the minor premise

the minor premise

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Something to Think About

Briefly de-sabbaticalizing to post this link to an extremely thoughtful essay comparing Roman Polanski's life to that of a well-known countryman and contemporary. It's the Anchoress at her best. Worth passing along if only a little bit farther, I think.

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Monday, September 28, 2009

Inevitable Destiny

Recently, an individual from a town down the road ran into a little trouble with the law for allegedly stalking pop/country singer Miley Cyrus. Seemingly in revenge, pop radio stations in the area have been playing Miley's latest in high rotation. I cannot escape from the song. I'm sure that even King George II would have kept his seat had he been played the Hallelujah Chorus repeatedly ad nauseum. So, in hopes of exorcising an ear worm, and having a little fun, the Parody department offers its take on Miley Cyrus' "Party in the U.S.A."

That Miley Song
to the tune of Party in the U.S.A.
by DMinor and CMinor (apologies to Lucasz Gottwald, Claude Kelly, Jessica Cornish and Miley Cyrus)

I'm on the job, got a lot to do
But the radio's my friend
Let the DJ spin his hits for me
Am I gonna like them?

I didn't mind hearing it for the first time
It wasn't bad on the second and third time
This is all so crazy
Have all the DJ's got lazy?

And now I hear it
And I'm feelin' like I'll get sick
Too much airplay
And exposure
'Cause when a buddy turned on the radio

And that Miley song was on
And that Miley song was on
And that Miley song was on

So I throw my hands up
They're playin' that song
I'm screaming "just go away!"
Banging my head -- oh yeah
Plugging my ears -- oh yeah
I'm gonna give up
Why didn't they know
That it ruined ol' Billy Ray
Yeah
She's suffering from overplay
Yeah
She's suffering from overplay

Get to my house - it's after work
And the kids have all come home from school
My daughter says she's got to have her station--
She says mine's not cool
Oh well, a little pop can't hurt me
It's definitely not old AT-Forty
'Cause all I want are Dick and Casey
These modern DJ's drive me crazy

But now I hear it
And I'm feelin' like I'll get sick
Too much airplay
And exposure
Only fifteen minutes from the last time

That the Miley song was on
That the Miley song was on
That the Miley song was on

So I throw my hands up
They're playin' that song
I'm screaming "just go away!"
Tearing my hair -- Oh yeah!
Pounding the ground -- Oh yeah!
I'm gonna give up
Why didn't they know
That it ruined ol' Billy Ray
Yeah
She's suffering from overplay
Yeah
She's suffering from overplay

What is wrong with Beyoncé?
Nickleback is just all right.
Really want some Led Zepplin
But there's that song again-- no end in sight!

So I throw my hands up
They're playin' that song
I'm screaming "just go away!"
Banging my head -- oh yeah
Plugging my ears -- oh yeah
I'm gonna give up
Why didn't they know
That it ruined ol' Billy Ray
Yeah
She's suffering from overplay
Yeah
She's suffering from overplay

So I throw my hands up
They're playin' that song
I'm screaming "just go away!"
Tearing my hair -- Oh yeah!
Pounding the ground -- Oh yeah!
I'm gonna give up
Why didn't they know
That it ruined ol' Billy Ray
Yeah
She's suffering from overplay
Yeah
She's suffering from overplay

[maniacal laughter]

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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Journeys

We at the minor premise extend our sincere and heartfelt condolences to Kyle Cupp ( Journeys in Alterity) and his family on the passing of their daughter/sister, Vivian Marie.

DMinor and CMinor

Friday, September 25, 2009

How Hope Can Change

The Summer Slide
by Dminor

A cloud hangs over Washington;
It will not go away.
The people strain to remember
An earlier glory day.

After years of waiting impatiently,
Decades of righteous strife,
We thought their coming would, at last,
bring the town to life.

Anticipation greeted them;
The people hopeful, then,
Are now, by turns, an "angry mob"
Or joyless women, men.

Such hopes we had, and some still do
Come out and show support.
But how much can proud citizens stand
From report after bad report?

Apologies and finger-pointing!
Blame bias, Blame the past!
Who cares what caused the summer slide?
Our champions have finished last.

A cloud hangs over Washington!
Disappointment! Pain!
Baseball came to old DC,
but the Nats lost 100 again.


On the occasion of the Washington Nationals second straight 100-loss season.

At least they're not the Lions.

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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Drivin' Miss Crazy

Indeed, those who claim the South fought the Civil War to keep Atlanta from happening may never have considered the possibilities of Dallas.
--Paul Greenberg

If that's so, then may the South rise again. Only yesterday Hon. Daughter #1, planning a trip into the NYC of the Old South, paused briefly to wail, "But I'm too young to die!"
"Shoot," I said. "And you've spent the last three years driving all over Charlotte?"
But the Dirty South is in a class by itself.

A favorite of haiku of mine, from the book Honku: The Zen Antidote to Road Rage:

Atlanta traffic:
Easy to see why Sherman
Burned this city down.


Update, some 12 hours later: It just hit me. Hotlanta's under water, and I sat down this morning and wrote a blog post complaining about the traffic?

Obviously, it's time for a sabbatical.

