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Year: 2007

Today…

December 10, 2007 • • 5 Comments

A bit of lazy birthday blogging via wikipedia: 

1041 – Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.
1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice.
1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg’s Elster Gate.
1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.
1684 – Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state.
1836 – Emory College (now Emory University) is chartered in Oxford, Georgia.
1861 – American Civil War: the Confederate States of America accept a rival state government’s pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.
1864 – American Civil War: Sherman’s March to the Sea – Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union Army troops reach Savannah, Georgia.
1868 – The first traffic lights are installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
1869 – Wyoming grants women the right to vote.
1869 – The first American chapter of Kappa Sigma is founded at the University of Virginia.
1898 – Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict.
1899 – The Delta Sigma Phi fraternity is founded at the City College of New York.
1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.
1902 – Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania.
1904 – The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity is founded at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.
1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals who have been vivisected.
1932 – Thailand adopts a Constitution and becomes a constitutional monarchy.
1935 – The Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later renamed the Heisman Trophy, was given to halfback Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago. This award was given to the best college football player east the Mississippi River.
1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication.
1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya.
1941 – World War II: Battle of the Philippines – Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on the Philippine mainland.
1948 – The UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today is also International Human Rights Day.
1949 – Chinese Civil War: The People’s Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.
1963 – The United States Air Force’s X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane program is cancelled by Robert McNamara.
1968 – Japan’s biggest heist, the still-unsolved “300 million yen robbery”, occurs in Tokyo.
1970 – I was born
1972 – Jim Hart throws a football for a record 98 yards, the longest recorded throw.
1978 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1981 – The United Nations General Assembly approves Pakistan’s proposal for establishing nuclear free-zone in South Asia.
1983 – Democracy is restored in Argentina with the assumption of President Raúl Alfonsín.
1989 – Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of Mongolia’s democratic movement that peacefully changed the second oldest communist country into a democratic society.
1996 – Rwandan Genocide: Military advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations Maurice Baril recommends that the UN multi-national forces in Zaire stand down.
2006 – One million Lebanese opposition supporters gather in downtown Beirut, calling for the government to resign.

Oh, and happy Human Rights Day too.

Friday Cat Blogging: Simon (and his Daemon?)

December 7, 2007 • • 2 Comments

Simon hasn’t been on the blog in awhile. He tends to scratch it and then try to knock it over onto the dogs. Besides, I worry he might go for all the birds.

Still, he let me take a picture of him and his spirit the other day. Maybe it’s his daemon, but then it probably wouldn’t look like him. He’s still trying to come up with an explanation for this obvious supernatural occurence.

Update: Be sure to visit Simon’s fellow felines at the 194th Carnival of the Cats at Bad Kitty Cats.

Curiosity Blew Up the Town

December 6, 2007 • • Leave a comment

When I was teaching at a junior high, I once had a kid ask, “What does e=mc2 mean?” Clearly, whatever point of sentence construction I was elaborating on wasn’t sinking in with this kid.

“Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared,” I said as I underlined a predicate.

He squinted his eyes a bit, probably wondering whether or not he could trust an English teacher on this, but then nodded and jotted something down in his notebook. He looked up again. “Okay, what’s the speed of light?”

I stopped and looked at him. “186,000 miles per second.”

He nodded and scribbled the equation in his spiral, his number two pencil working madly. “Whoooaa,” he said, looking up.

“What?”

“That’s a lot of energy. Even if the mass is just 1.”

I nodded. “Yes, it is.”

He stared at his notebook, trying to make sense of the enormity of those numbers. “I mean, you could probably blow up a whole city with that kind of energy, right?”

I think the next few sentences we analyzed were about nuclear bombs.

Eeny Meany Miney Moe

December 6, 2007 • • Leave a comment

I’m a sucker for a quiz so I couldn’t resist the Washington Post’s choose your candidate quiz.

You read a series of questions and pick the candidate’s response with which you most agree, not knowing who said it. The problem is that some say exactly the same thing and others use words to say absolutely nothing so a few questions wind up being toss-ups; nevertheless, here are the Democratic candidates ranked in order of how closely my views match theirs:

  1. Dodd
  2. Obama
  3. Edwards/Richardson (tie)
  4. Clinton

Dodd was a surprise, mainly because I know nothing about him, but the others came out much as I expected.

