Month: November 2012

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    The Daily News
    1   Amazing what one day could do to refresh. 

    2   I thank my Vets every day for all they have gone through, but yesterday, I was stubbornly thanking them for taking all the pressures of the past six months off me. 
    3   Each Fall is a tough go, because I give a lot of essays and stuff. I also have to correct all that stuff. 

    4   It used to be pretty rough, but I always insist on teaching seasonally and allowing Madison Avenue to advertise my lessons. 

    5   I've mentioned this stuff before. 

    6   I use advertising to chime in with my lessons. 

    7   Usually by November I would already have taken advantage of Back-to-School Night (magazines), 911 (CBS film 911, which is awesome!), Halloween (Heidi Chronz and ghosts/legends), followed by a natural move to Greek mythology and a continuation of ghosts/myths/legends. I used to squeeze the JFK assassination in there, and always had a somewhat compelling series of lessons about the lone-gunman theory (government's story) v. the real story ("conspiracy theories," horrible term in this instance.) I use it to conduct a fiction/non-fiction unit. 

    8   I decided a week ago to go back in to the case. I assume that as we get closer to the date of JFK's assassination, that the news media will spark up a small bonfire, which it annually does, and at least warm up this cold case. 

    9   It may seem to be a story that is long past, but just a little over (or perhaps less than) a week ago Arlen Specter passed away. Specter, along with then Representative Gerald Ford, came up with the now famous "Magic Bullet Theory." 

    10  Both Ford and Specter were members of the official government investigative authority in the murder of Kennedy, the Warren Commission. 

    11  The Warren Committee was stacked with highly suspect individuals. It was their intention to make it look as though purported assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, a mousy-looking fellow, was a lone-nut whose personal life led him up to the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository window (aka the "sniper's nest") and wait for the President's motorcade to pass below. 

    12  Because of a tree blocking the motorcade, it was proven that given the speed of the motorcade as it emerged from the tree and given its moment of disappearance, Oswald would have had no more than six seconds to load and re-load an older Italian rifle with a lousy scope. The maximum amount of shots he could have gotten off in that window of time was three.

    13   Arguments went back and forth, but nearly everyone agreed that the maximum amount of shots one could get shooting that rifle was three, and that's without aiming. 

    14   Could the greatest marksman in the world possibly get three shots off AND three hits?

    15   Of course. For whatever reason, the Commission wanted to nail Oswald. They had to keep the amount of gunshots to three. One more would place a second gunman at the scene, indicating a far more sinister conclusion than the neat package of three, done by some poor schmuck down on his luck.

    16   The earliest reports had Kennedy getting hit by the first one, Texas governor John Connolly, who sat in front of Kennedy in the limousine with the second, and the one that blew Kennedy's head to smithereens the third. 

    17   Neat package. 

    18   Enter a citizen of Dallas named James Tague. Tague was an important witness, because Tague told reporters that one of the shots had hit the street and ricocheted to his mouth. 

    19   Tague's testimony at the time, taken by a Dallas police officer, threw a huge monkey wrench into the three-hit theory, because if one of the bullets missed, then the damage done to both Kennedy and Connolly's bodies by the second bullet had to do all sorts of strange turns and zig-zags. That bullet was purportedly found on a stretcher that was already on the second floor of Dallas' Parkland Hospital when Governor Connolly arrived on the second floor. 

    20   Walter Cronkite interviewed a hospital intern who reported in a NOVA series called Who Shot President Kennedy? that the bullet he found, the so-called Magic Bullet, was on a different stretcher, a stretcher that was already on the second floor of Parkland Hospital before Connolly arrived. If it was already there, then how did it jump over to Connolly's stretcher and fall out of the Governor's body? How did it emerge in pristine condition if it had smashed into bones?

    21  Yet Arlen Specter and Gerald Ford insisted over the years that their story was the case. Specter went on to be the guy who investigated whether the Government (by "government" I mean the people now in charge, not the "people") spied on our cell phone calls. Following some other cheesy investigation, he found that, and here I paraphrase, they do a little, but not much. 

    22  If all of this sounds a tad spurious, it is because I am writing it for the DN, which is often done between bouts of insomnia. I haven't time to pull all of the citations and all necessary facts to make this truly journalistic. I do include a bibliography for my students if they would like to look a lot of this stuff up. 

    23  I have done all the checking and cross-checking of sources. The testimony by the hospital worker who said that the bullet he found was on the other stretcher is on camera in the Cronkite NOVA episode, which aired in 1988, Season 16, Episode 8. It is entitled Who Shot President Kennedy?

    24  Somewhere over the years I lost my copy, and set out looking for a DVD of this episode so that I could use it in my new work this year. I just couldn't find a copy fast enough, and November was here before I knew it.

    25  When the witness was interviewed, the camera panned in on an empty gurney, but when Cronkite talked about the bullet that fell out of Governor Connolly, the camera zeroed in on a gurney with all sorts of equipment on it, which took the attention off what he was saying and blended the two bullets into one. 

    26   The effect was slight, but what was being said by the witness and what was being panned made a brain that might not be riveted to each word by this guy go blank. For years I never even paid attention to what that witness said. It would always get a little noisy in my class, and I assume that a lot of people who watched the NOVA show that evening had similar experiences: people talk during shows, they get up, they stretch, a lot of times when they are hearing the same old stuff. 

    27   I'm guessing you could get a copy of that episode on Amazon. 

    28   Yesterday I went to get one at Barnes and Noble <basketball buzzer> and then Rasputin's <basketball buzzer # two> and had no luck. I talked to the manager of Rasputin's and he helped me by saying, "Sometimes with that topic we put it in with UFO's and the Paranormal."

    29   I thought, "Swell." <sigh> That will teach me to have a ghost unit. It was like, "We park that sort of thing over here in the fiction area."

    30   I'll still get myself a copy. 

    31   The point is that both Specter and Ford went on to play key roles in American history. 

    32   Without the NOVA episode, I don't get the acoustic recording of the shots. I always enjoyed that special because of its awkward attempts to back the Warren Commission. A motorcycle cop in the motorcade testified in the 1975-8 House Select Committee on Assassinations that his microphone was on during the assassination. This went to a dictograph recording apparatus in the Dallas police station, and was recorded. The HSCA concluded that it could accept four shots caught on tape, that three were from the Book Depository, but that one was from the grassy knoll area. 

    33  The HSCA concluded "...on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."
    34   The NOVA episode, which clearly backed the Warren Commission, took the acoustic evidence and lined it up with the famous Zapruder film. What they were trying to establish was how this stuff all lined up with the shots. They would later bring some guy out to debunk this. 

    35   What I did was record the acoustical shots on an audio tape for my students. The NOVA program shows it with the Zapruder film, and it sounds at first to the layman like around three shots. 

    36   When I listened without the distraction of the film, it became obvious at once that there were not only more than three shots, but a barrage of shots going on as the motorcade moved toward the Stemmons Freeway to Parkland Hospital. 

    37   I used to begin the unit with that recording. I would have each class tally how many heard three shots? Four shots? Five shots? All day long the answers that were over three were overwhelming, always at least 95%. Very few students heard three. 

    38   I would start the entire session as I have this year: by telling the students that, "We are going into a murder mystery. The murder has been caught on audio tape. As people joining me on this murder, I want you to tell me how many shots you hear on this audio recording." 

