 I pulled away from all this boushit just to get some air and all.
19 I've done it for a coupla nights, but last night I noticed that I had these three-leaved real flowers chillin' with the fake flowers.
20 To me they looked a lot like marijuana, but I wasn't sure.
21 I yanked them and threw them out, but I was wondering how they would have gotten their.
22 Maybe Jerry sent them.
23 Anyway, I had visions of Blackhawks emerging over the hills, and of swat teams roping down to take me away for a secret interrogation.
24 Wednesdays are meeting days. Those are the sorts of thoughts that go through your mind following Wednesday meetings. I wrote most of today's DN in that frazzled state.
25 Hmmm.
26 Maybe I should have taken a couple of puffs.
27 Can you smoke fake daisies?
28 Are you kind?
29 Moving on, Part the First: I would be remiss in my duties as a Giants' fan if I didn't scream, "SUHHHHHHHHHHHHWEEEP!!!
30 Great game, but it was a great series. Both teams were on, all the way up to the end last night. That could have been a disastrous game.
31 But it wasn't, at least not for me, nor for Giants' fans, who are watching an amazing thing happen.
32 The only trouble with great baseball is that it keeps me up too late. I like getting to sleep early so that I have energy for my students.
33 As much as I loved 2010, it almost wiped me out early in the school year. I managed to fight back, but most of us who went through all that were pretty exhausted.
34 It's almost like, "Be careful what you wish for..."
35 I wish for nothing less than another world championship. It defies the odds, but if the pitching improves, there's no telling what might happen.
36 Who woulda thunk in 2010?
37 Moving on, Part Two: I'm afraid I'll have to cut this one short today. Up too late last night and had to get up early to finish this. It's almost time to get up and get dressed.
38 I actually had a really long, agonizing DN written following Wednesday meetings, but trust me, you didn't want to see that.
39 When I got in from the backyard, Uncle John's Band went through my mind, the original, not the Indigo Girls' version, which is superb.
40 I put it on, and everything changed. I broke into a huge smile, and truly enjoyed the music and the poetry.
41 I listened to the link up above, and broke into a nice smile.
42 Are you kind?
43 I think you are.
44 Have a great day, and stay kind.
45 Go Giants.
46 Peace.
~H~www.xanga.com/bharrington
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The Daily News
1 This is coming to you LIVE from Evergreen Valley High School. It is fifth period, which at this school is right before lunch. I hear applause coming from my neighbor's classroom. I hear massive applause in my room. I'm pretty sure my neighbor's was real though.2 My class is quietly working on an assignment right now.They are reading The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The majority of them have never read the story.
3 All my classes strike me as really intelligent this year. A lot of teachers have said that about the younger classes. They seem polite, well spoken, and cheerfully bright. Usually by now I have had classes try to pull things. Or by now, I will usually have had at least one encounter with a snarky kid.
4 These guys are remarkably quiet. In fact, it alarms me that I haven't heard anyone laughing at the subtle humor in Walter Mitty. Personally, I love the running gag of Walter Mitty never getting the grocery list right.
5 I especially like when his wife scolds him for not putting on his overshoes in the thick of winter, and why he didn't just put them on in the store where he bought them. Practical woman. Thurber throws this one out there, however, Mitty's retort: "I was thinking," said Walter Mitty. "Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?" She looked at him. "I'm going to take your temperature when I get you home."
6 Keep in mind that this is all coming to you live. In keeping with fun coincidences, the second I wrote that last item, I heard laughter coming from the room next door, and then more applause, which esteemed colleague, this guy named Cheli, has been getting the entire period. In my frabjous mind, the laughter was from the Mitty retort.
7 Bo Cheli, my next door neighbor, went to the same middle school I did growing up. He's significantly younger than I am, but then, who isn't? It's tough lingering here at 39.
8 Interestingly, he also is somewhat of a wiseguy maverick. Raised in the same area. Go figure. By the way, when we were young, they didn't really have middle schools. They were called junior high schools. Someone, somewhere decided a change of title would be pretty nifty, and the rest is history.
10 Still more applause in Cheli's room. He must be having a big inning.
9 I got applause all five periods last week, which is sort of like hitting for the cycle.
10 Moving On, Part the First: Baseball.11 I'm quickly getting over the Melky stuff. A good Dodger series can do that.
12 My guess is that he isn't the only guy in professional sports being naughty with a needle.
13 His idiocy was making a website, making up a product, and trying to announce that he took the product not knowing it was totally juice.
14 Whatdya in third grade dude? The worst teacher on the planet would have sniffed that one out. He should have been given a gold medal for stupidity.
15 Moving on, Part the Second: Back to LIVE school: Okay. Got an hour and a half of lunch. Got back, and it is now the last class of the day. I have 26 students and two are absent. You getting this? That's 24 students. I hope they don't split this class up due to lack of interest.
16 Of course, my stomach now wants to growl loudly because it is digesting lunch. Always seems to happen at quiet moments in life. I'm in church, for example. Or a I'm in a library. Or I'm in a classroom with 24 shy students, all of whom are super quiet.
17 To stop the growling, or at least to mute it, I drank a ton of water, so it is now hardly happening, but it is funny. The kids haven't really noticed. They are all business on this test.
18 Moving on, Part the Third: Giving this bubble test was great. It was obviously hastily assembled for the early school opening. I told the students to open their test booklets to the first page. They obeyed. This is what it said on the first page: Check your answers. Then close your booklet and wait for instructions. On the second page it said this: STOP This is the end of the test.
19 Fast read.
20 The third page started on number 65. I kid you not.
21 The very last page ended with DIRECTIONS TO THE STUDENT and instructions to read "samples" 1 and 2. The answer sheet doesn't have samples 1 or 2.
21 Fortunately, I'm used to lunacy, so I walked my students through it.
23 I said, "Just find number 1 on page 4, and then go to page 5 when you are done doing that. Piece of cake, yo. You guys are smart; you'll figure it out."
24 For the record? I didn't really say, "Yo." That was a feeble attempt at embellishing a story, which I am quite certain most writers of non-fiction probably do.25 And so we arrive here.
26
27 Missed Mars by a slice.28 Most of us are at least in the vicinity.
29 Moving on, Part Four: all that stuff about the test was true. I even took a picture of both pages, but I'm sure that posting pictures of tests on a public blog might possibly be something I shouldn't be doing.
30 So I won't. The kids figured it all out pretty well, although it did slow a few of them down. I'll adjust today.
31 So nothing heroically newsworthy today. I enjoyed watching Hector Sanchez catch Timmeh last night. He was pretty swell. He has improved. If you're not a Giants' fan or a baseball fan, you probably couldn't care less.
32 I had to give the guy some props though, because he has learned how to catch a pretty difficult pitcher.
33 Moving on, Part Five: I'll leave you with a couple of items I copped of Phyllis Diller's obit, written by Sandy Cohen of the Associated Press. Diller wasn't glamorous or lovely to look at, but she had a rough edge that delighted audiences. She went through several marriages, finally bringing a fictitious husband named "Fang" into her act, prompting her at one time to say, "Fang is permanent in the act, of course. Don't confuse him with my other husbands. They're temporary."
34 Her career began in San Francisco at the Purple onion club, and it took off from there. She had previously worked for a radio station writing ads.
35 Cohen tells of her network debut in a wonderful anecdote: "She made her network debut as a contestant on Grouch Marx's game show "You Bet Your Life." (Diller, asked if she was married: "Yes, I've worn a wedding ring for 18 years." Marx: "Really? Well, two more payments an it'll be all yours.")
36 Classic.
37 Hope you all have a great day.
38 Peace.
~H~
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1 Not much to report today.2 The Melky story is too easy to rip.
3 Tim Kawakami of the Merc news likened it to a "change from an F to an A on a report card."
4 That's about right.
5 And a report came to me yesterday afternoon that Phyliss Diller walked into a bar...
6 The only thing that struck me about that one was that she was 95, and a part of Americana.
7 So it goes.
8 So it goes.
9 And the sun goes up, and then it goes down again.
10 <sigh>
11 Wow.
12 No news, and it is remarkably good news, as always.
13 I'd like to take a moment to wish my good friend and confidante Thuy Ann Le a good send off as she moves out to New York to further her studies.
14 Thuy Ann has been an inspiration to many of us, and we wish her nothing but the very best.
15 She departs today, so my thoughts are looking in that direction.
16 New York, New York.
17 Godspeed.
18 On Sunday I was honored to have been invited to a picnic in her honor at Cataldi Park, which is about two scissors' steps by my house.
19 It was enormously fun seeing and chatting with some of my '05ers. We shared some fun memories and quite a few laughs.
20 Good luck, my good friend. You keep making the world a better place.
21 <sigh>
22 Moving on, Part the First: It's still pretty weird starting school this early. Yesterday I lost my voice because it was just one of those days where I had to talk a lot.
23 This happens to teachers.
24 It's because we are out of practice.
25 As much as I love summer, it's always fun to get back, but it's also a bit of a struggle getting back into the rhythms and rhymes of teaching on a daily basis.
