Month: December 2012

  • The Daily News
    1  Google Chrome needs to go away. 
     
    2   I am now on my third go-round with writing this nonsense, and am well into the 4 a.m.
     
    3   TWICE this morning Chrome has interrupted my writing of this mish-mash by suddenly posting some sort of advertising or other, ripping what I have written into a bajillion pieces and scattering it to the far reaches of the universe.
     
    4   Honestly.
     
    5  TWICE.
     
    6   The fun little miracle about the DN is that it is a one-shot writing piece. I go to bed early so that I will be rested for school, wake up each night after five or six hours of sleep, and then hop on the job of entertaining the troops.
     
    7   It takes a few hours to get all this out, to edit it, and to add the pictures.
     
    8   I don’t need Google Chrome coming in and shutting it down before I have had a chance to save it.
     
    9   Saving it isn’t hard, but I often forget to save as I go.
     
    10   If you are of the computer era, you know what I’m talking about.
     
    11   I just spelled era “eara.” I swear to you. Like there’s an ear involved.
     
    12   I am now out in my sunroom where there is no sign of the sun and where my feet are turning into blocks of ice, and getting this done.
     
    13   But I digress.
     
    14   I had all these nice things to say about my students, and how they are outperforming the standard tests they took last week.
     
    15   I read yesterday’s piece, “Think You” to my Disney kids before they embarked on their writing finals. They gave me a clap, and then embarked on their writing journeys. I looked out on them and saw a team that I had coached.
     
    16   For the first time in my career I can’t wait to read their finals. I know they all wanted to give me their best.
     
    17   All my classes have so far. I am proud of all of them.
     
    18   The good papers kept coming in, all morning long.
     
    19   After last week’s disastrous go-round with the Benchmark tests, I absolutely loved reading REAL test results. What happens when you tell students to give you the best piece of writing in their lives?
     
    20   You get good writing, not bubble tests. Genuine, heartfelt good writing.
     
    21   One of my Disney students asked if she could have a hard copy of “Think You.” I gave her the one I read to the class and she smiled.
     
    22   Toward the end of the period I called a couple of students over to my desk and allowed them to see the DN, in all its glory. With pictures added they became slightly engaged.
     
    23    I normally get around thirty or forty hits on the DN, most of which are probably my own edits.
     
    24    I also get hit on by Russian chicks named “Natasha” or “Olga” all of whom start out with a remark like, “I saw your blog yesterday and I vant to meet you…”
     
    25    Yes, and if I click on your idiocy, you will become a virus that will  blow up my computer and scatter its ashes to the ends of the universe. Death star.
     
    26    I just ignore those ones, but keep the fantasy that I am some sort of dashing guy.
     
    27    At the end of the period I wrote the link to the DN and handed it to a small group of my Disney kids.
     
    28    This morning I had eighty-two hits, a DN record. Something happened.
     
    29    Do I mind that current students are now reading this folderol?
     
    30    Not in the least.
     
    31    The Daily News began years ago as a means of my communicating with the cast and crew of Guys and Dolls. Each day I would post who needed to be where and what needed to be done on the Performing Arts hallway wall. .
     
    32     Each day the students would come in and read ten to twelve items. I would always add some humorous nonsense, and it would be a morning chuckle to start the day off right.
     
    33   I would also talk about the idiocy that goes on all around us on a daily basis.
     
    34   I would sometimes get political, sometimes become a madman, and sometimes throw something sort of sweet out there.
     
    35   But it would always be there, even when my printer broke down. I wrote it out, and if you know my handwriting, that’s like a walk through Wal-Mart.
     
    36   Anyway, yesterday clearly changed the dynamic of the modern DN. I now welcome my current students to the fold.
     
    37    It’s a bit scary, because I do name names in this.
     
    38    You could wind up being mentioned in the DN. Some of you already have been; I’ve just tried to keep this on the down low.
     
    39    Do they still say that?
     
    40     Don’t get old.
     
    41    So I’m going to have to cut it off for this year.
     
    42    Write Google Chrome if you have any complaints.
     
    43    I’m out of here until well after New Years.
     
    44    I’ll miss you all. No matter how much a pain in the ass this is, it’s always fun and relaxing.
     
    45     And I always appreciate your tolerance when I spell milk “mkil.”
     
    46    Seasoned veteran over here.
     
    47     Stay safe over the holiday.
     
    48     Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
     
    49    Live life.
     
    50    Love life.
     
    52    Peace.
     
    ~H~
     
     
    www.xanga.com/bharrington
     

     a a a crab nebula 1

     
     a a a George 1 The Jetsons

  • Think You.
     
    The Daily News
    1   Yesterday I had time to give finals and to grade finals.

    2   My prediction from last week magically materialized.

    3   My students’ wrote like their hair was on fire.

    4   That’s this new, hip teaching expression.

    5   I never quite got it.

    6   It’s from some fancy book or other.

    7   It is irrelevant to me, because I have spent my entire career teaching as if my hair was on fire.

    8   The results?

    9    I have gone bald, but in an illustrious American-eagle-sort-of way.

    10   Personally, I think it’s dashing.

    11   But I digress.

    12   Last week I mentioned that I give a plus, a check, and a minus on the finals. A plus is a rare thing;  last year I gave perhaps eight out of total of approximately 150 students.

    13   Yesterday I graded my first batch of finals and gave around five. Some of the writing was absolutely brilliant. That was in one class.

    14   What was particularly amazing was some of the poetry the students produced.

    15   Traditionally, high school poetry works something like this: “I want to talk about our love.” Hmm. What rhymes with “love?”

    16   “bove?” “cuv” “dove?” “fuv?” “Gov?”

    17    In high school, all poems are love poems.

    18    So what rhymes with “love?”

    19    “Above!” So here goes:

    20    I want to talk about our love
            It is so beautiful, like the stars above…

    21    <basketball buzzer>

    22     Kid. Do ya think you‘re the first kid ever to rhyme “love” with “above?”

    23     Hallmark crap.

    24     Their poetic method goes something like this: find a word. Find a word that rhymes with it. Ignore every other conceivable poetic device (imagery, alliteration, personification, etc.) and throw a bunch of crap up there until you achieve a rhyme.

    25    Poetry.

    26    I hate to break hearts out there, but that sort of poetry is cheaper than a Russian trinket.

    27    On my written exam, I give a series of twelve writing prompts, all of which must reach 300 words. I have built into the prompts something for everybody: the organized, thesis-starved students can do everything they can to have a structured, secure paper.

    28    The five-paragraph, just-tell-me-what-to-do-and-I-will-do it prompts work well for the A-team.

    29   The dreamers love this prompt: “You are Edgar Allan Poe. At midnight, a strange knocking is heard in your chamber. The doors fly open, and Virginia, your wife and your life (and your niece!) floats into the room, hands you a letter, and then vanishes. Write the letter.”

    30   And I always allow poetry, either one epic poem that is 300 words, or any series of poems that will reach that word count.

    31   Over the years, “love” “stars above” and “dove” have appeared in over ten-thousand lousy poems.

    32   This year, I tried to teach that poetry is much easier than that, and thoughtful words and wordplay can produce some lyrical poetry.

    33   I don’t have the stuff at my fingertips because we are well into the 4 a.m. but one girl wrote some stuff that should already be published, and two other students produced absolutely intoxicating pieces of writing.

    34   The writing that came in from that class was astounding, and no state test is going to understand that, ever.

    35   Even my students who don’t ordinarily do all their work gave it their all yesterday.

    36   I knew that would happen, but I never expected three high-quality poets in one class.

    37   One girl wrote a marvelous review of James Hurst’s The Scarlet Ibis, one of the most beautiful short stories ever written. I should have thought that she was a reviewer for the Book-of-the-Month Club.

