Walmart, 2009:
What do you think it says?
My observations:
1. Behold the purchasing power of moms, the obvious target in this ad. It appears that Dad's main responsibility might be to lift heavy objects or drive to the move-in. In this ad, he appears to be hanging out somewhere on campus grabbing a coffee at Java Joe's while Mom handles the emotional stuff. Let's hope he's not staring at co-eds. It's obvious, though, that Mom buys the stuff.
2. My children did not come running after me for one last hug. If only I had bought neon storage cubes for the rooms, perhaps they would have been loathe to see me go.
3. Apparently, dorm rooms are gigantical and very pristine looking. Still, the brightness and cleanliness of this room makes the daughter insecure.
4. Inexplicably, moms feel that buying coordinating pillows will help make everything all right. What happens when the roommate moves in with her not-so-coordinating Japanese anime themed stuff?
5. The moms will perfectly fold all towels and place them perfectly in drawers. Moms will make up the bed. So what is the kid doing?
Target, 2008--
Observations:
1. These two will end up killing each other before the first semester ends.
2. It was sly of Target to try to get matriculating freshmen to coordinate their rooms. ("We'll have to get it all at Target so that it will coordinate!")
3. Guys don't care if they coordinate. They don't even need sheets or seating. They just need food.
Finally, I'm leaving you with two of my favorite back to school commercials ever.
Although this one has been done to death, the final scene always makes me laugh.
This one is probably my favorite because it features Eddie Steeples of "My Name is Earl" and a great Spinners song. "Hand me down my walkin' cane; hand me down my hat. Hurry now, don't be late 'cause we ain't got time to chat." LOVE it!
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Smoking Spot
At the High School of Commerce
Recently I was in Springfield, waiting for the bus in front of the noble High School of Commerce, which is where I graduated from. People who attended that school, at least from my era, are very insistent that the school always be referred to as "The High School of" and not "Commerce High" although the distinction may not be clear to non-Commerce graduates or younger people. It dates to the time when the Springfield High Schools were divided up into schools with specific goals. There was Classical, which focused on the liberal arts, Technical High, which featured technology and science, Catherdral which offered a religious education and Trade High, for those seeking jobs in the trades. It was a model praised and copied nationwide for its effectiveness.
The High School of Commerce was the school for those who were going into fields related to business. Therefore it was important that the name reveal what the school was all about - Commerce was not just what the school was called, but also its educational goal. Therefore only the phrase "High School of Commerce" clearly identifies its primary purpose. Sadly, the very successful division of schools by academic purpose was abolished in the 1980's. Today, there is no distinctive business related purpose behind the Commerce curriculum. But enough people still remember the original goals of the school so that a reporter for the Springfield Newspapers told me that to this day, whenver a reporter (usually a rookie) mistakenly refers to "Commerce High," they still get angry phone calls from High School of Commerce graduates correcting them.
When I went to Commerce in the 1970's the student body was traditionally predominantly African-American. Black people were attracted to Commerce because business is a field where you can overcome discrimination. As longs as you have a good product and good service at a good price you can make money no matter what your racial background, since no one discriminates against a good buy. The principal at that time, a gruff white guy named Phillip Sweeney, used to talk to the black students of my day in a way no one would dare to do today. He would bluntly tell them that the deck of life was stacked against them, something they no doubt already knew, but which the students and their parents were glad to hear a white man in authority admit. He would tell the black students in the frankest terms that they would have to work harder, study more and fool around less than the white kids because that's what was required to overcome the hurdles of discrimination. Sweeney refused to allow anyone to use racism as an excuse for failure, and the students and their parents loved him for it. Year after year the High School of Commerce was the number one school choice of the black community.
But eventually Sweeney retired and the school department got taken over by liberal Democrats who sneered at the concept of a "business school." Even Sweeney's legacy came under attack, with self-proclaimed black leaders complaining that a school with a large black population should not be run by a white man. Besides, what good was a business education when every good leftist knew that socialism was the wave of the future? The business curriculum was dismantled and Commerce soon became a testing ground for every crackpot educational theory that came down the pike. By the 1990's the High School of Commerce was considered the worst in the city, with a faculty member once sending me this tragic account of a typical day in the new Commerce.
Friday, Feb. 13th, the day before Valentine's, bouquets, balloons, chocolates, teddy bears and skippers were all over the hallways. Outside my classroom, a group of students hung out, kissed and fooled around. Some of them even threw themselves onto the window of my classroom door, making faces, sticking up their middle fingers and shouting obscenities. Most of the morning was like this. I called the office to report the chaos, but no one showed up to help. I opened the door and attempted to send the disruptive students away several times. This seemed to amuse them and provoked even more outrageous behavior, which excited them even more.
Finally it was my lunch break. I was walking upstairs when a boy, with a hood and a dark robe covering his entire body and face approached. He looked like a character from the movie, "The Lord of the Rings." Another student passed me and reported that my room had been blasted by raw eggs. I felt terrible. I rushed down to my classroom only to find the custodian, Bob Mulcahey, kneeling down and wiping off the eggs dripping down the glass from the door to the floor. He told me that not only had my room been targeted. There were egg whites and yolks everywhere in the hallway; on the student's lockers, on the walls and floor and on the door of the attendance officer's office. It was a disgusting mess, Bob told me, shaking his head, but he also assured me that it was not aimed at me personally.
A moment later, in the same hallway, there was a loud bang. A fist cracked the window of the classroom next to mine into fine lines like a spider web. One teenager fled the scene followed by a small group of others. A Quebec officer and an assistant principal chased after them.
This was not an extraordinary day in the High School of Commerce. Nothing was very different than previous days, except on this day there were fresh eggs. The day before, pepper spray in the boy's bathrooms prevented student access. Last month, students in the halls repeatedly discharged fire extinguishers. A bulletin board was set on fire forcing school evacuation. The school was evacuated again when a girl's room in the A building was set on fire. Small fires spring up all the time, so often that the school merely doused the fires and did not bother to report them to the fire marshall. Additionally, water fountains, bathroom fixtures and handrails have been ripped from the walls. One teacher on the first floor recently had his door kicked so hard that it cracked across the middle.
These events don't occur in isolation. Disorder is routine. A female student recently hit me as I was attempting to protect one girl from being viciously attacked by another. I have gone into the Principals office to protest an administrator's disciplinary decisions. I sent a student who was striking a cigarette lighter in front of a bulletin board to the office. For two days, the administrator had taken no action because I had not provided an eyewitness. Ulitmately, another eyewitness came forward, yet the punishment was minimal, in spite of a recent spate of fires. Of course, all my referrals for truants were left unattended due to "overwhelming problems in the hallway," as responded one administrator to my inquiry.
I've heard the school has improved considerably in recent years, but frankly it had no where to go but up. On the sidewalk in front of Commerce someone has sprayed this message.
As I stood waiting for the bus I noticed that across the street they have torn up the steps that used to be there and removed the historic monument to General Knox.
I guess they were removed as part of the renovations underway on State Street. This is what the historic monument looked like.
I hope the monument is returned to that spot, but of course the old steps will not be. That's a shame. Those steps were the central pre-school socializing spot for Commerce students getting off the bus. Generations of future husbands met future wives on those steps, with all the gossip and discussions of the teenage world carried on from the early years of the last century until the steps were removed earlier this year. I guess the planners behind the renovations didn't realize the powerful historic and nostalgic meaning of those steps.
One of the big controversies of my time at Commerce was over smoking. Students were always smoking cigarettes in the bathrooms, with all the mess and smell that creates, until the student council, of which I was a member, suggested that there ought to be a place outside for the students to smoke. This was in the years before the health nazis had made smoking a total social disgrace.
Even students like myself, who didn't smoke, favored this policy, if only because it seemed like we were winning some sort of victory over the dispproving adults. Many of these adults pointed out the obvious truth that having an official smoking spot might encourage students to smoke and therefore damage their health. We bristled with contempt at such a common sense observation. Our teenage spirits wanted to be free, and somehow drawing toxic chemicals into our lungs like dumb adults do had become a symbol of freedom.
Amazingly, the adults eventually caved in. Reluctantly Sweeney designated a small area of the front lawn as an official smoking area. I still remember the first day of our new freedom, and how I bummed a cigarette off my friend Rick Martinez even though I didn't smoke. Not inhaling the cigarette, lest I cough to death, I waved the cigarette around in my hand, looking with rebellious contempt at the assistant principal who had once haunted the Men's Room looking for illicit smoking but who now had to watch helplessly as we stood defiantly on our official smoking spot. Here is that smoking spot as it appears today.
Hey, where did all those trees come from? After we graduated the smoking spot didn't last long. As if to make it impossible for it to be revived, trees were planted. Those trees are pretty big now after more than three decades. Only the ghosts of my departed classmates hang out there now. I hope they didn't die of lung cancer.
Tiger's Den
Can you believe these photos released of Tiger Woods' primary residence? I knew I should've followed Rick Martinez's advice when he urged me to join the Commerce Golf Club.
The view:
The living room:
The bedroom:
Last Word on Woodstock
Recently I was in Springfield, waiting for the bus in front of the noble High School of Commerce, which is where I graduated from. People who attended that school, at least from my era, are very insistent that the school always be referred to as "The High School of" and not "Commerce High" although the distinction may not be clear to non-Commerce graduates or younger people. It dates to the time when the Springfield High Schools were divided up into schools with specific goals. There was Classical, which focused on the liberal arts, Technical High, which featured technology and science, Catherdral which offered a religious education and Trade High, for those seeking jobs in the trades. It was a model praised and copied nationwide for its effectiveness.
The High School of Commerce was the school for those who were going into fields related to business. Therefore it was important that the name reveal what the school was all about - Commerce was not just what the school was called, but also its educational goal. Therefore only the phrase "High School of Commerce" clearly identifies its primary purpose. Sadly, the very successful division of schools by academic purpose was abolished in the 1980's. Today, there is no distinctive business related purpose behind the Commerce curriculum. But enough people still remember the original goals of the school so that a reporter for the Springfield Newspapers told me that to this day, whenver a reporter (usually a rookie) mistakenly refers to "Commerce High," they still get angry phone calls from High School of Commerce graduates correcting them.
When I went to Commerce in the 1970's the student body was traditionally predominantly African-American. Black people were attracted to Commerce because business is a field where you can overcome discrimination. As longs as you have a good product and good service at a good price you can make money no matter what your racial background, since no one discriminates against a good buy. The principal at that time, a gruff white guy named Phillip Sweeney, used to talk to the black students of my day in a way no one would dare to do today. He would bluntly tell them that the deck of life was stacked against them, something they no doubt already knew, but which the students and their parents were glad to hear a white man in authority admit. He would tell the black students in the frankest terms that they would have to work harder, study more and fool around less than the white kids because that's what was required to overcome the hurdles of discrimination. Sweeney refused to allow anyone to use racism as an excuse for failure, and the students and their parents loved him for it. Year after year the High School of Commerce was the number one school choice of the black community.
