When Black Friday Comes...

...I'm usually as far from a mall as humanly possible. Today was the notable exception, as a couple of my prize players had a gig today at Barnes and Noble this afternoon. Actually, if I have to go to a mall at all, I'd rather it be Firewheel, because of the open-air nature of the place (and today was perfect, weather-wise, once the morning fog lifted), and because I don't mind the walk at all, seeing as how I walk through the place all the time anyway.

With that in mind, I didn't even try for a good parking place, choosing to park as far back as I could without encroaching on the movie theatre's lot. There were a lot of people there all day, but getting in and out wasn't too bad, and the fact that it seems more like a small town than a traditional mall just made it seem not so much crowded, as vibrant. And just two minutes from home! I like it...

As for the rest of Black Friday, let's see: I did just what I felt for most of the day (which today meant eating and watching football), but I did wear socks and shoes on occasion, and there were no holes to dig and no kangaroos to feed (if you haven't caught the Steely Dan reference in the title of this post, check out the lyrics here). Mom and Dad stayed until about fifteen minutes ago, and they're headed back to Sugar Land in the morning; it was a very nice visit, as the visits have been lately.

I'll try to get caught up on all the old posts in the next few days, and I'll get caught up on the news stuff now.

Just in time for Black Friday: There's a new website that's dedicated to the fine--and slippery--art of regifting. (According to a survey by the site's creators, 40% of respondents admitted to doing so.)

One more reason to put an iPod on your gift list: It's not just an mp3 player; it might actually help save your life.

They took a joyride and got iced for it: Two employees of a Boise ice-skating rink, faced with the midnight munchies, made a fast-food run by driving the rink's two Zambonis through the drive-thru.

Is this taking "recycling" too far? An enterprising group of Thai zookeepers is now selling paper products--notebooks, fans, bookmarks, and the like--made from recycled panda poop.

So I guess the makers of Eskimo Pies are in trouble now, too: A British sausage-making company has been advised that they could face legal trouble because their product, "Welsh Dragon Sausage," doesn't actually contain any dragon.

Giving Thanks

Here are a few of the things I'm thankful for today:

• Good health


• Being able to celebrate with part of my family, right here in my own house. (It's only the second time I've hosted Thanksgiving dinner, which also means it's the second time that my kitchen will be used to its full capacity.)


• The knowledge that the rest of my family is only 3 1/2 hours away, and that we'll all be together at Christmas


• A great group of friends; really, I couldn't ask for anyone better.


• A job that I love, that involves doing the thing that I think I do best


• The above-mentioned thing I do best: Music. It enriches people's lives in a very unique way


• Also the fact that said job keeps a roof over my head, and the roof in question is attached to a dwelling that I'm actually paying for instead of renting


• The food we'll be enjoying today (especially the fact that it's pre-made and all that Mom has to do is warm it)


• Texas autumn: Warmish days, cool nights


• The Cowboys on TV today, and A&M/Texas tomorrow


• The freedom to speak, associate and worship as we please, without fear of the government persecuting us for those things--in other words, the freedom to live in a great place like America (let us never take that for granted)

What are you thankful for today?

This takes "gobble, gobble" to an extreme: The winner of the annual turkey-eating contest at Arnie's Deli in New York City scarfed down 4.8 pounds of bird in twelve minutes. (The contest was yesterday, and the article notes that his family will likely be having venison today.)

They may taste great, but they're in bad taste: An Oberlin, Ohio artist hasn't created very much holiday cheer so far with his collection of gingerbread Nazis in a recent exhibit.

He'll be the butt of jokes now: A guy in Virginia who encourages kids to avoid smoking (by dressing up as a giant cigarette butt) has been busted for having four wives at the same time.

Into Every Life, a Little Wayne Must Fall

Last night was the annual fall concert of the One O'Clock Lab Band, a Tuesday-before-Thanksgiving tradition for almost fifty years. I was especially looking forward to this year's concert, because I got to see Wayne Bergeron a few months ago at the Maynard tribute, and his performance there made me hungry for more.

It's hard to say where I first heard Wayne, because his music has appeared in so many movies and TV shows that I've seen. Maybe his stint with the Maynard band; definitely when Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band first came out. But I really got to know his playing about four years ago when a friend of mine played me Wayne's first solo CD, You Call This a Living?, on the way down to TMEA; I was so impressed that I bought it soon after we arrived at the convention.

I mentioned in the Maynard tribute review that Wayne's nickname is "Waynard," and he's definitely one who could take up the Ferguson mantle if he ever decided to hit the road on a regular basis (but I bet he's having too much fun--and making too much money--to give up his Hollywood day job). Besides an amazing range, he's also gifted with the cleanest trumpet sound I've ever heard that high up in the stratosphere ("almost too clean," as my trumpet-player buddy who turned me onto the CD once said). That first CD includes a couple of Goodwin compositions, as well as some from fellow Cailfornia writers Tom Kubis and Bill Liston, and many of the great L.A. studio musicians can be found on the CD.

Wayne's visit with the One O'Clock included several tunes from that first CD--"Hospital Blues" and "Rhythm Method" (by Kubis), and interesting adaptations of "Friend Like Me" from Aladdin and Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" (by Liston). As expected, Wayne live was just as exciting live as on the recording, and it was fun to hear the One O'Clock backing him up (special kudos to lead trumpter Jason Levi for flat-out nailing the climactic part of "Hosptial Blues"). There were a few tunes that were new to me, both by Kubis ("Pain for Wayne" and "High Clouds and a Good Chance of Wayne") and they also found guest and band in fine form. (If you haven't heard some of these tunes, catch a few of them on Wayne's MySpace.)

This was a very different concert from the past few Fall Concerts, since Wayne is a tad younger than some of the artists they've had in recently (Jimmy Heath, Phil Woods, Benny Golson, and so on). Most of the charts that he brought in are of a different style than the One O'Clock usually plays, so I'm sure that the music allowed the players to stretch in wonderful ways, and they sounded great on everything as usual. One of the things I wasn't able to discern from the Maynard tribute was Wayne's rapport with the audience, so I'm happy to report that he's very engaging and funny, and it sounded like he actually hung with the band members after hours (again, maybe that's the whole younger thing, though I was quite surprised to re-read the liner notes of that first CD and discover that he's been a grandfather since 2002). I noted in the Maynard tribute that the greatest legacy Maynard left behind was the slew of former sidemen who have become leaders in their own right, and Wayne Bergeron is one who's doing his old boss proud. It was great to hear him in a close setting at my alma mater.

According to Wayne's website, his second solo CD, Plays Well With Others, will drop in January;you'd better believe I'll be doing a pre-order on that one.

Fry St. Update: It's Starting...

The first encounter between the Fry Street area and a bulldozer will take place in a few hours, when the buildings that formerly housed Mr. Chopsticks and Uncommon Grounds will be reduced to rubble. There's plenty more info in this post at SaveFryStreet.com. I for one am thankful that the Tomato is still in its original location (I'll be eating there tonight after the One O'Clock concert), but I really feel bad that the first of the old buildings will be going down.

UPDATE: There was a lot of coverage of this event the next day, which has been collected here. There's also a video of the demolition.

Buckeye bonanza, part 1: Students and alumni in Columbus, Ohio, were celebrating Ohio State's victory over Michigan this past weekend, and local authorities were celebrating the fact that only around 40 fires were set during those celebrations.

Buckeye bonanza, part 2: The final score of that Ohio State game had the Buckeyes on top, 42-39. Shortly after the game ended, the winning numbers in Ohio's Pick 4 lottery drawing were 4-2-3-9. Several lucky fans cashed in during the 45-minute window between the two events.

Thud

About once every school year, I have a day that just hits me like a ton o' bricks (it's been chronicled here a few times before). Despite being Day One of a two-day school week, today was that day; I felt worn out almost from the start, and--despite several little breaks during the day, that feeling has continued nearly unabated up till now.

Since the One O'Clock's concert with Wayne Bergeron is tomorrow, and I have a full slate of college teaching before that (unlike the public schools, the college doesn't get a half-day), it's time to go to bed early and hope that I'll be re-energized in the morning. Catching up on blog posts will have to wait, along with the news stories. The timing for this upcoming vacation could not have been better, that's for sure.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to my friend, colleague and fraternity brother Jim.

Weekend Time-Wasters

I was going to get something productive done on this blog over the weekend, but I got caught up in some wonderful little online detours instead. First, when I was checking my SiteMeter stats, I found that someone had come to The Musings through the Spanish-language version of Google. They checked out my review of the One O'Clock's concert with Benny Golson from almost exactly two years ago. The Google listing also gave the option of translating my post into Spanish, so did so and was quite amused by the results.

One thing led to another, and suddenly I was translating all kinds of things into Spanish (I got a kick out of the UNT Jazz site done that way, among other things). From there, I started checking out other translation possibilities, and the chance to translate something into Swedish Chef led me to The Dialectizer, which translates websites or blocks of text into various dialects, including Elmer Fudd, Redneck, Jive and Hacker, as well as the aforementioned Swedish Chef. (We found Fudd and Hacker to be the most amusing, for what it's worth.) At any rate, click those links only if you want to be amused and have a bit of time to kill.

This wasn't just a game:: Patrons camped outside a Wal-Mart in Connecticut (waiting to buy a PS3, of course) were attacked by robbers who demanded money; one man who refused to give them cash was shot.

They finally got the Christmas spirit: The Marine Reserves' Toys for Tots program in L.A. decided to accept the donation of 4,000 talking Jesus dolls after initially refusing to do so.

Notes from the Road (Stephenville Edition, Parts 4A and 4B)

As I've said before, the trip to Stephenville, besides being the most picturesque of all the trips I take to visit my fraternity chapters, always seems to generate some blogworthy material. Today's collection is a combination of the things I saw on my trip there last month and the things from last night/this morning. (On both westbound trips, for reasons of time, I went the "boring" way from Ft. Worth--I-20 west to 281 south, instead of the more desirable 377, mostly to miss all the stoplights. While I think I got there faster, there was less to see, and I went the usual scenic route on the way back. Still, the different route did provide me with a few things I hadn't seen before.)

• Everyone has seen the giant inflatable gorillas at car dealerships and the like, but I was amused by some of the variation in styles of the balloons in west Ft. Worth; I saw a giant chicken and Elvis within mere blocks of each other.


• Headed west on I-20, I saw something fairly unique, but totally Texas: the Silverado Cowboy Church.


• On 281, I was amused by a sign for Natty Flat Road. Moments later, I would discover that there's an entire community of Natty Flat ("a small dot on the map with a big place in your heart") that includes the Natty Flat Smokehouse and the World's Largest Cedar Rocker. (Click over to page 5 on the site to read how Natty Flat got its name.)


• Another sign you won't likely see on any road in Dallas: LLAMAS FOR SALE.


• And one more: SPECIAL HEIFER SALE (go ahead, make a "short bus" joke--you know you want to).


• A great name for an RV park: the Camel Stop (as the link says, it's in Dublin, and yes, I did get a few more six-packs of that town's famous elixir while I was in the area; I wasn't out yet, but it's always good to stock up.


• The weirdest two restaurants to share a building: A sushi place and a donut shop. (I wonder how much cross-business they get.)


• And finally, the most direct and to-the-point name for a restaurant: "Let's Eat," in Bluff Dale.

Previous Notes from the Road, Stephenville Edition:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Tripping the lights? Not so fantastic: I doubt that anyone in Granbury reads this blog, but if they do, I have one request: Pleeeeeeease think about synchronizing the traffic signals on 377! There's been a lot of growth in this area since i started making this trip on a regular basis, and the fact that the main road seems to have to stop for sidestreets at every other intersection makes this the one place I really dread going through on my trip, and I'm sure I'm not alone. When a major U.S. highway goes through town, I feel that there's a special obligation not only to get your own citizens from place to place, but also to ferry the long-distance commuters through town in an efficient manner. (I also notice that, in the main shopping areas, the stores are set far enough back from the road that it appears some service roads could be built; I wonder if any TxDOT money is available to either do that or at least get the signals in synch.)

Road kill café: I have no idea why, but I saw more dead possums in the road on this trip than I had in probably any previous five trips combined. The carrion-eaters had a field day today, no doubt...