    38   After the nightmares of last week, my students came prepared.

    39   They are high achievers, and everybody wanted to get a plus.

    40   In my second class of the day, three girls asked if they could write about the same characters with different stories.

    41   I said, “That would be awesome!” They immediately began chirping, sharing, and imagining.

    42   The workshop was on. Finals in my class are amazing to watch. Thirty young minds trying to produce the best writing of their lives. That is the real assignment, and they were all over it.

    43   Contrast to last week’s Benchmark disaster.

    44   Today my Disney class comes in. My Disney class is charming. The name says it all. When they say “Thank you” they say what sounds like “Think you!” and it is adorably cute. They hold doors for you, and are probably one of the kindest, most thoughtful classes I have ever taught.

    45  Their Benchmark was the one that was rushed and ridiculous. Their scores were around ten points lower than they should have been because of that ridiculous program.

    46   I don’t care. They are coming in today and will charm me, as they always do. They will write some of the best stuff I will ever see from high school students. They will worry at first, and then put everything they can into their writing, because I expect no less.

    47   And when they leave, they will say, “Think you!” And I will look at them go off for the holidays, and sigh about the last day of school when they will again depart.

    48  It’s a livin’.

    49  Hope you guys have a wonderful day. Mine is already wonderful, and I’m going back under the covers for another hour.

    50  See you again.

    51  Peace.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington

  • English Rocks.

    The Daily News
    1    We had a Christmas party a few years ago at work, and picked names for presents.

    2   I picked our department chair, who was an awesome teacher and Chair.

    3   I got her a present, and saw the above picture on a blank card at some store or other.

    4   I took my best pen, and took to writing.

    5   I wrote simply, “English rocks.”

    6   One of the best presents I ever gave anyone. I also got her a knitted scarf and mittens. Every now and again we get that way fun present. ‘Tis the season.

    7   Moving on, Part One: Ah, finals. Torture for students, vacay for teachers.

    8   What, you say?

    9    Okay, I’ll blow the lid off finals here.

    10  Some teachers make fierce finals, with hundreds of questions dating back to the last monsoon in California.

    11  Some have a complete revenge mentality. The attitude, “So…you thought I was easy, eh?” happens to a few.

    12  Others will think, “So I will prove to you that I am the most rigorous teacher in the universe!“

    13  I have a written final, just an in-class essay in which they have to produce their finest piece of writing. It always works, at least in my eyes. It’s not like I’m new to this.

    14   I protect their grade. If they write a final that is extraordinary, they get a plus. This moves their semester grade up one-third. If they had a B+, for example, and wrote an extraordinary final, their semester grade would become an A-. If they had an A-, their semester grade would move up to an A. If they had an A+, they would simply want the A+ for validation, and in my heart, they would have an A++.

    15   If they had an F, they would get a D-. This works for some people.

    16   I never believed in rote memorization of all the work in the semester.

    17   Our district Benchmark determines this.

    18   Unfortunately, I had an entire week where preparing for the Benchmark somehow took billions of hours, which I didn’t have. I had issues with the program used to create the answer sheets, particularly with pulling down the answer sheets, which are able to get the students’ names, periods, and which could key the test so that when you put the finished bubble test back into a special printer,  it would grade them as well.

    19  It was one of those things that took two hours after school every day last week. At least a quarter of our department teachers went through the same thing. We were trained in how to access this program and set it all up a couple of years ago, but many of us forgot how to do it, or lost emails, or were brand new or brand old to the process.

    20  When you take two hours away from a teacher, papers get backed up; lesson plans go haywire, and friends and family become non-existent. It is frustrating. During the school year, teachers work long hours to remain accurate with grades. It dominates a good teacher’s entire school year.

    21   So I don’t exaggerate when I say that trying to access the answer sheets took literally two hours each day, ten hours for the week. It stole my world.

    22   Anybody reading this would roll their eyes, but when you consider one hour for organizing the day‘s events, planning for the next day’s events, walking to another building, setting up camp, trying to juggle passwords, and working with instructions that leave one step out, it became like a bad game of golf.

    23   On Friday, after an immensely stressful day, I found myself once again facing off with trying to run those answer sheets. On Thursday another teacher and I figured out how to access the answer sheets, but wound up putting the English 2A students’ names on the English 1A students’ answer sheets.

    24  The English 1A answer sheets had bubbles for 33 questions. The English 2A students had 39 questions. So we fixed THAT on Friday afternoon AFTER the students had already taken the test. I told them to simply answer the 33, and that we could take care of everything Monday.

    25   I went to school early to make sure that the answer sheets were still on the podium where I thought I had left them.

    26   <basketball buzzer>

    27   I became frantic, and started looking everywhere for them, but at the time, they were not appearing. Ever do that? Happens.

    28   Towards the end of the period, one student asked if I could give her three letters of recommendation for a scholarship, and that she needed three by the end of the day. I said that I would. Another student asked if he could use my computer to print a document he needed by the next period. I said yes. I do those sorts of things.

    29   The clock continued to tick. I needed to get back to the copy room with my flash drive which had the English 2A answer sheet link saved on it.

    30   I started the girl’s letter of rec, got off, left this guy at my computer while I ran to the copy room.

    31   Our school has over 2500 students and was designed originally for 800. My room is relatively near the copy room in the library, but getting there when the bell rang took longer than I figured. I was caught in an undertow of students, and had to take a muddy path in order to get to the building more quickly. I was a cartoon.

    32   I got in, ran the copies beautifully, and dashed back to my class.

    33   The kids didn’t even notice I was gone, but already five minutes had cut into their test-taking time.

    34   I then had to redistribute the old sheets that had 33 questions on them and then hand out the new sheets with 39 questions on them, AND hand out copies of the missing questions, because we have to share test booklets.

    35   Don’t try this at home.

    36   Technically, teachers have no business copying test booklets, but on Friday I had no choice. I had to get the last six questions run off so the students could transfer the grades from the 33-question answer sheet to the 39-question answer sheet.

    37   On a Monday, this is a difficult and time-consuming ordeal, and hideously nightmarish.

    38   Metaphorically, I missed about twelve putts last week, so my game was already ruined.

    39   By the time everything got settled, they didn’t have enough time, and were jammed.

    40   In the afternoon I took that mess back to that infernal computer and had them scored.

    41   The scores were clearly lower than they should have been.

    42   One of my best students scored an 87%.  I was completely mortified. My English 1A students did fine; the scores were consistent with their grades.

    43   The scores of my 2A students weren’t even in the ball park.

    44   I have no access to test booklets for a re-take, so yeah.

    45   Fortunately, those tests measure how well the teacher covered the standards, and have no affect on the students’ placement, as far as I know.

    46   If they do, I’m going to protest. I know my students better than some program that had confusing instructions.

    47   My written finals are going to be some of the most glorious writing that young people can do. They always are, because students have a built-in tendency to rise to the occasion during finals.

    48   And I know this. I’m always on their side, and they always do their best work for me at this time of the year.

    49   Moving on, Part the Second: Speaking of computers, my spell check this morning has gone awry.

    50   It marked the following words as misspelled: finals, hours, teacher’s, their, juggle, myself, early, looking, tick, business, putts, students, occasion.

    51   Nice.

    52   You gotta love technology.

    53   So that’s my story about finals and teaching to the test. Never was a fan, and I’m REALLY not a fan now.

    54   The nice thing: because I got everything graded, and stayed WAY up on my stuff this entire semester, I finally get some peace. I know that my students learned an immense amount this semester, and because of a bad round of golf, it wasn’t reflected in this test.

