Month: November 2012

  •  
    It’s Raining. Stay Safe on the Roads.  There’s Only One You.
    The Daily News

    1  How is it that October took five years and November is over?

    2  Every year.

    3  Today is payday, which is relatively meaningless to a teacher. 

    4  Welp, in 2012 I’m lucky to have a job. 

    5  But it is Friday, and payday. And it is raining hard. 

    6  I gotta start doing some Christmas shopping. 
    7   Not a bad thing, but always ten times more expensive than my budget.

    8   Ah, vell.

    9   Moving on, Part the First: Once again, no news.

    10  Oh, I’m sorry.

    11  There IS news.

    12  Lindsay Lohan got busted for about the six-thousandth time. 

    13  Any time that appears in the news, it isn’t news. 

    14  Why pick on the kid?

    15  She obviously has issues, and obviously can’t handle fame. 

    16  But she’s not news. 

    17  George Herbert Walker Bush is in the hospital.

    18  I wonder if he will make any confessions about his behaviors over the years.

    19  Oops. 

    20  Sorry. 

    21   I have re-entered my JFK unit, and Bush seems to pop up an awful lot in the story. It’s no coincidence. 

    22   I won’t go there, but only because it is Friday.

    23   Four words: skull and bones. 

    24   You take it from there. I refuse to look like a madman. 

    25   Moving on, Part the Second: Think it’ll rain?

    26   I have yet to open an umbrella. 

    27   I’ve carried one with me, but I don’t generally need it unless there is a windless downpour. I’m guessing this will be a grand opening weekend.

    28   People in Cali kill me anyway. 

    29   If the sky is grey, they put on thick coats, bright scarves, and leather gloves, even if the temperature is  70 degrees.

    30  East coasters must laugh at us. 
    31  I have been wearing shorts every day I come home since last April. 

    32  It just doesn’t get that cold. 

    33  I spend the majority of my time indoors, unless I’m raking leaves or walking the dog. 

    34  I’d like to get out more, but grading papers tends to be an indoor process, and that is how I spend the majority of my time.

    35  During the summer I’m an outdoors-sort-of guy.

    36  But when school is around, it is all about keeping up and current.

    37   I loved my two lessons this week. 

    38   One was delivering The Odyssey to my students while having very little book room support. 

    39   Which is to say none. It is possible to get books, but not when pressing deadlines loom everywhere. I decided on my own to bypass the book room this year and still teach the lit.

    40   I could easily have had them read it at home, but our book has only about six or seven books, or adventures. I have attempted and pretty much succeeded in bringing 24 books of the story to them. 

    41   Our book, and the film, go to Book 22. Yesterday my fifth period, a pretty hyper class, got WAY into the story. It was one of those awesome days when students and teacher had a grand old time watching this classic. It was evident that all of the preparation I had done worked magic in the classroom. 

    42   Meanwhile, my English 2A students watched JFK intensely. We have been reading excerpts from Jim Garrison’s monumental book On the Trail of the Assassins, and they got hooked. 

    43   I told them that while the story is pretty depressing, there are true patriots out there who have almost cracked the case several times. It is pretty difficult to fight people who can get a President, but we have certainly come close on a number of occasions. One President had to resign, it got so close,if you recall. He appointed a member of the Warren Commission to be his vice-president after his original choice was scandalized in some sort of dairy scheme. That new President, who shall remain nameless, along with the late (as of a month ago) Arlen Specter are the two Warren Commission fellows who came up with the Disneyesque single-bullet theory. Fairy Tale. Balderdash. Moronic. Insert your adjective. Lies.

    44  You trace it. I’m not going to say a word. 

    45  I’ve said plenty over the years, and I am proud that I did. 

    46  And how is it relevant to 2012?

    47  Uh…do a back check on the Bush dynasty. We recently had one in office. 

    48  Oh, you won’t?  

    49   Well then. Stay ignorant. My students won’t. 

    50   My students are on the trail, as are many others. 

    51   Meanwhile, say a prayer for George Herbert Walker Bush. 

    52   Poor fellow. Hope he is okay. 

    53   I really do.

    54   With that, I’ll say have a jolly weekend.

    55   Peace, and I mean it. 

    ~H~


    www.xanga.com/bharrington




  •   The Daily News
    1   If you are a poet, one of the most ignoble topics you could present would be that life is laundry.

    2   I once wrote a poem and thought it would be wise to include the verse, “that life is laundry I never knew.”

    3   I thought it was such a wonderful concept because of its absolute truth, but I was at the time young and quite full of myself.
    4   At the time I was pretty up to my ears in underpants.

    5   I had just emerged from college and thought, “Well really! How much of our time do we spend in front of a washing machine?”

    6    As I aged, I just thought that the concept was way too banal and sophomoric for a poem. 
    7   Yesterday our meeting was, as expected, pretty short and sweet. Stay with me.

    8    I threw a diatribe about meetings out there yesterday, and it went exactly as I had expected. 

    9     No news.
    10   This gave me the time to come home and to grade papers and to get some work done. I was so excited.

    11   <breaks out the root beer and whistles>

    12   I got home, set everything up, and got into more comfortable clothes.

    13   I usually do laundry immediately upon getting home so that I keep up on that stuff, so I took off my bewilderingly glorious teacher clothes, which consist of a pair of jeans and any shirt and tie, put on a pair of shorts, and carried said clothing to the washing machine in the garage. 

    14   Full. 

    15   I opened the dryer.

    16   Full. 

    17   I stood there with my clothes in my arms, holding them as though they were a sacred shroud.

    18   Life sometimes screeches to a complete halt because of laundry.

    19   “That life is laundry I never knew.” <insert bird music.>

    20    Some day I’m going to retrieve that poem, and I will become a wandering hero.

    21   But right now I’m waiting for my pants to dry. 

    22   Moving On, Part the First:  I am feeling like it would be a good idea to erase my head this morning.

    23   Don’t get me wrong. 

    24   I love Thursdays.

    25   But teaching is such a 24/7 job when it is on that I can’t get my head going unless I use a corkscrew.

    26   I have a bewildering amount of nonsense and astonishment causing pauses and skepticism here in the 5:35 a.m.’s.

    27   I’m staring at my computer screen thinking about laundry and leaves. 

    28   No rhyme nor reason. 

    29   At some point I have to get up and get groomed soes that I can look pretty. 

    30   Monumental task. 

    31   I also have to keep thinking of what to write soes that I can entertain, and cause hot oatmeal to plow through nostrils. 

    32   My bare feet are doing some odd tap dance while I think.

    33   <tappity tappity tap tap tap>

    34   It’s a writer’s thing. 

    35   If you write, you get this. 

    36    Laundry.

    37    Right now I’m thinking, “Thank God for laundry.”

    38    I think my dog just farted. 

    39   Goin’ south, but honestly!

    40   It’s like this invisible brown hue.

    41   Moving On, Part the Second:  No news man. We should all thank the lawd, the Creator of the Universe, Joe-the-Bear, or whatever other entity we relish for no news.

    42   Dog farts and laundry.

    43   Slow news day. 

    44   I loves me some Thursdays.

    45   Autumn Thursdays. 

    46   I think I missed an eclipse.

    47   There will be others. 

    48   Anyway, I think I gotta bail. 

    49   The dryer just buzzed. 

    50   Have a random day. 

    51   And thank someone for something.

    52   Or something. Do your clothes. 

    53   I’m out.
    54   Peace.



    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington











  • MEETINGS???
    ARGGGGH!!!
     

    The Daily News
    1   Is it just me or is the entire world getting younger?

    2   Rhetorical question. 

    3   Just thought I’d throw that out to everyone, because it seems to be happening to everyone.

    4   You blink and you’re a hundred.

    5   You just have to look at it in terms of your age relative to the history of the universe, and your worries will end. 

    6   The nice thing about getting old is that you don’t care about a lot of stuff anymore.

    7    For example, we have some sort of meeting every single Wednesday, because the meeting gods demand it. 

    8    Someone else demands it of the meeting gods. 

    9    Those demands are often originating from someone who THINKS they know more than the people in the trenches.

    10   The demands are often ridiculous and unrealistic.

    11   The meetings are often confusing and convoluted. 

    12   This is true of most corporations, companies, state services, etc. 

    13   So the beautiful thing about realizing that you are young in the universe despite your years is that you really don’t take too much of that sort of thing seriously. 

