Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Metroplex's Mudville Moment

A few thoughts on the just-ended baseball season, before returning to my regularly scheduled Go Cowboys, Go Stars and Go Mean Green (and possibly Go Mavs, if the two sides get it together):

1) Despite the disaster that was the past two nights, this has been a great run by the Rangers. I've been a fan for many years and endured lots of seasons where the team was out of the race by early August (if not sooner), and it really says something that it's now not enough for the team to be one out away from a world championship. Could anyone imagine us saying this even a few years ago?

2) My hat is off to the Cardinals for a fine season. As I've said before, I lived in the St. Louis area three times as a little kid, and I would have likely been pulling for them this year had the opposition been any other team except my Rangers. And fans couldn't have asked for a better-matched series; with few exceptions, the games were very close and edge-of-your-seat exciting.

3) Still, as good as the season was, it was beyond painful to have it end this way (and let's face it, it was really over, for all intents and purposes, last night, even though I still held out hope). So close, so very close...

4) But I'll end on a positive: This team will be back, sooner rather than later. They are NOT the Buffalo Bills of baseball, and the third time WILL be the charm.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Kids Say the Darnedest Things About Hard Key Signatures

During a lesson, a Stevie Wonder classic could be heard wafting in from the band hall...
ME: I've never heard Sir Duke in this key before. Stevie Wonder wrote it in B concert, which would be all 7 sharps for you.
KID: That's not gonna happen. I don't even KNOW all 7 sharps!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Kids Say the Darnedest Things About Food

We got on a food tangent when I compared the étude with four flats to kids being forced to eat turnips, which she surprised me by saying she actually liked. She then came up with these two gems:

"In order to get us to eat our broccoli, my mom used to put mayonnaise on it."

"My sister and I sometimes fight over cauliflower."

Monday, October 10, 2011

Kids Say the Darnedest Things About Finance, Part 2

This one was paying me for a couple of lessons...
KID; Here's some lunch money. Go buy yourself a bagel. (Hands me $32.)
ME: That'd be one big bagel...

(This is the same kid who thought I was "rich" after handing me $16 in the spring.)

UPDATE: A friend on Facebook reminded me of this Simpsons episode in a similar vein:

Nelson: Hey, look how much Skinner makes--$25,000 a year!
(the kids sound impressed)
Bart: (typing into a calculator) Let's see, he's 40 years old, times twenty-five grand...whoa, he's a millionaire!
Children: Wow!
Principal Skinner: I wasn't a principal when I was one!
Milhouse: Plus, in the summer he paints houses.
Milhouse: He's a billionaire!
Children: Wow!
Principal Skinner: If I were a billionaire, why would I be living with my mother?

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Kids Say the Darnedest Things About Musical Terms

One of the middle school all-district etudes has a fermata in it this year...
ME: Have we talked about the fermata yet?
KID: Is it that thing where you move your lips up and down?
ME: No, that would be vibrato, and that's not exactly how you do it, either.