    55   My computer just spell-checked “reflected.” I am going to begin beating it with an umbrella as soon as I am done writing this.

    56   Okay I’m done. Looking forward to the whooping.

    57   Have a wonderful day.

    58   Keep the faith.

    59    Peace.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington

     

  •    

    The Daily News

    1   And to think I thought I was having one of my worst weeks ever…

    2   On Friday, I had just finished admonishing some students for not taking the Benchmark test seriously, when I left and got some lunch. I saw the news on CNN and just stared.

    3    I returned for my last class visibly shaken. I’m ordinarily pretty steady at reporting national stories, which I do anytime a story breaks during school. I try to get the facts as accurately as I can and give the accurate reports to my students.

    4   I used to have cable in the Theatre, and we watched several historical days over the years.

    5   I’m glad I didn’t have cable on Friday. My voice stuttered  as I explained to my students that I had a tough week, and had a tough morning, that I even got loud on two different classes, and this was before I had heard the news out of Sandy Hook.

    6    Most of my students understood. The day continued to be one of the more stressful. Telling the students about the tragic events tore me up. I wanted to get home, and still got stalled. I was exhausted by the time I was able to pack my things and go home.

    7    I left school a bit late, so it was dark as I drove the back roads of the neighborhoods. 

    8   I listened to the radio and kept hearing the same things over and over: his mother was a teacher…she wasn’t a teacher…twenty elementary school children…six adults…all of it.

    9   I decided not to watch the news; it was too unbearable. A friend of mine, Charlie Caudill, quit his job at CNN after Columbine. I can see why.

    10   I just kept thinking about those families, and their children and friends, and asking how ANY parent was going to explain this to their kids.

    11   I wanted to get online and post something, but was at a complete loss.

    12   I think the smartest thing to do is to keep the news off the television so that small children don’t have to see things like that. Mention that there are bad people who did bad things, but that it was far away, and doesn’t happen very often.I wanted to go online and say that, but was having computer breakdowns.

    13   I don’t know how young parents were able to cope with any of it. If it was this overwhelming to me I can’t even imagine.

    14   Has the world simply gone mad?

    15   That was one of the toughest afternoons in my entire career.

    16    I hope you are all okay. I can’t dwell on it. I need to move forward as swiftly as possible and get a bit of normalcy back.

    17    My theme for much of this year has often been that no news is good news.

    18    I count my blessings this fine morning.

    18    I hope you are all okay. I don’t see how. We are all touched and outraged at the same time.Try not to dwell on it; you will get sad.

    19    I love you all.

    20    Moving On, Part the First: On Friday morning, a student asked me who the toughest comic hero is. Like, if there is a war among all the super heroes, who’d win?

    21    Without looking I responded, “Mighty Mouse.” I figured these guys would not have any idea who Mighty Mouse is.

    22    ”Mighty Mouse?”

    23    ”Anthropomorphic upright rodent with powers beyond Superman, and no known vulnerability. Popular teevee hero during the ’50′s and 60′s, according to Wiki.”

    24    ”DUDE!!!”

    25     “He had most of Superman’s powers, and then some, including, according to Wiki, ‘…a form of telkinesis that allowed him to command inanimate objects and turn back time.‘ “ 

    26    Look. I know as a teacher that Wikipedia isn’t the best resource around. It is the digital equivalent of the old World Book encyclopedia. It covers the basics, and often in sore need of citations.

    27    But for fast stuff, it is pretty fun. The article on Mighty Mouse, for example, is filled with some excellent trivia. Mighty Mouse had a girl lead named Pearl Purebright in the short films, and in the comic books of the ’50′s and 60′s his girl lead was “Mitzi.” His arch enemy was a cat named Oil Can Harry.

    28    Honestly, the Wiki peek is a pretty good article. I have it for you, right here and now. Allow me:

     

    This article’s tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia’s guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (September 2012)
    Mighty Mouse
    Early Terrytoons Mighty Mouse
    Early Terrytoons Mighty Mouse
    First appearance Mouse of Tomorrow (1942)
    Last appearance Cat Alarm (1961)
    Created by Paul Terry
    Portrayed by Roy Halee, Sr.
    Tom Morrison
    Information
    Species Mouse
    Gender Male
    Significant other(s) Pearl Pureheart

    Mighty Mouse is an American animated anthropomorphic superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox. The character made its first appearance in 1942 (originally named Super Mouse), and subsequently appeared in 80 theatrical films produced between 1942 and 1961. These films later appeared on American CBS television network on Saturday mornings. The character went through two later revivals, once by Filmation Studios in 1979, and again in 1987 at the hands of animation director Ralph Bakshi, who had worked at the Terrytoons studio during his early career.

    Mighty Mouse has also appeared in comics, in a television commercial about cheese, and has graced the front of a major musician’s guitar. The name Apple, and the character was even accused of promoting cocaine use.

    Contents

    [hide]

    [edit] History

    The character was originally conceived by story man Izzy Klein as a super-powered housefly named Super Fly.[1] Created as a parody of Superman, he first appeared in 1942 in a theatrical animated short titled The Mouse of Tomorrow. The original name of the character was Super Mouse, but after 7 films produced during 1942 to 1943, it was changed to Mighty Mouse in the 1944 cartoon The Wreck of the Hesperus when Marvel Comics interpretation of the character and was nicknamed Terry the First, as he was the first version of the character.[citation needed]

    Mighty Mouse was first drawn wearing a blue costume with red trunks and a red cape, similar to Superman, but over time this outfit changed to a yellow costume with red trunks and a red cape, his most popular colors.[2] Roy Halee, Sr., was the first actor to provide the voice of Mighty Mouse. The role was later taken by Tom Morrison. In The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle Alan Oppenheimer provided the voice, and during the run of Mighty Mouse, the New Adventures Mighty Mouse was voiced by Patrick Pinney.

    As with other imitations of Superman, Mighty Mouse’s super powers include flight, super strength, and invulnerability. In various films he has demonstrated the use of X-ray vision, and has used a form of telekinesis that allowed him to command inanimate objects and turn back time (The Johnstown Flood and Krakatoa). Other cartoons show him leaving a red contrail during flight which he can manipulate at will like a band of solid flexible matter.

    Mighty Mouse has had two recurring female leads. In the cartoon shorts it was a mouse named Pearl Pureheart, while in the comics published in the 1950s and 1960s the character was named Mitzi. His recurring arch-enemy is an evil villain cat named Oil Can Harry (who originated as a human in earlier Terrytoons as the enemy of Fanny Zilch).

    The early formula of each story consists of a crisis which needs extraordinary help to resolve. At the decisive moment, Mighty Mouse comes to the rescue. Beginning with A Fight to the Finish (1947), the story line usually begins with Mighty Mouse and Pearl Pureheart already in a desperate situation, as if they were in the next chapter of the serial.

    Mighty Mouse cartoons spoofed the cliffhanger serials of silent films, as well as the classic operettas of stage that were still popular at the time.

    The characters often sing mock opera songs during these cartoons (e.g., Pearl: “Oil Can Harry, you’re a villain!”; Oil Can Harry: “I know it, but it’s a lot of fun…”). Mighty Mouse sings tenor, Pearl is a soprano, and Oil Can Harry a bass-baritone. Mighty Mouse is also famous for singing, “Here I come to save the day!” when flying into action.

    In several of the Mighty Mouse cartoons, whenever he achieved the most impossible physical tasks, the narrator exclaimed, first softly: “what a mouse!!!”. then loudly: “WHAT A MOUSE!!!”.