But eventually Sweeney retired and the school department got taken over by liberal Democrats who sneered at the concept of a "business school." Even Sweeney's legacy came under attack, with self-proclaimed black leaders complaining that a school with a large black population should not be run by a white man. Besides, what good was a business education when every good leftist knew that socialism was the wave of the future? The business curriculum was dismantled and Commerce soon became a testing ground for every crackpot educational theory that came down the pike. By the 1990's the High School of Commerce was considered the worst in the city, with a faculty member once sending me this tragic account of a typical day in the new Commerce.
Friday, Feb. 13th, the day before Valentine's, bouquets, balloons, chocolates, teddy bears and skippers were all over the hallways. Outside my classroom, a group of students hung out, kissed and fooled around. Some of them even threw themselves onto the window of my classroom door, making faces, sticking up their middle fingers and shouting obscenities. Most of the morning was like this. I called the office to report the chaos, but no one showed up to help. I opened the door and attempted to send the disruptive students away several times. This seemed to amuse them and provoked even more outrageous behavior, which excited them even more.
Finally it was my lunch break. I was walking upstairs when a boy, with a hood and a dark robe covering his entire body and face approached. He looked like a character from the movie, "The Lord of the Rings." Another student passed me and reported that my room had been blasted by raw eggs. I felt terrible. I rushed down to my classroom only to find the custodian, Bob Mulcahey, kneeling down and wiping off the eggs dripping down the glass from the door to the floor. He told me that not only had my room been targeted. There were egg whites and yolks everywhere in the hallway; on the student's lockers, on the walls and floor and on the door of the attendance officer's office. It was a disgusting mess, Bob told me, shaking his head, but he also assured me that it was not aimed at me personally.
A moment later, in the same hallway, there was a loud bang. A fist cracked the window of the classroom next to mine into fine lines like a spider web. One teenager fled the scene followed by a small group of others. A Quebec officer and an assistant principal chased after them.
This was not an extraordinary day in the High School of Commerce. Nothing was very different than previous days, except on this day there were fresh eggs. The day before, pepper spray in the boy's bathrooms prevented student access. Last month, students in the halls repeatedly discharged fire extinguishers. A bulletin board was set on fire forcing school evacuation. The school was evacuated again when a girl's room in the A building was set on fire. Small fires spring up all the time, so often that the school merely doused the fires and did not bother to report them to the fire marshall. Additionally, water fountains, bathroom fixtures and handrails have been ripped from the walls. One teacher on the first floor recently had his door kicked so hard that it cracked across the middle.
These events don't occur in isolation. Disorder is routine. A female student recently hit me as I was attempting to protect one girl from being viciously attacked by another. I have gone into the Principals office to protest an administrator's disciplinary decisions. I sent a student who was striking a cigarette lighter in front of a bulletin board to the office. For two days, the administrator had taken no action because I had not provided an eyewitness. Ulitmately, another eyewitness came forward, yet the punishment was minimal, in spite of a recent spate of fires. Of course, all my referrals for truants were left unattended due to "overwhelming problems in the hallway," as responded one administrator to my inquiry.
I've heard the school has improved considerably in recent years, but frankly it had no where to go but up. On the sidewalk in front of Commerce someone has sprayed this message.
As I stood waiting for the bus I noticed that across the street they have torn up the steps that used to be there and removed the historic monument to General Knox.
I guess they were removed as part of the renovations underway on State Street. This is what the historic monument looked like.
I hope the monument is returned to that spot, but of course the old steps will not be. That's a shame. Those steps were the central pre-school socializing spot for Commerce students getting off the bus. Generations of future husbands met future wives on those steps, with all the gossip and discussions of the teenage world carried on from the early years of the last century until the steps were removed earlier this year. I guess the planners behind the renovations didn't realize the powerful historic and nostalgic meaning of those steps.
One of the big controversies of my time at Commerce was over smoking. Students were always smoking cigarettes in the bathrooms, with all the mess and smell that creates, until the student council, of which I was a member, suggested that there ought to be a place outside for the students to smoke. This was in the years before the health nazis had made smoking a total social disgrace.
Even students like myself, who didn't smoke, favored this policy, if only because it seemed like we were winning some sort of victory over the dispproving adults. Many of these adults pointed out the obvious truth that having an official smoking spot might encourage students to smoke and therefore damage their health. We bristled with contempt at such a common sense observation. Our teenage spirits wanted to be free, and somehow drawing toxic chemicals into our lungs like dumb adults do had become a symbol of freedom.
Amazingly, the adults eventually caved in. Reluctantly Sweeney designated a small area of the front lawn as an official smoking area. I still remember the first day of our new freedom, and how I bummed a cigarette off my friend Rick Martinez even though I didn't smoke. Not inhaling the cigarette, lest I cough to death, I waved the cigarette around in my hand, looking with rebellious contempt at the assistant principal who had once haunted the Men's Room looking for illicit smoking but who now had to watch helplessly as we stood defiantly on our official smoking spot. Here is that smoking spot as it appears today.
Hey, where did all those trees come from? After we graduated the smoking spot didn't last long. As if to make it impossible for it to be revived, trees were planted. Those trees are pretty big now after more than three decades. Only the ghosts of my departed classmates hang out there now. I hope they didn't die of lung cancer.
Tiger's Den
Can you believe these photos released of Tiger Woods' primary residence? I knew I should've followed Rick Martinez's advice when he urged me to join the Commerce Golf Club.
The view:
The living room:
The bedroom:
Last Word on Woodstock
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Weekend Update: Embarrassing T-Shirts, Julie & Julia
Good Last Day of August to you.
I hope you had an enjoyable weekend.
Saturday morning I went to my 2nd-ever cross country meet which I found out is abbreviated by all the cool people as "XC."