    14   I have been to enough meetings to look up and say that I don’t think there has been one meeting that has changed me in any way except to make me hustle around and do more things I have no time to do. 

    15   A roll of the eyes. 

    16   They should have a world ban on meetings. They should be restricted to maybe two per year. 

    17   It would help every corporation, company, state service, et al save billions of dollars in wasted monies, because they have to still PAY people to attend those meetings and workshops. They have to PAY people not to work for a couple of hours. 

    18   They have to PAY people to goof off on their cell phones and talk with their friends about how stupid many of the requests are, and how much wasted time the employees are going to have to spend just to prove that the workers who do the actual work are doing the actual work. 

    19   As I youthen, I smile at all of it. 

    20   I have watched it for too long, and it no longer bothers me. 

    21   I bottom-line exactly what sort of boushit they want, and give back stuff on paper. 

    22   They LOVE people who give back stuff on paper. 

    23   I just try to decipher what all sixteen-thousand educational experts want us to produce, and put it into normal language. 

    24   If you want to make a hit at a meeting, the first thing you need to do is to understand the reality of what this new expert has to say, and what it is they want as a result of the meeting. 

    25  You then write something that is really logical and understandable, that you know from experience will probably work, and throw it out there. 

    26   You submit something logical on paper. 

    27   And then the meeting will go away until the next meeting, when the big guns are going to come in and start declaring doom and gloom unless you do whatever miracle it is they want from you.

    28   And the circle, it goes round and round. 

    29   Pound for pound. 

    30   Moving on, Part the First: Yesterday they canceled the meeting originally scheduled for today and threw an insta-meeting into the laps of our department chairs. 

    31   What this does is it puts pressure on the department chairs to come up with something instantly. They have to put all of their grading aside, and lesson planning aside, and come up with something that will result in something coming out on paper. 

    32   In the past, I have headed off this sort of thing by reading ahead of time what the “theme” of the meeting will be. I will often bring something logical to the meeting just in case they need something. 

    33   It usually meets the outline of the meeting and is on paper. I often make twenty copies of it just in case the wheels start coming off. I then lie in the weeds and say very little. No point prolonging the meeting. 

    34   I also often don’t reveal it if the meeting is taken up with other stuff. I have a sort of rainy day file that can shortcut stuff and get paper into the hands of the accountability people when they need it.

    35   You produce anything on paper and you come out looking like a genius. 

    36   That’s the wonderful thing about being young in the universe.

    37   You know how stuff works. 

    38    I STILL abhor meetings. 

    39   Worst part of any job, with the exception of that one person who irks you.

    40   I don’t have any of those right now. 

    41   If one person irks me now, I just ignore them. This will irk them even more, but I have too much to do than to waste time petting the dog who has issues. 

    42   Does all this sound familiar?

    43   Because this stuff isn’t designed simply for education.

    44   It pretty much sums up all sorts of jobs, or any other sort of organizational structure that thinks it runs best on meetings. 

    45    People just want to do their jobs and not be bothered. 

    46    Honestly.

    47    I’m a heretic, as you can plainly see. 

    48    A heathen of the worst sort. 

    49    Sue me. 

    50    I just always think back to Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles. There is a scene where Brooks is heading a meeting. He is wearing a suit with the word GOV on his back. His first words: “Gentlemen, we have to protect our phony baloney jobs!” 

    51    Hilarious. Here’s another movie reference to how I feel each time I leave a meeting:

    52    Each time I leave a meeting I feel like King Kong, trying to save Fay Wray while being attacked by airplanes and holding on to the tip of the Empire State Building. 

    53   It’s getting into the 3:30 a.m. and I’m talking about King Kong and Fay Wray.

    54   Add to cart. 

    55    I gotta bounce.

    56    Have a great day.

    57    Peace.

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington


  •  

        

    The Daily News

    1   Okay.

    2   They’re on to me.

    3   My students.

    4   <Looking over shoulder>

    5   They’re lurking in the bushes.

    6   They have ten-dollar binocs from Wal-Mart.

    7    My students. 

    8    Yesterday I walked into my classroom. 

    9    I knew immediately that I was in an old movie. 

    10   I even wore my 40′s wiseguy hat so that it would augment all the mugs in JFK. 

    11   I really didn’t need to augment the JFK lesson until my second class, so I decided to make a really smooth move and frisbee it so that it would land on top of the overhead in the corner of my desk area. I wanted it to land at the tip-top, so that it would look like the projector was wearing a hat.

    12   I’ve done it hundreds of times, but yesterday it flew just over the top and instantly shot to the back of my file cabinet. 

    13   I stood there KNOWING someone saw that, and that it must have been hilarious, like a guy with a top hat walking toward an open manhole, stepping on thin air, shooting down, and his hat following in perfect stride. Silent movie. Chaplin stuff. Silents. 

    14  Fortunately my students were too busy sharing Thanksgiving stories, so my slice of humble pie went unnoticed.

    15   But they’re on to me. 

    16   After that, one of my more brilliant students who sits about five feet from my desk quoted a piece of my Daily News, a story in which he starred. Something I wrote last week, but time doesn’t permit me to remember exactly what it was. 

    17   He just mumbled it and looked at no one in particular. 

    18   I recognize my DN, write thousands of words a week, but it was obvious the delivery was for my ears only. 

    19   He looked up and I said in my best wiseguy voice, “So. You’re on to me.”

    20   The quiet implication is that the Daily News AND my alumni/colleagues’ Facebook has been discovered by my students. 

    21   I figured it was inevitable. 

    22   What they don’t know is that I don’t really care. 

    23   Historically, the DN was designed for students. 

    24   It was a means of communicating years ago with the cast of Guys and Dolls. 

    25   We had a huge musical at Yerba Buena, and trying to communicate with cast, crew, band, etc. was a bit difficult, so I started posting this folderol on the wall of the Performing Arts’ building. 

    26   I just numbered stuff, gave a notes as to who needed to be where at what time, and then pontificated on the state of the world, or on the state of sports, or on the Rolling Stones, or on the stupidity that often surfaces in education. 

    27   It eventually morphed into that.

    28   Now it is just morning foolishness, and moral decay, as anyone knows. 

    29   It is designed to make hot oatmeal shoot through the nose. 

    30   It is designed for morning coffee and hangovers. 

    31   By hangovers, I don’t necessarily mean alcohol hangovers. 

    32   There are hangovers that occur from every day or night before the next day.

    33   They include mid-terms and all-nighters for college folk, tests upon tests for high school students, worrying about kids and dogs for the middle aged, and waiting for the next shoe to drop for all the old timuhs. 

    34   So join the club, kids. You’re welcome to jump in and waste your time reading this crap. Just realize it is all a lark. 

    35   And you are a large part of the lark, so lap it up.

    36   Welcome to the wide, wonderfully idiotic world of the Daily News. 

    37   Moving on, Part the First: I’m on a fast sched today. I got home yesterday and Phoebe the Wonder Dog couldn’t stand up. I “rushed” her to emergency in Campbell. It took about twelve years to get from the Berryessa area to Camden Avenue/Dell street. 

    38   I took 17 during commute, which is akin to attempted suicide. 

    39   I took Yahoo! maps’ advice, which was poor. This was at around 5:30 in the afternoon on the Monday following Thanksgiving. 

    40   I got on without getting sideswiped by the ridiculous amount of morons who somehow manage to get drivers’ licenses, and the was instantly told to stop by the CHP. 

    41   He waved his flashlight into the eyes of everyone advancing on him and yelled, “Stop!”

    42   A three-vehicle wreck that clearly began with someone being stupid had occurred maybe fifty seconds before I arrived on the scene. 

    43   The CHP dude was still throwing debris to the side of the road, and one guy in some beat-up old car moved across with his wobbly wheels and got to the side of the road. 

    44   It looked like everyone in the wreck was okay, but I had a dog that needed to get to emergency right in the Highway 17 cross-hairs of Campbell. 

    45  The entire thing was a six o’ clock nightmare. Lights flashed into my eyes blinding me so I couldn’t read signs that I had a millisecond to see, so the delay frustrated and agonized me. 

    46   Phoebe just chilled in the back seat. She’s a great car dog.

    47   When we got there, she was able to walk pretty well. That’s what she does. She seems sick, and when she gets to a vet, shows no symptoms. 

    48   There was only one other family there, whose old dog was having serious concerns. A teen-age girl was in absolute tears, and the mom and dad had red rings around their eyes. They had to bring the old guy in on a gurney. 

    49   I looked at Phoebes and she looked fine, just a little nervous, which she always is when she is at a vet. But her condition looked more and more like she had simply slept wrong. 

    50   After waiting for around 45 minutes, I heard some laughter from the other room. I think they might have taken care of that other dog. 

    51   Meanwhile, people arrived in droves. The room had around ten people in it when I again looked at Phoebe and decided it was better for those other people’s dogs to get treated. If she was okay, at least ’til today, why take up the time of the people working there?

    52   So I finally explained that I was going to duck out and take care of her tomorrow, since it clearly wasn’t the emergency I thought it was. 

    53   I went outside and ran into an ex-student from the drama days, Karena Ramirez. Doggy had been hit by a car, and they were worrying, but it looked okay. We caught up and had a great chat.

    54    To Karena and your family, if you’re reading this, just know that we’re all rooting for you and for your family. Prayers.

    55    Moving On, Part the Second: That’s about all I could muster this morning. I slept through the night and wrote all of this early this morning. 

    56   So to my students: I’m glad you’re on to me. 

    57   Welcome to the fold. 

    58   I gottago.

    59    You all have a sensational day.

    60   See you again.

    61   Peace.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington

  • DAT WHO!!!

    a a a Colin 1 Colin 2 Walker a a a cool guy 1Colin 3 Defense! 

    WHADDUPPPP???

    The Daily News

    1   Niners!

    2   Sorry I get so excited about this team. And I’m a little sorry about the in-yo-face headline, but I couldn’t resist. The Merc News couldn’t resist putting THIS headline on their front page: NINERS HAVE A NEW TOY. In Times New Roman. I have to guess Mark Purdy was the architect of that one. 

    3   We did a lot of suffering the past few years, and it is nice to see that the legacy of the Niners is back on top.

    4   All teams go through this.

    5   The refs in yesterday’s game must have been leftovers from the rent-a-refs.

    6   One of those guys has to have had a bet on the spread.

    7   Ah, it’s all good.

    8   I refrain from saying “It’s too early to tell” regarding Colin Kaepernick. This guy is the real deal.

    9    I will be the first to say that they have clearly been grooming him for this moment. Anybody who thought Alex Smith was anything more than a transitional quarterback is on crack.

    10  This has always been Harbaugh’s plan. He is that sinister.

    11   It seems unbelievable to everybody, but when the dust settles, we will see a quarterback who was carefully chosen for his basic skills, and then carefully groomed to handle the NFL.

    12   How this comes as a surprise to people is a mystery to me. Nobody blinked when the Giants brought in Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, et al.

    13   When the Niners went up the ladder and got the guy, I immediately looked at film on You Tube. I told everyone I could talk to that we drafted a potential superstar. His statistics were off the charts. He ran like a gazelle. He threw on the run. He could throw deep. And now I see that he can think fast, and that he can locate receivers.

    14  And he can throw the ball where they have room to run.

    15  It’s almost scary.

    16  Let me repeat this.There is no controversy. Alex Smith did some great things, no doubt. But his third-and-outs leave me with little sympathy. Kaepernick is the guy. He’ll make mistakes. He may even make a huge mistake in a big game.

    17  But he is definitely the guy.

    18  Will I be eating my words?

    19  I don’t think so.

    20  Congrats to the Niners and to their devoted fans.

    21   We have suffered enough.

    22   Colin Kaepernick, you are our quarterback. Period. No controversy. Just logic. And not to be ignored, the defense needs to take a bow for the two pick sixes. Their play in the second half wore the Saints down. And they did this on what looked to me like a few namby-pamby calls by the refs. 

    23   Moving On, Part the First: I don’t know about anyone else, but this was one of the best Thanksgivings EVER.

    24   I haven’t had a moment’s rest in six months, and then some.

    25   Tuesday afternoon the world stopped. I had five days to get six billion things done, and GOT six billion things done, AND some much-needed rest.

    26   I had time to rake leaves, clean gutters, do a Christmas light design, be with my family, laugh, eat, drink, and yes, be merry! We had about forty dogs running through the house as entertainment.

    27   Well, not forty, but at least four. That was hyperbole, which for those of you dense as the morning fog, is not a football playoff game. 

    28   My daughters made a magnificent Thanksgiving dinner. It was their first encounter with a turkey, and they did a splendid job. Lots of stress, but lots of laughter.

    29   I’ll keep it short, but everyone was out doing different things. Raking leaves at my place is like trying to rake leaves in Central Park. They’re beautiful, but many.

    30   Cleaning gutters is an annual chore that I actually love, because it means a lighting design for Christmas. The entire ordeal took the entire day. It was just about dark when I clicked the lights on.

    31   The entire neighborhood lit up. Little kids stood in awe. Even the dog across the street came over and was tongue-tied. We have a dark street, for the record. No lights out there, so this was fun. Cheery smiles everywhere. One click, and that all happened. 

    32  At that exact moment, my daughters came outside. Within seconds, everyone else arrived. It was an insta-party! Pure magic!

    33  It was one of those life moments when everyone’s struggles and troubles were forced out, sort of like a cartoonish de-Grinching.

    34   We have all been through massive traumas this year, and yet we stood in the front yard laughing and enjoying the miracle lights.

    35  When we all walked in, a huge smell of oven turkey flew threw our entire beings, and this magnificent spread adorned our new kitchen.

    36   Laughter ensued, and instead of talking, we hollered the entire night.

    37    Perfect. 

    38   I refused to do anything remotely associated with school for two straight days, my record for the past six school years.

    39   There was just happiness and hope in times when it just hasn’t been that way. Too many real life issues. But this past weekend blew them all to smithereens.

    40   We still have a frightening rollercoaster of worries, but for right now, I think it is safe to say it was an epic Thanksgiving. I even got to spend the weekend with my Dad watching John Wayne movies and some amazing football.

    41   AND I managed to get caught up with all my classes. It’s easy to grade papers, talk, and watch football simultaneously.

    42   Speaking of which,the Raiders REALLY disappointed. My thoughts go out to Raider fans AND Saints’ fans. Your teams are better than they think. It’s all about confidence and good coaching. Saints’ fans, especially my good fellow Rich Colbert, I didn’t mean to come out swinging like that. I have always loved the Saints, except for last year. Niner fans tend to like the Saints because they tend to like New Orleans. 

    43   So I’m not going to be in-your-face to any other teams nor their fans right now. It’s just November, and what an epic November it has been!

    44  I hope you have all gotten some rest and relaxation. Nothing nicer.

    45  I don’t know. Maybe it was just happening to everybody. I came off these past five days as feeling that something made it happen for a whole bunch of other people too. I felt a tremendous sense of joy and release. Maybe the universe decided to throw some positive particles to all of us. 

    46   I hope that was the case for you.

    47   I’ll leave it at that, but I’ll also leave it with this: It truly is the season of counting blessings. It has nothing to do with pilgrims. It has changed focus. I like the change.

    48   Enjoy it with everything you can.

    49   Eat, drink, laugh, and be merry.

    50   It’s the only way to fight back the scramblers.

    51   Have a GREAT Monday.

    52   See you again.

    53   Peace.

    ~H~

    a a a cool guy 1 

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  •  NINERS!

    Colin Kaepernick Kicks Bears Behinds in First Start!!!

    a a a Colin Kaepernick's First Start 

    1 On a national stage.

    2  I expect my Bay Area teams to create torture.

    3  Last night wasn’t supposed to be that easy.

    4  When the Niners first acquired Colin Kaepernick, I looked at his films from college. His statistics as both a baseball pitcher and a quarterback were startling. He pitched two no-hitters in high school. Maybe the Giants could use him. The film of his career at the University of Nevada was incredible.

    5  I was absolutely convinced that he was amazing. My only criticism of the guy was that he focused on his primary receiver almost to the point of telegraphing where he was going to throw. I saw him as a guy who could get intercepted, and I still see that.

    6   But his mobility and ability to get the ball downfield was obvious, and awesome.

    7   I never thought Alex Smith was anything but a dog-and-pony show. Once Harbaugh drafted Kaepernick, I knew that Alex Smith was just a poseur, if I may use that idiotic term. Every now and again I go to a frilly word. All apologies.

    8  I knew that they were grooming Kaepernick to be the real quarterback, and that the second Smith couldn’t play, he would become the guy.

    9   He did it last night on a national stage against a pretty good team.

    10  I’m still a bit shaky on the guy, but last night he unleashed his talents and showed them off to the world.

    11  He isn’t just a one-trick pony.

    12  It is too early to tell, but I have been a huge supporter of Kaepernick since we got the guy.

    13  My only concern as a Bay Area team guy is that he must have some sort of weakness.

    14  To me, his only weakness is his youth, and his telescopic focus on his receivers. The NFL isn’t stupid, and defenses will feast on a guy who telegraphs his throws.

    15   He has shown that he can get shaken, and that he can throw the ball up for interceptions.

    16   He didn’t show that last night.

    17   Once this guy has a few games under his belt, he is going to be awesome.

    18   After last night’s performance, Alex Smith may not be back.

    19   Smith is a fine quarterback; I never thought I would hear myself say that.

    20   He just has an inability to go deep.

    21   Kaepernick staged a clinic last night in how to get the ball downfield and to score in the red zone.

    22  It’s still too early to tell, but if Kaepernick becomes consistent, then the Niners are going to be the toughest team in football.

    23  And how can you underestimate Harbaugh‘s performance?

    24  The guy just came back from a stay at the hospital for heart murmers, and he is out there on Monday night getting crazy once again.

    25   The circus has clearly come to town.

    26    Fun game, but certainly a weird one.

    27   Talks of Super Bowl are a bit premature in my eyes. I’m going to enjoy last night’s game just because I have been exhausted from work, and it was a decent rest. I even found time to nap during the game.

    28   This is a good thing.

    29    Nice job, Niners. Even if someone isn’t a fan, you gotta love watching Kaepernick.

    30   And Aldon Smith played like the madman he is. The guy has had the weirdest year anyone could, and he came in last night to prove he can play football.

    31  Frankly, I don’t like the guy. His off-field behaviors are pretty suspect. I don’t mean to judge, but he comes off to me as a moron with skills, unlike most NFL super stars.

    32  I’m glad the Niners have held back on promoting a Smith Brothers handle.

    33  That doesn’t play well when one guy is getting beat up in bars and the other is clearly a steroidbot.

    34  Sorry.

    35  No evidence.

    36  Except the guy’s size, age, and speed.

    37  That stuff is rampant in the NFL. Get real.

    38  We are a nation of stooges.

    39   Moving on, Part the First: In other news, we educators have a two-day week this week.

    40   The idea seemed so good when everyone voted on it.

    41    The deal is that we have these things called “furlough” days, which save the state money.

    42    Older teachers love them, because furlough=days off. We older guys can afford days off. Younger teachers take a bit of a hit on furlough days.

    43    What they do is they cut the school year shorter. It is in actuality a bad thing for the students, because they get fewer days of school each year.

    44   This affects the entire second part of the school year, particularly athletics and other after-school activities.

    45   When you combine furloughs with state testing, the education of our young people diminishes dramatically in the second semester.

    46   When we have to vote on which days we are going to scrap, I usually vote to take it off at the end of the school year, when the seniors are gone and it is usually the dog days of the year.

    47   But someone at some meeting brought up the idea that the day before Thanksgiving would be a perfect furlough day. We usually have a minimum then anyway, so why not just give us the entire day off?

    48   The day before Thanksgiving off would give all of us time to spend with family, and to help set up Thanksgiving. The idea looks awesome on paper.

    49   Makes perfect sense.

    50   What most of us forgot was that by giving up this Wednesday, Monday and Tuesday become goof-off days to the students.

    51   I spent my entire weekend planning my JFK unit. I feel it was a brilliant move to bring in that unit as an exercise in fiction/non-fiction. The newest trend in education is to teach non-fiction, because it is more useful.

    52   Something like that.

    53   Don’t get me going.

    54   I decided long ago that bringing back my JFK unit would be a perfect way to teach fiction/non-fiction, since the Warren Report remains a sack of boushit to this very minute.

    55   And government lying is quite the trend on Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest of that nonsense that seems to pass as news nowadays.

    56   I almost wrote “nowadaze” but thought it corny.

    57   AnywayZ…

    58   Nothing worked with my JFK unit. I found this awesomely accurate nine-part documentary called The Men Who Killed Kennedy, but it was on a VHS which had a very weak sound. I had everything tested and ready, and the sound couldn’t go past two feet yesterday. The trouble is I watched the You Tube version, but brought in the VHS without having tested it for sound quality.

    59   I had to re-route the sound from the teevee to an LCD projector, and then put an audio-out cord into my iPod deck in order to get the sound louder.

    60   This required ten-minutes of re-setup on a Monday of a Monday/Tuesday week.

    61    I succeeded, but none of it came close to the impact I wanted to make as a teacher. The sound was louder, but a bit scratchy and muddled. It was okay for the students, but tremendously difficult to hear and understand. On a getaway Monday/Tuesday session, it got a bit lost on them.

    62    And today is a getaway day. Failure is not an option. Today I have to bring in the big guns. Today I will bring in Oliver Stone’s JFK, which is a pretty accurate depiction of what took place on November 22, 1963. Stone‘s effort was deemed a “conspiracy theory” in the press, but so was Garrison’s incredible story. Don’t listen to the propaganda. Stone’s JFK stands as monumental work in my eyes. This is coming from a guy who expected it to be lousy. I was impressed and remain impressed by the accuracy of JFK.

    63  It will work. Meanwhile, educationally  I’m not so sure the Wednesday Thanksgiving furlough was such a good idea.

    64    We would probably be better served to simply take this entire week off and add two days to the end of the year. It would clearly be better for the students.

    65   Live and learn.

    66    It is well into the 5 a.m. so I think I’m pretty much done here.

    67    I’m going to go home right after school today and clean my gutters.

    68    It’s turkey time. Oh yeah, that’s right. Family and friends. Remember them?

    69    Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone.

    70    See you again on Monday.

    71    Peace.

    ~H~

    a a a cool guy 1

    www.xanga.com/bharrington

     

     




     

  • The Daily News
    1  I spent a goodly part of the weekend watching JFK documentaries. I rarely place full credence on anything I read with regards to the assassination, except that the government’s claim of a lone gunman is an absolute fabrication, and a disgraceful one.

    2   The trouble with the story is that it can’t be allowed to end simply. One lone nut did not change the entire history of our nation.

    3   One unrelated patriot did not silence the lone nut. They should teach this in kindergarten.

    4   There are simply too many direct routes to the CIA, to the mafia, to anti-Castro Cubans, and to powerful oil guys who in turn connect to Fascism and to extreme anti-Communism. To ignore this historically is akin to ignoring Hitler.

    5   After a billion years of this case still being argued, any serious person researching it already has about ninety-five per cent of the answer.

    6   And I still run across interesting stories that are slightly credible and slightly not.

    7   That’s the wonder of disinformation.

    8    One thing is certain.

    9    Everything having to do with the autopsy of the death of JFK is suspect. The back part of his head was blown off. According to one doctor at Parkland Memorial hospital in Dallas, at least one fourth to one fifth of the President’s brain was completely gone.

    10   The official autopsy pictures in the National Archives don’t show this. They show a head that is intact, and that has a neat little hole where Kennedy’s brain was obliterated. The remainder of the President’s head disappeared, and the autopsy reports were burned. The limousine was flown out of Dallas and completely re-constructed. Any physical evidence of gunshot directions disappeared.

    11  All of the doctors who worked to rescue him knew he was dead within seconds after the assassination. His brain was blown to smithereens. A huge area in the right rear of his head was missing.

    12  All of the doctors at Parkland Hospital reported this gaping hole in the right occipital parietal area of his head, yet the autopsy pictures show this tiny bullet hole and the back of his head completely intact.

    13  That information alone is enough to take the Warren Report and place it on the fiction shelves of every library in the world. Dr. Cyril Wecht, a long-time critic of the Warren Commission report, said these words, which to me are words for the ages regarding the government’s official report of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

    “There’s no question in my mind that that 26-volume set [the Warren Report] should be taken from the shelves of all the libraries where they now rest in the United States, from non-fiction and placed in the fiction shelves along with Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Fin, and Gulliver’s Travels because that’s where they belong.”

    —Dr. Cyril Wecht, Warren Commission Critic

    14  As we approach yet another anniversary of the fatal shooting on November 22, 1963 I find that rather than diminishing, the lies have increased to the point that history books and DVD’s have removed words like “alleged” or “purported” when referring to Lee Harvey Oswald, the government’s patsy in the murder. 

    15   The biggest culprit so far is the current documentary that has been donated to schools throughout the nation. It is called America: The Story of Us, this DVD that has taken America by storm. Unfortunately, it is filled with lies and omissions. It is this beautifully packaged DVD that looks wonderful, and it is marketed with an accompanying book that looks absolutely gorgeous. 

    16   All I did the second I saw that DVD was to turn to the JFK stuff only to find all of this tremendously complex story neatly solved. Oswald killed Kennedy. They even have a picture of a police officer holding up the murder weapon. Ruby killed Oswald. End of story. 

    17   And this boushit was donated to schools. It had other ridiculous omissions, but I saw this thing two years ago when it came out, and looked to the stars. 

    18   That’s where we are. 

    19   My hope is that a younger generation discovers government lies and cover-ups, and that they get their heads out of reality teevee shows and that they begin understanding the dangers of ignoring the real news. 

    20   Many are on the verge. Unfortunately, when attempting to get to a real story, many sucker for manipulative “researchers” who mix and stretch the truth but who might be backed by CIA disinformation sources. 

    22   The disinformationists are willing to put the true stories out there, but to associate them with fringe, or celebrity sources. Wrestlers, loudmouths, and other circus acts spout a lot of the truth, but they look like madmen rather than like historical researchers. 

    23   It takes a credible eye to see the difference, and to get to the real truth. After years of chasing down the story, I look at every fact as suspect. But one thing is obvious at this point in our history: someone in 1963 had JFK killed, and for a reason. 

    24   They had FBI and secret service guys all over Dealy Plaza, the area of Dallas where the assassination went down. Oswald did not orchestrate the JFK assassination. People who owned power and wanted to keep power did. How simple can you make it?

    25   The news reporters everywhere knew instinctively to buy the government’s explanation, which is ridiculously filled with gaping holes. Not to could lead to brakes going out on cars, bullets going through car windows, or hatchets winding up in the backs of heads.

    26   Whoever gained power and influence back then never fell out of power. Imagine that. It was a coup. In America. And it remains a coup to this very day.

    27   Our last President, for example, is descended from some low-level CIA operative who ascended to the head of the CIA, and was eventually elected President. His father was a fellow with known ties to Fascists. 

    28   That stuff is mainstream, yet most Americans choose to believe stuff like America: The Story of Us rather than simply Googling Prescott Bush/Allen Dulles.

    29   You don’t have to go far. This stuff is all out there. Thank goodness for the internet. The info is fast and readily available. Unfortunately, the ability to see through all the smoke and mirrors is a tad tricky. You need a trained eye and a teaspoon of common sense.

    30   If I were new at this, I would check good sources: college professors, the National Archives (I KNOW, I KNOW!), guys like Russ Baker and David Emory. Both of these gentlemen have researched quietly and without a lot of headline seeking. They are good sources. 

    31  I would avoid guys like Geraldo Rivera, who at one time was a pretty good source, but who fell into sensationalism and idiotic things like trying to find the body of Jimmy Hoffa. The same is true of Jack Anderson. He fell into the limelight and wound up looking like a madman. Anderson and famed reporter Drew Pearson were once a remarkable team. Anderson was the first reporter to put the CIA and the Mafia together in their attempts at killing Fidel Castro of Cuba. Anderson became a larger figure, but wound up looking at the dazzling lights of fame a little more than perhaps he should have. So where do we look?

    32  I’m running out of time here, but Russ Baker is the author of the monumental Family of Secrets, an expose of the Bush dynasty. He and several other former mainstream journalists have a website called WhoWhatWhy.com. Baker and others tired of the mainstream news being controlled, and subsequently united to get the real truth out. Here is a link to Russ Baker’s WhoWhatWhy.com website:


    33  David Emory has done political research on the Fascist elements that have been controlling American thought for decades. Schooled by the late Mae Brussell, Emory meticulously researches and gives citations and footnotes for things that might sound outrageous to your average American, but which also stands up to the test of time. 

    34   In recent years Emory has backed off his research due to exhaustion, but his website spitfirelist.com remains active. Here is the link:


    35   He tends to be a bit doom-and-gloom, but his work has always been pretty accurate, and well-documented. The very fact that he never ventured into headlining or grandstanding gives him some credibility. 

    36   Cal professsor Peter Dale Scott chased the JFK story for years. He still teaches at Berkeley as far as I know. Here is a link to his website, which has links to all of his research:


    37   A great CIA source is a fellow by the name of Col. J. Fletcher Prouty.  He has been a good man, a CIA man who tells the real story with tremendous credibility. Here is a piece by Prouty:


    38   Those of you out there interested in this stuff could look to those resources. They will be portals to tons of other research. 

    39   A basic rule-of-thumb in terms of who is telling the truth and who is lying is their approach to JFK. If they go Warren Commission/Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy, then they are absolute liars and should probably be brought up on charges. If they chase the killers and want justice, they are probably credible. Simple test. 

    40  It is JFK week. The anniversary of his assassination is Thanksgiving. I predict that a lot of “Oswald-Did-It Alone” crap will be all over the news. That’s the present agenda, and it sickens me. 

    41   Obama v. Romney? Really? People need to understand who it is that really runs us. 

    42   The Oswald test is always a good ink blotter. Three shots or fewer=damnable lies.

    43    A lot of the truth about America begins with taking a look at the event surrounding November 22, 1963. JFK was killed. Oswald was silenced. Ruby died trying to tell the nation that it had been taken over.

    44    Strong stuff. The assassination we will once again examine on Thanksgiving is not old news.

    45    It connects immediately with 2012. 

    46    You may begin Thursday. Take a look at some of these links in the meantime. I won’t be around forever. Someone has to take some light from the eternal flame at Arlington and ignite the truth.

    47   Someone has to.


    48    Peace.

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington



  •  
    The Daily News
    1  MVPOSEY!!!

    2  I’m sorry, but this guy is the real deal. 

    3  Hey everybody. Buster is not a fluke.

    4  This guy recovered from massive trauma last year to light up the playoffs for the entire nation. 

    5  So Buster, this is YOUR day. Of course you will not agree. 

    6  Because on field, you have skills and courtesy beyond any other players. 

    7   Off the field, you demonstrate humility, and a dedication to not only you, but to your family, and to your fans. 

    8   Monumental 

    9   Sometimes what amazes me is amazing people.

    10  Guys like Buster make all of us bow with pure humility.

    11  Because although I’m quite certain he is not perfect, he is as close to perfect as most of us are willing to believe. 

    12  Yesterday I had such a great day that I bordered on declaring myself perfect.

    13

    14  You know me too well.
    15  I was having an ALMOST perfect day. 

    16  The reason I was having an ALMOST perfect day was that I spent the past four months working night and day for my students and for my family.

    17   Consequently, I was able to beat the grading deadline by an entire day. To put that one in perspective, it usually takes me right up to a minute before the deadline. 

    18   Nobody really cares, but to me, it was like winning the World Series.

    19   And I knew that my grades were more accurate than they have ever been.

    20   I was at the top of my game, and still dealing.

    21   Quite rare, yet somewhat awkward. 

    22   How do you pat yourself on the back without looking like you are bragging?

    23   Thank goodness for Buster, and his outward humility.

    24   That alone makes him the MVP in life. 

    25    I couldn’t stand it. 

    26    I wanted my students to know just how difficult this year was. I wanted sportswriters to validate my humble efforts.

    27   I knew it wouldn’t happen, so I sort of let it leak in my lessons. 

    28   Delicate sitch.

    29   But I DID work hard. And I DID go through massive amounts of personal trauma this year. 

    30   And I DID come through all of it with laughter, with music, and with hope for the future. 

    31   Don’t we all?

    32   I know a LOT of you, and I know that a LOT of you are MVP’s to your own family and friends. 

    33   But a guy like Buster lets all of us know that we do work hard, that we do care about people, that we do love our loved ones, and that we are all superstars. 

    34   It’s just that Buster is so humble. 

    35   I love it. 

    36   I love the guy. 

    37    He is a true Avenger.

    38    Enough of this.

    39    Buster: thanks man. 

    40    Moving on, Part the First: Okay, so I’m not Buster Posey. 

    41    I did brag slightly to my students that I had worked hard all year making certain that their grades were absolutely accurate, to a person. 

    42    I talked about how my system insured accuracy, and was a mirror shot of their own abilities and efforts. 

    43    I talked about how I knew each person as a person from having read their autobiographies and from having looked over their magazines. 

    44    I knew much about their personal struggles, their personal life ambitions, and their personal dreams. 

    45   In short, I was bragging a bit about how perfect I was. 
    46   But with a little humility.

    47    No dude. 

    48    Seriously. 

    49    Y’all know how humble I am. 

    50


    51    At one point I saw two heads down, asleep at their desks. I thought to myself, “Stop talking, dude.”

    52    Well, I didn’t. But I had to let them know that I had flaws. 

    53    I didn’t want them to go home and tell their parents, “Mr. Harrington told us he was poifect!”

    54    So once I saw two heads down, I stopped talking about how Lee Harvey Oswald was a spy and all, and decided to tell them the story of how I’m not perfect.

    55   I told them that when I was just a little guy, maybe a little over two-feet tall and with a Hello, Kitty! head, how I was playing alone in my back yard one lovely day. 

    56   Sunshine, bending fences, and backyard ennui. Childhood in a cloud. 

    57   I located an old bucket around the side of the house, and a rope lying in the weeds. 

    58    I thought to myself, “Well!” I decided I was going to play well. 

    59   That was an unauthorized and unintended pun, which still got a humble laugh. 

    60    I decided that I was going to fill the bucket with water, tie the rope to the bucket, and hurl the other end over the tree in our backyard. 

    61   As I pulled it up the tree, my Mom looked out back and yelled, “DON’T PULL THAT BUCKET OF WATER UP THE TREE!!!!”

    62   I had no idea that what she was talking about. Turns out she was worried that the bucket might fall and hit me in the head. I just thought she was being unreasonable.

    63   So I brought the bucket down, and then looked over to the sand box. A sand box is a brilliant invention in which parents could have a square made of wood filled with sea sand that children could play in, and which stray cats could poop in. 

    64   Fortunately for me, the sand box was sans cat poop. 

    65   I followed my own lead and brought my bucket over to the sand box. 

    66   I filled it to the brim with sand. 

    67   I then analyzed the amount of rope it would take to fly it back over the tree limb, and did so successfully.

    68   Science in action. 

    69   I was on the job. 

    70   I hurled the rope back over the branch, and in an instant the well was back in action. I was taking care of business, yo. 

    71   I pulled the sand up to the very top. I was triumphant!

    72   I pumped my fists to the sky. My well worked! 

    73   Within seconds, the bucket shot straight down and crowned me on the backside of my head. My head split open, and blood poured down my back. 

    74   I screamed as only a Hello, Kitty! kid could scream. My Mom came out and shouted, “Stop screaming! What is wrong with you?” I kept screaming, turned around, revealing a tee-shirt that was red from top to bottom with blood. 

    75   Head wounds tend to bleed ridiculously, so my Mom must have been horrified. She cleaned me up and rushed me to the doctor, who cleaned it all up, put a few stitches in, and said the usual: “He’ll be okay.”

    76  Somehow I made it through that, but if I’m so okay, why have I reached my DN record for amount of items?

    78  It’s all about humility.

    79   Thanks, Buster, for putting an end to my hubris. 

    80   The scars still remain, but I walk forward today with some sort of smiling humility. AND this is the Daily News record for most amount of items. How great am I? <lmfao>

    81   Have a GREAT weekend man. And I mean that. 

    82   Peace.

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington








  • THE REAL AVENGERS IN OUR LIVES!!!
      



    The Daily News

    1   Yesterday when I was just about to lose it, Avengers shot down out of the sky and joined me in an epic battle against all the Evil Forces. 

    2    Grades are due today. Two computers couldn’t get the job done. 

    3    My daughter Nicoley Boley Macaroni flew in and with one touch took care of two years of insanity, and suddenly everything got done.

    4   Thanksgiving came in over the wire with my daughter Caitlin’s ability to arrange and change, and fix all that is not right. 

    5    Rene managed to miraculously arrange new teeth for her brother who can’t eat without them. A dentist friend is going up to Martinez to fit him with some new choppers. 

    6    I turned the entire semester around and got all my grading done AND have engagingly incredible lessons for the rest of the week. 

    7    All challenges were met with certain doom as the result of all of us coming together as a team. 

    8    I slept through the night and I don’t care. Insomnia is overrated. 

    9    I’m beginning to get the entire Avengers’ thing. 

    10  This Brave New World keeps trying to throw crap at all of us, more crap, perhaps, than has ever been thrown at people in quite a while. I’m talking not only about my family, but also your family, your friends, your lives. 

    11   I don’t know about you, but I will always fight.

    12   And so will my family. 

    13   And so will all of you. 

    14   Yesterday was the academic equivalent to yet another doomsday. If you have followed this folderol, you must know by now that my mortal enemy is grades. And meetings. 

    15   Whatever bothers you the most, you must always add “And meetings” to the mix. 

    16   And technology, which is always certain to fail right when you need it the most. 

    17   That’s when we turn to our personal Avengers. 

    18   Yesterday I came out of a fairly productive meeting, and still stumbled home like Jimmy Stewart at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life. Meetings are my personal kryptonite. 

    19   Grades are due tomorrow. I have worked on them almost twenty-four/seven. Like how I took the time to write that out? It is grammatically incorrect, but I didn’t really give a poop. Never do. 

    20   Grades are like those irritating things that flew out of that snake-like monster in the Avengers. They go down easily, but they are relentless. 

    21   My laptop, which is in the warm area of the house, refused to go on, except in “Safe Mode.”

    22   Swell. I made my way to the frosty sunroom, which is the real-life equivalent of the Fortress of Solitude, buried somewhere in the icy mountains of Comic Book Land. 

    24   I turned on the teevee. On the television there was this HGTV episode about a couple who bought a beautiful house, paid well over the asking price only to learn that its infrastructure was teeming with bugs, rats, squirrels, and other pests which were eating all of their insulation and chewing through all of their electrical. 

    25   In other words, right when I was finishing up the biggest task of the school year,  I was watching a symbolic story of a beast invading someone else’s life. Beasts and monsters invade all of our lives on an alarming scale; have you noticed?

    26   Fortunately, she was on one of those shows where a crew of young bucks with sledge hammers and sideways talking were going to rescue them. 

    27   And there’s always some butch dame making sure all the macho men get it right. 

    28   Avengers. 

    29   I quickly changed computers yesterday. Making the grade deadline is alway a thrill ride. The second you post a new grade, or a new zero, a parent will write an email protesting it, and you will have to go back to that one child, look up all of his or her stuff, write an email back to the parent explaining that Johnny can’t turn in all fourteen of the assignments he skipped in October, and delicately send it off. 

    30  It is an angry, burning Hydra that needs a certain sort of sword. 

    31  All jobs have them. 

    32  All of us encounter them. Every single day. 

    33   College students in particular are at the mercy of them. Especially college students in grad school. But they all know how to battle them.

    34   We all know how to battle them. 

    35   We turn to our own Avengers. 

    36    Yeeeeee-uh!

    37    Perhaps. 

    38   Unless you see it all a bit more symbolically. 

    39   Moving On, Part the First: Does it ever occur to you that others are praying for you?

    40   It never occurs to me. 

    41   I pray every single morning at around 5 a.m. when the radio pops on and the coffee starts on its own, a real-life Disney thing. 

    42   I don’t remember who said it, but I always loved the concept that there are no atheists in trench holes. 

    43   Each time I do my Heidi unit, I think more and more that maybe I’m on the wrong track with ghosts. 

    44    Maybe I’m dealing a lot more with angels. 

    45    Maybe Avengers are symbolic of the angels we perhaps experience every time a real-life disaster, or miracle, enters our lives. 

    46    Yesterday at least nine things miraculously turned around for me and my family. 

    47    We have been going through just as much as are all of you. 

    49    We had our symbolic World Series victory last night, complete with last-minute miracles and celebratory plates of BBQ chips-and -parmesan, and with celebratory tankards of Crystal Light. 

    50   Last night the particles rained down. 

    51   Yesterday the clarion call to celebration with the angels opened the skies and let us all see eternity. 

    52    Lost loved ones partied with us, because there was at last proof of immortality. 

    53    And there was proof that we all have our own Avengers, whatever you wish to make of that. 

    54    Yesterday was pure victory. All the evil forces that were coming at all of us fell to a sledge hammer of love and support. And of ridiculously silly mixed metaphors. 