26 My theory always is that if my voice goes out, I'm not doing a very good job.
27 I'm talking too much, and the students aren't learning whenever that happens.
28 I know this.
29 I much prefer it when they do the talking, and the teaching, and I wander off to the side and guide the conversation.
30 Every study of education tells us this.
31 I find that the students teach me when that happens.
32 Yes, even at the fine old age of 39.
33 What, you don't believe me?
34 Perfect disguise.
35 <sigh>
36 Life has become a river of sighs of late.
37 So it goes.
38 So it goes.
39 It's always a bit weird, the first few weeks of school.
40 Especially when we are teaching in August. It's just strange.
41 I'm not complaining, mind you.
42 Just not used to it.
43 And for the life of me, I have no idea how this EVER happened.
44 Some person in some office somewhere decided this was a great idea.
45 I mean, don't get me wrong. I realize that life is a constant change, but changing for the sake of changing has never made a bit of sense to me.
46 When people ask me why they have started school earlier, I really have no intelligent answer except to say that life changes.
47 That's about it to me. It really makes no sense. I suppose the rationale is that students' semesters now end at Christmas.
48 I imagine.
49 I won't go into any of that, because somebody, somewhere decided that school should start in mid-August.
50 So it goes.
51 And so I sigh away idiotic ideas.
52 I think I'll bow out now, as gracefully as possible.
53 This is all too weird. But I suppose life is pretty weird too, and that there are certainly worse things.
54 I'm going to get some sleep.
55 I'll see you tomorrow.
56 And a big happy anniversary to Helene. This is our six hundredth!
57 We survived the toughtest summer ever. Let's go out tonight! Love you man.58 Peace.~H~
www.xanga.com/bharrington
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The Daily News1 I'd love to tell everyone about the thousand coincidences that danced through my life this past week, but I'll spare you. I will share one or two, and I'll also share how teachers get inspired. So we won't start with a thousand coincidences. We'll start with one or two. So let us begin. Coincidences:
2 Let's just say that things have been pretty active all week.
3 My summer read, for example, was a rather short piece of non-fiction, Steinbeck's Travels With Charley. I chose that book because I knew a lot of my summer was going to be spent with my dog, Phoebe, aka Charley.
4 Travels With Charley, if you don't know, is the story of a road trip Steinbeck took across America in 1960. He wanted to do this alone at first, and at the last moment decided to take along his dog, Charley.
5 He bought a pickup truck and turned it into a traveling home that he and Charley could live in while out on the road. He affectionately named it Rocinante, which was the name of Don Quixote's horse. He said of his trip, "I'm going to learn about my own country. I've lost the flavor and taste and sound of it." The entire concept somehow located me this summer, so I traveled with both Phoebe and with Travels With Charley.
6 The book is a lark. I took my sweet time about reading it, even though it is pretty short. I would read it only during those moments of reflection that we all have at times. Every time the world would slow down, I'd pick up Charley.
7 And then I would throw Phoebe into the back of the T000000NDRA and we would be off on an adventure. We would drive to parks and pretty areas and walk around, and we'd drive all over the place and enjoy things.
8 It might sound a bit corny, but after a while I'd say things like, "How you doin' Charley?" "Hey Charley, wanna eat?" "Wanna go for a ride, Charley?" Just a lark, sort of like reading a quick book is a lark.
9 Last week when school began, I was tossing around which books to teach this year, when Of Mice and Men jumped out at me. I thought about doing a small Steinbeck unit this year, maybe even to open up the school year. At our first English meeting last week, I saw that one of the books we could teach was Of Mice and Men. Isn't that just the way things work?
10 I don't like to repeat lessons too much. It's always fun to drive in a new direction. I taught a tepid unit of The Grapes of Wrath a few years ago, but never really hopped into an entire Steinbeck unit.
11 This is going to sound a tad random, but early yesterday morning I was picking my brain to think of a good author with which to start off English 2A. I had toyed with the idea of teaching a Steinbeck unit, but it was simply too early to think, so I decided to grab a cup of Starbuck's and click on Turner Classic Movies. Sometimes I have to let the world tell me what to teach. So I decided to take a break by watching an old movie. It's one of those little things I do. Old movies are comfort food, at least to this Old Brown Shoe.
12 TCM had this old James Garner film on called 36 Hours. On a second glance, I saw that it was based on a short story by Roald Dahl, the author of Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Revolting Rhymes, and many others. I'm not only a fan of Steinbeck, I'm also a huge fan of Dahl. I thought, "Hmmm. Starting the year with Roald Dahl and John Steinbeck might completely rock." I had never heard of 36 Hours before. The story on which the film was based was called Beware of the Dog, which I managed to find online. I instantly made a copy and then grabbed our English 2A lit book to see if Dahl's incredible short story Lamb to the Slaughter was in it. I already know that students love that story, and it would be a perfect partner to Beware of the Dog. I grabbed the textbook and looked at the table of contents in search of Lamb to the Slaughter, a story about a wife who kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb.
14 Some of you trivia buffs might recognize Lamb to the Slaughter as an episode aired in the very first season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1958. It starred Allan "Rocky" Lane, a former Hollywood star who drifted into "B" Westerns, and who had the dubious distinction of being the voice of Mr. Ed, an old teevee show about a talking horse. Here:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0485226/
14 Unfortunately, Lamb to the Slaughter was not in the textbook, but I remembered that I had made copies of it last year, and that they were locked safely in a cabinet at the school. I then decided that as long as I had that textbook out, I'd take a look and see if there was any Steinbeck in it. I was excited to see that it had an excerpt from The Grapes of Wrath in it. I quickly ruffled through the pages when a near miracle happened.
15 Have you ever gone through a book when it would sort of open for you on a certain page? That's what happened yesterday morning. I was looking for the excerpt from The Grapes of Wrath when the book opened to a two-page spread. Here is where it stopped:
16 I remember a grand teacher named Jim Edwards, who taught a unit he called "God as joker." Viola. Wah lah.
17 And that's just one coincidence. I must have had twenty in the past week.
18 There is an entire Steinbeck unit in the English 2A book.
19 Naturally, Of Mice and Men is an English 1A book.
20 So it goes, so it goes. Left hand. Right hand. This is what happens when things come down from the top.
21 I'm pretty sure I could work through all of this. I just listen to a different top.
22 It's called close your classroom door and teach.
23 I have tons of great literature to share with English 1A. I am constantly in search of great units for English 2A.
24 At YB, I LOVED teaching English 2A. It had awesome stories in the lit book, including Lamb to the Slaughter. The district changed books a few years back, and the new one is okay, but doesn't have the wonderful stories that the English 1A books does. And it certainly doesn't have murder-by-frozen-leg-of-lamb stories. They just don't make them like that anymore.
25 Too much shop talk? I will say this: the English 2A book has not only a unit on Steinbeck, but another entire unit on King Arthur, the legend.
26 Here is another interesting coincidence. It is from the author study of Steinbeck in our lit book: "He was a shy young man who enjoyed spending time alone by the seashore in Monterey, where his parents had a cottage. For adventure, he turned to literature. In particular, he felt 'dazzled and swept up' by the legends of King Arthur in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D' Arthur."
27 My earliest years as a teacher found me creating a huge King Arthur unit, complete with the entire legend, Tennyson's Idylls of the King, and with an end-of-the year Ceremony of the Shields, featuring a billion candles and Wagner, all taking place in the good old YB Theatre.
28 I had students create manners, separating the boys from the girls. Each gender had to create a Code of Chivalry for the other. I then sent all of them into the world to do ten acts of chivalry, according to the Codes.
29 I also had them make their own shields with symbols of who they were, and then present them at the Ceremony of the Shields, where I would read to the class the acts of chivalry they performed in the community. I would then knight each student with a real sword, lightly touching the tops of their heads, and each of their shoulders. We tried bringing manners and brilliance back to the world. It was evermore a noble effort.
30 Today's DN is a bit of a tribute to how teachers think and work, especially when they aren't satisfied with doing the same stuff over and over. It's about how teachers can inspire and create much better if they are excited and interested in what they are teaching.
31 And sometimes, when struggling to think of new directions, they have things fly into their lives and do the creating for them.
32 No district policy can make that happen. Sometimes the world itself talks to intelligent, learned people, and tells them where to go.
33 In the right hands, they can go in incredible directions. I'm not trying to be critical here, but too often school districts, in knee-jerk responses to test scores and public demands, will have small groups of good-hearted people make horrific decisions regarding curriculum. They meet in small groups in rooms with coffee and bagels, wear name tags, and make critical decisions with committees.
34 Well, I always loved the expression that a camel is a horse created by a committee.
35 I have had an entire week of coincidences, and I am going to pay attention, because my mind is excited and buzzing, and I can't wait to go into my classroom and teach stuff that I absolutely love. I will use it to teach all the standards, but they will be injected into my enthusiasm.
36 Steinbeck, Dahl, and King Arthur? Can't miss.
37 Coincidences and ghosts and all? That's usually in October. But if it all comes in a tad early, and believe me, it HAS, then let's go with it.
38 You can't be afraid of new things, and you certainly can't be afraid of old things.
39 That's the law.
40 So am I ready? Not really. I'm supposed to give bubble tests this week, take two days off to get training for some new thing or other, let my students be taught Wednesday and Thursday with a sub, and then I take my freshmen to an orientation in the theater on Friday.
41 I'd rather they traveled with Charley, or with Roald Dahl, or with Tennyson.
42 I think that's about it for today's session.
43 I leave this one to float out there. Perhaps you may envision the Lady of the Lake, or a miraculous sword emerging from a stone. Godspeed.
44 As always, I take no credit for writing any of this.
45 Someone else is making this happen.
46 More to come.
47 Have a wonderful day.
48 Hope you enjoyed this.
49 Peace.
~H~
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