    39   It traditionally isn't until AFTER I play this that I reveal that it is the murder of JFK we are going to study. 

    40   Since I couldn't find the NOVA episode over this past weekend, I was without that. I did find an interesting documentary on You Tube entitled JFK: The Case For Conspiracy which I previewed yesterday. It worked. They even had the acoustic evidence, but this piece was written and directed by a photographer named Robert Groden, famous for analyzing pictures of the assassination. 

    41   This piece had filtered the shots so that there clearly were five. Too clearly. I never had the chance to check out the entire acoustical section of the documentary because You Tube muted it. In the morning it worked beautifully, but in the afternoon it was muted. 

    42   I searched high and low for something to jump-start this lesson, and came up empty. At Rasputin's I did find a curious DVD called The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After, a 2003 documentary put out by the History channel. This instantly worried me, because the History channel has lost some credibility in recent years, especially with me. 

    43   I Googled it and it did have some interesting luminaries, Gore Vidal being one. I put it on my computer and had no sound. I took it out and put it on the DVD that is hooked into my large screen and it said something like, "Illegal to watch this."  I'll get the exact words hopefully tomorrow. I began to see a pattern. 

    44   As I was writing this last night, I gave the Nova thing one more shot, no pun intended. I hit gold. I found a You Tube video of the NOVA episode! 

    45   I put it on.

    46   No sound. After a few minutes, as I was writing this piece, a commercial suddenly blasted me out of the room. When the documentary came back on, it fell silent. 

    47   Hmmm. You go ahead and try this link:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsan2aVJhis

    48  I will too. 

    49  Ready? Go.

    50  Okay I realize that the link is not working. Cut and paste. Hmmm. They are sure making it difficult to study this case. Cut and paste. It is eerie. Have your sound up. 

    51  I got almost four minutes into it and it remained mute. I haven't heard the commercial blare at me. I did notice that people who commented could hear it, but it is still strange that this is the third JFK thing to lose sound. 

    52   Of course, I could just be an idiot and not know to restart my computer (already did earlier today). I certainly can't rely on this for acoustic evidence!

    53   The small bonfire that the news media stirs up each year may be almost out. 

    54   It is harder and harder to find good material on this. 

    55   Yet the evidence is to most people who have ever taken the slightest look at this case overwhelming that the killing of JFK was an overthrow. Anybody who could have testified is either dead or still scared. There are people in place who are in control of our media, of of our senators, our congressmen, of our judges, and of our children's thoughts. 

    56   I'm not an Occupy guy. I do understand where they are coming from. Most Americans have a slight sense of it, but for myself, we don't need to have huge protests. That just invites Marshall Law. We need arrests made. 

    57   Eisenhower was correct when he said, "The eyes of the world are upon you."

    58   It's late. It is into the one a.m. I awoke earlier than normal because I still need to put this lesson together by later today. 

    59   I also have to put together the story of the Trojan War for my freshmen. 

    60   Sophomores could do Julius Caesar later in the year, and I could come back to the assassination, especially  when we consider the early scenes in Caesar. 

    61  So there you have it. Grades are due Thursday. I got almost everything done in that regard and had a ball this morning on the trail of the assassins once again. 

    62  It has never been more relevant. 

    64  It's set. We're going in. I'm scared because I don't have all my materials in place, but I do have the very powerful On the Trail of the Assassins by Garrison, which I turned into non-fiction packets with excerpts and pictures. 

    65   I'll keep you posted. I gotta get some sleep. 

    66   Have a GREAT Tuesday.

    67   Peace. 

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington





  • The Daily News

    1   I have to stop having potato chips for dinner. My ears are likely to fall off. 

    2   When your team gets to the World Series, you do all sorts of idiotic things. 

    3   One of my rituals was making a small bowl of Lays' BBQ chips and sprinkling some freshly grated cheese over them, settling in to a  raspberry Crystal Light, and then blasting Sugar Magnolia to the extremes of the Universe.

    4   I also wore a Steal Your Base baseball shirt and got myself into a seventh state of Zen, if there is such a thing. 

    5   I would then turn on my computer an hour before the game and work on grading papers and entering grades, as though nothing was happening. 

    6   I changed my pants to shorts, every single night. 

    7   I KNEW that these sorts of things would send particles into space, and that those particles would help the Giants. I believed that these sorts of rituals were going on in billions of homes in the Bay Area, and that those psychic forces were going to make it to Detroit. Detroit never saw it coming. Cosmic tsunami.
    8   I still believe that is what took place. 

    9   I would lighten my mind and hope that my laptop would go on. It has been a little touchy, but it has always pulled through. Sometimes it would take about thirty tries to get it going, but that mirrors my getting out of bed in the morning. 

    10  Each day I would get rid of some odd thing called "jucheck." It pops up out of nowhere and is the computer equivalent of an interjection in speech. It has no seeming computer value any more than an interjection has any grammatical value. You hit your thumb with a hammer, for example, and what you blurt out is an interjection.

    11  I would then wait until right before the anthem, and then turn down the teevee sound and turn up the sound on KNBR, because KNBR has the greatest baseball announcers on the planet. 

    12  They have this odd delay between the teevee and the radio.Our announcers were always around six or seven seconds ahead of each pitch, which gave me a Nostradamusal advantage over the rest of the nation.



    13  To me, it just gave me six or seven seconds more of going crazy. When your team is clearly dominating another team, it obtains an other-earthly advantage over the rest of the cosmos in terms of ultimate torture, and ultimate ecstasy. 

    14  I also got to enjoy six or seven seconds more than anyone else when Cabrera struck out on that cheeseburger. 

    15   I got over all of it rather swiftly, as I do most things. I love the past, but I don't like lingering there. Once something happens, I get over it pretty quickly, whether it is tragic, or in this instance, comic and atomic. 

    16   There are still people grousing about the Giants. There are still people grousing about the election. I'm like, "Dude, really?"

    17   The only thing I can't seem to put behind me is the bowl of Lays with freshly grated cheese, and an ice cold Crystal Light. I don't play Sugar Magz too much anymore because there is simply no need. 

    18   We won. I don't have to launder the same clothes at the end of each night anymore. 

    19   I'm very hygienic. 

    20   I had people I know BRAGGING about not changing their shirts for three weeks. 

    21   Homie refused to go there. 

    22   Dude. Soap is good. Soap and water work. Soap and water do nothing to vibes. 

    23   Amateurs. 

    24   Moving On, Part the First:  Back to yesterday, I came home, changed my clothes, threw them into the laundry, cleaned up a bit, and set up my desk for grading. The ritual seldom changes.

    25    Our grading period ends today, and I had around thirty more things to grade, all due on Thursday. 

    26    I sat down to go in and take care of business. 

    27    I didn't bother turning on Sugar Magz, or even wearing my Steal Your Base baseball shirt. We already won, so no pressure. 

    30   But I couldn't resist the Lays' BBQ with the freshly grated cheese, nor the chilled glass of Crystal Light. I feel responsible for keeping the cosmos alert to good vibes. 

    31   I fed Phoebe the Amazon, our dog, and her sidekick, the benign Rocket J. Dog, one of the best puppies on Earth. 

    32   I settled into doing some grading, and knocked off almost everything when my daughter Nicoley came by to pick up the Rocket. 