    The early Mighty Mouse cartoons often portray Mighty Mouse as a ruthless fighter. One of his most frequent tactics is to fly under the chin of an enemy and let loose a volley of blows, subduing the opponent through sheer physical punishment.

    While his typical opponents are non-decrepit cats, Mighty Mouse occasionally battles specific villains, though most of them appear in only one or two films. Several of the earliest “Super Mouse” films (having been made during World War II) feature the cats as thinly veiled caricatures of the Nazis, hunting down mice and marching them into concentration camp-like traps to what would otherwise be their doom. The Bat-cats, alien cats with bat wings and wheels for feet, appeared in two cartoons; in two other shorts between 1949 and 1950 he faces a huge, dim-witted, but super-strong cat named Julius “Pinhead” Schlabotka (voiced by Dayton Allen) whose strength rivals Mighty Mouse’s own. In rare moments he confronts non-feline adversaries, such as human bad guy Bad Bill Bunion and his horse or the robotic Automatic Mouse Catcher, a brontosaurus shaped mechanical monster. In another cartoon, titled The Green Line (1944), the cats live on one side of the main street of a town and the mice on the other, with a green line down the middle of the street serving as the dividing line. They agree to keep the peace as long as no one crosses it. An evil entity, a Satan cat, starts the cats and mice fighting. At the end, Mighty Mouse is cheered by mice and cats alike.

    At least one episode of Mighty Mouse, Wolf! Wolf! has fallen into Public Domain and is available at the Internet Archive.[3]

    The 1945 film Gypsy Life was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Short Subject (Cartoon).[4]

    [edit] Mighty Mouse Playhouse

    Main article: Mighty Mouse Playhouse

    Mighty Mouse was not very popular in theatrical cartoons, but became Terrytoons’ most popular character and a cultural icon when he appeared on television. Paul Terry sold the Terrytoon company to CBS in 1955. The network began running Mighty Mouse Playhouse on December 10, 1955.[5] It remained on the air until Sep. 2, 1967 (and featured The Mighty Heroes during the final season).

    Although the program was packaged as Saturday morning cartoons for television, the content reused the theatrical film releases. Terrytoons produced only three further Mighty Mouse theatrical cartoons while the show was running on television.

    Some early vinyls credit the original 1955 Mighty Mouse Playhouse theme song to The Terrytooners, Mitch Miller and Orchestra, but recent publishing has generally credited The Sandpipers (not the easy listening group by the same name from the 1960s).[6]

    [edit] The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle

    Main article: The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle

    In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Filmation made television cartoons starring Mighty Mouse and fellow Terrytoon characters Heckle and Jeckle (both voiced by Frank Welker) in a show called The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle. In that show, two new characters were introduced: a vampire duck named Quacula (not to be confused with Count Duckula), and Oil Can Harry’s bumbling, large, but swift-running, henchman Swifty. The show premiered in 1979 and lasted for two seasons. It spawned a limited theatrical release matinee movie, Mighty Mouse in the Great Space Chase, released December 10, 1982. In the Filmation series and movies, Mighty Mouse and Oil Can Harry were voiced by veteran voice artist Alan Oppenheimer, and Pearl Pureheart was voiced by Diane Pershing.

    [edit] Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures

    Main article: Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures

    Ralph Bakshi’s reimagined Mighty Mouse, circa 1987.

    In 1987 and 1988, animator Ralph Bakshi created a new series of Mighty Mouse cartoons entitled Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures for the CBS Saturday morning children’s lineup. In this series, Mighty Mouse has a real identity, Mike Mouse (both identities voiced by Patrick Pinney), and a sidekick, Scrappy Mouse (voiced by actress Dana Hill), the little orphan. Though a children’s cartoon, its heavy satirical tone, risque humor and adult jokes made the Bakshi Mighty Mouse series a collector’s item for collectors of older TV series.

    [edit] Later years

    Marvel Comics produced a 10-issue comic book series (set in the New Adventures continuity) in 1990 and 1991. Nothing new has been produced using the Mighty Mouse character except for an arcade game by Atari and a 2001 “The power of cheese” TV commercial.[7] That commercial shows Mighty Mouse dining calmly on cheese in a restaurant, utterly unconcerned with a scene of chaos and terror visibly unfolding in the street outside.

    The commercial was hastily pulled off the air in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.[citation needed] The rights to Mighty Mouse are now divided as a result of the 2006 corporate split of Viacom (the former owner of the Terrytoons franchise) into two separate companies. CBS Operations (a unit of the current CBS Corporation) owns the ancillary rights and trademarks to the character, while Paramount Home Entertainment/CBS DVD holds home video rights. The first official release of Mighty Mouse material has been announced and what is now CBS Television Distribution has television syndication rights (the shorts are currently out of circulation).

    [edit] Feature film adaptation

    As early as 2004 Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies announced their intention to bring Mighty Mouse back to the motion picture screen with a CGI Mighty Mouse feature film and is tentatively scheduled to be released some time in 2013.[8]

    [edit] Criticism

    Stills from the Mighty Mouse: The New adventures episode “The Littlest Tramp”. Top left: the flower is crushed by the rich man. Top right: Mighty Mouse receives the remains of the flower, which falls apart in his hand. Bottom left: Mighty Mouse thinks fondly of the girl, and brings out what’s left of the flower. Bottom right: Mighty Mouse smells the flower, inhaling it in the process.

    Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures was the subject of media controversy when one scene was interpreted as a depiction of cocaine use. In the episode The Little Tramp a poor mouse girl attempts to sell flowers, and is repeatedly harassed by a rich man who crushes her flowers.[9] She runs out of flowers and makes new ones from sundry items she finds, such as tomato slices, but the man crushes these too.[10] Mighty Mouse attempts to purchase the flowers with his chunk of cheese, and to avenge the girl, but she gives Mighty Mouse the crushed flowers and insists that others need help more than she does. After successfully saving several different characters, he is reminded of the girl, and attempts to smell the flowers she gave him (now a pink powder), inhaling them in the process. He then finds the man that has been harassing the girl, and spanks him. The girl is sympathetic to the man, and he is so moved that the two are married.

    A family in Kentucky saw the episode and reportedly interpreted the scene as Mighty Mouse snorting cocaine. The family called the American Family Association in Tupelo, Mississippi. The group demanded Bakshi be removed from production of the series.[11] Bakshi and CBS denied the allegations, Bakshi stating the whole incident “smacks of McCarthyism. I’m not going to get into who sniffs what. This is lunacy.”[10] To defuse the controversy, Bakshi agreed to cut the 3.5 seconds from the episode. Rev. Donald Wildmon claimed that the editing was a “de facto admission” of cocaine use, though Bakshi maintained that the episode was “totally innocent”.[12]

    It’s because of Fritz that they’re going after Mighty Mouse. I grew up in Brownsville in Brooklyn and attended High School for Industrial Arts. I remember teachers who quit. Because of McCarthyism they weren’t able to teach what they wanted. This is the same thing. Mighty Mouse was happy after smelling the flowers because it helped him remember the little girl who sold it to him fondly. But even if you’re right, their accusations become part of the air we breathe. That’s why I cut the scene. I can’t have children wondering if Mighty Mouse is using cocaine.
    —Ralph Bakshi, New York Times

    [edit] Cultural Influences

    In the book Astro Boy Essays, author Frederik L. Schodt quotes Japanese animator Osamu Tezuka as saying that Mighty Mouse was the influence that inspired him to name his well-known character Mighty Atom (also known as Astro Boy). He also chose to imitate Mighty Mouse’s signature flying pose with one arm stretched ahead with a clenched fist.[13]

    Mighty Mouse was featured on famed guitarist Tom Scholz‘s Les Paul guitar.[14]

    In a signature act by comedian Andy Kaufman, he would play a recording of the Mighty Mouse theme song, standing silently except for the chorus, which he sang with gusto.

    [edit] Apple Trademark Dispute

    Main article: Apple_Mighty_Mouse#Name

    In 2005, Apple began selling a USB computer mouse called the Mighty Mouse, a name it also gave to a later Bluetooth wireless mouse. Apple licensed the Mighty Mouse name from CBS. However, in 2008 a company called Man and Machine, Inc., sued both Apple and CBS for trademark infringement claiming it had been using the name for mice since 2004 and that CBS did not have the right to license the name for computer peripherals.[15] In 2009 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office agreed and Apple changed the names of their products.[16]

    29  Glad to see that the copy/paste made a successful transfer.

    30  Usually when I try to get something cut and pasted here it goes haywire with the fonts and things.

    31   Success! Note the uppity disclaimer at the top of the article criticizing the tone. I found the freewheeling tone of the article engaging, and worth posting on the DN.

    32   I  enjoyed all of the wonderful trivia, but I particularly enjoyed reading about those Kentucky rednecks who thought the episode with the roses was about cocaine. 

    33   It so clearly isn’t. 

    34   So I have to guess the student who asked me about the super heroes will look up Mighty Mouse and hopefully start a movement. 

    35   Mighty Mouse has to be the toughest hero, because he has the most amount of powers and he is has no vulnerabilities, except perhaps his weakness for opera.

    36   It’s a slam dunk.

    37   Those are the sorts of things that students argue about, so it was fun to stir it up.

    38   I wish to bring that up first thing this morning with the same two students. They had never heard of Mighty Mouse, as many younger people hadn’t.

    39   Moving on, Part the Second: Great football game last night. Nothing like a wet, slippery game. Sloppy, crazy evening of football, but just what was needed. Frankly, I didn’t care which team won or lost; it was just a good, loony game with two fierce teams going toe-to-toe. I never thought for a minute that the Niners were going to keep that lead. Not against Brady. Too much, too early. 

    40   I was a lot of fun. I was in and out of rooms watching, and recorded it so that I could watch it in a more relaxed setting later this afternoon.

    41   I got a LOT done this weekend, including enjoying the entire weekend with a real hero, my Dad.

    42   Two long days, but two productive days in so many ways, and just exactly what was needed after Friday’s tragedy.

    43   I will keep those families in my heart all day, as I will everyone who was touched by those awful events.

    44   I will also move forward, and swiftly.

    45   You all have a safe and good Monday.

    46   Fly low. People are zany out there.

    47   Gottago.

    48   Peace.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington

     


  • The Daily News
    1  I am on the “I-Don’t-Want-to-Make-a-Mess-in-the-Kitchen” Diet.

    2   Here’s how it works:

    3   You come home crabby, because work sucks this time of year. It interferes strongly with the entire Christmas Holiday Goof-off Mentality. 

    4   So I came home crabby yesterday, no reason ‘cept ’tis the season.

    5   So the first thing you do on the “I-Don’t-Want-to-Make-a-Mess-in-the-Kitchen” Diet is you stop at a Valero station and buy two mini-bags of some cheap snack, say Cheez-its.

    6  Throw them on your car seat, because San Jose doesn’t honor bags.

    7  We have gone green, which means that all our embarrassing purchases are hand held, if we are honoring the green. 

    8   Two mini-bags of Cheez-its are fine. 

    9   When you start getting into larger, more embarrassing products like prune juice and pickles, complete strangers look at you funny. Even creepers make judgments on the various products you are baglessly juggling. Your life becomes a cartoon. 

    20   But I digress. 

    21   Let us return to the diet.

    22   You go home and pour yourself a huge beverage. I personally have become addicted to Sunny Select Crystal Light raspberry in a tall glass, iced down. I down three of those, chilled to the bone. I figure it must make up at least five of the fantasy eight glasses of water a day we are supposed to have according to nobody. 

    23  Next, you open your fridge and scan for any vegetables that don’t have brown, or holes in them. 

    24  I found some lettuce yesterday that still looked almost serve-ably good. 

    25  You cut the brown off and chop up the clean pieces, and then place them aside. Throw all the muck into the garbage.

    26  You then get a small piece of cheese, any sort, and both a small and a huge bowl. 

    27   You cut a three-inch piece of block cheese in half. 

    28   You crack open the Cheez-its and pour them in the small bowl. 

    29    Next, you pour yourself another Sunny Select Crystal Light, iced down. 

    30    You eat a Cheez-it and half the cheese you just cut. 

    31    You then put your iPod or iPhone into the dock, and play some music you love. 

    32    You next scan your fridge for more veggies. Hopefully you keep a lot around, although they do have a tendency to either disappear or to turn to some sort of odd mish mash. 

    33   Sidebar: That’s twice I have used “mish-mash” in the past week. Spell check or whatever it’s called keeps blowing the whistle on that one, but it is spelled correctly. 

    34   But I digress.

    35   You next pour yourself another tall Sunny Select Crystal Light, iced down. 

    36   You turn up the music and grab a wooden spoon, and pretend it is a microphone. You impersonate your favorite star for a third of the song. 

    37   Whoops.  left out a part of the recipe.

    38   You first pull the shades so your neighbors don’t think you are an idiot. 

    39   You next look at the vegetables you have and put them on some newspaper. 

    40   You then take out the biggest plate you have and begin cutting the veggies into a salad. 

    41   You munch on a few Cheez-its. 

    42    Hopefully you have enough veggies to make a large salad. If not, just look at anything in your cabinets that could remotely go into a salad. Olives are always a good thing. Dry-onion thingies that you occasionally buy and never use might also be a welcome addition. 

    43   Just make lots, and use lots of fresh veggies. You could even cut up some apples if you like. 

    44   Throw in stuff you like. 

    45   Be certain that you cut some cheese into any salad. Hard-boiled eggs make a nice filler as well. 

    46   Next, take any three of the six-thousand dressings you have on the arm of your refrigerator door and mix them together, with a slight hint of mustard. Clean that part of the refrigerator door. You’ll love yourself. 

    47   Cut up some arugula if you are uppity. 

    49   Next, eat the second part of the cheese you cut earlier. 

    50    Have one last glass of the Sunny Select Crystal Light, iced down. 

    51    Turn down, but not off, the music and click on an old movie. I find TCM to be a wonderful thing to watch while downing a huge salad and quaffing a Sunny Select CLID.

    52    Sit down and enjoy your salad. You just make a HUGE salad, bottom line. 

    53    As soon as you are done, get a large roll of paper towels and pre-clean the entire mess. Roll veggie garbage in the newspaper and toss it. Instantly rinse any plates, forks, mixing stuff, etc. and put it in the dishwasher. 

    54    Clean your kitchen entirely and then make coffee for the morning. 

    55    You won’t want to cook dinner. You’ll goof on the mess you will have to make and then clean up. Your kitchen is clean, and your refrigerator door wiped. 

    56    Stay up a little later, and then head for bed. Your day sucked, but if you get some nice rest, the next day shouldn’t suck nearly as much. 

    57    And that’s the “I-Don’t-Want-to-Make-a-Mess-in-the-Kitchen” Diet.

    58    Do that every day for a year and your pants will fall down. No worries. With the money you saved on dinners, you can buy new pants.