I don’t believe in joining parties, but in these times, I very much favor the Democrats. Still, I figured I’d try the Republican quiz. The ones most likely to offend me least are as follows:

  1. Giuliani
  2. Paul
  3. McCain
  4. Huckabee
  5. Romney/Thompson (tie)

When I watched the Republican YouTube debate last week, I was struck by two things. The first was that nearly all of these guys would be an improvement on Bush, so low has the bar been set. The second was all of them seem destined to lose.

However, I might have to vote in the Republican primary since I live in one-party Texas where the Republican primary tends to be where elections are really decided. So who do I chose? I’m leaning toward Romney just to give me the satisfaction of seeing the Republicans nominate a flip-flopper from Massachusetts whose commitment to rightwing fundamentalist Christianity seems suspect to many an evangelical.

That’s the kind of poetic justice you just can’t make up.

Red-tailed Hawk

December 5, 2007 • • 4 Comments

Yesterday we had one of those bracing cold mornings. The sky was a crisp blue, and frost covered many of the fields along the highway. It’s the kind of morning that seems to bring out the birds of prey.

I see this red-tailed hawk on many of the cold mornings on my way to work. Except when I have my camera. Yesterday, though, I had the camera, and there was the bird, chillin’ on the pole.

I pulled over and shot a few frames from the car before he flew off. I should have driven past him and shot back so the sun would be behind me. I wouldn’t have had to dodge him as much to bring out the detail on his wings. Next time I’ll try not to be so excited about the bird so I can give just a bit more thought to the photography.

They are magnificant creatures, though. It’s easy to just watch the bird and forget the machine in my hands.

I drove on to work, part of me wishing I had his job…

A Christmas Carol

December 4, 2007 • • Leave a comment

I remember my dad reading A Christmas Carol to us as kids. Everyone knows the story, of course, but even knowing how it all goes, I still found myself wondering about old Scrooge and his journey of midnight horror that leads him to warm redemption and the blessings of Tiny Tim.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve been slogging through Dickens’s final work, Our Mutual Friend, as part of my on-going Lost reading project, but when I was filling in for a fellow teacher last week, I noticed a few copies of A Christmas Carol in her room. I started reading it over lunch and found myself drawn in. I finished it over a few lunch breaks and loved every word of it.

Who knew that Dickens could provide such a great respite from Dickens? There’s a special pleasure it rereading those books we knew as kids, in making new sense of the familiar and discovering those things we weren’t then equipped or inclined to see.

It was a great way to start the Christmas season. A tradition, perhaps?

Where I’m From

December 3, 2007 • • 8 Comments

I found this great little writing exercise on Danigirl’s blog. It seems to originate as a professional development project based on George Ella Lyon’s work. I thought it made for a cool post, but the next day one of my fellow teachers suddenly started talking about the heretofore unknown (to me) poet Lyon at an in-service meeting. Well, thought I, that’s some synchronicity for me.

Anyway, It seemed like a cool project to do with my kids, and being the good teacher that I am (and also the kind of person who enjoys these kinds of writing exercises) I figured I should test drive it first…

Where I’m From, an exercise in identity…

I am from maps, from National Geographic and surplus bombing charts of Vietnam used as tarps below our tents.

I am from green soccer fields, orange slices sucked through teeth at halftime and 2..4..6..8…who do we appreciate.

I am from the lonely buoy bell clanging in the bay on open-window summer nights. I am from old forests with forgotten headstones hidden in the undergrowth.

I am from the Smithsonian, concrete bunkers overgrown by jungle, that old monastery on the hill. From birdless gray Octobers and the golden light of northern summer, a fox curled up on the lawn.

I am from the scrub oak, juniper and palms, summer tomato plants and morning glory growing thick on a wire fence. I am from bluebonnets and prickly pear embedded in my palm.

I am from tacos and tamales on Christmas Eve. From Trivial Pursuit and gentleness, from Brushes, Griffins, Tomlinsons and Trouts. From the parrot we birdsat, who never learned to talk, but in our house, learned to laugh.

I am from meals with talk instead of TV, from books and magazines and a telescope pointed at Saturn’s rings.

From books are our friends and may the force be with you.

I am from the King James Bible, New England churches surrounded by three hundred year old graves. From Doubting Thomas and endless questions.