    33   We decided to take both dogs for a November walk in the rain and talk teaching. 

    34   We must have walked at least two miles, or at least it seemed like it. It reminded both of us when we used to walk around the neighborhood in October and November so that we could crunch leaves and watch sunsets. 

    35   It always worked, and it worked once again. Plus we got to compare teaching techniques in a workshop that was clearly better than all the meetings I've been to this year combined. 

    36   I don't mean to brag, but my daughter Nicole is a brilliant teacher, and one of her best coaches is my daughter Caitlin. 

    37   Awesome techniques, brand new, and the result of professional studies. 

    38   Amazingly, I have used a lot of those techniques just by trial and error. 

    39   The most amazing technique to me is what the most amazing technique has always been for a successful teacher: passion for the job. 

    40   You either have it or you don't, the same way athletes either have it or they don't. 

    41   I see teachers who look at the job as a job. You can't do that if you want to enjoy a career. You have to love the pain. You have to endure the hard times. And you have to energize from the good times. 

    42   It was a great walk, and a great talk. The particles shot through the cosmos,and I'm quite certain both of us got energized by the walk and the talk 

    43   I'm gonna cut this one short. 

    44   It's Friday, and that job does not own me. 

    45   But it sure can be fun. 

    46   Have a GREAT three-day.

    47   Peace. 

    ~H~


    www.xanga.com/bharrington






  • The Daily News

    1  Here is an actual headline from AOL: Jennifer Aniston rumored to be pregnant for the millionth time.

    2  Pretty telling. 

    3  I guess it's good to be back to normal. 

    4   Sort of normal. 

    5   I need my sense of humor back.

    6   I'm trying to make sense of all that happened in the past couple of days.

    7   Obama won. My important school propositions won. 

    8   I had a great teaching day. 

    9   And yet here I am into the 4 a.m. and I am a tad depressed. 

    10  OH!

    11  Meetings. Bleh.

    12  I abhor meetings. 

    13   Most of this year our meetings have been pretty grim. 

    14   Public schools have been on their last legs since I first started teaching. 

    15   I have always heard doom and gloom, but never saw it as I saw it these past few years. 

    16   There are insidious things that go on with regards to the education of our children. 

    17   I have to look at the bright side, because when I see what is happening from the inside, it is terrifying. 

    18   The public has NO idea. 

    19   Or maybe some idea. 

    20   I want to thank everybody who voted, whether they voted for what I believe, or whether they didn't. 

    21   Now that all the glitz and glamour are done and the confetti swept up, we seem suddenly to be back to normal. 

    22   I don't know. 

    23   I'm just glad that the entire thing of the election being over suddenly puts us back to reality. 

    24   If Jennifer Aniston rumored to be pregnant is at the top of today's news, then the news is good. 

    25   Moving On, Part the Second: Every Wednesday we have meetings, and every Thursday I am relieved. I have back-to-back meetings, close to four hours of negative vibes. 

    26  As teachers, most of us just want to get in there and teach. In fact, being in the classroom and teaching is invigorating! We laugh, enjoy students' goofiness, and engage students in fun activities. When people say, "I don't see how you can teach; kids are incorribible. I couldn't do it." I laugh. The kids are just goofy. It's a given. Occupational hazard. But they're real, and most have really good hearts. 

    27  The part of the job that many people feel is difficult is actually not. 

    28  The most difficult part of the job is dealing with people in power who control funding, and meetings that deal with that subject. 

    29  That subject comes up often. 

    30  The political side of education is monstrous. 

    31  It is particularly monstrous when I am elected a union representative. 

    32  That greatness was thrust upon me. 

    33   For whatever reason, people tend to look to me as a leader. 

    34   It's possibly because I have always sort of been one. 

    35   I was senior class president in high school. 

    36   I ran because people wanted me to run. 

    37   I understand political power. 

    38   I liked leading without the handle of being a president. 

    39   That has always been a strength of mine. 

    40   Once elected, however, it becomes an obligation. 

    41   I don't think I was a very good senior class president, for example. I was okay, but not astounding by any means. 

    42    Why?

    43    Because once a person gets into a position of power, even if it is something as simple as a high school election, they realize it is a job, and a job that tries to please everyone. Abraham Lincoln saw that as an impossibility. 

    44   Some people take that power and allow it to alter their perspective of things. 

    45   I was wise enough to get through my one-year tenure as senior class president and then get out of Dodge. Contrary to popular belief, that isn't a popularity contest. It is an insanity. And a scary one for someone who is just eighteen. 

    46  It built character, I'll tellya that much. 

    47  And what I learned pushed me into a good direction. I never wanted to run for anything ever again, but I did want to take what I learned and use it in the same way I led people when I didn't have that title. 

    48  I also learned how to move politically through the educational system. I knew that many people in power must also have been insecure, and used that to my advantage, and by association, for my students' advantage. 

    49   I was cocky, and never in fear of admins. I saw right through their boushit, always did, and still do. 

    50  That empowered me in my quest for doing what I believe was best for my students: staying rebellious, enjoying life, enjoying intelligence, and liberating students' thoughts about everything. 

    51  I still do that. 

    52  It's just that I see people in positions of leadership who don't know how to control that, and who are fearful of their own inadequacies, and who simply take orders from those who have risen higher, and who have eventually to make decisions in fear of whoever is in charge. That's usually an insecure bully. They generally don't last too long, but sometimes they last WAY too long. 

    53   There used to be a name for that. It was The Peter Principle. The Peter Principle was this: You rise to your own level of incompetence. 

    54   For those of you seeking greatness, it is a pretty important principle. Many people rise above that and become powerful.

    55  They can be cut down at the knees; they know it, and many become vicious as a result. They become like Disney villains.

    56   I'm in my comfort zone right now. 

    57   Greatness was indeed thrust upon me, and is about to once again. 

    58   I know this. It is a pattern. 

    59   I have risen to my own level of competence. 

    60   I will not take that next step.

    61   I remain a mischievous rebel that way.

    62   Jennifer Aniston rumoured to be pregnant for the millionth time. 

    63   Now THAT's news. 

    64   I better go. 

    65   I'm such a grammarian. 

    66   'Til the next time. 

    67   Peace. 

    ~H~
     

    www.xanga.com/bharrington

        

  • Obama Wins!!!
    The Daily News

    1  In the end, Obama's victory was a bit like the Giants beating the Tigers. He clearly outplayed Romney by not campaigning where he knew he would win, and concentrating on minorities, Latinos, African-Americans, Asians, younger voters, LGBT's, and women. 

    2  In the end, a stunned Romney refused to believe it, and came out late to concede.

    3  I was asleep by then. 

    4  Make no mistake; this is one of the most interesting and historical elections ever. 

    5  Romney's strength worked against him. He aimed at white voters, and he aimed at the rich, but in the process, revealed a stunning ignorance of America's diversity. His 47% remark buried him to many people. That was one of his most idiotic moves. 

    6   In the end, Obama displayed a much clearer vision of where America is right now. Romney was out-coached. Obama brought it more than anyone had guessed. Quite similar to sports. Romney got spanked. 

