This is Week 36 of 2010►Day 249 with 116 days left.
FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
It’s the Labor Day Weekend. The end of summer and a day to honor all those laborers who make this country work. With the financial mess this country is in, it is important to remember that the real people who built this country are the hard working 8-5 who built the buildings and the infrastructure, made the discoveries, and never really became rich. Most of the rich have made it hard for the workers—paying low wages, demanding long hours without overtime, fighting health benefits and regulations. When BP discovers oil, it is the workers who found it. When technology grows by leaps and bounds it is the worker who puts the computers together. It is the greedy executives who much of the money. For decades there was always a pay difference between the worker and the execs. In the last five years the CEO salary has risen to more than 1000 times that of the average worker in the company. Some CEO’s had a 42% jump in salary as they laid off large numbers of workers. So, on this Labor Day weekend, let’s honor the workers who continue to make this country operate on a day to day basis.
When I graduated from college, in 1971, there was an oversupply of teachers. Finding a job was not easy. I was lucky in that I was offered three teaching jobs. Luckily I made the right choice for my life. I certainly learned that education is cyclical. Teaching methods, testing, instructional times for each subject, class size, classroom discipline, and anything else connected to education reinvents itself every ten to twenty years. This week CNN and NPR both ran a series of pieces on education in America. I certainly get it that there is no one answer to teach groups of individuals and good educational leaders are always trying to improve education. Many times all that has happened is that a new lexicon has been written. I was disheartened as I listened to the results of the 2010 teacher overage. Schools have been following a business model for most of the last decade. They are still hiring much of their staff after the school year begins. A new teacher--whether just out of college or changing grade or changing school or changing district—needs time to adjust to the new environment. This learning should not be taking place during the time students are in the classroom. Any teacher entering mid-term will have a host of problems. Students will have set the climate of the classroom because they are the only thing stable in that classroom. Having one temporary teacher or a constantly changing line of temporary teachers is not a good educational environment. People outside the educational culture do not get this. Hiring usually takes place in the days or maybe a few weeks before classes begin. Most districts are still hiring after the first month of classes. I was very fortunate in my first job. My students had been in class for a month when I arrived. There was a classroom aide and a Teacher Corps intern who had been with them since day one. My entrance did not change that. Both remained in the room for the remainder of that school year. This seldom happened in any school back then and doesn’t happen today either. I believe that the school leaders have not learned much about school culture in the last forty years. If the goal is to have THE teacher in every classroom on the first day of school, student learning would improve. Until that happens, we will continue to spin our wheels to improve education. If every teacher had a couple of days to set up the classroom, a couple more to learn about the school culture, and have their classroom set up and ready on Day One, we would see improvement. As long as the classroom teacher is seen only as the adult in the classroom, things will not change.
Flag…H—81°; L—49°; RH--31%; and a light wind of 17mph—a little windy as I read Sunday paper on the deck.
QUOTE FOR THE DAY
Anais Ninn: When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.
HOLY MACKEREL: 1959 The first Barbie Doll was sold by Mattel Toy Corporation. Today they are sold in 150 countries at a rate of 2 dolls per second.
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION on Picasso
▬Pablo Picasso was born Pablo Ruiz on October 25, 1881
▬On May 4, 2004 Picasso's painting Garcon à la Pipe (Boy With a Pipe) was sold for USD $104 million at Sotheby's, establishing a new price record.
▬Picasso once said, "Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don’t start measuring her limbs."
▬After the Second World War, Picasso joined the French Communist party.