    55    Yesterday we won. 

    56    All of us won. 

    57    At least for now. 

    58    So I’m off to the wars once again, but like all of you, I am not alone. 

    59    Fight the bastards with everything you have. 

    60    We will all win. In the end, we will all win. 

    61    Peace.

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington    




















     

  • CONGRATULATIONS TO THE A.L.
    MANAGER OF THE YEAR!!!

    BOB MELVIN, BASEBALL
    LOVES YOU!!!

       

     
    The Daily News
    1   More on that later. Let’s begin with this: I was in the mood last night for a lamb chop, so I Googled “lamb chops.”

    2   What popped up startled me.

    3   The pictures above came up, the meat on the left, and Lamb Chop on the right. I decided to add a second Lamp Chop just for artistic purposes. It’s actually a Lamb Chop Pop or something. I was into the 1 a.m. and didn’t really look.

    4   The caption under Lamb Chop was this: “The lovable and huggable Lamb Chop, from the Shari Lewsi Show, is just as you remembered, right down to the trademark fluffy eyelashes.”

    5   I stared at the grisly sight for a few seconds. 

    6   I then vaguely remembered an old TV show called The Shari Lewis Show, starring a charming young lady and her sock-puppet sidekick, Lamb Chop.

    7   I began remembering that the show starred Lewis, Chop, Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and Wing Ding. 

    8   The first thing I did upon seeing those two images so poetically juxtaposed was to take out salad makings and go vegan. 

    9   I thought of some of my vegan friends who have told me on occasion, “I can’t eat anything that has eyes.” I don’t know if that includes potatoes, but I do get the idea. 

    10  I thought  I would write about it, and took to going to bed a little late, at least for me. I knew what I might be in for with a story like that. 

    11  It was a pinpoint, actually, in the event I should awaken into the 4 a.m. with a broken computer, or with writer’s block. 

    12  Fortunately I awakened at a little past midnight, brought up the pics again, and it had the same affect. 

    13  I thought that I would have a look at Shari Lewis, at her bio, and at the ultimate story of her career as a ventriloquist and sublime entertainer for several generations of children. 

    14   What I got was somewhat sensational. I found that she was born in 1933, the daughter of two parents, her father being a fellow by the name of Abraham Hurwitz, and according to Wiki-Leaks, “who had been declared New York’s official magician
    by Fiorello H. La Guardia during the Great Depression.” Fiorello!

    15   Pretty impressive. Her bio had me a bit riveted. I had no idea she was so multi-talented, and that she had such an interestingly positive career. I decided to leak some more about the quite interesting Lewis to my DN crowd. Here is my personal Wiki-Leak of the immortal Shari Lewis:

    Shari Lewis

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Shari Lewis

    Lewis with her puppets, Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse, 1960.
    Born Sonia Phyllis Hurwitz
    January 17, 1933
    Bronx, New York, U.S.
    Died August 2, 1998 (aged 65)
    Los Angeles, California, U.S.
    Cause of death Viral pneumonia[1]
    Occupation Ventriloquist, puppeteer, author, children’s television show host
    Years active 1952–1998
    Spouse(s) Stan Lewis
    Jeremy Tarcher
    Children Mallory Lewis

    Shari Lewis (January 17, 1933 – August 2, 1998) was an American ventriloquist, puppeteer, and children’s television show host, most popular during the 1960s and 1990s. She was best known as the original puppeteer of Lamb Chop, first appearing on Hi Mom, a local morning show that aired on WRCA-TV (now WNBC-TV) in New York City.


    Contents

      [hide] 

    [edit]Early life

    Lewis was born as Sonia Phyllis Hurwitz[2] to Abraham Hurwitz, an Yeshiva University, and Ann Ritz. She had one sister. Her parents encouraged her to perform, and her father, who had been named New York City’s “official magician” by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia during the Great Depression,[3]taught her to perform specialized magic acts by age 13. She also received instruction in acrobatics, juggling, ice skating, baton twirling, piano and violin.[4] She was taught ventriloquism by John W. Cooper. Lewis continued piano and violin at New York‘s High School of Music and Art, dance at the American School of Ballet, and acting with Sanford Meisner of the Neighborhood Playhouse. She attended Barnard College for one year, then left show business.

    [edit]Career

    In 1952, Lewis and her puppetry won first CBS television series Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts. Lewis then hosted several New York children’s series over the balance of the decade. On July 5, 1953, Lewis made her television hosting debut on Facts N’Fun on NBC-owned WRCA-TV. The program was a variety show where she engaged her viewers and studio audiences in games, songs, stories, craftmaking, informational segments and interviews with guest performers and personalities. She also performed comedy skits with two vent figures, Samson and Taffy Twinkle. The series remained on the air until September 26, 1953.

    She WPIX in 1953 to replace Ted Steele as host of Kartoon Klub, which featured a variety format with a live studio audience. Lewis performed with Randy Rocket and Taffy Twinkle, and the program also featured reruns of Crusader Rabbit cartoons. Kartoon Klub later changed its title to Shari & Her Friends on September 23, 1956, and then to Shariland a month later. Lewis won New York-area Emmy Awards for her work on Shariland and on a succeeding series on WRCA-TV, Hi Mom (1957–1959). Hi Mom marked the first appearances of Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse, Hush Puppy, and Wing Ding in a regular series. Lamb Chop was previously introduced during a guest appearance by Lewis on Captain Kangaroo in March 1956.[citation needed]

    NBC gave Lewis her first network program – The Shari Lewis Show, which made its debut on October 1, 1960, replacing The Howdy Doody Show. The show ran until September 28, 1963, and featured such characters as Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, Lamb Chop, and Wing Ding, a black crow. Lamb Chop, who was little more than a sock with eyes, served as a sassy alter-ego for Lewis. Hush Puppy had a Southern accent and a reserved shy personality, while Charlie Horse was a slow-witted goofy character. Guest TV and movie personalities and even occasional stars often appeared on her show, as they did later on Jim Henson‘s Muppets series.

    Capturing kids’ imaginations in the early 1960s, consumer versions of Lewis’s initial three puppets sold briskly. Subsequent television In 1961, she played the title character, Dulie Hudson, in Watching Out for Dulie, a United States Steel Hour production.

    In 1968, she and her then-husband, Jeremy Tarcher co-wrote the episode “The Lights of Zetar” for the original series of Star Trek.

    In 1992, her new Emmy-winning show Lamb Chop’s Play-Along began a five-year run on PBS. Lewis starred in another hit PBS series, The Charlie Horse Music Pizza, which was one of her last projects before her death. The video Lamb Chop’s Special Chanukah was released in 1996 and received the Parents’ Choice award of the year.

    An accomplished musician, she has conducted major symphonies in the United States, Japan and Canada. She wrote many books, and created 17 home videos. http://www.angelawards.com/sharilewis.html

    [edit]Personal life

    “Shari” Hurwitz acquired the name Lewis by a brief marriage. By her second marriage to Jeremy Tarcher in 1958, she had one daughter, Mallory.

    When Lewis appeared before Congress in 1993 to testify in favor of protections for children’s television, Lamb Chop was granted permission to speak. Lamb Chop’s passionate, well-informed and vivid testimony made an indelible impression.

    [edit]Death

    Shari Lewis was diagnosed with uterine cancer in June 1998.[5] While undergoing treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on August 2, 1998,[6] she developed viral pneumonia and died at the age of 65. Her remains were cremated. She was survived by her husband, daughter and sister.

    [edit]Awards/Honors

    Lewis was the recipient of numerous awards during her lifetime, including:

    • 12 Emmy Awards
    • Peabody Award (1960)
    • Monte Carlo Prize for the World’s Best Television Variety Show (1963)
    • John F. Kennedy Center Award for Excellence and Creativity (1983)
    • 7 Parents’ Choice Awards
    • Action for Children’s Television Award
    • 1995 American Academy of Children’s Entertainment award for Entertainer of the Year
    • Dor L’Dor award of the B’nai B’rith (1996)
    • 3 Houston Film Festival awards
    • Silver Circle Award of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (1996)
    • Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence (1996)
    • 2 Charleston Film Festival Gold Awards (1995)
    • Houston World Festival silver and bronze awards (1995)
    • New York Film and Video Festival Silver Award (1995)
    • In 1998, she was posthumously awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award in recognition of her excellence and innovation in her creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television.[7]

    In addition to writing over 60 books for children, she and her second husband wrote an episode for the third and final season of the original Star Trek series entitled “The Lights of Zetar“. This was produced in 1968. Lewis had hoped to play the part of “Lt. Mira Romaine,” but the role was given to actress Jan Shutan.

