Teachers’ Protest in Wisconsin
The spectacle of teachers protesting in the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, demonstrates the very reason I was not a member of a union when I taught school for thirty years. (I was a member the first year, but never again.) I looked upon teaching as a profession, not just a job. If the rest of them had marched in strike, I would have gone to my classroom to teach anyway. If no student showed up, I would have stayed there till my regular time was ended for the day. I understood the others would have called me a scab. Who cares about that?
As I think this blog already states somewhere, I explained to the high school seniors I taught that they could look into salary schedules, insurance, tenure, etc., in any school district before opting even to train to become a teacher. It doesn’t make sense to me to have such information and then, at the drop of a hat, start striking for higher pay or for certain other advantages. What they should have been protesting for a long while is the scandalous amount of money poured into education in this country with the results sinking lower and lower each year. They pay taxes too. Don’t they care? We are not getting our money’s worth out of today’s public schools. It is a shame on the part of many, a crime of a few. ♥
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Current Danger Zones and My Family
With one grandson working in Libya, with his wife and baby son there too, and with another grandson studying in Mexico City for one semester (part of his junior year at West Point), I try to keep up with what’s transpiring in those areas. I wrote to Robby to suggest they stay out of the streets in Tripoli, and discovered him and his family at Malta, which they like to visit. Friends are keeping him clued in about conditions “back home.”
My guess is that West Point is keeping an eye out for the safety of its students abroad. But I’ll be glad when both grandsons are safely back in the States.
One of my sons is working in western Australia and his wife is with him. That sounds like a much safer place to be at the present time. The countries that speak English—because England was once there—seem safer for Americans.
There is really no safe place anymore, is there? But of the places that exist, the USA is the very best place on earth to be.
♥
With one grandson working in Libya, with his wife and baby son there too, and with another grandson studying in Mexico City for one semester (part of his junior year at West Point), I try to keep up with what’s transpiring in those areas. I wrote to Robby to suggest they stay out of the streets in Tripoli, and discovered him and his family at Malta, which they like to visit. Friends are keeping him clued in about conditions “back home.”
My guess is that West Point is keeping an eye out for the safety of its students abroad. But I’ll be glad when both grandsons are safely back in the States.
One of my sons is working in western Australia and his wife is with him. That sounds like a much safer place to be at the present time. The countries that speak English—because England was once there—seem safer for Americans.
There is really no safe place anymore, is there? But of the places that exist, the USA is the very best place on earth to be.
♥
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Sounds Like Science Fiction but It Isn’t
So, someone is working on creating a button that our president and all future presidents may press that will cut off all communications by computer in the entire country in what are deemed times of international emergency. Why do I have the feeling that all those who clamor for freedom of speech and of the press with regard to everything else will not be crusading against this? I heard this just today and the spokesman wasn’t talking about Iran.
♥
So, someone is working on creating a button that our president and all future presidents may press that will cut off all communications by computer in the entire country in what are deemed times of international emergency. Why do I have the feeling that all those who clamor for freedom of speech and of the press with regard to everything else will not be crusading against this? I heard this just today and the spokesman wasn’t talking about Iran.
♥
Shepard Smith on Fox News
All the other television networks probably wish Fox News’s Shepard Smith worked for them instead. Shep is just tops. He’s young, good-looking, and has a great sense of humor, the best ad-libber around. I like it when he gives the time or the weather, or something similar, and adds how it is in Oxford. He doesn’t mean Oxford, England, but Oxford, Mississippi. I think he’s from Mississippi and likely, from Oxford. I love it. Way to go, Shep.
Better yet, Shep shows a sympathetic heart when he reports disasters. Fox seems to call him in especially to report on these events. At times it seems his heart is breaking. Now my guess is journalists are taught not to show emotions in their reporting and perhaps all the other reporters should obey this rule. But Shep is unique. He’s never maudlin. His viewers must appreciate his tender comments as well as his humor, or Fox wouldn’t be the most popular network on cable with a constantly growing audience.
One day I caught sight of him running to get to his assigned spot to start the newscast. Only Shep could do that with audience delight. Imagine Wolf Blitzer doing that! Is that the guy’s name?
Shep gives the news twice a day [if more, I don’t know about it], from 1:00 to 2:00 p. m., Mountain Time, and from 5:00 to 6:00 in the evening.
I’m not sure Shep has a law degree, as many of the Fox staffers do, even those young blond consultants who look like college coeds. But he doesn’t need a law degree; he reports, you decide [to coin an original slogan].
Young ladies reading me, if you need a job, get a law degree, become a bleached blonde, and apply at Fox News. Everyone there seems happy, at least on the screen.
♥
All the other television networks probably wish Fox News’s Shepard Smith worked for them instead. Shep is just tops. He’s young, good-looking, and has a great sense of humor, the best ad-libber around. I like it when he gives the time or the weather, or something similar, and adds how it is in Oxford. He doesn’t mean Oxford, England, but Oxford, Mississippi. I think he’s from Mississippi and likely, from Oxford. I love it. Way to go, Shep.
Better yet, Shep shows a sympathetic heart when he reports disasters. Fox seems to call him in especially to report on these events. At times it seems his heart is breaking. Now my guess is journalists are taught not to show emotions in their reporting and perhaps all the other reporters should obey this rule. But Shep is unique. He’s never maudlin. His viewers must appreciate his tender comments as well as his humor, or Fox wouldn’t be the most popular network on cable with a constantly growing audience.
One day I caught sight of him running to get to his assigned spot to start the newscast. Only Shep could do that with audience delight. Imagine Wolf Blitzer doing that! Is that the guy’s name?
Shep gives the news twice a day [if more, I don’t know about it], from 1:00 to 2:00 p. m., Mountain Time, and from 5:00 to 6:00 in the evening.
I’m not sure Shep has a law degree, as many of the Fox staffers do, even those young blond consultants who look like college coeds. But he doesn’t need a law degree; he reports, you decide [to coin an original slogan].
Young ladies reading me, if you need a job, get a law degree, become a bleached blonde, and apply at Fox News. Everyone there seems happy, at least on the screen.
♥
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Drug Alert: Don’t Overdo It
As a writer, my fiction mostly connected with crime, I eagerly grasp every little fact about crime that I catch on television or anywhere else. It’s one method of research. I just heard a goodie of this sort, but actually it’s a fact everyone should be aware of. Here it is:
A Tylenol overdose is one of the most painful deaths anyone can experience, for it takes about one week to destroy the liver which is what the drug does if taken in overdose. No mention of how many of them constitute an overdose. Take care.
♥
As a writer, my fiction mostly connected with crime, I eagerly grasp every little fact about crime that I catch on television or anywhere else. It’s one method of research. I just heard a goodie of this sort, but actually it’s a fact everyone should be aware of. Here it is:
A Tylenol overdose is one of the most painful deaths anyone can experience, for it takes about one week to destroy the liver which is what the drug does if taken in overdose. No mention of how many of them constitute an overdose. Take care.
♥
Monday, February 14, 2011
What I Actually Did
I did whack off my hair to a length I can function with and then I wrote another story for the contests. The assigned theme was “Footprints on the Ceiling.” What a ball I had writing it! When I first read this assignment, I was sure I could not imagine any footprints on the ceiling, but I did.
But let me tell you how I cut my hair. I merely divided it down the middle at the back, then brought one half of it toward the left ear in one point and with barber’s scissors cut off about an inch of it. Then the other side the same way. Took about a minute. Could have done it in the dark.
♥
I did whack off my hair to a length I can function with and then I wrote another story for the contests. The assigned theme was “Footprints on the Ceiling.” What a ball I had writing it! When I first read this assignment, I was sure I could not imagine any footprints on the ceiling, but I did.
But let me tell you how I cut my hair. I merely divided it down the middle at the back, then brought one half of it toward the left ear in one point and with barber’s scissors cut off about an inch of it. Then the other side the same way. Took about a minute. Could have done it in the dark.
♥
Jane Austen and I
Happy Valentine's Day to all my readers.
It’s perfectly clear to me why Jane Austen did not reveal in her novels what was going on in the real world and she didn’t have television to interfere with the process of her art. For the past few weeks the action in Tucson, in Egypt, and now in Iran, has distracted me to the point of almost forgetting I have a blog to feed. It’s not easy to perform in the real world and at the same time in the writing world of which blogging is the smallest part. A bigger surprise is that the reading has dragged too. Now, if someone(s) would just straighten out the problems of the real world, it would help in more than one way.
It’s time for writing and mailing in our entries for this year’s Idaho Writer’s [sic] League writing contests and I have worked today on that project. Not with quite the same enthusiasm as that of last year, but that will come. I suppose. One does not wait for inspiration, of course, but just starts writing and inspiration shows up sooner or later. Then one can chop off all that writing without the inspiration and proceed with what’s left. Today I cut down the current story from 3,669 words to 3,498 to fit the limit of 3,500 words. That is fun and tightening up the wording is great first-aid. But to get on with it, I’m going to a mirror and cut my hair short. Then I can write with more ease and my stylist can finish the job next Thursday.
♥
Happy Valentine's Day to all my readers.
It’s perfectly clear to me why Jane Austen did not reveal in her novels what was going on in the real world and she didn’t have television to interfere with the process of her art. For the past few weeks the action in Tucson, in Egypt, and now in Iran, has distracted me to the point of almost forgetting I have a blog to feed. It’s not easy to perform in the real world and at the same time in the writing world of which blogging is the smallest part. A bigger surprise is that the reading has dragged too. Now, if someone(s) would just straighten out the problems of the real world, it would help in more than one way.
It’s time for writing and mailing in our entries for this year’s Idaho Writer’s [sic] League writing contests and I have worked today on that project. Not with quite the same enthusiasm as that of last year, but that will come. I suppose. One does not wait for inspiration, of course, but just starts writing and inspiration shows up sooner or later. Then one can chop off all that writing without the inspiration and proceed with what’s left. Today I cut down the current story from 3,669 words to 3,498 to fit the limit of 3,500 words. That is fun and tightening up the wording is great first-aid. But to get on with it, I’m going to a mirror and cut my hair short. Then I can write with more ease and my stylist can finish the job next Thursday.
♥
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)