▬Georges Braque, a French painter, was Picasso's partner in the creation of the Cubist style
GREY MATTER PUZZLE 1—Jeopardy Answers: Potent Potables
$100-In 1935 Kreuger's Cream Ale was the first beer sold in these
$200-Never swallowing, they sip, swish, gargle, then spit out what they sample
$300-This 19th century Philadelphia distiller's name became slang for liquor
$400-Derived from Hindu word for "5", describing number of ingredients mixed in a large bowl
$500-C2H5OH
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM
SURREY, British Columbia - A Canadian woman said her 14-year-old cat, which disappeared during a recent move, turned out to have spent five days hiding inside a box spring. Anne Green said Augustus the ginger tom disappeared Aug. 5 while movers were packing up her family's old Edmonton, Alberta, home for a move to Surrey, British Columbia, The Vancouver Sun reported. Green said her family searched their old neighborhood for days and the movers checked the contents of their truck, but there was no sign of the orange cat. Green said she decided to search the truck herself when it arrived in Surrey eight days after it was packed. "Al, the driver, got out of the truck and asked if we'd found him. I said no and asked if I could walk into the van and look for him," she said. "I didn't think it would do any good but I called his name and then I heard this little meow. I shouted 'He's here' and they all came running and we found him in the box spring, which had been completely wrapped in plastic." Green said Augustus has since taken to the box spring as his favorite hiding spot.
A LITTLE LAUGH
If Kitty Carlisle married Conway Twitty, she'd be Kitty Twitty.
If Yoko Ono married Sonny Bono, she'd be Yoko Ono Bono.
If Dolly Parton married Salvador Dali, she'd be Dolly Dali.
If Oprah Winfrey married Depak Chopra, she'd be Oprah Chopra.
If Olivia Newton-John married Wayne Newton, then divorced him to marry Elton John, she'd be Olivia Newton-John Newton John.
If Sondra Locke married Elliott Ness, then divorced him to marry Herman Munster, she'd become Sondra Locke Ness Munster.
If Bea Arthur married Sting, she'd be Bea Sting.
If Liv Ullman married Judge Lance Ito, then divorced him and married Jerry Mathers, she'd be Liv Ito Beaver.
If Ivana Trump married, in succession, Orson Bean (actor), King Oscar (of Norway), Louis B. Mayer (of MGM), and Norbert Wiener (mathematician), she would then be Ivana Bean Oscar Mayer Wiener.
GREY MATTER PUZZLE 2--Riddle
The warden tells the prisoner he will be hung if he lies about his crime. The guard tells him he will be shot if he tells the truth. What will be the prisoner's fate?
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’
Pablo Picasso clips: Click Here to See!
GREY MATTER PICTURE
This is a close up of what object?
SOME CALENDAR INFORMATION
¤ Weekly Observances ¤
1-8: Self-University Week and International Enthusiasm Week
5-11: National Waffle Week AND Suicide Prevention Week AND National Payroll Week
¤ Today’s Observances ¤
Fight Procrastination Day
Stillbirth Remembrance Day
Bulgaria: Unification Day: Eastern Rumelia and Bulgaria in 1885
Pakistan : Defense Day
Swaziland : Somhlolo Day/Independence Day (1968 from UK)
US: Labor Day: Federal Holiday since 1894: to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations," followed by a festival for the workers and their families.
¤ Hit Songs on this date ¤
1895...The Band Played On...Dan Quinn
1925...Yes Sir! That's My Baby...Gene Austin
1935...I’m in the Mood for Love...Little Jack Little Click Here to Hear!
1955...The Yellow Rose of Texas...Mitch Miller Click Here to Hear!
1965...Help! ...The Beatles Click Here to Hear!
1975...Rhinestone Cowboy...Glen Campbell Click Here to Hear!