    7   Romney was too old school. He fought an outstanding battle, and was reasonably graceful much of the time. 

    8   "For the United States of America, the best is yet to come." --Barack Obama

    9    Obama's speech was amazing. I'm not gonna lie. His speech was amazing. 

    10   I have taught the real America for years. White America remains clueless to diversity, and Romney showed that to everyone. 

    11  Maybe it is time, America. 

    12  I laid low during all of this. 

    13  I saw a whole bunch of it as a reality teevee show rather than a serious campaign. 

    14  I also watched silently while I watched Romney hang himself. 

    15  His weakness? He is clueless of diversity. A lot of white people are clueless about their own fear and racism. He doesn't realize that the "minorities" are and have always been the "majorities." Should we change that term? Some day we'll wonder why that term was ever used. 

    16  Those of us who have lived among diversity see the real America. We enjoy multi-cultural America, and embrace the differences, and the cultural richness of being a nation that is diversified. 

    17   What bothered me about the election was the same thing I liked about it: it was presented as a reality teevee show. 

    18   I remained silent because it was bizarre. It appealed to the reality-teevee mentality. It appealed to our national idiocy about making news out of things that aren't news.

    19  The only difference: this was also political reality. This will have an impact on America. 

    20  And one thing I saw in this election was the people who don't ordinarily vote came out in droves. My students were absolutely engaged in the election. The entire school was abuzz about the election. 

    21  To me, it is an exciting time. I have never seen students so excited and interested in what is going on in their country. 

    22  To those who hate Obama, I understand. I understand your fear of Obamacare. I understand your fear of "socialism." That was how the media painted this man. That was the propaganda that the controlled media wanted you to think. 

    23  The past two days I outlined exactly what happened to America beginning long before November 22, 1963. For all I know, it may still be going on. For all I know, Obama might be a puppet of these same forces. 

    24  I don't know. 

    25  Any political figure is suspect to me. 

    26  What is refreshing about this campaign is that people who normally don't come out and vote came out and voted. It is going to become interesting, because I'm quite certain that the people who voted are going to want to research politics a lot deeper than perhaps they ever have before, so that they could argue, debate, and talk intelligently about political candidates. 

    27  They could also be brainwashed by Rupert Murdoch, and the forces who are still lingering up there. Obama could certainly be torn down by these forces. 

    28  I'm pretty sure that the way he played this campaign, he probably knows a LOT more than he did four years ago. 

    29  There is no way a guy gets to re-election and doesn't know who is REALLY in power. 

    30  Re-election eliminates a lot of that. He now has the power. He has become instantly dangerous to those forces. 

    31  Well, let's be open minded and see where this amazingly historic night heads. 

    32  Moving On, Part One: I was into the 3 a.m. when I began writing this, and had ABC news on. Some gal in a red dress referred to us as "the left coast." 

    33  News gal. I have no idea what her name is, but she came across instantly to me as a moron. She couldn't hide her disappointment. She said "the left coast" with an attitude. I was personally offended. "Left" I suppose now means "socialist" or "communist." She is a moron. 

    34  No shortage. 

    35  There's a reason I have a job. 

    36  Some girl corrected herself yesterday for some grammatical error she almost uttered. I can't remember what it was, but she caught it immediately and blurted, "I almost said..." and gave me a glance. 

    37   I immediately said, "There's a reason I have a job." She threw a huge grin, and I moved off, turned and she smiled. Fun teaching moment. Sidebar: yesterday was a dynamic teaching day for me. Every period kids who weren't understanding my lesson all "got it." I had a "got it" day! 

    38  Moving On, Part Two: When I went to bed last night, Proposition 30 was losing. I was pretty upset, because I felt that California was turning its back on schools.

    39  I woke up to find it had passed. I also saw that Proposition 32 was losing. 

    40  Whew. 

    41  Moving On, Part Three: Did I hear that Colorado and Washington voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana? I'm not sure exactly what that means. Anyway, I thought it should have been legalized about a hundred years ago. It is as prominent as alcohol, and clearly a better choice than alcohol, but millions of people still have to lock all their windows and sneak the stuff, like they are teenagers sneaking smokes in the school bathroom. 

    42  Moving On, Part Four: Maryland and Maine should be congratulated for voting for same sex marriage. While some people see this as the end of civilization as we know it, others feel that it is about time. 

    43  I happen to be one of those. If two people fall in love, then those two people shouldn't have any outside forces telling them that they can't marry. It is nobody else's business. They will go through the same things any couple will go through, but it is THEIR decision. 

    44  I look around at all the dysfunctional hetero couples and ask myself, "Who are you to judge anybody?"

    45   Life is tough. Leave people alone. 

    46  Moving On, Part Five: I am into the 4 a.m. right now, so I have to move this along. History is going to show this as a monumental election. White America is learning that this truly is a melting pot. A lot of them sealed themselves in white communities, and closed their blinds to all the realities. 

    47  The fact is, this nation is diversified. It is not blue. It is not red. It is not black. It is not white. 

    48  Obama stated that rather eloquently last night. 

    49   It is the United States of America.

    50   I'm going to leave that on the field. 

    51   Have a great Wednesday. 

    52   Peace. 

    ~H~




    www.xanga.com/bharrington




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    The Daily News

    1  Yes on 30. No on 32. You either support children or you don't. Period.

    2   The propaganda against this thought is disgraceful. As a teacher, I have not had a raise since 2002. 

    3   It isn't about teachers, or unions, or whatever. It's about kids. 

    4    Like everyone else, educators are working twice as hard as ever. Layoffs aren't imaginary. I have watched at end-of-the year meetings some of our most amazing workers being lined up and given flowers for having done impossible things, but who have been laid off because of cutbacks. 

    5   We have two counselors for 2600 students. We do have one "floater" who comes in and helps every couple of days, but who has to float from school to school.

    6   Those two counselors are doing the work of five. 

    7   Our book room has had three different people coming and going, including one admin. I have personally given up on the book room. The hours it is available are in the morning. My prep period is in the afternoon. Even when I have gotten in and given my requests, they have not happened. 

    8   It's a crap shoot. Planning in 2012 is a nightmare. 

    9   I no longer rely on the book room. I buy my own class sets of books. I run things off, and I can't depend on the copy machines. They have fired anyone who could assist us in that regard, and the machines now continually break down. 

    10  Just yesterday I had materials for my JFK unit cocked and ready. Some younger teacher took up two machines for the good part of a half hour. When he left, he had left paper jams in both machines. Nice guy. 

    11  Honestly. It is down to that. HE is so overworked that he didn't have the courtesy to clear the jams. I always make sure I either clear the jams, or at least leave an apology note that I had to get to class.

    12  I wound up spending over forty dollars on making copies at Fed Ex. This cut into my grading-of-papers time. Because of larger class sizes, my paper load is another half of a class. That adds at least another hour or two per assignment. That adds up to a lot of weekend hours. A LOT of weekend hours. I do it because I want my students and parents to be up-to-date on their child's progress. I want to be current on answering emails. I want to remain a good teacher.

    13 And I realize it sounds petty to some, but support staff is WAY needed. The schools are now operating on food stamps. 

    14  Yes on 30. No on 32. You either support children or you don't. 

    15  The propaganda behind 32 is repulsive. It has the Bush family all over it. It has large corporations behind it. It has nothing to do with unions. 

    16   I will repeat what I said yesterday. We are not obligated to join a union. We have teachers who are anti-union. I have and always will be pro-union, because if you know the history of America, you know that given a chance, corporate America will screw the workers to the wall. They will cut back and cry poor mouth the same time the count their profits. The easiest way to improve profits is by cutting back workers, benefits, retirement, and by association, the security of families.

    17  And trust me, given a chance, any "efficiency expert" who is a corporate upstart will slash your job in two seconds. 

    18  Because the largest enemy to profit is people. People can be replaced. They can fire seven people and then give all their jobs to one person, and make a much larger profit. Sound familiar? The workers who are lucky enough to have jobs nowadays are working ridiculous hours and being asked to do way more than ever before.

    19  The middle class is being annihilated by corporate greed. Good people have lost jobs everywhere I look. 
    20  It is happening in education as well. 

    21  Education is America's future. What don't people get about that?

    22  Keeping good employees is essential to that end. 

    23  It is already disgraceful to see how schools have been cut back.

    24   Two counselors. 2600 students. People, really?

    25   Prop 32 is backed by the Bushes and their corrupt cronies. 

    26   America was doing fine until George W. Bush took office. 

    27   That family. I swear. You have to be a moron if you don't see the connection between them and all that is wrong in America. 

    28   Yesterday I talked a bit about the history of their family. Prescott Bush was clearly in bed with fascists and Nazis. You don't have to go too far to find that information. I've known this for years, but I depended on libraries, book stores like Kepler's to get the information. It wasn't always readily available. Now it is.

    29   Prescott Bush was pure corporation. I'm not making this stuff up. I didn't get this information from some moronic website. I have researched this stuff for years. It is out there now. You can Google this information, but someone will also deal a hand of misinformation too. And some "conspiracy theorists" are made to look wacky on purpose. I always went to quieter and more studious resources, such as David Emory and Russ Baker. Crazed guys and wrestlers make real political research look bad. The story of the Bushes?

    30   It is all laid out in a book by the very brave Russ Baker. 

    31   The book, once again, is called Family of Secrets. I will repeat what I wrote yesterday. Family of Secrets was originally a book Baker wanted to write when he thought this: How did a goober like George W. Bush ever become President?

    32   Well, he was the son of George Herbert Walker Bush, who was the son of Prescott Bush.

    33   They hung around with a shady group of people who flurried around the assassination of John F. Kennedy. George Herbert Walker Bush eventually became the head of the CIA, and THEN he became President. His story of where he was when Kennedy was killed is a fairy tale. Baker does a meticulous job of showing this.

    34  The CIA started as the Office of Strategic Services. The OSS brought in thousands of Hitler's people to come in and train the CIA. The guy in charge of Hitler's spy community on the Eastern Front, Reinhard Gehlen, was set up as an emperor in the USA. We are talking Nazis here. Training our fledgling CIA.

    35   When I first found that out years ago, I was astonished and in disbelief. One day I walked into a supermarket and found a VHS about Gehlen, distributed BY the CIA explaining WHY they brought Hitler's people in to train our OSS. 

    36   Google it. It's out there. It is probably controlled; I don't know. 

    37   Today is voting day. I just wanted you to know that anyone or any issue remotely connected with the Bush family is probably not a good thing. 

    38   To me, this election is a no-brainer. There are only two guys running. It just may be that both are controlled by these a-holes. 

    39   One guy is clearly for women's rights, for LGBT rights, for the working class, for the end of war, and for education. Even there he is a bit shaky, but if you look across the field you see a rich fellow who is clearly clueless about multi-cultural America. 

    40  Re-think your vote. A lot of you are victims of this brainwashing that killed a President, never convicted anyone, and took over America and along with it, thought. We have been policed. Period. It is clear as a bell if you have lived a little.

    41  Only two guys were ever convicted of that murder, by the way. One was a seemingly mousy little guy who was probably a CIA patsy named Lee Harvey Oswald.  The other guy was a fellow named Clay Shaw, who was clearly guilty up to his ears, and who hung around with fascists. The jury found him not guilty due to a lack of evidence or . 

    42  It was hard for New Orleans DA Jim Garrison to get witnesses, because they all were either hatcheted, or perhaps shot two times in the head with an apparent suicide. Yes I say that with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

    43  George Herbert Walker Bush LIED about where he was on November 22, 1963. That fact is delivered on a silver platter in Family of Secrets. 

    44  I don't get my information off the internet. I have researched this stuff for years. People who know me know that I have checked sources. Once I balance two differing sides to this stuff, I look to the sources. If two or more sources are clearly correct, I accept it as truth. If there is an accusation, I read the other person's side. Always.
    45  Oswald, for example, was seen on the streets of New Orleans passing out "Fair Play for Cuba" documents. This would imply that he was pro-Castro, and therefore a communist. 

    46  He stupidly stamped the address 544 Camp Street, New Orleans on each document. 

    47  544 Camp Street in New Orleans in 1963 was a bee-haven for anti-communists, and was in the heart of the New Orleans spy community, with the DIA, the CIA and the FBI within city blocks. 

    48   The Warren Report is the official document that investigated the murder of JFK. It concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, was simply some nut who killed the President. Earl Warren was the guy in charge of the investigation. 

    49   The Warren Report included 544 Camp Street in it, but never took it a step further. Ummmm...if Oswald was a communist, then what was he doing hanging out in a building teeming with anti-communists, all in the heart of the New Orleans' spy community? Are you following? Someone did a coup in America in 1963. It is blatantly obvious. Either that or you are not following this.

    50  And the Bush's hung out with Allen Dulles, former head of the CIA, and who, with his brother John Foster Dulles worked for a law firm, Sullivan and Cromwell, whose major client was a company called I.G. Farben, which financed Hitler's death camps. 

    51  Allen Dulles was a member of the Warren Commission, along with the recently deceased Arlen Specter, who, along with former President Gerald Ford, came up with the ridiculous "single bullet" theory that made Oswald look like the lone gunman. Gerald Ford became President after Richard Nixon, who helped orchestrate the Bay of Pigs invasion and then left office after the Watergate affair, which was teeming with all sorts of shady characters who popped up in the JFK assassination. 

    52  Arlen Specter went on to become the number one guy in the nation to investigate whether the government was listening in on our cell phones. His conclusion a few years ago pretty much said in essence, "Oh, maybe a little."

    53  Moving on, Part the Second: This isn't a rant. It is the result of years of careful study. Why people refuse to accept these facts is a mystery to me. They have been carefully researched, and are not the result of internet insanity. 

    54  America has been brainwashed. Who controls the present controls the past. 

    55  E. Howard Hunt of Watergate fame announced practically on his deathbed that he was a "bench player" in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He confessed it when he thought he was on his deathbed. He confessed it to his son, and it is on tape.

    56  How that never made national news is again a mystery to me. Are there any real journalists left?

    57   Probably not. Rupert Murdoch has taken care of that. Rupert Murdoch controls close to eighty per cent of the news media in America, and is decidedly right wing, in the extreme. So much for your "liberal media." All lies.

    58  No time to go into THAT guy, but he is clearly a sinister sort whose agenda is in lock-step with the rest of these boys. 

    59  So vote today. But think about this piece. It is the result of years of my personal investigating, and seeing all of these things clearly. 

    60  You might reconsider. You might be brainwashed. I don't think I am, because I stayed away from it all these years. I dealt with facts. And they never became facts until I measured two sides of issues. It took years to reach the conclusions I am printing here. So take that as you list.

    61  Yes on 30. No on 32. You either support children or you don't. Period.

    62  Peaceout. 

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington





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    The Daily News
    Yes on 30, No on 32.
    1   I am not apolitical. As a teacher, it is clear as day that these two issues must go this way. 

    2   As teachers, we are NOT forced to join a union. The people supporting 32 are absolutely lying and deceiving in their campaigns. 

    3   It doesn't surprise me. Any time the Bushes are behind anything, trust that it is lies, and bold lies. 

    4    Anybody falling for their propaganda at this point needs to think twice. I have given sources exposing the Bush family as one of the most dangerous families in the history of America. 

    5   I have not had enough time to come in here and give reasons, but I have led many to a book by an investigative journalist named Russ Baker.

    6   Baker wrote a book in 2009 called Family of Secrets. His original thought was that he just wanted to explore why a goober like George W. Bush could possibly have become the President of the United States. 

    7   On the back jacket of the book, a brief bio gives this incredibly brave journalist a lot of credibility.

    8   Here is a brief bio on the jacket of Family of Secrets:

    Russ Baker is an award-winning investigative journalist who has written for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, the New York Times, the Nation, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Village Voice, and Esquire, and has served as a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review. He is the founder of www.whowhatwhy.com, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news Web site.

    9   It is a scary book, because the basic premise is that the Bush family dynasty has had a strong influence on America and the brainwashing of America for the past fifty years. 

    10   In the index of the book, I see Karl Rove just above the name Jack Ruby. I haven't time to tell you of the significance of that, but both have long lists of page numbers after them. 

    11  Rove is one of the major backers of Proposition 32.

    12  Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy. This silenced Oswald as to who knew what and when with regards to that major change of power in America. 

    13  Family of Secrets is not a book that Baker wanted to write, any more than the JFK assassination was never an event that New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison wanted to champion when he found that Oswald had chilled in New Orleans before the murder of Kennedy. 

    14  Like Garrison in his epic expose of the JFK assassination, a book called On the Trail of the Assassins, Baker innocently walks into the world of spies, and by association, lies beyond any rational person's comprehension. 

    15  Gore Vidal said of Family of Secrets, "One of the most important books of the past ten years."

    16   I don't have the time to go into all the minor details, but the bottom line is this: the father of George Herbert Walker Bush was a guy named Prescott Bush, a Nazi sympathizer. 

    17   Two words: Oil. 

    18   George HW Bush was a CIA guy from the get go. 

    19   He has extremely suspicious cover stories as to where he was when Kennedy was killed. 

    20   Baker exposes this lie in his book. He didn't have any intention of implying that George HW Bush had anything to do with the JFK assassination, but he clearly brings that out in his book, which remember, was originally intended to find out why a goober like George W. Bush ever became the President of the United States. 

    21   That was his intention when he entered the very strange world of the Bush family, and it's lying secrets.

    22   E. Howard Hunt, another spook whose name lurks around the Kennedy assassination, and whose son has publicly declared that his father told him, on tape, that he was a bench player in the JFK assassination, wrote in his book American Spy that he worked as a propaganda writer for the CIA. He also told of how the CIA had writers on major newspapers, on major magazines, and on Hollywood movies, as well as advertising campaigns. 

    23   Hunt spent his entire life lying, as did George HW Bush. Professional spies do that.

    24   My point is that I have known about and taught about this stuff for years. 

    25   It has nothing to do with political parties. It has everything to do with the brainwashing of America, and oil companies controlling the propaganda of political campaigns. 

    26   Prop 32 is a complete lie and a sham. Karl Rove is one of the backers of that proposition. Rove helped put George W. Bush into office. 

    27   Here is an excerpt from Baker's masterpiece:

    George W. Bush was never the rebel in chief he sometimes has been made out to be. To the contrary, he and his father were in many respects a team. At times, the son served as an enforcer and trusted operative, while the two shared secrets and connections with the powerful. 

    38   Powerfully scary.

    39   These guys have been controlling thought and brainwashing America for too long now. One of their major targets has always been education, because if they can turn America stupid, which to me they have successfully done, then Big Brother will have finally stepped into a comfy home. 

    40   All that bunk about "the unions" doesn't wash with this teacher, whose last raise was in 2002. Really? 

    41   We have been slicing the school year with furlough days ridiculously. It is almost impossible to have a fully operating book room, which means I have to buy my own class sets of books, and make copies of books so that my students can read in class. 

    42   Prop 30 raises taxes, but the lion's share is on people who make over $250,000. I'm sorry. I have no problem with that. It is time that the one per cent, whoever they are, give back. Why do I feel that way? I'm convinced that people making that kind of money have had to lie, cheat, and care only about number one. 

    43   I don't mean that in a bad way, because the idea of passing large amounts of money to one's descendants is very much the American Dream. 

    44   But I have rubbed elbows with tremendous greed, and have seen what it does to people. 

    45   Just sayin'.

    46   So before you vote with your brainwashed head, think about some of these things. People don't know when they are brainwashed. That's the sad thing. 

    47   I went the other way when I was quite young. I saw my President's head get blown off, and saw through all the lies and insidious deception from that day. I learned early to investigate and to get to the real story.

    48   I did so by reading, and by reading both sides of the story. I accepted facts only when they were presented without a shadow of doubt. I read books written by spies and FBI people, and by people exposing these guys. 

    49   When I found that our Office of Strategic Services was comprised of Hitler's spies on the Eastern front, I didn't believe it until I saw a film put out by the CIA explaining the need to have done that. 

    50   Huh?

    51   Commies. 

    52   Oh. Okay. 

    53    Yes on 30, no on 32. Trust this Old Brown Shoe. I am outside of the propaganda, and have been since I was quite young. I know who is telling the truth, and who is lying. 

    54   And I am well aware of the brainwashing of America. 

    55   That's my tirade. 

    56   That's my politics. 

    57   Think carefully before you vote. 

    58   Do not put our children's children in a world of stupidity.

    59   Yes on 30, no on 32. 

    60    Peace. 

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington

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    The DailyNews
    1  I copped this from the actual New York Daily News:

    New York

    Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera to perform at live concert to benefit Hurricane Sandy victims

    Jimmy Fallon and Brain Williams will emcee the event while officials have suggested that other networks may join the telecast.

    Comments (9)

    BY / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

    UPDATED: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012, 6:08 PM

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    GETTY IMAGES

    Christina Aguilera, Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen will perform at a live benefit concert to aid victims of Hurricane Sandy on Friday.

    Forty years ago, Bruce Springsteen serenaded a loving girl named Sandy in “Fourth of July, Asbury Park.” Now he’s joining forces with other artists to raise money for the victims of a vicious storm with the same name.

    Christina Aguilera, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel and Sting will join the Boss in a benefit concert Friday at 8 p.m. at the NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Center.

    Jimmy Fallon and Brain Williams will emcee the event.

    FOLLOW OUR LIVE COVERAGE OF SANDY'S AFTERMATH

    The show, titled “Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together,” will be shown across the entire NBC Universal Network, viewable on NBC, Bravo, CNBC, E!, G4, MSNBC, Style, Syfy and USA.

    Officials suggested that other networks may join the telecast broadcast.

    Money raised will be donated to the American Red Cross to provide shelter, food, emotional support, and other assistance to the millions affected by the disaster.

    The personal connection among stars like Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Sting and Joel to the storm-ravaged areas couldn’t be more
    obvious. Both the Boss and Bon Jovi hail from New Jersey, which has endured some of the greatest hardships in the catastrophe.

    PHOTOS: SANDY'S DEVASTATING TOLL

    And Springsteen has always chronicled disaster, from decline ("Atlantic City") to terror (the post-9/11 song, "My City of Ruins").

    Joel grew up on Long Island, also hard hit by the storm, which is something of a coda to his song, "The Downeaster Alexa" about the hard life on Long Island's waterfront.

    To donate, visit www.redcross.org or call 800-RED-CROSS.

    Donations of $10 will also be added to your cellphone bill by texting the word REDCROSS to 90999.

    For information, visit redcross.org or http://blog.redcross.org.

    jfarber@nydailynews.com

    With Lary McShane.

    Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/star-studded-benefit-concert-planned-hurricane-victims-article-


    2  I'm riveted to the television and thinking of our friends on the East Coast. It is horrible, and quite real.

    3  I'm worry about scam artists. There are phony charities, and people who will take advantage of the people going through a crisis of this magnitude. 

    4   I tend to go Red Cross, because they are the most organized, at least from my perspective. 

    5   I love that David Letterman is doing his shows without an audience. Class act.

    6   So everyone out there, if you are somehow listening, this Old Brown Shoe is asking all his students and everyone he can reach to donate, and to pray. 

    7   I can't begin to imagine. I just can't begin to imagine. 

    8   Moving on, Part the First: I did the ghost stories yesterday in the Theatre. 

    9   That gets harder and harder each year, because the story continues, and has seemingly no end. 

    10  I have added my experiences at Evergreen to the story. For example, my very first day working at Evergreen, a car pulled in front of me at the corner of Ruby and Quimby. 

    11  It wasn't an Audi, which really would have been interesting for those of you who know the entire story of Heidi (I had the word "Yadda" in a play I wrote about the Titanic, spell-checked it, and Audi was the first word that came up, followed by Heidi, the purported ghost who haunted the Theatre at my old school.), but the license plate said this: High T 2.

    12  I smiled. 

    13  Sometimes I have to spell things out for people, and a LOT of people don't quite get that one. Phonetically, High T 2 sounds like "Heidi 2."

    14  My first year doing the Chronz at Evergreen I was Activities Director. 

    15  I stayed many late nights working at the school, often from 7 a.m. to 11 at night when the alarms were set to go off. 

    16  One night I was again working late at the school putting together a Poe unit. It was right around Halloween. 

    17  I heard a flutter, then looked up to see that a black bird had landed on the small television in my office. It stared at me, and stayed for almost fifteen minutes.


    18  I'm sorry.

    19  That was just strange. 

    20   These oddities and coincidences continue to this very minute. 

    21  For example, you might have noticed that I had been posting the same picture of Laurel and Hardy shushing us throughout the playoffs. Like many other Giants' fans, I didn't want to change too many things.

    22  The other day when I went into the Theatre, the door I usually go through was locked. 

    23   I walked across the lobby to open the other door, and there was the same picture on a "Please turn off all cell phones" poster left over from when David did Midsummer. Here is a photo of his sign once again:
     


    24  David, our drama director, has no idea that I write this. He chose that picture out of millions of others. The odds of him choosing the same picture that I have put up here for several weeks are not astronomical, but certainly huge. Just sayin'.

    25  Granted, he is a Theatre person, and probably Googled something like "Celebrity shushes," but it still spun me around, given I was immersed in coincidences, especially on the day the students told their ghost stories. 

    26   I also have written about garbage trucks, because if you REALLY followed the Giants closely, Duane Kuiper, the Giants' radio guy, told Murph and Mac one morning when the Giants faced elimination that he couldn't hear them because a garbage truck was making noise. 

    27  I wrote about this in several DN's. That was the beginning of the Giants' torching everyone to win the World Series. It became an inside joke that seeing a garbage truck was now a part of the magic.

    28  On the day of the parade, I took off to Round Table to watch the celebration during my long lunch. 

    29   When I got there, I saw this:


    30  Listen. Here is a pint-sized summary of the Heidi story:

    31  Students during my second year teaching claimed they found a ghost named Heidi by using a Ouija board. I ridiculed them. Shortly thereafter amazing coincidences began occurring, year round, but especially when I would begin my ghost unit, usually in mid-October. It always culminates in going into a theater and allowing the students to tell ghost stories to each other as part of the California Department of Education English Language Arts' Standards of Listening and Speaking. It definitely fits right in. The students also told me that my numerological numbers were one and nine. Since then, ones and nines have turned up in very many coincidental circumstances.

    32  They tell stories from their own countries, or stories that are local, or stories that happened to them, or to their family or friends. 

    33   I do a simple light design, but I keep the Theatre pretty dark. The temperature often goes down during these stories. I could control the temperature in neither of the two theatres.

    34   I used to do the stories in one day, but because my personal story continues to this day, it now takes two days to get it all done, and it is moving towards three. 

    35   One year I wrote a very short play called Titanic. It pre-dated James Cameron by a few years. Every time we rehearsed it, the Theatre temperature would drop ridiculously, to the point of causing shivering. The seats in the back would begin clicking, first slowly, then faster and faster. I put together Jefferson Starship's experimental oddity called Titanic, and edited it with ocean sounds. The students came out with white masks and candles and said brief lines of poetry, and many lines that were direct quotes from the survivors. The sounds, the seats clicking, students voicing lines of people who had seen the Titanic sink, along with the intense cold made it extremely strange, almost as though the people who died in that tragedy were watching.

    26   Every time that mini-play ended, everything stopped; it got warm again, and the seats would stop clicking.

    27   One year, a student who had heard this story went to a psychic convention and talked to Sylvia Browne. 

    28   She told him that we had "activity." I realize Sylvia Browne is a little controversial, but I must admit I smiled. If I have a ghost, she's a really nice one, and pretty supportive. She clicks, for example, if I am on stage alone in the Theatre and playing guitar and singing really well. When I do, she clicks different seats. If I am sucking, she doesn't click. I always give a bit of a "Thank you" during those fun moments.

    29  One year I called Sylvia Browne's Nirvana Institute, which I believe at the time was in Los Altos. I called in the middle of one of my drama classes. My students coaxed me to do it, so I got up, went into the office, and called.

    30    Sylvia wasn't in, but I talked to an assistant, and explained the clickings, the cold, the lights that would fade on me when I would be talking about lights fading (this happened on a number of occasions), the Heidi things. She said we probably have "activity" and would I like for them to come in and get rid of it. I assume "activity" is a euphemism for "ghost." But did I want to get rid of it? It?

    31   I told her no, that Heidi is really friendly, and almost a spirit guide. 

    32   She said that might be the case, so I thanked her and asked her what her name was. 

    33   I took out a post-it.

    34   She said, "My name is Audi."

    35   See number 11, above. 

    36   I did post these stories on a website that I no longer have, and have never really taken the time to write the entire story, but it is pretty fascinating. 