    59    I gottago. Hope you enjoyed this cooking secret.

    60    Have a great weekend.

    61    Peace.

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington








  • a a a Giants 9 The Kid a a a Strong Bad 2 The System...Is Down a a a King Kong 1 Fay Wray a a a King Kong 2 Empire State Building attack a a a King Kong 3 Fay Wray a a a wheels 1 the wheels have come off a a a Baby Peggy in Captain January a a a avengers 1 two of 'em a a a music 5 Lovely Guitar I a a a music 1 I Wake Up Screaming a a a music 4 No Music; No Life (There's No Understood) The Daily News

    1   I’m a bit struck dumb.

    2   For three days running my time has been dominated by outsiders.

    3   Fortunately I have navigated some pretty unsteady waters during all of that, and kept my ship somewhat afloat.

    4   Long story, won’t bother you with it.

    5   It’s just as the semester steams its way to an end, everybody wants paperwork, meetings, and results of accountability NOW.

    6   And we teachers have somehow to keep planning, keep grading, and keep everything together while the students are going out of their minds with holiday glitz and glamour.

    7   Now drop a super-concert for Hurricane Sandy Relief and the bizarreness reaches the level of cosmic lunacy. Perhaps comic lunacy.

    8   I knew that the 12/12/12 Super Concert was on last night AND that it was for a good cause, but literally forgot about it because I was doing a refi.

    9   As has been the theme of the year, I had to be everywhere all at once doing things for everybody. I had no time to think about some concert.

    10  Let alone report on its weirdness.

    11  I think I got on board the thing right around when Eric Clapton played, and he did a marvelous job as always.

    12   I missed all the opening stuff with Springsteen and all.

    13   I also missed a lot of the backstage shenanigans and oddities that always accompany a sort of throw-together benefit concert.

    14   The Rolling Stones came out and did a Jack Flash that alerted the world they remain a powerful musical force. As always, I wondered if this was their last show.They disappeared just as fast as they arrived.

    15   I missed Bon Jovi joining Springsteen for Born to Run, but I read about it, and I’m glad that’s all I did, evidently. Springsteen later joined Bon Jovi on Who Says You Can’t Go Home. 

    16   I had visions of some weird dance group dancing to Roger Waters Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two, but maybe I was wandering around wondering where I was supposed to be.

    17   At one point Eddie Vedder glanced on the scene, but I was still wandering around wondering where I was supposed to be. Overwork will do that to a fellow.

    18   This is all out of order and just quick jabs and jaws, but the Who finally made it to a concert and sounded pretty nice. Roger Daltrey’s voice was steady, although he might have done all of us the favor of buttoning his shirt and perhaps changing his look. The grey hair and weird little sunglasses weren’t working. The music was.

    19   The Who brought the music, Townshend got away with his windmill playing, and they even had Keith Moon on video singing Bell Boy, which was awfully weirdly weird on an overall weird night.

    20   Kanye West came out and took it to the crowd, a powerfully intense performance.

    21   Then it seemed I sank into my couch, and sort of wondered what Paul McCartney would be up to.

    22   More bizarreness. I fell asleep for a bit, and then saw Sir Paul. I assumed Ringo would show, and perhaps Clapton and some others for a jam of some famous tunes.I remember the Concert for George, which did a spectacular job with that tribute.

    23  Instead, he did an extremely weird version of Helter Skelter (?), did a few Wings’ songs, and did Blackbird as we’ve always heard Blackbird. He then got into some sort of Nirvana reunion that looked and sounded like an explosion of onion soup to me.

    24   The entire thing was weird. These celeb all-star Save the World concerts used to be somewhat okay, and always bizarre considering all of the egos involved, but I guess it was all for a good cause.

    25   I realized that I somehow had to stay up during this bizarre tribute to Nirvana that was somehow taking place, and somehow get enough sleep and managed to look over enough notes to produce some form of reporting on the “event.’

    26   Alicia Keys sang beautifully, that much I can tell you. But it was way past everybody’s bedtime, including Coldplay’s. Chris Martin and Michael Stipe’s coming together on Losing My Religion seems a mid-winter night’s dream, and was a stabilizing moment.

    27   I won’t go into all the names and all the songs, because the entire thing was completely weird, sort of like taking a boat through some mythical underworld, Hades incarnate. I went to rock Hades, had a bit of fun, bit it was also pretty creepy, the entire scene.

    28   Old guys should just retire. Or at least button their shirts.

    29   Moving on, Part the First: I never thought I’d be able to pull off any report of the concert.

    30   I’m glad they all raised some money, but the days of the benefit concerts, which were ALWAYS bizarre, are I guess still eerily here.

    31   I’m surprised they didn’t bring out video of MJ, which would really have been Erebus incarnate.

    32   Keith Moon was enough.

    33   I think I am going to get back to sleep. It is into the 3 a.m. and I know I watched that weirdness, but I also know I somehow have to get more sleep before having my life run by everyone outside of it once again.

    34   I’m a bit afraid to go to sleep, because I’m afraid I will wind up sailing on the sea of the old rocker’s underworld, set afire by visions of Kanye in a skirt.

    35   Doesn’t matter.

    36   I need the rest.

    37   I will simply pull my metaphorical covers over my head, and it will all go away.

    38   I hope so.

    39   Have a GREAT day, and don’t think about the concert too much.

    40   They’ll probably have a DVD out within a week.

    41    Heaven help us all.

    42    I hope I never have to go through anything like that ever again.

    43   See you again.

    44    Peace.

    ~H~

    a a a cool guy 1 

    www.xanga.com/bharrington


  • a a a poppins 1 a distraught george banks

    WAIT A MINUTE.

    YOU UNFRIENDED ME?

    a a a keith 1 flash

    a a a bud's recruit 1 king vidor production a a a superman's pal 3 a day in the life a a a random german couple obviously in love 1  a a a la ronde 1 a a a katharine 1 a a a katharine 2 a a a creek 2 shadows a a a wall E 3 just around the riverbend  a a a peter max a a a peter max 2 a a a peter max 3 love a a a confused dog 2 two confused dogs a a a monstro 1 a a a mxyzptlk a a a grateful dead dancing bear a a a Giants 9 The Kid a a a Giants 9 Hunter Pence

    a a a vacay in Paris 1 The Family a a a Strong Bad 2 The System...Is Down a a a music 8 spots a a a music 7 swirl a a a music 5 Lovely Guitar I a a a music 1 I Wake Up Screaming a a a avengers 1 two of 'em a a a pedant 1 a a a wheels 1 the wheels have come off a a a einstein 1 a a a Baby Peggy in Captain January a a a Brooks 3 Sign This a a a King Kong 3 Fay Wray a a a King Kong 2 Empire State Building attack a a a King Kong 1 Fay Wray a a a spy v spy 1 a a a avengers 3 concept art a a a avengers 2 all of 'em a a a avengers 1 two of 'em a a a Strong Bad 1 I Use Technology a a a sanfranpsycho 2 nostradamus The Daily News

    1  I was practically out the door yesterday morning when some company informed me that three people had “unfriended” me on Facebook.

    2   It named names, but clearly names who would never “unfriend” me.

    3    For a dollar, it would give me the names of people who no longer thought I was a good friend.

    4    What a lark.

    5    Like I was going to wonder all day who couldn’t care less about me.

    6     Are you kiddin’ me here?

    7     All I thought was this: “Awesome. I have something to write about tomorrow!”

    8     Unfriend.

    9     What a concept.

    10    Pre-Facebook, we lose track of people.

    11    We get busy with the present, and we don’t exist in the past.

    12     We lose track of people, but personally I consider everybody I’ve ever enjoyed to be a friend for life, unconditionally.

    13    There is nothing more fun than when I walk into a restaurant, or a store, and run into an old acquaintance.

    14    It adds a charm to life, like revisiting a favorite movie.

    15    It’s hilarious to me that some company makes a dollar off revealing names of people who are so insecure that they have to “unfriend” people.

    16    That is a manufactured concept.

    17     It is SO inconsistent with the natural wave of things that I see it as almost pathetic.

    18     I’m too busy to even look up, let alone concern myself with someone who has “unfriended” me.

    19    People look.

    20    Life is too short for you to get all pissy about someone who hasn’t contacted you in a while.

    21   Honestly.

    22   You are probably always somewhere in their hearts.

    23    Get a hobby or something. Help out with a charitable cause. Pee in a cup.

    24    Don’t get angry about normal life operations.

    25    It’s ludicrous.

    26    I just want to say this: If you’ve ever come into my life, and we have had laughs, then you are my lifelong friend, unconditionally. Period.

    27    If we have lost track, it’s because that’s what life tends to do.

    28    The present dominates our lives. Whatever we are doing is what we need to be doing, whether it is working, or getting more college units, or taking care of the elderly, or simply going in a new direction. It’s who we are, and we often have little control over it.

    29   Moving on, Part the First: Facebook and social networking has changed the way we think.

    30   I see the whole thing as a lark, but I enjoy the entire concept that we can be re-acquainted with people from our past.

    31   It has its own language, and it is controlled, I’m quite sure, by sinister realms.

    32   It is also out of control. It makes a landscape all its own, and has brought in a language that is awkward and weird at best. The wheels have flown off life.

    33   So what.

    34   Bring it. I loves me some rotflmao.

    35   Lol.

    36    Who the hell talks like that?

    37    Thumb up. Like.

    38     Hilarious. And SO odd. But that’s the weirdness of how life has changed.

    39     It’s like someone flew airplanes over all our heads and sprayed us with stupidity.

    40     Moving on, Part the Second: In the past few weeks, I have run into people I haven’t seen in a while. In every case, it has been a sweet encounter. That’s normal. I have had people walk into my classroom after school and it’s always awesome.

    41   Throughout my career I have enjoyed running into people from my past.

    42    I have never considered anyone from my past not to be a part of my present.

    43    It is a genuine smile, and often a lot of laughs and memories.

    44    I pretty much love everyone I have ever met, even people who used to irritate me.

    45    Life’s short.

    46    People come and go.

    47    Don’t let the weird world of Facebook shake you up.

    48    Embrace this brave new world.

    49    As weird as it all is, it is now. It is where we have come.

    50    I has strange languages, and is filled with luncacy.

    51    When has this planet not?

    52     So to those three people who “unfriended” me, kindly friend me back, willya?

    53     I’m not losing a lot of sleep over it, and I still consider you an eternal friend.

    54     I’m glad I got to straighten that out.

    55     I was clearly beside myself. I will now remove my tongue from my cheek.

    56     Hope you all have a fun Wednesday.

    57    I know I will, now that I got that off my chest. I was clearly distraught and out of sorts. It’s all over me like a cheap coat.

    58    Live life.

    59    Love life.

    60    Forgive and forget.

    61    And don’t be stupid.

    62    Make someone happy.

    63    Peace.

    ~H~

    a a a cool guy 1 

    www.xanga.com/bharrington



    a a a bus 11 laurel and hardy

  • The Daily News
    1  So it is well into the five a.m. and I have had a spoonful of this space-age food called Nutella, and a re-heated cup of coffee. I have become George Jetson. 

    2   For whatever reason the new coffee pot didn’t cook, but I am Mr. Technology, as anyone knows, so I kept yesterday’s coffee in a glass on the sink soes that should the new coffee pot frown on my day, I could still do a re-heat, or an ice milk, depending on my mind frame.

    3   My mind frame is fine. I’ve just been battling technology since yesterday afternoon. 

    4   Listen: The last week of school right before Christmas should be eliminated from the planet.

    5   First off, it is dead week. Traditionally, Ponch and I would blast Grateful Dead music each morning of dead week. The students for the most part never made the connection, except the smart ones. 

    6   I couldn’t get that one off yesterday because the first day of dead week is explaining to the students why they are not entitled not to learn. 

    7   “Mr. Harrington, you’re teaching us new things this week? But it’s dead week!”

    8    Evidently I’m supposed to review everything they have learned since August this week. 

    9   Uh…no? 

    10   I sort of get that, but if you are a good teacher, you have been reviewing things each day, and each week. The entire concept of teaching something once, and the reviewing all of it after four months is archaic. 

    11  I don’t live in the past. 

    12  Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE visiting the past, but I don’t live there. 

    13  My feeling as a wise old fool is this: if five teachers go all the way back to August to exact revenge for all the goofing off students have done, then they should get into another profession. 

    14   We do have this wonderful sort of final that works with a brief review, and it is put out by the District. It’s called the Benchmark, and is a one-hour test, not a two-hour one.

    15  This week I am reviewing the grammar and reading stuff I taught, and that will certainly be on the Benchmark. I am confident that they will do fine. They always do.

    16  I am also moving forward with my lessons, teaching new things and new stories.

    17   The Benchmark keeps them in check, but doesn’t force a massive review that dates back to August. Rather it is a natural review of things that have been taught and already reviewed. It has little impact on the final grade, and really works as a nice review, at least in my kind eyes. 

    18   The students are frantic. They are being bloodied by vengeful sorts who think, “So…you didn’t want to pay attention to me! Well then!”

    19   I’m just kidding.

    20   There are teachers out there who do lick their chops at a sort of “getting even” game they have no idea they are playing. 

    21   I just keep teaching, and for a final I have them write about issues that came up in the course of the semester, usually involving literature. 

    22   It has little impact on their grades, but is instead a sort of ritual they must go through in order to land their semester grade. 

    23   It usually results in an awesome piece of writing, because students organically magnify their talents when they believe their semester grade rides on a piece of writing.

    24   It actually doesn’t.

    25   Not in my class. 

    26   My philosophy is this: their grade is pretty much already established. If you were a student in my class, and you have done all your work for the past four months, and that grade is accumulative, then it is probably the semester grade you will receive. If you are a baseball player, and your batting average is .302, then you will probably get a semester grade of .302. Make sense?

    27   My philosophy is that your semester grade should be based on the effort you put forth all semester, not on some tricky long test at the very end that could lower your average to .250, or raise it to .325. 

    28   My results?

    29   Each year my students produce a piece of writing that is well beyond what they have shown up to this point. They know to use the grammar/writing skills I have taught. I tell them that they need to put that stuff to work. 

    30   I know full well that they are trained to stress finals, and to put everything they have into them. It’s a part of the game. And a large part. 

    31   Even though their finals aren’t going to radically affect their grades, they know that this is reality. 

    32   I measure what they have learned grammatically on the less stressful Benchmark, which I give points for simply taking. It replaces a more stressful vocabulary test, so they are more relaxed when taking it. 

    33  That test measures their knowledge of grammar, and is examined by the District, and archived. It is the real final, in terms of what they have learned. 

    34   And they can be graded in one hour, since they are “bubble” tests. 

    35   The written finals can now be graded over the Christmas holiday, but I grade them rapidly, because there are fewer corrections needed on the simple basis that they are labeled a “final.”

    36   Seasoned veteran over here. 

    37   It is SO CIA. 

    38   Moving on, Part the First: All talk.

    39   So what is the down size of all this talk, do you ask?

    40   Technology.

    41   I use technology like a madman. I have always loved computers and all, but sometimes they just decide to fail. 

    42   In order to give the Benchmark, we need to go onto this website and get the answer sheets that go to the test. 

    43  The data base that I use took me all afternoon yesterday just to remember my password(s), and also had changed their entire format to meet a national audience. 

    44  I think. 

    45  All I know is that the links that are in a folder I made last year no longer exist. They included the instructions on how to acquire the answer sheets.

    46  I spent all afternoon trying to get the answer sheets to the Benchmark, and finally gave up and went home. 

    47   That’s a guy thing. We don’t ask for directions.

    48   I’ll ask someone for help today, but I was completely dazzled that clicking on “Help” was useless. Not user friendly at all. 

    49   I’m still going to cancel the vocab test Friday and pencil the Benchmark in as a replacement. I think the students will psychologically like that. The Benchmark is not a threat, even though it will maintain what they have learned in archives that stay for five years. I think five years. I don’t remember, honestly. 

    50   So this is intended to be a glimpse at finals from a seasoned teacher’s perspective. 

    51   I used to make long tests with hundreds of questions. I used to have a revenge sort of mindset. Here is what happened: the students would finish the test within an hour, and I would have a second hour to babysit. I couldn’t put on a movie, or do anything because the test technically takes two hours, and there would ALWAYS be students who would not finish. 

    52  Instant zoo. 

    53  So as of this writing, I’m still trying to figure out a way to get those answer sheets run and ready. Once we have them, they are keyed, and in the system. Right now, they have changed the system to something that makes no sense. 

    54   That’s where I am on this Tuesday morning. Oh, and I’m pretty short on lesson plans because all my time got eaten up yesterday. 

    55  I’m goin’ in. No fear. I’ll dazzle them with charm, and with just hanging in there lookin’ purty. 

    56  Wish me luck.

    57   Gottago. That’s finals. That’s the way they go down from the perspective of this Old Brown Shoe. 

    58   Inside look.

    59   See you again.

    60   Peace. 

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington













  •  
    The Daily News
    1   Mondays.

    2   Is there anything on Earth that arrives faster than a Monday?

    3   It is the gunslinger of days of the week. 

    4   I let down my guard on Friday, having had meetings and school events gobbling up my entire week last week. I even relaxed a bit after school, watched a one-act play, and then watched the students put together this thing called Winterfest, which is a eupemism for Christmas-at-the-School. 

    5   Wonderful afternoon. The play, Las Nuevas Tamaleras by Alicia Mena, featured two of my students from last year who decided to join the crew of Grease, just to see what drama was like. 

    6   They both were a bit shy, but decided it might be fun. 

    7   I wound up spending a lot of time talking to them during rehearsals on that show. 

    8    On Friday, they came out on stage and did a wonderful job of acting in this short play. It began at 3:30 in the afternoon and was a perfect end to a hectic week. 

    9   Both girls did a powerful job of acting, and had me more proud than I’ve been in quite a while. Good to see. Another of my current students did a marvelous job on sound. It was good to see.

    10  After the play, I watched the school clubs decorate the entire school with a Winterfest theme. 

    11  It looked deliciously like a Christmas theme, only politically correct in name. 

    12  Food cooked, dancers practiced, lights twinkled, and the sun set. 

    13   What a break from all the tension of the week!

    14   I went home and didn’t touch any school work. The ultimate Friday.

    15   I then blinked, and it was 1 a.m. on a Monday morning. 

    16   That fast. 

    17    I understand that everybody seems to be going through the same things. 

    18    I love the holidays, but yeesh. All this relaxing gets hectic pretty fast. 

    19    I spent all day yesterday grading things and planning lessons. Saturday I spent hospital visiting.

    20    Monday has arrived in a flash.

    21    Moving on, Part the First: The Niners won the game despite their coach yesterday. 

    22   Harbaugh has a weakness. It showed. His contempt for referees was monstrous when we had the sub refs, and he kept throwing challenge flags, even though he didn’t have any more challenges, as some of you might remember. 

    23   Yesterday he almost challenged himself out of a football game. 

    24   His use of time outs was ridiculous. He acted like a madman. He didn’t trust his hot hand to get the plays off on time.

    25   We old-school football guys rolled our eyes. 

    26   Using up time outs is something that traditionally would come back to haunt. 

    27   He called time outs all day, and challenged plays that were, in my opinion, two close to waste a time out. 

    28   Fortunately, his guys got the job done despite some of those bonehead decisions.

    29   I still respect Harbaugh as a coach. He is clearly better than his two predecessors. 

    30   The past two weeks have shown that the guy is human, and prone to issues. 

    31   Is the honeymoon over?

    32   I think so. Just a bit. He has an immature streak that is difficult not to see.

    33   He must be kicking himself right now. 

    34   The bottom line is that the team won. 

    35   I don’t mean to criticize, but Bill Walsh would never have made the errors this guy did in two successive weeks. 

    36   But Bill Walsh is Bill Walsh, one of the greatest coaches in the history of the NFL. 

    37   They all make mistakes, although I can’t think of too many that Walsh made, and certainly not in successive weeks. 

    38   Right now, I’ll enjoy Harbaugh. I like almost everything I have seen about him, if you scratch these past two weeks. 

    39   He is also learning. He isn’t stupid. His loopy media stuff with the quarterback change was tad insulting to fans who wanted to know what he was doing. 

    40   Beyond that, I am just shy of pulling way away from second guessing most of his stuff. 

    41   But the boy clearly has issues. Setting the refs up for blame is almost shameless. I’d rather have these guys than those Boy Scouts we had at the beginning of the season. 

    42    Right now I have one eyebrow raised. I don’t mean to judge, but this is a guy who dares one to judge. I will judge based on common sense. 

    43   You don’t waste time outs and use the clock awkwardly in the NFL. You’ll get trounced. And the three-and-outs appear not to be the work of the quarterback, because they have happened with two different quarterbacks.

    44   Will this stuff come back to haunt the Niners in the playoffs?

    45   Big time. And that is only if they reach the playoffs.

    46   I assume they will, but I’m hoping the coach can coach himself out of those father issues. 

    47   Dude. 

    48   Don’t take that anger out on the refs. 

    49   Look in the mirror and coach yourself. 

    50   Someone needs to tell you. 

    51   We like you. But we are now a bit suspect. 

    52   Take care of that crap. 

    53   Moving On, Part the Second: When Frank Gore shot into the end zone in the third quarter, he matched Roger Craig and Joe Perry’s record of 50 career touchdowns. Those are some big Niner names, good company. Aldon Smith‘s 33 1/2 sacks his first two years is the most in the history of the league for a guy in his first two seasons.

    54   All good signs.


    55    Welp, Monday got here in a blur. I gotta wash up and get outta here. Love to stay but not today.

    56    Have a nice Monday. Fly low.


    57    See you again.  

    58    Peace.


    ~H~


    www.xanga.com/bharrington












  •     The Daily News

    1  Worked minor lights for our music concert last night.

    2  The Venerable Professor Barnhill once again lit up the night sky with some of the best young musicians walking around.

    3  Long, brilliant performance. There’s a reason our Wind Ensemble has been to Carnegie Hall twice.

    4  


    5   Music is Love.

    6   See you again. Concert went WAY late. LOVED it, LOVE me some music.

    7   Love music.

    8    For reals. Gotta keep it short today. Music. Think you, music. Love, love, love music.

    9    I smiled all last night, did some toe-tapping.

    10   Music.

    11    Gottago. Have a great weekend. Fill it with music.

    12    Peace.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington