"I'm too lazy to retire"

by
Sid Fleischman, author of "The Whipping Boy" 1987 Newberry Award Winner

"She thought of new marriages as being rather like those shy, delicate flowers one sees on the edge of the Kalahari; so small that one might miss them altogether, so vulnerable that a careless step might crush their beauty."
"The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection" by Alexander McCall Smith

Back the Principle? or the Leader?

"There is another way to think about this:  The United States can and should stand for the rule of law, stable institutions and democracy...I mean...in the principle that power should change hands peacefully, inclusively, and according to a set of rules accepted by all social groups....The alternative is that power changes hands violently, that some groups are left out of the political process and that social discontent remains very high."

America's True Ally in Egypt: The United States
Should Stand Up For Democracy, Not the Players on the Ground
Anne Applebaum, Slate.com  Aug 23, 2013

More Imagery

".....fat raindrops were already pocking the water with perfectly formed little craters."
from "The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag" by Alan Bradley

Best Equation of the Day

"Cooking with and for children can feel like a problem that physics has yet to solve:  there are too many variables, and each is in itself too variable."

From How to Cook Dinner When a Small Child is Dangling From Your Limbs" 
August 2, 2013
Dinner vs Child is a bi-weekly column about cooking for children, with children, and despite children
by Nicholas Day

Imagery

"The seabirds exploded from the shore, filling the air like a star burst."

From Scat
by Carl Hiaasen

A Sliver of Moon

"Overhead, the stars twinkled like a million mad eyes, while the moon, already halfway to its first quarter, hung like a broken silver fingernail in the sky."

A Red Herring Without Mustard: a Flavia de Luce Novel

by Alan Bradley

Military Civilian Employees Creed

As posted in the US Military Group in Caracas, Venezuela 1996

We the unwilling

Led by the unknowing

Are doing the impossible

For the ungrateful.

We have done it so much

For so long,

With so little,

That we are now qualified

To do anything

With nothing

Posted in honour of your dad's retirement from the US Air Force after 30 years of service in which he looked out for everyone. 
"When we walked out of his office, even if it was for discipline,
we felt that we were a person and we had a future"
Words said at the change of command 3 Apr 2000

A New School Year Begins

Did I tell you I teach middle school?

The Parable of the Classroom

Then Jesus took his disciples up the mountain and, gathering them around him, he taught them, saying: 

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven 
Blessed are the meek 
Blessed are they that mourn 
Blessed are the merciful 
Blessed are they that thirst for justice when persecuted 
Blessed are you when you suffer 
Be glad and rejoice for your reward is great in heaven 

Then Simon Peter said, "Are we supposed to know this?"
And Andrew said, "Do we have to write this down?"
And James said, "Do we have to turn this in?"
And Phillip said, "Will we have a test on this?"
Bartholomew said. "What came after poor?"
And John said, "The other disciples didn't have to learn this!"
Mark said, "Don't take it off the overhead yet."

And Judas said “What does this have to do with real life?
And Matthew went to the bathroom. 

One of the Pharisees who was present asked to see Jesus' lesson plan and inquired of Jesus, "Where are your anticipatory set and your objectives in the cognitive domain?" 

And Jesus wept.

Fifteen

South of the bridge on Seventeenth
I found back of the willows one summer 
day a motorcycle with engine running 
as it lay on its side, ticking over 
slowly in the high grass. I was fifteen.
I admired all that pulsing gleam, the 
shiny flanks, the demure headlights 
fringed where it lay; I led it gently 
to the road, and stood with that 
companion, ready and friendly. I was fifteen.
We could find the end of a road; meet 
the sky on out Seventeenth. I thought about 
hills, and patting the handle got back a 
confident opinion.  On the bridge we indulged 
a forward feeling, a tremble. I was fifteen.
Thinking, back farther in the grass I found 
the owner, just coming to, where he had flipped 
over the rail. He had blood on his hand, was pale- 
I helped him walk to his machine. He ran his hand 
over it, called me good man, roared away.
I stood there, fifteen.

By William Stafford        


                                                                           

The Same Old Problems

"The impoverished always try to keep moving as if relocating might help.
They ignore the reality that a new version of the same old problem will be waiting at the end of the trip--
the relative you cringe to kiss."
From The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak