Reflections on a Tuesday evening

The wind blows in all directions . . . .

Really up-and-down day today at school. I am really stressed about our History Day compeititon Thursday. We have a new department head, and he really wants it to go well. He's not trying to stress me out, and he and another teacher are really helping me a lot this year, but I am just not used to having a lot of help on projects. I do the National Honor Society stuff by myself for a reason. (GRIN). I also want to make sure this goes well. My old department head, who hired me and saw me through the first History Day last year, will be there judging.

I will say this loud and clear: I am really, really happy that evilnicola will be there to run the judges' room. I don't tell her often enough how much I depend on her.

Yes, there was an up part. I write a ton of letters of recommendation. ("If little Johnny gets out of jail by September, he would make a fine addition to your freshman class . . . ."), and one of the CollegeWorks teachers tells her students they need to write a letter to at least one teacher who wrote them a letter of recommendation. They have to use proper letter and addressing form, etc. I got three today, and I actually cried. The kids said the nicest things. One of them, my NHS president, commented that he got a lot of confidence from something I barely remember saying. At freshman orientation, I pulled him off to the side, pointed at the volunteers, and said "Remember, Sean. They all work for you." He took this very seriously, and he has been a great leader all year.

Screw Arnold . . .

If you know me, you know I get passionate about a wide variety of things. I know some of you disagree with me on this one -- and that's cool -- but I am wicked angry at the governor of California. He had a chance to do something decent, and he didn't. Sure, I understand that Tookie Williams was convicted of crimes that merited the death penalty. I do not oppose the death penalty. But I damned well oppose making decisions based on politics, and that's what this smacks of. Oh, that and the fact that Arnold first said he couldn't pardon him because there were no legal issues, then added that Williams didn't deserve to be pardoned because he never expressed remorse. Hey! Bug Guy! He denies he did it? How's he gonna be remorseful.

Just to be provocative . . . .

I meant to make this comment when someone on one of the SCA lists said some folks are starting to use the word "muggles" instead of "mundanes."

. . . We're not *really* supposed to use "mundanes," either.

When I was on the PR team at Pennsic, we were told we're not supposed to tell the mundanes (reporters) that we call them that. We're also not supposed to talk about households, either.

Seriously.

Then, there's the New York Post . . .

Background: A terrible thing happened over the weekend. A cop was shot to death by two men.

Since it happened in New York, it was covered by a number of papers, including the Post, and since one of the men who an actor who was in A Bronx Tale and on The Sopranos, the paper did a lot with it, including a sidebar headlined, "Went looking for Valium whiled stewed to the gills." But the real reminder that this was a Post story came buried inside the story, where it said, "Enchautegui (the police officer) fired back eight shots at Armento and struck him several times, including once in the penis."

Ow!

The actor's name is Lillo Brancato Jr.