¤ Today’s Births ¤
╬ THE ARTS
Jeff Foxworthy, 52, comedian, actor (“The Jeff Foxworthy Show”), author (No Shirt, No Shoes … No Problem), born Atlanta, GA
♦♦♦♦♦♦
Leo Carrillo, actor (Pancho-Cisco Kid) …born 1881…Los Angeles, CA
Jane Curtin, 63, actress (“Saturday Night Live,” “3rd Rock from the Sun”), comedienne, born Cambridge, MA
Swoosie Kurtz, 66, actress (“Sisters,” The World According to Garp; Tony for The House of Blue Leaves), born Omaha, NE
Rosie Perez, 46, actress (King of the Jungle, White Men Can’t Jump), born Brooklyn, NY
Carol Wayne, actress: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Scavenger Hunt, Heartbreakers…born 1942…Chicago, IL
Jo Anne Worley, 73, comedienne, actress (“Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”), born Lowell, IA
╬ ATHLETICS
Alex Escobar, 32, baseball player (Rockies, Mets, Indians, Nationals)…born Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela
╬ BUSINESS & EDUCATION
Joseph P Kennedy, financier/diplomat, father of JFK, RFK & Teddy…born 1888…Boston, MA
Elizabeth Vargas, 48, television journalist… born Paterson, NJ
╬ POLITICS
John Dalton, chemist, developed atomic theory of matter and researched color blindness…born 1766… Eaglesfield, Cumberland, England
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, a Canadian founding father…born 1817… Chelsea, England
James Melville Gilliss, founded Naval Observatory in Washington…born 1811…Georgetown, Washington DC
Marquis de Lafayette (Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier), American patriot, French revolutionary…born 1757… Paris, France
╬ SCIENCE & RELIGION
Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, founder of US Lutheran church…born 1711… Hanover,Germany
Susumu Tonegawa, 71, Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist [1987]: discovered how the body can defend itself against millions of different diseases it has never before encountered…born Nagoya, Japan
¤ Today’s Obituaries ¤
Tom Fogerty, American singer (CCR), aids @ 49 in 1990
Pres William McKinley assassinated by Leon Czologosz @ 58 in 1901
Margaret Sanger, American birth control activist @ 87 in 1966
Ernest Tubb, singer (Grand Ole Opry), @ 70 in 1984
¤ Today’s Events ¤
╬ THE ARTS
1958 Actor Steve McQueen starred on the CBS-TV series, Wanted: Dead or Alive.
╬ ATHLETICS
1920 1st radio broadcast of a prizefight
1920 The first prizefight broadcast on radio featured Jack Dempsey knocking out Billy Miske in the third round of a bout in Benton Harbor, MI.
1963 Major league baseball’s 100,000th game
╬ BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1819 Thomas Blanchard of Springfield, MA patented a machine called the lathe. Blanchard said it was invented for the manufacturing of gun stocks. His lathe did the work of 13 operators.
1869 1st westbound train arrives in SF
1899 Carnation processes its 1st can of evaporated milk
╬ INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1689 Two hundred Indian survivors of King Philip's War have found refuge with the local Indians around Cochecho (modern Dover), New Hampshire.
1861 A Yamparika Chief and another Comanche sign a treaty with Union representative at Fort Wise, Colorado (near Lamar, CO).
╬ POLITICS (US)
1628 Puritans land at Salem, from Mass Bay Colony
1839 Great fire in NY
1853 Women's Rights Convention met (NYC)
1876 Race riot in Charleston SC
╬ POLITICS (International)
1620 Pilgrims set sail from Plymouth England to the New World
1941 All Jews over age 6 in German territories ordered to wear a star
1948 Juliana becomes queen of the Netherlands
1997 The Westminster Abbey funeral for Diana, Princess of Wales
╬ SCIENCE & RELIGION
1909 Word received, Adm Peary discovers North Pole 5 months earlier
GREY MATTER ANSWERS
↔ 1
$100-In 1935 Kreuger's Cream Ale was the first beer sold in these: What are cans?
$200-Never swallowing, they sip, swish, gargle, then spit out what they sample: Who are wine tasters?
$300-This 19th century Philadelphia distiller's name became slang for liquor: Who was Booze? (Philadelphia distiller E.G. Booze)
$400-Derived from Hindu word for "5", describing number of ingredients mixed in a large bowl: What is punch?
$500-C2H5OH: What is alcohol—the drinking kind?
↔ 2
Neither. If he doesn't say anything.
↔ PICTURE
A honey (bear) bottle
TODAY’S NATIONAL PARK PHOTO SHOTS
Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, 22nd National Park since May 25, 1926: With 365 miles (587 km) of passageways mapped, Mammoth Cave is by far the longest cave system in the world. Cave animals include five bat species, the Kentucky cave shrimp, cave fish, and cave salamanders. Above ground there are rivers, hiking trails, sinkholes, and springs.
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