My daughter has just started "XC" this year, after giving up many years of dance. So since our son never participated in this sport, I'm still learning so much about it.
Like, there is no regular, obvious way to follow them because, well, it's cross country, not cross asphalt. So they run around cornfields and into woods and around schools and through crowds of screaming parents at various points en route to the "chute" which is not a slide as in "Chutes and Ladders" at all, but the finish lane.
And, all parents of all teams at invitationals wear T-shirts with pithy, sassy sayings on the backs of them, like, and I quote:
XC Parents Need:
No bleachers or chairs, only comfortable shoes.
No announcers, only coaches screaming out splits.
No shelter from rain or shine, only a poncho or umbrella.
No popcorn or hotdogs, only a snack in our pocket.
No cheerleaders or mascots, only a loud voice.
No time outs, only a straight 5k.
And, at the end of the chute, all we need are our runners.
Yes, Jorge and I actually wore shirts with this manifesto on Saturday and will be expected to wear them every Saturday through October. Not to mention that I ordered a size too big for myself, so I'm wearing a frump shirt with all that wise-crackin' talk on the back. I would like to amend mine to say:
Some XC parents need:
Lawn chairs, because we are older than you young parents in skinny jeans, not that we're bitter.
To know what the "split" is that the coach is screaming out. Some of us thought those were things you did in cheerleading.
Shelter because rain makes us cranky.
More than a "snack in our pocket" which should instead say "pockets" because there isn't one giant universal parent pocket, but that's nit picking.
Also, I would like a hot dog, thank you.
I do appreciate that there are not time-outs, though. Time outs are torture, as I remember from our son's sports.
Once again, my intrepid daughter was thrilled that she did not come in last place and that she beat her own time by a few seconds. I always knew she was awesome, and now she has proven it to the universe. She is awesome and very cute, but she doesn't like for me to say those things, so let's just pretend I told you, "My kid is totally average in every respect. More accurately, she is merely one teenager in a nebulous cloud of teenagers."
Saturday night, I went with three friends to see "Julie and Julia," which was a great little entertaining movie, even though, as you know, I cannot cook. J & J contains both funny and sweet moments, but it wouldn't be "Lid the Prude" talking about the movie unless I mentioned that there were also a few bad words and overly sexy scenes in an otherwise pleasant little diversion. I'm sorry, but you just don't need the images of sex and Julia Child within five minutes of each other in any context. 
However, Bloggers, this is a movie about blogging among other themes, and I think you will enjoy it. From the time Julie creates her blog to getting her first comments to getting bigger recognition, you will relate and/or fantasize. When tension grows between her husband her because of blogging, you will relate. When she worries about not having a post for her readers, you'll understand her anxiety. When she realizes the narcissistic nature of blogging, you will recognize that truth once again and laugh. My friends often leaned forward in their seats to see my reactions to the blogging parts of the movie, and I'm sure the row behind us behind us wondered what I must have done to inspire this group action.
This is the first time I've seen blogging featured in a movie. It made me think a lot about why I do this and why you do this and how long it will last for all of us.
Here's a good article on Julie Powell and how her blog "The Julie and Julia Project" inadvertently made her famous, and since I didn't give a true plot synopsis, here is the trailer:
Have a great Monday! Bon appetit!
5 reasons to be at JunkFest
Five good reasons to be at JunkFest 2009...
#1. WHEELS, lots and lots of wheels.
#1. WHEELS, lots and lots of wheels.
#2. BURLAP, rough, rustic and in all it's natural glory.
#3. RUSTED perfection.
#4. CHIPPY elegance.
#5. Enough SURPRISES to knock your socks off!
#5. Enough SURPRISES to knock your socks off!
So don't forget to come to Carrington, ND...just like this iron piece says!!
And get there early, so you can pay your $2 charity admission and get in line!!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Libertarian Ted
Kennedy's Forgotten Legacy
It's seems like it's been all Ted all the time on TV these past days, but is anybody watching? Nielson ratings are in and according to the New York Times ABC's special Remembering Ted Kennedy drew four million viewers. The CBS special The Last Brother earned 4.6 million viewers. However NBC crushed them both with the nearly 11 million viewers it drew to the America's Got Talent reality show, which is more viewers than both Kennedy specials got combined.
Am I being rude or just realistic when I say that many Democrats secretly hoped that Ted would die next month, when Congress is in session, instead of now, when congress is on vacation and any emotional outpouring is of little use in ramming through the Obamacare plan?
Oh well, at least we're seeing some good Pioneer Valley memorabilia surfacing regarding Kennedy. Amherst writer Mary Carey shares this picture of herself and Kennedy in 2004.
And this picture of her sister-in-law's sister in 1987 at the Holyoke Saint Patrick's Day parade. Waving beside Ted is former Springfield Congressman and local Democrat machine boss Eddie "House Mouse" Boland.
My sister Beverly once waited on Ted Kennedy in 1992 when she was working as a waitress at the Friendly's that used to be located in downtown Springfield across from the courthouse.
One day Ted stopped in with then Springfield Mayor Robert Markel. Both men ordered a coffee, a bill which in those days came to only a dollar and a half for both cups. Ted paid with a ten dollar bill, telling my sister to keep the change, resulting in an $8.50 tip on a buck and a half purchase. Hey, say what you will about Teddy - he was a good tipper!