    [edit]Family

    Her first husband was Stan Lewis. Her second husband, who survived her, was publisher Jeremy Tarcher, a brother of the novelist Judith Krantz.

    Lewis’s daughter, Mallory Tarcher, wrote for the shows Lamb Chop’s Play-Along and The Charlie Horse Music Pizza. She legally changed her name to Mallory Lewis, and in 2000, she resumed her mother’s work with the Lamb Chop character.

    [edit]Television shows

    [edit]Specials

    • Lamb Chop’s Sing-Along, Play-Along—1988
    • Don’t Wake Your Mom!—1989
    • Lamb Chop in the Land of No Manners—1989
    • Lamb Chop in the Land of No Numbers—1993
    • Lamb Chop and the Haunted Studio—1994
    • Lamb Chop’s Special Chanukah—1995
    • Shari’s Passover Surprise—1996

    [edit]Episodic TV appearances

    • Lewis guest-starred on Episode 1.20, “How High is Up”, of the sitcom Car 54, Where Are You?,which premiered on February 4, 1962.
    • Lewis (and Lamb Chop) guest-starred on Episode 2.20, “Lamb Chop’s on the Menu”, of the sitcom The Nanny, which premiered on February 13, 1995.
    • Lewis, Lamb Chop (dressed as Santa) and Charlie Horse sing “Jingle Bells” on “The Ed Sullivan Show” (Season 15, Episode 15, Aired Dec 24, 1961)

    [edit]Discography

    [edit]Cultural references

    • In the episode “Dummy for Love” on Season 2 of the sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Salem the cat has digitally inserted images of himself with various celebrities such as Mother Teresa to give to Zelda so she will put in a good word for him at the Witches Council, hoping for leniency. Later, Zelda finds a hidden photo of him and Shari Lewis, and Salem nervously mumbles, “That’s from my personal collection.” And at the end of the episode Salem tries to pay Cupid in anchovies to make Shari fall in love with him. Cupid declines stating that its against his principles and because Salem is a cat and she is Shari Lewis.
    • In the episode “Summer Sucks” on Season 2 of “South Park“, Mr. Garrison, angered over the theft of his hand-puppet Mr. Hat, turns on his television to a caricature of Shari with Lamb Chop. He then envisions himself entering the set and approaching them with an axe. Mr. Garrison severs Shari’s hand holding Lamb Chop, and tosses the puppet onto a burning grill. Shari cries out, as does Lamb Chop, while Mr. Garrison is seen back in his chair with a very wide smile on his face.
    • In the Animaniacs episode “Papers For Papa” Ernest Hemingway watches Shari and Lamb Chop perform on TV and one of Lamb Chop’s button eyes falls off.

    [edit]References

    1. ^ “Shari Lewis (1934–1998)”. Lambchop.tv. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
    2. ^ Birth name Sonia Phyllis Hurwitz as per as per Ancestry.com
    3. ^ “Abraham Hurwitz Dead at 76; New York’s Official Magician”. The New York Times: p. 12. 1 October 1981. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
    4. ^ Albin, Kira. “Shari Lewis in the Lamb Light”, Grand Times, 1997.
    5. ^ Gray, Tam Martinides; Dara Horn, Belinda Luscombe, Jodie Morse and Alain L. Sanders (1998-06-29). “Milestones Jun. 29, 1998″. Time. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
    6. ^ Williams, Scott (1998-08-04). “Puppeteer Made Kids Laugh—Lamb Chop Creator Shari Lewis Dies at 65″. Daily News. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
    7. ^ “Past Recipients-Lucy Award”. Women in Film. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
    8. ^ “The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show”. ctva.biz. Retrieved November 25, 2010.

    [edit]External links

    16   I consider this a GREAT “leak” and one I had no intention of throwing out there. 
    Pretty impressive stuff.  Underrated talent.

    17   The truth is I began jotting a few simple notes down, and then was ready to seek  
    other sources but there was just too much interesting information on this leak.

    18   To me, Wiki is to internet research what the World Book used to be to encyclopedic
    research: we are told as both students and as teachers to refrain from using cheap, fast 
    resources for our projects. 

    19   Let’s face it. Wiki-Peeks is a relatively harmless way of getting a general overview 
    of information. In no way would I trust it, particularly with something as shady as the 
    JFK assassination.

    20   I thought twice before posting this, but found much of the information to be 
    not only innocuous, but fascinating, and probably true. 

    21   So I want to give Wiki-biographer/reporter Kitten Kaboodles all the props for 
    doing such a professional job, despite her obvious stage name. 

    22   Moving on, Part the First: Actually I don’t know that. She very well might be
    related to Winchell K. Kaboodle, who worked for years on the New York Times and
    who is alleged to have been the first person to crack the Wiki-Leaks story of Julian
    Orange, or whatever the guy’s name is. Stieg Larrson-gone-mad guy. Assange. Does
    a slant rhyme count as poetry here?

    23   I’m tempted to Wiki the bio of Kaboodle, but I fear I may have discovered one of the greatest crack
    journalists in the business. I may never get to sleep. How is this cheap journalism if I’m
    actually working on it?

    24   I think I won’t check. You can, but I’m satisfied to know that I can certainly trust
    Kitten Kaboodles to be my personal Wiki source for stuff that is fun and filled with
    trivia. 

    25   Saves me a bundle of time as well. 

    26   I’m a bit in fear, because it is now well into the 1 a.m. and I find myself still
    up and working. 

    27   I’m also pretty sure that this cut/paste stuff is going to change all the
    fonts and make this thing go mad. I may be re-inventing journalism in the 10′s. 

    28   No going back. That’s the uniqueness of the DN: it has to be what it will be due 
    to a pressure-cooker deadline each morning. I can add only so many pics. I can write
    only so much boushit. And I have only so much time to edit before it hits the streets. 

    29  Tough reporter over here.

    30  Ultimately, it is something for people out there to chuckle at, to swear at, or to 
    sip coffee and have your oatmeal occasionally find its way through your 
    noses at. And while you wipe up both your nose and clothes, I boldly
    end sentences in prepositions with little fear of reprisals. 

    31   If I’ve boldly done any of that for the past sixteen years, then so boldly be it. 

    32   Moving on, Part the Second: Congratulations are in order to the A’s' 
    amazing manager Bob Melvin (see above). 

    33   Any manager who could pull me off the Giants and ask me to run alongside the A’s
    AND Giants has to be good.

    34  The A’s were picked to be in the tanker all year. 

    35  They somehow managed with 19 rookies. Joe Stiglich of the Merc News
    was quick to point out this morning that 12 of those rookies were
    pitchers. 

    36  It wasn’t just that. It was the stadium. It was Billy Beane. And it was the fans,
    those tough A’s fans who went through their own form of torture, but through it all,
    gave other teams enough fits that it became fun.     It began at the beginning, but the A’s
    real  Tour of Duty began just before All-Star Break, where they made a statement.

    37  After that it was all belief. 

    38  I’m wondering what the East Coast fans are thinking right now. I’m wondering what
    the East Coast sports‘ world is thinking about this.

    39  The Giants rip the Tigers to win the World Series easily, and now Bob Melvin 
    becomes the AL Manager of the Year. 

    40  Who woulda thunk?

    41  And Bochy was third? Are ya kiddin’ me?

    42  Calm down Giants’ fans. It isn’t about you. You have your rings.
    The sports’ writers can’t count post-season miracles. Prior to the post, Bochy
    was still awesome in all of our eyes, but not enough to make the East Coasters sit up and take 
    notice. 

    43  Melvin and the A’s did, because their Tour was SO unexpected. 

    44  So hats off to Bob Melvin, and hats off to the A’s and to all their fans. 

    45  Today is your day. 

    46   Moving on, Part the Thoid: I find myself needing to put both this flashy piece as well my happy rear end
    to bed. 

    47   No news? Nah. Bob Melvin is big news. This isn’t to detract from Lewis and the Chop.

    48  But Bob Melvin is big news this morning, at least for this Old Brown Shoe.

    49  Have a GREAT Wednesday.

    50  See you again.

    6   Peace.

    ~H~


    www.xanga.com/bharrington