The Evergreen Sweetness of the Magnolia Mother

Posted by on Jan 14, 2011 in dish | 0 comments Over at a far more serious website, the Wall Street Journal has posted an opinion piece entitled “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior” by Amy Chua, the Yale Law professor whose paen to Chinese-style parenting, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, has set off a depth charge of angst among the mom population. Chua posits that Western moms are far too permissive and don’t demand enough of their darling...
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Gah! Air Travel!!

Posted by on Mar 5, 2010 in dish | 0 comments This morning, Ms. Without-Shopping and I woke up at o-dark thirty to catch a 6:30 flight to a conference. Flying anywhere for any professional reason almost never happens to teacher types (it involves money), so we’re excited–until we get to the airport. We park and hustle into the terminal. Turns out the e-ticket is one of those “operated by” tix, so we’re at the...
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Rev. Robertson FAIL

Posted by on Jan 14, 2010 in dish | 1 comment I can’t even begin to describe the ridiculousness that is Rev. Pat Robertson’s comment on the Haiti earthquake, so I’m going to let this letter from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune say it for me:Dear Pat Robertson, I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so...
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Tallahasses

Posted by on Nov 10, 2009 in dish | 0 comments Today, the vampire bats of education flapped down our hallways and invaded our classrooms. Yep, it’s visitation day. We’ve been at Defcon 2 for a couple of weeks now. It apparently isn’t enough to give Florida schools a letter grade based on one set of test scores; now we have a “level” to go with. Our level means that we get bat teams a couple of times a year to...
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Cripes, Tallahassee!

Posted by on Oct 5, 2009 in dish | 0 comments Today was the first day I attempted to foist the new state-mandated testing on my students, and let me just say that there are military terms that aren’t for mixed company that perfectly capture the essence of today’s fun. Terms beginning with the word “cluster” or expressed with the acronym FUBAR.Needless to say, when the wizards in Tally tell the entire state to hold...
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