I’m from the cold Narragansett, “King” Arthur’s Illinois basketball court, both sides of the Revolution, and the Valley of the Sun, from home-baked cookies kept in the freezer, tortillas in the ‘fridge.

From Grace who said nothing of her past, from Dorothy who told everything, from Jim whose cursing made me laugh (my parents cringed) and Cecil whose tales I never got to hear.

I am from cluttered closet time capsules, vinyl photo albums, instamatic shots and slide shows of the sea, from treasure boxes and neat ordered files of school projects, drawings, homemade cards.

I am from the Colonial coast, the edge of jungle, the ring of fire, the ruins of Rome, the settled Comanche hills I now call home.

* * *

As a side project, I followed the links from Danigirl back along the trail of meme to see where it began, all the while enjoying the various takes along the way. It goes: Daysgoby to Spanglish to Lolabola to a staff development website.

Here’s the page that explains how to put it together. Give it a whirl.

Friday Hound Blogging: Daphne and the Little Pups

November 30, 2007 • • 6 Comments

Over the years, shy Daphne and has become more doglike. Over Thanksgiving she surprised everyone. My in-laws came and brought their two puppies, (Special Guest Pups) Henry and Lucy. Henry is the little(er) one…

While Joey watched suspiciously and stayed out of the way (it’s hard to see exactly what those little things zipping around all the way down there are) and Phoebe slept, it was Daphne who bounced around and played – yes, played – with the puppies.

She chased ‘em, she dropped at ‘em, she even grabbed a toy and attacked it to show what she’s capable of.

Daphne. Played. With a toy.

It’s hard to believe this is the same dog I once had to pick up and carry (all 55 pounds of her) to the backyard to do her business.

Greyhounds carry baggage heavier than most dogs. It’s good to see Daphne leaving more and more of it behind.

[saveagrey]

Waiting for a Gust of Wind

November 27, 2007 • • Leave a comment

Look up—endlessness and open sky
Naked leafless lungs break blue infinity
Ghosts of birds sing springtime memories
Imagine them in the trees, though all around is endings—
Dying leaves, new spiders’ eggs and spider’s dead decay…
Remember that hummingbird released from a spider’s web?
Up from my hand, he raced straight to South America
Look up—wait for one last gust of wind

Coyote Sticks It to The Man

November 26, 2007 • • 2 Comments

In the interest of promoting all things coyote, I offer a recent discovery: a legal brief regarding a lawsuit brought by Wile E Coyote against Acme:

Mr. Coyote states that on eighty-five separate occasions, he has purchased of the Acme Company (hereinafter, ‘Defendant’), through that company’s mail order department, certain products which did cause him bodily injury due to defects in manufacture or improper cautionary labeling. Sales slips made out to Mr. Coyote as proof of purchase are at present in the possession of the Court, marked Exhibit A. Such injuries sustained by Mr. Coyote have temporarily restricted his ability to make a living in the profession of predator. Mr. Coyote is self-employed and thus not eligible for Workmen’s Compensation.

Mr. Coyote states that on December 13th, he received of Defendant via parcel post one Acme Rocket Sled. The intention of Mr. Coyote was to use the Rocket sled to aid him in pursuit of his prey. Upon receipt of the Rocket Sled, Mr. Coyote removed it from its wooden shipping crate and sighting his prey in the distance, activated the ignition. As Mr. Coyote gripped the handlebars, the Rocket Sled accelerated with such sudden and precipitate force as to stretch Mr. Coyote’s forelimbs to a length of fifteen feet. Subsequently, the rest of Mr. Coyote’s body shot forward with a violent jolt, causing severe strain to his back and neck and placing him unexpectedly astride the Rocket Sled. Disappearing over the horizon at such speed as to leave a diminishing jet trail along its path, the Rocket Sled soon brought Mr. Coyote abreast of his prey. At that moment, the animal he was pursuing veered sharply to the right. Mr. Coyote vigorously attempted to follow this maneuver but was unable to, due to poor design and engineering on the Rocket Sled and a faulty or non-existent steering system. Shortly thereafter, the unchecked progress of the Rocket Sled led it and Mr. Coyote into collision with the side of a mesa.

– Ian Frazier, The New Yorker Magazine, 26 February 1990

Check out the whole thing. It’s a funny bit of satire, and one more reason to root for Coyote. Not only is he unable to get Road Runner, he’s a victim of the Corporate Man.

Oh, and apparently, he did catch Road Runner…