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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Arrr Value

Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day, so in that spirit we will present the following piratey items:

Olympic Pirate triathalon (2008 RESULTS):

Fencing:
Country G S B TOTAL
1 ITALY 2 0 5 7
2 FRANCE 2 2 0 4
3t GERMANY 2 0 0 2
4 USA 1 3 2 6
3t P. R. CHINA 1 1 0 2

Shooting:
Country G S B T
1 P. R. CHINA 5 2 1 8
2 USA 2 2 2 6
3t CZECH REP. 2 1 0 3
3t UKRAINE 2 1 0 3
3t ITALY 1 2 0 3

Sailing:
Country G S B T
1 GREAT BRITAIN 4 1 1 6
2t AUSTRAILIA 2 1 0 3
3t SPAIN 1 1 0 2
3t USA 1 1 0 2
3t P. R. CHINA 1 0 1 2

Pirate Final Rank (must medal in at least two events; point values are Gold=3, Silver=2 and Bronze=1):

1t P. R. CHINA 29 points
1t USA 29 points
3t ITALY 18 points

(Olympic results from the Canadian Broadcasting System site.)

So that settles it, the world's biggest pirates are the USA and China. Hmmmmm.

I'll just settle back and listen to some pirate-appropriate songs:

Sailing - Christopher Cross
Hook - Blues Traveller
Jolly Roger - Adam Ant
Patches - Dickey Lee

and, of course, Pachelbel's Canon in D

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Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Children, Are You Talking?

The school my kids attend did not run the president's speech, so here are some bullets from the text of the speech and some reaction from across the blogosphere.

The speech:

Hello everyone -

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school.
[S]ome of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

When I was young, . . . . my mother. . . . .decided to teach me extra lessons. [W]henever I'd complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."

I'm here because I want to talk with you about your education and what's expected of all of you in this new school year.

what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.

Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.

[N]o matter what you want to do with your life - I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it.

What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country.

[I]f you quit on school - you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.

[I}t's not always easy to do well in school.

I did some things I'm not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have.

But I was fortunate.

[T]he circumstances of your life . . .[are] no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude.

Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up.

I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education - and to do everything you can to meet them.

I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well. . . .

[B]eing successful is hard.

No one's born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work.

[F]ind an adult you trust - a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor - and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

[W]hen you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough.

So today, I want to ask you, what's your contribution going to be?

I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms . . . .

I expect great things from each of you.

Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.


Reading the speech, I thought it was worthy of a local principal or school superintendent. Did the President need to make this speech to all students at the same time? Wouldn't it have been better (and more efficient) to record his piece and let school systems download or stream it? And leave the hype running up to the speech out. Perhaps if they had known the length, more schools would have balked. As it was, the speech appears as a grand publicity ploy rather than a substantive addition to learning. And don't get me started on the first draft of the lesson plan suggestions.

So what was the school-kid reaction to the speech?

From The Bookworm Room

My daughter, who attends middle school, told me that she understood the the take-away message from Obama’s speech to be “The future is your responsibility,” a thought she found unpleasantly burdensome. Generally, she thought the speech was long and boring.


From Lorie Byrd's child on Wizbang

On September 8th, 2009, I watched President Obama give his speech. Some kids got a note from their parents and got to do fun stuff instead. I was very jealous. I listened to him talk about school and how it was the first day of school (although it wasn't) and other boring stuff for FIFTEEN MINUTES! To a kid that's a looong time in school.

During the speech, my friend and her friend were talking, and my teacher said they were being very disrespectful to the president, the leader of our armed forces (blah, blah, blah and some other stuff).


Pointless fact: My grandmother once taught at the high school where the President gave his speech.

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Thursday, September 03, 2009

Suffer the Children

There has been much brouhaha over the President making a speech to the students of the U.S. It makes me wonder if he is having trouble getting prime TV time, since he has used the privilege so often. Perhaps after this speech, he can appear on Sesame Street.

Count: Ah, President Obama, how nice to see you
Pres: Hello Count, how are you doing?
Count: Wonderful, just wonderful! Ever since you have taken office I have had endless fun counting the rising deficit! That's one, one trillion added to the deficit. Two, Two trillion added to the deficit. Three, three trillion. . .
Pres: Count!
Count: Four, four trillion added to the deficit! Five, Five trillion added to the deficit! Six, Six trillion. . .
Pres: Count! Please . .
Count Seven trillion, eight trillion, NINE, NINE TRILLION ADDED TO THE DEFICIT AH HA HA HA [cue lighting/thunderbolt].


Maybe that wouldn't be a great PR move after all. On the speech, the Obama administration is taking a great deal of heat, facing accusations of forced indoctrination of students. However, guess who said the following:

1) "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students"

2) [the White House should not be] "using precious dollars for campaigns" [when] "we are struggling for every silly dime we can get"

3) "the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"


Answers at the bottom of the post.

A menu of classroom activities for the speech exhorts teachers to ask students

"Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress or the governor? Why is what they say important?


Additionally, after the speech teachers will ask students to ponder "What is the President asking me to do?" and to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. Teachers are also to encourage participation in the Department of Education's video contest. Perhaps the winning entry will look something like this:

"I pledge to be a servant of Our President.. . ."

An optional part of the plan called for the students' progress toward their goals to be tracked in order to hold students accountable. I wonder if anyone in the "pledge" video has been held accountable to their promises.


The answers: 1) Richard Gephardt 2) Patricia Schroeder 3) Richard Gephardt again
But, of course, they were saying this about President George H. W. Bush's speech to high school students in 1991, contrary to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's claims that Obama's speech would be "the first time an American president has spoken directly to the nation's school children about persisting and succeeding in school." Where are Gephardt and Schroeder now?
(source PoliFact )

Hat Tip to The American Catholic

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