    37   It is filled with startling coincidences, and little moments. 

    38   I like Heidi. I always have to say "If there is indeed a Heidi, then I like her."

    39   I never chose this. I told those students years ago that they were nuts. I was even a bit rude about it, completely didn't believe it was anything but their imaginations coupled perhaps with the wish we all have of proof that there is life after life. 

    40  This year the story ran side-by-side with the miracle of the Giants' road to the Series. 

    41   I was born in San Francisco, and raised in South San Francisco for the first ten years of my life. 

    42   These people believe, and believe strongly in good vibes, particles, and believing that anything can happen. 

    43   You talk to any Giants' fan and they will tell you that they repeated rituals, wore the same clothes, put on the same shoes and socks, and threw all their thoughts and actions into getting that trophy. 

    44   It rolled beautifully with my Heidi stories, and a lot of stuff crossed over. 

    45   Yesterday morning I was just finishing up my story, when I asked the students what time it was. 

    46   The girl sitting next to me had her cell out, and she said, "Nine." Then she showed me that it was nine. Then she smiled and said, "9:01." The class laughed. I continued my story, and stopped after a brief stint, and asked, "Is it 9:09?"

    47   The girl said, "Yes." She showed me her cell. 

    48   The text to help Hurricane Sandy is Red Cross to 90999. 

    49   I'm asking everybody to send everything you can to the Red Cross.

    50   These coincidences usually subside after Halloween, but they do get active in times of stress or in times of elation and powerful emotions. 

    51   Right now, I need a rest from all of it. I often ignore the coincidences, even though they happen frequently. 

    52   It is into the 4 a.m. and I need to get a little sleep before we enjoy our last day of this year's Heidi Chronz. 

    53   I hope this gives a little insight into this amazing unit that I have done each year since I was a student teacher. 

    54   I hope you all have a safe and restful weekend.

    55   Peace.

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington







  • How to Help Hurricane Sandy Victims
    www.redcross.org/charitable-donations or text Red Cross to 90999
    BASKING IN THE GLORY!!!



    Celebration!
    The Daily News

    1   The parade yesterday rocked, and was exactly what was needed.

    2   I enjoyed the speeches, the pomp, and the circumstances immensely.

    3    A part of me felt it was maybe a bit anti-climactic, but historically, it was rocked the ages. Sergio Romo alone was a classic Disney character, wildly nuts, and sporting his "I Just Look Illegal" Left-Coast tee. Gotta love it. Gotta drench in its goodness. 

    4    I had to work, of course, so I caught only bits and pieces. It was sort of like the season: I listened to the morning stuff on a transistor radio in my classroom; the midday stuff I watched at a pizza parlour, the mid-afternoon stuff in my car, and the end I watched on my own teevee.

    5   It was fun, and a lot of raz. They all looked a bit tired to me, until Pence came out and showed everyone how they would get ready for each game. The pre-game ritual, and the last one for this particular group, brought everything up around twelve decibels. Sunflower seeds mingled with good vibes. It was an eruption of love. 

    6   Then their youth took over, and it all became genuine.

    7   Tony Bennett was a nice touch, and then it ended. 

    8   Just like that.

    9   Pitchers and catchers report in February. I hope we keep Scutaro and Pagan. I hope the team stays the same. It would be good times.

    10  All good times. 

    11  Moving on, Part the First: I really had little time to get my house ready for Halloween, but got out my broom and did my own version of "The Sweep" yesterday afternoon. 

    12   Because I have been SO busy, my house was not quite ready for Halloween. I usually have some fun putting on lights and decorations and stuff, but with the World Series and planning the Heidi Chronz, it was not as good as usual.

    13   Plus I kept thinking about everyone out on the East Coast, and how many of them no longer have houses. That really has me upset because of the entire helpless feeling that keeps hitting me. 

    14   So if you're out there, realize that we aren't all over here not noticing. It is absolutely right there in our hearts. Our prayers and hopes are with you.

    15   Moving on, Part Two:  I did manage to clean up the leaves and put some decorations out yesterday. 

    16  That was nice. I even got a couple of pumpkins looking like something, one with a strobe inside. 

    17   After that, we had very little neighborhood action. I assume it is because it was a Wednesday Halloween. School night and all.

    18   It was fine. 

    19   It's raining. 

    20   It's raining right now.

    21   I like it. 

    22   I'm counting blessings. 

    23   Moving on, Part Four: I woke up sort of late this morning, well into the 4 a.m. 

    24   The Heidi Chronz worked wonderfully yesterday. I stayed in my classroom because it was a minimum day, so going to the Theatre was somewhat out of the question. 

    25   During our morning break, a teacher from across the hall unveiled a massive teacher conspiracy that had been in effect for over three weeks. 

    26   A group of practical jokers had planned on going into the Theatre during the Heidi Chronz, hiding under the stage in the pit, and in the middle of the stories, screaming and frightening my students. 

    27   I just looked at her and said, "That would have been idiotic. The students would have gotten scared and would have tripped over chairs or fallen into the seats. It would have been idiotically dangerous."

    28   She didn't quite get it. She said, "But it would have been an AWESOME scare!"

    29   Don't  ever get me going on "practical" jokes. To me they are inane. The only time I ever do practical jokes is when someone has pranked me. 

    30  And trust me, I know how to exact revenge, and to serve it cold. It isn't wise to prank me. Trust me. 

    31  The guy in the room next to me LOVES doing practical jokes on people. He has gotten me three times in the car. What he does he makes a point of getting in front of me, and then driving idiotically, changing lanes suddenly without signaling, or driving ridiculously slow. It is pretty funny, because each time he does it he makes sure he is in a different vehicle. 

    32   I fell for it three out of three times. I assume it's some stupid driver, of which there are many, and of which I have little tolerance. 

    33  And then he gives me this huge Cheshire smile. Punked.

    34   I have sworn to get even with the guy, and trust me, I will, and when I do, it will be nuclear. 

    35   He got pranked yesterday. A teacher with a back problem interrupted his oral test and asked if he could run to the health office and get the nurse to come up, that she wasn't answering the phone. She said she would give the oral test while he did that.

    36  When he left, she got the two classes to switch. When he got back, he resumed his oral test, but to students he didn't know. They played it off perfectly, asking him what was wrong, and why he stopped the test. 

    37  He kept saying, "Where's my class? Why are you guys in here?"

    38   They responded, "Mr. Cheli, we ARE your class. What's wrong with you? Are you okay?"

    39   And the thing about a practical joke is that for a few seconds, or even days, one person can question his or her own sanity. He did, and he deservedly so. What goes around...

    40  For the second time in my life, I laughed, because I don't like when people prank someone who is arbitrarily chosen to be punked. 

    41  But I LOVE when a practical joker gets pranked, because they ASKED for it, and this guy not only deserved it, but deserved it in spades. 

    42  And because he got me THREE times, he is doomed.

    43  I have already Googled some great practical jokes. 

    44  I know, I know. Once put in motion, this is going to become ongoing.

    45  Haha, bring it. 

    46  It will get out of control, but it is now going to be fun. They are all going to get it, as am I. 

    47  It should get us to February.

    48  When it starts all over again. Can't wait. Gottago.

    49  Thanks for listening.

    50   Peace.

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington


    The Heidi Chronz.

    Now appearing in a Theatre near you.





bharrington

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