Travel Advisory

I'm taking a short trip to Stephenville tonight ("short" meaning "I'll be back by lunchtime tomorrow"), and that's actually all the traveling I'll be doing during the entirety of the Thanksgiving season. I'll attempt to catch up on the big posts from earlier in the week; if nothing else, next week's long break should allow me to finish everything that's been in the pipe for a while. I'll add the news stories below this paragraph if I get a minute later in the day.

Works in Progress

This has been a very weird semester for blogging; I don't have as much spare time as I've had in the past, and when I do get ready to start a post, I tend to get caught up in the research end of things (a source I'm using has an interesting link, so I click it, along with one in that post, and the next...and suddenly, it's time for bed, or way past that time). I'm working on two lengthy ones that I started over the weekend, and I should have them finished soon, but until then, I'll just post the news stories so everyone won't think I've fallen off the earth.

Toy meets horns: An unexpected confrontation took place in a Wisconsin homeowner's yard when her ceramic deer statue found itself face-to-face with the real thing. Guess who won.

Oh, c'mon, just call it the "Mile High Club" like everyone else does: A California couple are being accused of overt sexual activity on a recent cross-country flight.

U can rly use that 4 ur exams? OMG LOL: New Zealand high-schoolers will now be able to use text-speak on their national exams (much to the chagrin of many educators, who think it will destroy the English language).

Mattress Mac's Money Might Make More Music

I mentioned the other day in my post about the firing of UNT head football coach Darrell Dickey that one of the university's premier supporters of athletics (I had to retype that so it didn't say "athletic supporters," heh), Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale, was quite upset with the firing, especially since it came on the heels of Dickey's recent heart attack. McIngvale had donated $1 million to the athletic department for a practice facility, which was expected to be named after him, but he said after Dickey's firing that he might not make any more donations to athletics.

Now it turns out that Mac has upped the ante even more: He's insisting that the practice field should now be named after Dickey instead of after himself, and if the department doesn't do so, he'll ask for his donation be redirected to the One O'Clock Lab Band. ( I can see it now: "For our last tune, here's 'Machito,' made possible by Mattress Mac.")

I don't just teach them music; I also show them how to keep Bowser at bay: I made a cameo appearance at a high school football game last Friday night because the seniors were being honored at both schools. While I was there, a group of my students played an arrangement of the Super Mario Bros. music, and it was quite entertaining. I joked that someone should have videotaped it and posted it on YouTube; well, someone already did.

(While you're there, check out this guy playing the Mario music on classical guitar.)

Another Nanosecond of My 15 Minutes of Fame

While checking my SiteMeter stats (and yes, that Maynard tribute review is still pulling in the visitors on a regular basis), I found out something interesting: The Musings is #3 in the top 100 blogs in Garland. I feel a slogan coming on....

More than a bitter pill to swallow: I was happy to see that the acetamenophen in my medicine cabinet was not part of the giant recall announced yesterday (if you missed it, the reason for the recall is that small fragments of metal were found in some of the tablets). I wasn't overly surprised that my bottle from Target is OK, but I was fairly impressed that the one I bought from a dollar store in Cleveland this summer was also not on the list. (The entire list of affected stores may be found here.

It's good to know that our legal system is working hard to solve the pressing issues of the day: Is a burrito a sandwich? A Superior Court judge in Massachusetts says no.

Was It Mean of the Green to Do This?

I read today that my alma mater, North Texas, is firing head football coach Darrell Dickey less than a month after he suffered a heart attack. While he has since returned to action--no, it's not like they brought a pink slip to his hospital bed or anything--that just seems a little soon; couldn't they have waited till the end of the season?

At any rate, Dickey is being gracious enough to coach the final three games of the season. While the past two years have been extremely disappointing for Mean Green football fans, I'm happy for the great seaons that Dickey gave us, including four straight trips to the New Orleans Bowl (I got to attend the last two). The program definitely moved up a notch or two in prominence, and let's hope that Dickey's successor can move the Green even farther ahead.

