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
It's Raining. Stay Safe on the Roads.
www.xanga.com/bharrington
Comments (1)
Unless you count my two votes for Reagan/Bush, I'm proud to say I've never voted for anyone named Bush. The dealbreaker for G.H.W.B. was his handpicking of Quayle for veep. To put a man like that a heartbeat away from the presidency strikes me as next to treasonous.(I have a feeling our politics are similar. Good thing. Because clearly we are both Niner fans. I placed a couple of comments on your Nov. 26 blog.)Pleased to meet you.