We've heard a lot in the last several days about how Ted Kennedy was the "Liberal Lion" who fought relentlessly for the leftist cause. However, little has been noted about Kennedy's occasional libertarian tendencies. According to Reason Editor Nick Gillespie:
There is, buried deep within Kennedy's legislative legacy, a different set of policies worth exhuming and examining, precisely because they were truly a break with the normal way of doing business in Washington. During the 1970s, Kennedy was instrumental in deregulating the interstate trucking industry and airline ticket prices, two innovations that have vastly improved the quality of life in America even as—or more precisely, because—they pushed power out of D.C. and into the pocketbooks of everyday Americans.
We are incalculably richer and better off because something like actual prices replaced regulatory fiat in trucking and flying. Because they do not fit the Ted Kennedy narrative preferred by his admirers and detractors alike, these accomplishments rarely get mentioned in stories about the late senator. But they are exactly the sort of legislation that we should be celebrating in his honor, and using as a model in today's debates about health care, education, and virtually every aspect of government action."
That Ol' River
You just can't beat the gorgeous view of the mighty Connecticut that you get as the river passes through Hadley.
Of course you have to stick to the public paths.
I'm jealous of the people who have homes right on the river.
Today's Video
Electric Kool-Aid Obama.
It's seems like it's been all Ted all the time on TV these past days, but is anybody watching? Nielson ratings are in and according to the New York Times ABC's special Remembering Ted Kennedy drew four million viewers. The CBS special The Last Brother earned 4.6 million viewers. However NBC crushed them both with the nearly 11 million viewers it drew to the America's Got Talent reality show, which is more viewers than both Kennedy specials got combined.
Am I being rude or just realistic when I say that many Democrats secretly hoped that Ted would die next month, when Congress is in session, instead of now, when congress is on vacation and any emotional outpouring is of little use in ramming through the Obamacare plan?
Oh well, at least we're seeing some good Pioneer Valley memorabilia surfacing regarding Kennedy. Amherst writer Mary Carey shares this picture of herself and Kennedy in 2004.
And this picture of her sister-in-law's sister in 1987 at the Holyoke Saint Patrick's Day parade. Waving beside Ted is former Springfield Congressman and local Democrat machine boss Eddie "House Mouse" Boland.
My sister Beverly once waited on Ted Kennedy in 1992 when she was working as a waitress at the Friendly's that used to be located in downtown Springfield across from the courthouse.
One day Ted stopped in with then Springfield Mayor Robert Markel. Both men ordered a coffee, a bill which in those days came to only a dollar and a half for both cups. Ted paid with a ten dollar bill, telling my sister to keep the change, resulting in an $8.50 tip on a buck and a half purchase. Hey, say what you will about Teddy - he was a good tipper!
We've heard a lot in the last several days about how Ted Kennedy was the "Liberal Lion" who fought relentlessly for the leftist cause. However, little has been noted about Kennedy's occasional libertarian tendencies. According to Reason Editor Nick Gillespie:
There is, buried deep within Kennedy's legislative legacy, a different set of policies worth exhuming and examining, precisely because they were truly a break with the normal way of doing business in Washington. During the 1970s, Kennedy was instrumental in deregulating the interstate trucking industry and airline ticket prices, two innovations that have vastly improved the quality of life in America even as—or more precisely, because—they pushed power out of D.C. and into the pocketbooks of everyday Americans.
We are incalculably richer and better off because something like actual prices replaced regulatory fiat in trucking and flying. Because they do not fit the Ted Kennedy narrative preferred by his admirers and detractors alike, these accomplishments rarely get mentioned in stories about the late senator. But they are exactly the sort of legislation that we should be celebrating in his honor, and using as a model in today's debates about health care, education, and virtually every aspect of government action."
That Ol' River
You just can't beat the gorgeous view of the mighty Connecticut that you get as the river passes through Hadley.
Of course you have to stick to the public paths.
I'm jealous of the people who have homes right on the river.
Today's Video
Electric Kool-Aid Obama.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Matty's Legacy
A Mixed One
The last time I saw Matty Ryan (above right with Eddie Boland) was at Charlie Ryan's mayoral victory celebration in 2003. That night was a far cry from eight years earlier when Charlie lost to Mike Albano. At Charlie's Forest Park headquarters that year the champagne had been served despite Charlie's defeat, but everyone was so dispirited hardly anyone even felt like getting drunk. I may have been one of the exceptions.
As we were leaving that night, suddenly a car festooned with Albano stickers came roaring past Ryan headquarters with tires squealling, the car filled with what looked and sounded like young men. Suddenly two naked rear ends emerged from the front and back windows as people inside taunted "Ha, ha you losers!" As the car sped off a cop who had been inside came out and asked if anyone recognised who was in the car, but no one did.
However, in the days which followed I thought I did recognise in the newspaper some of the people in that car, as Albano announced his appointees, but I couldn't be sure because the photos were frontal ones, and I would've needed to see them from the rear.
But the victory celebration eight years later was much different. The roof was practically blown off the place by the partying crowd, and considering that this was at the John Boyle O'Reilly Club, which has seen some rowdy scenes, that's saying something. However, suddenly someone entered the room, someone of such stature that everyone who saw him had to nudge the person next to them to make sure they saw him too. It was someone no one had seen at political events for a long time, but who had once moved through Valley politics as a giant. It was former Hampden County District Attorney Matthew Ryan.
It impressed me that Matty Ryan had the power, by his mere presense, to momentarily calm that rowdy crowd. But as he and Charlie exchanged greetings, I realized it was more than the fact that no one had seen Matty much in recent years that caused everyone to pause and look. It occurred to me that many people present had never made the connection before that Charlie and Matty were related, and that failure perhaps was not surprising. After all, Charlie was Mr. Reform and Matty was considered Mr. Anti-reform. That Matty had come out to celebrate the fall of the corrupt Albano regime was something that few would have predicted.
But then Matty Ryan was a man of numerous contradictions. In his more than three decades as D.A. he had developed a devoted following as well as fierce critics. There were those who described him as a living legend, while to others he was the embodiment of all that was wrong with Springfield. In the end he was never as good as his supporters claimed, but also not as bad as his critics accused him of being.
Perhaps nothing is more criticized about Ryan's career than his refusal to prosecute the suspected murderer of Danny Croteau, the Reverend Richard Lavigne. But those critics have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and the passage of time. People forget how untouchable the Catholic Church was in those years, and how many would have condemned Ryan for attacking the church - to which Ryan himself belonged. In fact to this day there are those who say that the Croteau case was overblown in the media in order to embarrass the church. Lavigne was also a political figure, especially prominent in the anti-war movement. Had he been prosecuted, it would have splashed mud on an entire young generation of aspiring Democrat Party leaders, many of whom went on to become city councilors, mayors and beyond.
The Croteau murder also took place in an era of high homophobia. Trying the case would have brought out information about the victim's sexuality that would have been devastating to the family if revealed in public. Do any of these things mean Ryan should not have gone ahead with the prosecution anyway, and disgraced the church, subjected the victim to homophobic hate and destroyed a whole generation of the political party of which Ryan himself was a member?
Yes, despite these risks Ryan was still wrong. Danny Croteau was a victim of an evil web of hypocricy and denial in a crime that still cries out for justice. But it would have taken an extraordinary person to face the firestorm that such a prosecution would have caused, with no guarantee that in the end Lavigne would have been convicted. That Ryan was not the superman who could face all that may show that he was weak, and that he was human but not necessarily that he was evil.
Matty Ryan was also criticized for his alleged "mob connections" and in a sane world he should never have kept the company he sometimes did. But there was a weird libertarian sense in which his mob friendships made sense. In a world where the drug trade is forced underground by its illegality, it is difficult to have any control over it. It was said that Ryan had a deal with the mob that as long as they kept to the shadier side of business, like gambling and drugs and loan sharking, he would look the other way on some things, provided they stayed out of City Hall and didn't sell heroin. Of course heroin came in anyway through non-mob sources, but it was much less prevalent and the mob was unable to get their hands on public funds.
Once Matty retired, the streets were flooded with heroin, and it was through mob wiretaps that the corruption probes of the last ten years reached into City Hall, where the mob had quickly began infiltrating after Ryan was gone.
Ironically it was not any of these alleged sins that caused Matty Ryan to retire. In the end, Ryan's brand of blunt, in your face advocacy had become considered old fashioned. With the arrival of the era of District Attorneys with blow-dry haircuts and focus group tested campaigns, someone like Matty had become slightly embarrassing. It wasn't the scandals that led to the conclusion that Matty should go. It was the sense that his crusty style had become "unprofessional."
So the passing of Matty Ryan is rightly called the end of an era. We are unlikely to see his like again. In some ways we are better off for that, but we have lost something too.
In Hamp Windows
For enlightened bumpers.
A mistake.
Elvis in Faces.
It's a new dawn.
Today's Video
As promised, something from Northampton's Lookstock - a killer version of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. (photo of the sky over Lookstock by Greg Saulmon)
The last time I saw Matty Ryan (above right with Eddie Boland) was at Charlie Ryan's mayoral victory celebration in 2003. That night was a far cry from eight years earlier when Charlie lost to Mike Albano. At Charlie's Forest Park headquarters that year the champagne had been served despite Charlie's defeat, but everyone was so dispirited hardly anyone even felt like getting drunk. I may have been one of the exceptions.
As we were leaving that night, suddenly a car festooned with Albano stickers came roaring past Ryan headquarters with tires squealling, the car filled with what looked and sounded like young men. Suddenly two naked rear ends emerged from the front and back windows as people inside taunted "Ha, ha you losers!" As the car sped off a cop who had been inside came out and asked if anyone recognised who was in the car, but no one did.
However, in the days which followed I thought I did recognise in the newspaper some of the people in that car, as Albano announced his appointees, but I couldn't be sure because the photos were frontal ones, and I would've needed to see them from the rear.
But the victory celebration eight years later was much different. The roof was practically blown off the place by the partying crowd, and considering that this was at the John Boyle O'Reilly Club, which has seen some rowdy scenes, that's saying something. However, suddenly someone entered the room, someone of such stature that everyone who saw him had to nudge the person next to them to make sure they saw him too. It was someone no one had seen at political events for a long time, but who had once moved through Valley politics as a giant. It was former Hampden County District Attorney Matthew Ryan.
It impressed me that Matty Ryan had the power, by his mere presense, to momentarily calm that rowdy crowd. But as he and Charlie exchanged greetings, I realized it was more than the fact that no one had seen Matty much in recent years that caused everyone to pause and look. It occurred to me that many people present had never made the connection before that Charlie and Matty were related, and that failure perhaps was not surprising. After all, Charlie was Mr. Reform and Matty was considered Mr. Anti-reform. That Matty had come out to celebrate the fall of the corrupt Albano regime was something that few would have predicted.
But then Matty Ryan was a man of numerous contradictions. In his more than three decades as D.A. he had developed a devoted following as well as fierce critics. There were those who described him as a living legend, while to others he was the embodiment of all that was wrong with Springfield. In the end he was never as good as his supporters claimed, but also not as bad as his critics accused him of being.
Perhaps nothing is more criticized about Ryan's career than his refusal to prosecute the suspected murderer of Danny Croteau, the Reverend Richard Lavigne. But those critics have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and the passage of time. People forget how untouchable the Catholic Church was in those years, and how many would have condemned Ryan for attacking the church - to which Ryan himself belonged. In fact to this day there are those who say that the Croteau case was overblown in the media in order to embarrass the church. Lavigne was also a political figure, especially prominent in the anti-war movement. Had he been prosecuted, it would have splashed mud on an entire young generation of aspiring Democrat Party leaders, many of whom went on to become city councilors, mayors and beyond.
The Croteau murder also took place in an era of high homophobia. Trying the case would have brought out information about the victim's sexuality that would have been devastating to the family if revealed in public. Do any of these things mean Ryan should not have gone ahead with the prosecution anyway, and disgraced the church, subjected the victim to homophobic hate and destroyed a whole generation of the political party of which Ryan himself was a member?
Yes, despite these risks Ryan was still wrong. Danny Croteau was a victim of an evil web of hypocricy and denial in a crime that still cries out for justice. But it would have taken an extraordinary person to face the firestorm that such a prosecution would have caused, with no guarantee that in the end Lavigne would have been convicted. That Ryan was not the superman who could face all that may show that he was weak, and that he was human but not necessarily that he was evil.
Matty Ryan was also criticized for his alleged "mob connections" and in a sane world he should never have kept the company he sometimes did. But there was a weird libertarian sense in which his mob friendships made sense. In a world where the drug trade is forced underground by its illegality, it is difficult to have any control over it. It was said that Ryan had a deal with the mob that as long as they kept to the shadier side of business, like gambling and drugs and loan sharking, he would look the other way on some things, provided they stayed out of City Hall and didn't sell heroin. Of course heroin came in anyway through non-mob sources, but it was much less prevalent and the mob was unable to get their hands on public funds.
Once Matty retired, the streets were flooded with heroin, and it was through mob wiretaps that the corruption probes of the last ten years reached into City Hall, where the mob had quickly began infiltrating after Ryan was gone.
Ironically it was not any of these alleged sins that caused Matty Ryan to retire. In the end, Ryan's brand of blunt, in your face advocacy had become considered old fashioned. With the arrival of the era of District Attorneys with blow-dry haircuts and focus group tested campaigns, someone like Matty had become slightly embarrassing. It wasn't the scandals that led to the conclusion that Matty should go. It was the sense that his crusty style had become "unprofessional."
So the passing of Matty Ryan is rightly called the end of an era. We are unlikely to see his like again. In some ways we are better off for that, but we have lost something too.
In Hamp Windows
For enlightened bumpers.
A mistake.
Elvis in Faces.
It's a new dawn.
Today's Video
As promised, something from Northampton's Lookstock - a killer version of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. (photo of the sky over Lookstock by Greg Saulmon)
Lesson Plan- (Pre K - K) Creation- Day Four: Sun, Moon, and Stars
Creation- Day Four: God Created Sun, Moon, and Stars
Objective: The children will be able to
- retell the story of Creation
- explain what God created
- identify what God created on the fourth day
Review:
Prayer and questions from last week’s lesson.
Vocabulary Words:
Pick the words that you want to use from below:
dltk-bible.com- Creation Theme Word Wall Words
Word wall templates are large flash card printables that you can hang on the wall to aid children when they are learning or using new vocabulary words.
chrisitanpreschoolprintables.com- Creation Word Wall
Use these printable Word Wall cards to go through the days of creation with your children. There are also key words from the creation story in Genesis chapter 1. (Scroll down for this.)
christianpreschoolprintables.com- God Made Word Wall
Arrange the words according to the directions. Have “God made” already on the board and ask the children to find the correct answer.
Plan:
Circle Time:
God Made the World- The Humongous Book of Preschool Ideas by Group Publishing, page 7 - 9. Read story for day 1, 2, 3, and 4. Use Creation Cards to help the children remember what happened for day one, two, three, and four.
Questions:
1. What did God make the first day? Light
2. What did God make the second day? Sky
3. What did God make the third day? Seas, land, and plants.
4. What did God make the fourth day? Sun, moon, and stars.
Songs and/or Finger Plays:
Introduce songs and/or finger plays: Who created heaven and the earth? God
dltk-bible.com- Creation Song
dltk-bible.com- Days of Creation Song
perpetualpreschool.com- Creation Songs (several posted here)
kidz-under-construction.com- God Made (finger play)
awana4u2.org- Puggles Creation Finger Play
kidz-under-construction.com- You Are God’s Creation (finger play)
kidz-under-construction.com- I Have Two Eyes (finger play)
Crafts:
Introduce craft: What did God make on the fourth day? The sun, moon, and stars.
Starry, Starry Night
Need:
16 oz. soda bottle with twist on cap (clean and label removed)
Star shaped sequins or confetti
Silver glitter
Funnel
Blue food coloring
Water
Corn syrup
Place the funnel into the bottle. Fill bottle about half way up with corn syrup. Add a few drops of blue food coloring to the corn syrup. Fill bottle with water leaving a couple of inches for air at the top. Put on twist on cap and shake bottle to mix the food coloring. Reopen and drop some star shaped sequins or confetti and some glitter into bottle. Pour a little glue into the cap and screw on top of bottle. Let glue dry so lid cannot be removed.
Day 4 Poster
Have the children cut out a white moon (a quarter moon works best), yellow sun, and stars (tin foil or stickers) and glue them on black construction paper. (You can have the shapes drawn out before class so the children can cut them out.) Or you can give each child a piece of construction paper. Have the children draw a sun with a yellow crayon and color inside of it. Then have the children draw a quarter moon and stars with a white crayon filling each shape with white. The children will then paint over the picture with black water color (the wax in the crayons will repel the black paint and allow the drawings to show through).
Sunrise Cup Puppet- Crafts to Celebrate God's Creation by Kathy Ross, page 14 & 15.
The Changing Moon- Crafts to Celebrate God's Creation by Kathy Ross, page 16 & 17.
Games:
Introduce games: What did God make on the fourth day? The sun, moon, and stars.
daniellesplace.com- 2. Play Day and Night Things Identification Game
daniellesplace.com- Keep the Stars in the Sky Balloon Game (Look under: Creation Day 4- Activities #2)
Snacks:
Introduce snack: What did God make on the fourth day? The sun, moon, and stars.
daniellesplace.com- Graham Cracker Stars
(You can also spread peanut butter on star shaped crackers or regular crackers made into stars like the recipe above and sprinkle with raisins.)
Moon Cookies- Make round sugar cookies using refrigerated cookie dough (Pillsbury). Frost with white icing or sprinkle with white sugar.
Coloring/Puzzles:
Prayers while students are doing coloring and/or puzzles.
Color Day 4 and save page to make a book for later:
Creation booklet (Bible Stories from A to Z, page 16 & 17)- Click on Sample Pages and go to page 16 & 17.
dltk-bible.com- The Story of Creation (mini book)
christianpreschoolprintables.com- Creation (mini book)
Scroll down to this.
Day 4 (handwriting and coloring sheet)
The Great Bible Big Fun Activity Book: From the Old and New Testaments by Toni Lind
Day and Night (color by number)
The Fourth Day- The Stars. Color the smallest star yellow. Color the medium stars color blue. Color the biggest star red.
More 365 Activities for Kids- On the fourth day of creation, God created the sun, moon and stars. Two of the stars are different from the rest. Can you spot them? (On January 1).
He Also Made the Stars (dot-to-dot)- Bible Story Puzzles with Mini-Lessons on the Goodness of God: PK-K by Linda Standke, page 4. (Click on Sample and go to page 4.)
He Also Made the Stars (dot-to-dot)- Bible Story Puzzle ‘n’ Learn! PK – K, page 6.
christianpreschoolprintables.com- Day Four (puzzle)
Check this out!
One of the perks of hangin' with the JunkFest gals is gettin in on the goods before the rest of the world! I snagged this baby up last year a good 10-12 hours before the sale even began!! Yep....Andrea was hauling this gem into the building and I was oohing and ahhing and drooling on myself as she did so. This gorgeous re-creation wasn't in the door 10 minutes before I was loading her up in my 'burb and headin' for home!
According to Andrea, this beautiful wine buffet was not always the Cinderella you see here. Seems there were several pieces missing.....like the back, the top, and perhaps the bottom, but she waved her magic junk wand and came up with what you see here. It fits perfectly in my dining room, and holds a good 8-10 bottles of wine. Or 8 good bottles of wine....or 8 cheap bottles of wine....you decide.
What you see here is an inverted (junk-speak for 'upside down') heat register grate, in place of the now-vacant drawers. Guess those were missing too. For those of you who don't already know this, our Junk Girl is very resourceful!! Wonder whose house those grates came from??!
I'm really sorry that no one else got to eyeball this beauty at last year's JunkFest, but I'm not gonna lie....I'm thrilled that it's MINE. I'm fairly certain that you'll find equally fabulous pieces at JunkFest '09. All you gotta do is show up! Gotta run....as you can see, I'm getting low on wine!
It's About Time!!
I know it's been too long! That's what happens when you go on a vacation (to DisneyWorld and beautiful St. Pete Beach, Florida) and then immediately return to three kids starting high school (gulp!), middle school and grade school. Not sure about having a child/teen/preteen at each level in school..aside from college..that would be a double gulp!LOL
But they're all back...we're getting settled back into work, laundry, homework, more school shopping and grocery shopping, tennis lessons, after school activities and more. The list never seems to end I tell you! Oh and then add to the madness a 40th birthday party for yours truly..ugh! I hate that number..but given it's an even number I'm more likely to accept it! Here's a pic of me with my bff...Tammy..she makes me look so short...which I am!lol The party was fun...yummy food from Qudoba, a friend loaned us their commercial size frozen drink machine for us to load up with strawberry margaritas...and well it was fun. I actually thought if it's that fun...40 is pretty good!
I've been really busy with Bo Bunny as well! Getting the new design team set up on the message board, with procedures and so much more. So far so good as I am very organized but we have 12 total now..so that's alot of gals to get on track..but they'll do fine..I'm sure of it! We have an amazing team in place that I know are very excited to get started!
We have some new challenges up on the blog this week that I love..although that sounds silly given I created them!LOL The first one..our Aqua challenge..
I love the color..I have more clothes/tops in that color...and turquoise than any other color. It's a good one for me. You should pop in the blog and join in on that challenge!
And today I put up another new one...a Shaped Card Challenge which I LOVE!
The gals came up with some amazing ideas....this one is a favorite challenge...we'll start having regular challenges every Friday on the blog so you know when you should check in for those!
Last..it's been a bit since I talked movies or books..and I have lots and lots to review..but let's just start today with I think my first movie F...yes..that's F..for failure!!! Yes...I'm sorry to say but Mall Cop...was horrible...awful...I fell asleep awful!And worse as I loved Kevin James in Hitch! LOVED! This movie though I swear they say it was a comedy?! Right..comedy! Nope..horrible, no laughs and sadly a waste of evening time!
Now ask me about Season Two of True Blood...and I'll go on and on with praise...although wow...nudity out to wazoo this season....too bad it's not Eric or Bill!LOL
I promise I'll get the blog update regularly again...I miss when I don't...it's like my own little life diary...
See you soon....
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