August 21, 2012
-
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
Recent Comments