Nobody 737

Sunday, March 23, 2008
Nobody # 737

Nobody Asked Me But:


"I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners - an inheritance we pass on to our precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins of every race and hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible." He said, "If we walk away now [from the subject of race], if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together." Barack Obama

He may or may not be elected president. He may not even get his party’s nomination, although he is looking good for it right now. But with this speech, Barack Obama became something more. Like those few who came before him, King, Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, Garrison, J.Q. Adams, he became America’s conscience.

My admiration has turned to awe.<<<

SPITZER EXPLAINED In a Time magazine profile, Eliot Spitzer recounts he "always had a complex relationship with authority" and once, his "fierce, demanding" father made him cry during a game of Monopoly.<<<

New York = Spitzer + Patterson. It has to be the water.<<<

And isn’t it delightful that the government employee who Patterson was bedding worked in the governor’s office of intergovernmental affairs? It’s true!<<<

Dolly Madison created a sensation when she served ice cream as a dessert in the White House at the second inaugural ball.

ON ICE CREAM

Fastest growing new flavor – Cookies ‘N Cream is also # 5 on best-seller list. Not to me. It is on my never buy list. My top three remain mocha almond fudge, butter pecan and fresh raspberry.

Top 11 ice cream consuming nations in the world.

1. United States
2. New Zealand
3. Denmark
4. Australia
5. Belgium/Luxenbourg
6. Sweden
7. Canada
8. Norway
9. Ireland
10. Switzerland
11. Turnerland<<<

The great Gestalt therapist, Fritz Perls, called it mind-fucking – the eternal why. Why was I born? Why am I living? Why did I do this or think that or feel something else? To Perls, whys were irrelevant - escape mechanisms that we use to avoid facing up to and living in the present.

I thought of Perls when I read this passage in “Lush Life.” The main cop character asks: “What good are answers when what’s done is done and something just like it, or worse, will happen tomorrow?”

I won’t go quite as far as Perls. I think that why’s are interesting and sometimes informative but dangerous when we use them not for growth, but for justification.<<<

Last week I wrote briefly on the subject of home schooling, questioning whether or not parents should be able to unilaterally choose this way to educate their children. My editor and my wife, actually my editor-wife asked me to expand upon this subject. So I will add three points.

Before any parent can choose the home schooling option he or she should be required to:

Prove that there is a compelling reason for the decision.
Prove that qualified teachers will teach the child an approved curriculum.
Be willing to have the child tested in all subject areas at regular interviews with agreed upon levels of progress.<<<

How quickly are the voters going to notice that McCain is a one-trick pony and most of them don’t even like the trick? Senator John has no domestic policy and his only foreign policy position seems to be “stay the course in Iraq, even if it takes 1000 years. Wake up voters. 4000 Americans have been killed in Iraq and countless Iraqis. Dr. Death should be polling 30% at best, not 46%.<<<

Did you know: that 501,000 Easter eggs were hidden last Easter in Cypress Garden Adventure Park in Winter Haven, Florida?<<<

Answers to last week’s questions

Which month of the year do you think would best describe your personality?

When I was young, June, with a little September mixed in. June was personal freedom, when school gave way to summer, a time of “no deeds to do.” September was another kind of excitement. Going back to teaching was a rebirth, a clean slate – new students, new ways to fine-tune the what and how of teaching.

Today, it is October – I can feel a slight chill in the air but my leaves are splendid.

George: I'd like to say April as the month that best describes my personality, because it is the month of spring, I'm really a December 21st or 22nd guy, the winter solctice, when days and light become longer than the nights and darkness. It's the wake-up call for me.

Suppose that you still lived in an age when Kings and Queens ruled the lands. If you were crowned an absolute monarch, what is the very first law you would impose on your kingdom?

Let’s assume that since I have written so much about the horrors of child abuse, I have already made that a capital crime – well, probably not capital, but it is tempting. So I will move on to my second action.

On a priority scale of importance, with 10 the highest, I would rate educating our children as a 20. Therefore, I would decree that schools get first call on all public funds.

However, I am aware that many administrators and some teachers take the money and run, i.e., are not dedicated to their task. For them my decree is “Off with their heads!”

Hugh: Visits to Starbuck's AND Coldstone's together, at least once a month, would be required by this monarch.

YOU GO HUGH

George: I would command that all people’s natural rights to life, liberty and property be respected so that my position as monarch no longer existed. An elected enforcer whose sole job it would be to protect these rights would replace me.

NICE IDEA GEORGE!<<<

And here is a late answer from my granddaughter Emily to the question about what she would like to have delivered to her doorstep every morning:

I would like a gift card to one of my favorite stores.

And the shopping beat goes on – from Barbara to Elizabeth to Emily.<<<


So, too, does the Bruin beat go on – if barely. Two more wins and we are San Antonio bound. (We being both the Bruins and the Turners)

Questions for next week

You have no doubt heard the expression “Wake up and smell the coffee!” If you could wake up every morning to the distinct smell of any one thing except coffee, what would you choose?

Suppose you could buy stock in some famous individual rather than a company. In what particular person would you be most willing to invest a portion of your money? (Just as with a company’s stock, consider the future potential of the person in whom you are investing.)