UPDATE: I'm not the only one questioning the timing of this. Wealthy Houston businessman Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale, who donated a million bucks to UNT athletics for the construction of a new practice facility, is now saying he may not donate any more money in the future because of Dickey's firing. Key quote: "It's hard to go hunting elephants with a B.B. gun every season," referring to UNT's lack of resources in comparison to the schools it plays (think UT-Austin) in a rather brutal nonconference schedule every year.

Taiking zeero tolerunce two ann extreem: A new drunk driving law in New York sets the legal limit of alcohol allowable in a driver's blood at "0.18 grams"--about the same as a shot of beer. Are they really cracking down? Not so much; the confusion was caused by a typo made when the law was written.

This robbery was child's play: A bus driver in India was robbed recently, but police investigators knew something had gone awry when the suspect charged in the case turned out to be a 3-month-old baby.

Should I Be Russian Out to See This?

I've had several friends tell me that I absolutely, positively must go out and see the movie Borat as soon as humanly possible. I've heard this from people in all walks of life, from high school students to college professors. Have any Musings readers seen it? If so, offer your thoughts in the comments.

Vote Early (and Once)

It's Election Day here in the USA, but (of course) you won't catch me talking politics on this blog; there are more than enough sites that fulfill that need. However, I echo the words of many by encouraging you to go out and vote today if you haven't already done so, because if you fail to vote, you should also waive the right to complain about the people who get elected for the entirety of their terms.

Though the polls opened mere minutes ago, I'm not sweating it today, because I voted early on Friday, taking advantage of the early voting mechanism that's in place out here. My polling place of choice was the city hall in a neighboring suburb where I was teaching that afternoon; I saw the not-quite-full parking lot and figured that the line would be short, which was true. Even though I have no idea where my voter registration card is at the moment, they were able to call up my information by swiping the bar code on the back of my driver's license. The touch-screen machine was easy to navigate, and I was in and out in less than ten minutes. (Some have said that they're concerned about the lack of a paper trail with these machines, but when was there ever a paper trail? I don't recall those on the old-school machines with the levers, either; the only time that's happened was when we used those paper ballots that got blackened with a Sharpie and fed into what looked like a giant fax machine. Would the option of printing out a receipt of sorts from this touch-screen machine be a good idea?)

At any rate, if you're of age and registered, I hope you go out and do your civic duty today.

The naked truth, part 1: A naked man in California was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon; you don't want to know where he was concealing it, of course.

The naked truth, part 2: A couple who began arguing in their motel room in Nashville took their argument outside and over to an adjacent Waffle House; unfortunately, they forgot to put any clothes on before they left the room.

Travel Advisory

I'm out and about for part of the weekend--off to Waco tonight to assist the fraternity chapter down there with a ceremony. It also means that, since I'll be that close to Austin on a free day, I'll finally get to see my new nephew in person; I'm definitely looking forward to that. I might have a post tomorrow evening, if I'm so inclined (the Austin visit will only be a day trip, as I'm playing in early church on Sunday morning), or late Sunday otherwise. Apologies again for the spottiness of posts; it's been that kind of semester.

An icon on the way out? A factory that's been the home of the original version of the pink flamingo lawn ornament has shut its doors this week.

Sorry, Chief, we'd rather keep going to Krispy Kreme: A police chief in Florida was sacked this week after he sent a memo urging overweight officers in his department to get in shape.

Memo to Self:

Next year, when doing the Boo-Rito promotion, bring duct tape. It was so windy in the parking lot last night that our costumes--mine in particular--came completely unraveled before we even made it through the service line.

A couple of the guys did make some cool ninja headgear out of foil, though; add this to the list of pictures that will be posted on this blog, once I find the most convenient way to get them off my camera phone.

A movie they should have made for Halloween this year: Snakes in a Police Station.

Worst Halloween costume of the year (runner-up): A recent former jail inmate went trick-or-treating in his orange prisoner's jumpsuit, causing the jail from which he'd been released to be locked down for several hours.

Worst Halloween costume of the year (winner): A high school student in Brooklyn showed up to class in a Hitler costume.

Kind of Boo

Some random thoughts on Halloween morning:

• Happy anniversary to my two favorite local radio stations, KNTU (which turns 37) and KRLD, which is 80 (they had a big bash last week that I was unable to attend)


• If Halloween seems like a weird day to debut a radio station, history would make it doubly so for KNTU, which spent about fifteen years in a house that was rumored to be haunted. If you've missed my story of Haunted Smith Hall in years past, read it here.


• I'm not expecting any trick-or-treaters tonight, because I really don't know any families with kids in my neighborhood (truthfully, I hardly know my neighbors at all; it's not that I'm antisocial, but rather that my long work hours either bring me home when everyone has gone in for the night, or I'm indoors teaching at times when they would be out). I'm hoping that most parents are smart enough to not let their kids knock on a stranger's door nowadays (an unfortunate sign of the times), but I do have one little bag of orange-colored Kit Kat bars on my kitchen table just in case


• Another sign of the times is that nobody's really allowed to wear costumes to school anymore--too much of a security risk, I suppose. But "back in the day," I had fun teaching princesses and astronauts and Mario and a few kids here and there who wore masks so big that they had to take them off to play the saxophone.


• Here's the scariest thing I've seen so far: Near the aisle with all the Halloween decorations at Super Target this past weekend, I could see the Christmas decorations peeking out! Isn't that just a little too early?

The college big band has the night off, so I get to go home at 5:15 today; that's "holiday" enough for me. And I'll be bringing a decent-sized contingency to the "Boo-Rito" thing at Chipotle tonight; I'll let you know if, for the second straight year, our burrito costumes are once again the best.

They won't cross your path tonight: The Boise animal shelter has put a temporary ban on black cat adoptions through the end of the week; they're concerned that the cats might be injured in Halloween pranks, or--even worse--be used in ritual sacrifices (*shudder*).

Witchcraft now comes with a money-back guarantee: A self-proclaimed witch in Munich was ordered to refund her client's hefty fee after a "love spell" she cast failed to win back the client's partner.

Strike Up the (Marching) Bands

I went to the Area Marching Contest finals last night; I didn't actually hear the results of the prelims before I arrived, but I had faith that at least a couple of my schools would make the finals, and sure enough, three of them did, and one would advance to the state contest, while another would be named one of the alternates. (You can find out all the results for the two Dallas-area contests here.)

As I said last week after seeing two of my schools play each other in a game, marching band has changed a lot since I was in school (commenter Gary P. correctly attributes most of those changes, of which he is not a fan, to the strong influence of Drum Corps International). This has led to things like the use of solo instruments up front next to the pit (which has included saxophone solos in the past, a practice of which I strongly approve), and lots of other unusual things as well:

• I meant to mention last week that the two schools I saw last week included things like a flute duet and a vocalist; both these things were repeated last night and came off well.


• The unusual instruments came out in droves last night; one school featured an oboe solo (which made sense, because they were performing part of an oboe concerto in their show), and another one had a piccolo/bassoon duet. I'm pretty sure I heard some piano in there too, though I never could spot the keyboard player. Another school performed part of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" (with some of the borderline-risque dancing but no accompanying riot from the fans), but they used a solo trombone in place of the famous bassoon.


• Another show, patriotic in nature, had a pair of narrators located next to the pit. I'd never heard narration in a show from anywhere but the pressbox in the past


• I also forgot to mention last week that one of my schools did a holiday show that ended with the whole band singing "Auld Lang Syne" at the end; by last night, they'd put it into four-part harmony at the end

One of the schools also had all-white uniforms (except for their drum majors, who wore all black). I wonder what the dry-cleaning bill is for those babies...

As I've said before, I have a definite appreciation for marching band, even as I'm fully aware that I'm not the person to be teaching it. I enjoy the performances, but I'd probably hate the rehearsals even more than the students do. I've always thought that a little too much time is put into something that is really as much entertainment as it is music, and it's always seemed to me that there are way too many contests before the "real" one that determines whether or not the band advances to area. But something that a band parent (from the school that's advancing to state) told me last night made something click about all that: She was talking about how bad the show looked at their very first "pre-contest" competition and how much better it looked after being battle-tested for virtually the entire month of October. It made me realize that, since the music and movement has gotten so much more complex, perhaps it really does need a few more competitive performances to get up to the high level that's being sought. (For the "indoor" version of "why I'm not a band director, even though I appreciate what they do," read this post from earlier in the year.)

One of my colleagues made note of the fact that, during the time when everyone was waiting for the results to be announced, many of the band parents were acting as crazy as the kids were (doing the Wave, etc.). I said that, yeah, a lot of them really were just "grown-up band nerds," (meaning that in the nicest way, since I'm one too), and my friend said, that's right, we're reproducing at a great rate. That can only be good for America...seriously.

One more thing--my thoughts go out to the Allen High School band, two of whose buses were involved in a wreck on LBJ yesterday on the way to their own area contest. Five of the students complained of neck and back injuries. (I teach one kid out of the 600 in that band, so the odds aren't great that he was one of the ones involved, but still, I'm eagerly awaiting a reply from the email I sent his mom last night.) The band did regroup and make it to the finals of their contest last night.

Light when we don't need it, dark when we do: I trust that by now, you're aware that Daylight Wasting Time began today. You can probably also tell that I'm not a fan of having the extra hour of daylight at six in the morning instead of later in the day when I could really use it. Instapundit is a fan of year-round daylight savings time for the same reason, and because it would actually save a lot of energy to keep the extra hour of daylight in the evening. He also points to a Popular Mechanics article that supports the same thinking.

Personally, I blame Mr. Wilson: A statue of Dennis the Menace was stolen from a city park in California this week.

A Simple Solution for Education: One Year Later (Part 1)

It was a year ago at this time that I offered my simple solution for education, better known as the "Administrators Must Teach" post. While nothing has actually been accomplished in this area (because, among other things, I'm not an influential blogger or a gazillionaire), I'm still convinced that doing this would be a very smart move for school districts everywhere.

In anticipation of this post, I've been saving some examples of both poor administrative decisions of recent vintage and some great quotes that support my position here. First, the decisions:

• If you're from the Dallas area, you probably know about the cheerleader flap at McKinney North; if not, here it is in a nutshell: The cheerleader sponsor quit (both as sponsor and as a teacher at the school) after she claimed that her efforts to discipline team members were constantly thwarted by school administrators all the way up to the superintendent. Oh, and you should know that one of the cheerleaders in question is the principal's daughter.
  
  This situation is still under investigation; to the district's credit, they brought in an outsider to lead things, and the principal took a week's leave at that time so that everyone on campus could be questioned without fear of reprisal. But if the principal had really thought this one out, wouldn't she have recused herself from any disciplinary decisions involving her daughter in the first place?


• A fifth-grade teacher in South Carolina allowed some students to use a trash can as a toilet when the school was conducting an extended lockdown drill. Perhaps that wasn't the greatest judgement on the teacher's part, but he was somewhat stuck--just imagine the complaints from parents if the kids had soiled themselves in class instead.
  
  But the reaction of an administrator in this district was ridiculous:

  [Associate Superintendent Patricia] Yandle said if the school had been on an actual lockdown and students needed to use the restroom, she would have encouraged them to think about something other than the bathroom.

  Think about something other than the bathroom? What the heck! The story said this drill lasted "less than an hour." I'm pretty sure that the school custodian would have had to be called out to clean up all the "think" off the floor if that situation had really taken place. I'd like to see how well Ms. Yandle would deal with that situation if it happened to her. As I said, there's just too much of a disconnect from the real world with some of these people...


• Then there's the school district that recently banned tag, apparently so that accidents wouldn't happen that might hold the school liable (getting the schools to stop running in fear of lawyers all the time is another post for another day). A quote from a parent says it all:

  "I think that it's unfortunate that kids' lives are micromanaged and there are social skills they'll never develop on their own," said Debbie Laferriere, who has two children at Willett, about 40 miles south of Boston. "Playing tag is just part of being a kid."

  My sentiments exactly.


• And we can't forget the Sydney McGee story, concerning the art teacher who was allegedly suspended for taking her students to the Dallas Museum of Art, where some kids saw nude sculptures. (We've talked about this before, so I'll point you to that post if you need my take on the situation.)


• There's also the thing with the overreaction to the recent school shootings, which I've discussed here.

And now for some quotes that are in line with my position:

• "In New York City, those who can.... teach.
  
  Those who can't teach because they can't get a teaching license... become principals.
  
  It seems as though there are more and more young people who teach for a minimal number of years and then get the hell out of Dodge obtain (often through political patronage) an administrative position that pays more to "start" than a classroom teacher earns with 20 years experience, a Master's degree, and a desk-drawer full of letters from grateful students and parents."--from an August post at a blog called The Education Wonks; read the whole thing. (A commenter to this post also notes that Germany evidently has some sort of administrators-must-teach requirement like the one I'm advocating here.)


• Finally, let's close with a quote from Dallas Morning News education columnist Scott Parks, from a recent column:

  Most school board members are well meaning but clueless. A lot of school superintendents are smart but paranoid. Principals love children but disdain anyone who questions their authority. Most teachers work long hours for short money and feel like martyrs in hair shirts.
  
  And one more thing: Despite their human frailties, these people all share a genuine dedication to public education. They are determined to protect it the way a mother bear defends her cubs.
  
  Public educators – perhaps more than other government employees – allow their passion for the job to give them amnesia. They forget that schools are not their own private enterprise. Veins pop out on their foreheads when an "outsider" reminds them of the word "public" in the phrase public education.

  It should be noted that, in this column, he's giving kudos to the districts who actually have brought in outsiders to investiage recent problems, such as the McKinney North cheerleader issue.

As I said a year ago, I really don't expect my idea to take off anytime soon, but if it keeps getting tossed out there enough, maybe the right person will read it and have the courage to give it a try. Much like the politician who goes to Washington and gets caught up in all the power and perks and ultimately ceases to be a regular citizen, the teacher who gets "promoted" to administrator can often become a bureaucrat or politiican and stop being a teacher in the process (assuming that they ever were one in the first place; the Education Wonks article notes that some new administrators are completely bypassing the teacher track, and to me, that's just flat-out wrong).

Since this post has gone pretty long already, I'll save some final thoughts, as well as a few rudimental ideas I have for actually implementing the administrators-must-teach plan (and believe me, the whole thing is still very much a work in progress) for tomorrow. (Actually, it may be Monday before I finish, because I'm going to Area Marching Contest tonight, so tomorrow's post may well be about marching band.)

I. Sasquatch

At the end of last Sunday's vulturing, I did something unusual (at least for me): I bought a pair of shoes. During the warm part of the year (which is pretty much March-October around here), my casual footwear is made of rubber or leather with rubber straps and the accompanying flip-flopping noise, but now that it's shoe season, so to speak, I had to do something about the fact that my sneakers were way too small.

I've worn a size twelve since eighth grade (which had to be comical back in the day, since i was about five-foot-two at the time), but I've always noticed how wildly inconsistent shoe sizes can be, both from manufacturer to manufacturer and even within a single brand. After wearing my New Balance for teaching (casual Friday, of course) and the game on Friday night and for my vulturing on Sunday, I knew I had to get a new pair, because, even though these were only a year or two old, they were getting painful to even have on, much less walk in--a feeling I usually only experience when I'm forced to wear dress shoes.

So for the first time in my life, I bought a pair of size 13's. I'm sure that if there had been a twelve-and-a-half, that would have been fine, but I saw no such animal during my shopping; it went right from 12 to 13. (That now means that I'm a shoe size that doesn't exist and a waist size that doesn't exist. No wonder I'm tough to shop for.) As another casual Friday has passed at school, I found that, as Spike Lee's character used to say in those commercials, it's the shoes, man; it's gotta be the shoes. Sure enough, no creaky knees, no tiredness of the feet. I'm glad I didn't wait any longer to do this. Still, it's odd that a size 12 in everything else works fine, but I needed to jump up a size for this one particular type of shoe. Buying a 13 may make me feel like Bigfoot, but at least the big feet are comfortable now.

Oh, and if anyone out there would like a gently-used pair of New Balance in size 12, they're yours.

I hope they make a firefighting merit badge: A pack of Cub Scouts in Pennsylvania were only about 500 yards into their appearance in a local Halloween parade when their float caught on fire. Thankfully, the parade inlcluded fire trucks as well.