Brain Freeze

The question today was, What one super power would you choose if you could? I was not prepared for the lively discussions that ensued; it seems like everyone has some serious thoughts on this issue. 

"I would control time!" declared one student. "That way I would never be late."

His classmates laughed.

"That's right," he continued, "everyone would be frozen, and I would be taking my time, stopping at 7-11 for breakfast."

"How would you pay?" someone asked. "The people would be frozen."

"That's right!" he said. "Even better! Think about everything I could take while everyone was frozen! And not just at 7-11."

"So you would be a super villain, then?" asked another student.

"Uhhhhhhh," he hesitated, "not exactly."

"Really?" she pressed. "Because it sounds like it to me."

"Okay," he conceded, "maybe I would unfreeze time to pay for my breakfast."

Age Appropriate

After doing a couple of jigsaw puzzles over the snow days, we decided to go all in and so we ordered a couple of new table lamps and fancy puzzle board with drawers and a cover. This way, we can do puzzles AND put them away should the need arise. I set it up right away when it came, and I have to admit, it's pretty cool.

Back at school, I was telling my friend Mary all about our nifty new set-up and all the puzzles we were planning to do.

"Wow!" she replied. "You really are turning sixty this year."

And Fun for All

"You know what I want to know?" I asked my homeroom the other day. We were watching the morning announcements, or "my favorite show" as I like to call it, and one of our ASL interpreters was standing behind the student announcements as usual. "I want to know how to do the Pledge of Allegiance in sign language!" 

They looked at me with a mix of amusement, interest, and skepticism. 

"We can do it!" I said. "I'll find a video!" And I did.

Over the years, I've mastered all sorts of random things that were of interest to my students. For example I learned the names of the Spice Girls, all the members of the Back Street Boys, and the words to Eminem's "Lose Yourself". One year, I bought juggling balls and we all tried to learn to juggle, and another year we sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" accompanied by a student on the violin and me on the ukulele. 

The pledge is a little complicated for this old brain of mine, but that's okay. We are going phrase by phrase, and so far we've reached ...to the United States of America." It's slow-going, but we've got time, and learning together is really fun.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

I'm always saying things to my homeroom like, "You know what I want to know?" and then I tell them. I think it's a good idea to model curiosity and to show them that everyone has things they can learn. 

Like just the other day, we were watching an update on the Webb telescope and another video about the new NASA program to send people back to the moon and beyond. "You know what I want to know?" I said when the video ended. "Well, I actually have a list including space junk and mission time lines, but let's start with this: why is it called the Artemis program?"

"That's Apollo's twin sister," one of the students informed me. "Like the first manned moon program? And she's the goddess of the moon."

"That makes sense!" I agreed, "So why didn't they just name the first one after her?"

Due Time

The world is a little darker this evening. I mean that literally: I spent some of my holiday Monday taking down our lights from the last holidays, packing them neatly in bins, and stowing them in the attic until December. I really liked our lights this year; after the amazing displays of 2020, I decided to up my game a bit in 2021. I did some research on small home lighting arrangements, looked at pictures, and scoped out the neighborhood, and shopped online to create some new light arrangements. Shimmering stars, classic multicolor C9s, rainfall lights, and 50-bulb twinkling globes merrily festooned our tiny decks and front porch.

"Is there a rule about how long you should leave your Christmas decorations up?" Heidi asked me the other night as we were walking over to pick up Lucy. Lots of lights were still cheerfully glittering in the twilight. 

"You mean like no white after Labor Day?" I asked in return. "Maybe everything should be put away by MLK Day?"

We laughed. "That seems like a good rule," Heidi said.

"But I like our lights," I reminded her. "I don't want to put them away."

"I know," she agreed, "but if you leave them up all year, they won't be special."

She was right of course, but I'm still kind of sad tonight.

Granddaddy of a Tale

Doing a little family tree research this afternoon I stumbled on a couple of mentions of my grandfather in old newspapers. In the first, he made national coverage when he testified before the House Select Committee on Small Business on August 23, 1947. As a resident of Greenbelt, one of the federal government's planned, low-income housing communities, he was called to offer his opinion on whether the government should allow competition to the community owned co-op which ran the grocery, gas station, theater, and drug store. 

According to the AP my grandfather got a big laugh when he quipped, "There are three sides to the question, Ploeser's, Patman's, and the truth." Ploeser and Patman were the ranking Republican and Democrat on the committee. 

In response to his remark, Chairman Ploeser reportedly declared, "Sir, if I could, I would give you a congressional medal of honor for that remark."

(The entire transcript of the hearing can be found on pp 257-260 of this book.)

The second mention came eight years later, almost to the day, when on August 27, 1955, a couple of Vermont newspapers reported that my grandfather was suing David Locke, of St. Johnsbury for 15,000 dollars (which would be the equivalent of ten times that much today). According to the suit, Granddaddy was driving on Rte 2 just west of the town, and when he swung out to pass from behind, Locke veered to the left and ran him off the road and into a tree, totaling his car. 

I don't know how the suit was settled, but I do know that 66 years later, we drove that very stretch of Rte 2 this summer on our way to St. Johnsbury, home of Dog Mountain, a remarkable coincidence, indeed.

Poor Lucy

As I write, Lucy is pestering me. We are siting on the floor by the fire, but every time I place more than one hand on the keyboard, she swats at it, telling me to keep petting her. That behavior usually maddens me-- I can't spend all my time at the beck and call of anyone, least of all my dog, but today I'm giving her a pass, because she's had a tough one. 

Starting with a grooming appointment at nine, temps in the 20s that did not go with her new do, and another puzzle on the table, which took a lot of our attention. All first world problems. Oh, there is no doubt she's spoiled, but if there was?

This might be definitive proof otherwise: