The "Drop Date" For This Idea Is Today

Here's one more education-related rant, about a law which I wasn't even aware was in effect yet until I read this story:

A new state law that limits chronic class-dropping in college may sound good on paper, but some college officials and students worry that it might hurt students who need help the most.

Under the law, passed this spring, students at public campuses can drop no more than six classes during their undergraduate careers. The idea was to encourage students to stick with their courses and graduate faster and to keep them from hogging seats that could have gone to someone else.

College officials say they're all for timely graduation. But they don't want to see students penalized when they wind up in a class that's too hard or not what they expected.

I just can't see too much good coming out of this, and I bristle at the "keep them from hogging seats" phrase; we shouldn't be trying to just run people through college like cattle. And in my particular area--the two-year college--it's a whole different ballgame as well:

[S]ome community college leaders say that while the policy might work for a focused, full-time student at a flagship four-year university, students at two-year colleges often are in very different situations.

"If the purpose is to get them to have a two-year degree within two years, it's never going to happen, because 80 percent of our students work," said Dr. Cary Israel, chancellor of the Collin County Community College District.

And it's not like most students at four-year schools aren't also working, especially in recent years, when tuition at those schools have skyrocketed.

This law has had an effect on nearly everyone; college officials have to keep tabs on the number of dropped classes (as do the students themselves), which is a challenge when students transfer from campus to campus. And it's changed the way advisors work with students as well:

Advisors at the University of North Texas have often recommended that struggling students tough it out for a while because they can always drop the class.

"Now we don't want to advise students to drop classes if they're failing," said Rebecca Lothringer, UNT's associate director of admissions. "Now they need to go ahead and finish the course."

Another worry is that students who get low grades may get discouraged and consider dropping out altogether.

There is still a small window of opportunity to test the waters in a course without being penalized, but it's definitely small:

The law still permits some course shopping. That's where students try out several classes, dropping and adding them until a set date, usually the 12th day of the semester. Students can still drop classes for several weeks after that, but it shows up on their transcripts.

Now, students can still drop classes before the 12th day. But any dropped courses after that count toward the six-class limit. There are some exceptions – if students have an illness or death in the family, are drafted by the military or have an unavoidable change in work schedules, for instance. And the law applies only to students who started college in fall 2007 or later.

Still, I'm not seeing the good in this at all; the only people who appear to benefit from the law are the herd-'em-through advocates, and (as someone who teaches in an area where students often--for good reason--take extra time to finish their degrees) I happen to believe they're wrong about this one, as I've said a few previous times. As I noted earlier,

I think I'm particularly sensitive in this area because of the way musicians learn their craft. While most traditional academic degrees consist of four to six three-credit courses every semester, the bulk of music courses only earn one credit (despite sometimes meeting as often as four hours a week, in the case of many ensembles). The solution would certainly not lie in increasing the credit hours of those classes to match the "contact hours," because that would push most semesters into credit overload: an average schedule would balloon to 21+ hours, which would be cost-prohibitive for most students. But even under the current system, an 18-credit semester would probably consist of ten or eleven classes, as compared to the six taken by "regular" students whose classes are all worth three credits. Sometimes, that's just too much.

Besides, music (and this goes for most of the other arts, I'm sure) is something that isn't necessarily learned on a schedule. Getting the degree doesn't necessarily ensure that one's playing (or singing/acting/painting) is exactly where it needs to be; that extra semester could be the time when everything finally solidifies.

Perhaps the underlying reason that we get silly laws like this passed in the first place is best expressed by a local college official:

Lawmakers mean well, said Don Perry, an interim associate vice chancellor for the Dallas County Community College District. But despite those good intentions, he said, "they often really don't know enough about the business of higher education to understand what the unintended negative consequences might be."

How true.

UPDATE: Check this out from John Corrigan of Coppell (in Friday's letters to the editor in the DMN, which I didn't get around to reading until the next day):

I was stunned when I read the front-page story that said our Legislature has passed a law that limits the number of times an undergraduate can drop a course. Brilliant. Austin never ceases to disappoint and amaze me. However, when we send only mediocre people to Austin, we are going to continue getting only mediocre results.

Education is this state's most important product, and we should leave it to the professionals at each of the institutions to make policies like this.

Isn't it ironic that the author of this bill, Fred Brown, does not have a college degree?

Oh, that's just beautiful. Perhaps Brown should try getting a degree himself--in as short of a time as he's advocating for others--before he goes around creating legislation like this.

I have one more rant left this week, but it's not about education...or is it? Tune in tomorrow...

Punishing the Victim?

I read a story while I was in Houston that I felt deserved commentary: Instapundit reports on a troubling story from a school in Tennessee:

According to the Williamson County School System, self defense is no defense when it comes to getting suspended for fighting.

At Fairview High School, at least, it is an automatic five day suspension.

On December 7, Fairview High School junior Rachel Davis was suspended five days for fighting.

Her father, Gene Davis, a police, said the five day suspension is unwarranted.

The story goes on to point out that Davis tried to walk away from the other student, who followed her and confronted her again. Davis again walked away, the other girl followed her again, and then Davis was struck with either a purse or a backpack. Davis said she never threw a punch, but the two ended up on the floor wrestling, and the altercation was broken up by a teacher. But even though the sheriff's report calls Davis the victim here, she was suspended along with the other student.

Oh, and there was this little gem at the end of the story:

As far as the girls, they have at least one class together. Davis said the principal has no intention of changing either of their schedules to help avoid further conflict.

Oh, that's just beautiful.

The Instapundit post also led me to several other discussions on the subject. Darren at Right on the Left Coast pretty much nails how I feel with this post:

It's the laziest kind of CYA policy that expects students to walk away after taking a hit. I've discussed this with my vice principals several times and they refuse to budge--take a swing, get suspended, even if you're defending yourself. Heck, adults can legally and legitimately exercise self-defense, but we expect children to show even more restraint than adults after taking a hit.

The principal at my own son's school expects--and I kid you not--that students will curl up on the ground into a fetal position and hope that someone else goes running for help. No way will I support that. Stupidity of the highest form.

Perhaps a lawsuit or two and administrators will wake up to this rabid injustice.

I'm not a fan of excessive lawsuits, but that seems to be the only language these people understand. How can the school not be liable for its failure to protect the students with a policy like this? (As you may know, I've had zero tolerance for "zero tolerance" policies for quite some time now.)

I also spent a bit of time at the site of edublogger Joanne Jacobs, who also posted on the subject. Right off the bat, we were exposed to a ridiculous set of comments who said that the CYA approach was the correct thing for the school to do, because ultimately, it was more responsible to the school board and not the students. Here's a sample:

I suspect that the whole point of the policy, like many such seemingly ridiculous policies, is to avoid having to make any judgment call. As soon as you have to judge anything, no matter how clear, you are exposing the school to multi-million dollar lawsuits by the “wronged” party. That’s why so many policies are arranged to avoid allowing those in charge to have any discretion.

[...]The trend towards removal of discretion on the part of employees is found just about everywhere, although it is led by organizations that have deep pockets and thus the most to lose in the event of adverse judgments.

After quite a few other commenters went back and forth (including a few that tried to explain the school's position using business as a model and referring to adminstrators as "middle management," I jumped in:

I’m late to the party, but I have a few observations:

1) As others have said, rules that punish the innocent are ridiculous and should be changed immediately. Likewise, anything that serves only to “cover” the adminstrators from lawsuits–and has the potential to leave students unprotected in the process–has no place in an educational system. The students must be served first.

2) Those who are in charge of implementing the rules should have absolute legal authority to enforce those rules. It’s insane that some commenters feel that discretion should be taken away from the administrators (as in who’s guilty or not in a fight). Why do we even have the administrators, if that’s the case? If they don’t get to make the decisions they were hired to make, we could just have everything spouted out by a giant computer, like Zuzu suggested.

3) I hope I never read again of school administrators being referred to as “middle management.” As educators, we shouldn’t be looking to the business world as role models, and most middle management is useless to boot.

4) The 3-5% of kids who aren’t in school to learn should be removed from the schools–again, without fear of lawsuits or charges of racism. Let’s put some of the responsibility back on the parents, where it belongs; the school is not here to raise your kids for you.

5) The best way to solve problems like this–besides giving administrators the legal backup to make and enforce the tough decisions that they were hired to make–is to keep administrators from ever leaving the teaching field. Give them extra responsibilities, but require them to have at least one foot in a classroom, so that they won’t lose touch with what’s going on in education now (instead of 30 years ago) and never develop that bureaucratic, ivory-tower mentality. That’s right–administrators must teach. It’s an idea whose time has come.

And the commenter whom I first quoted replied to me:

Kev, I think you’re under the impression that schools exist to serve students. Fortunately or unfortunately, you’re wrong. They exist to serve the people who are paying for them - ultimately the voters. As voters, we have dozens of different higher priority items than simply serving the educational needs of the students, such as, as per this discussion, preserving the tax-payer from multi-million dollar judgments.

Umm...in a word, no. If there were no students, there would be no need for a school, and the taxpayer's money could be spent elsewhere. (One later commenter said, "As for your response to Kev, the mind boggles.") The guy (whom I'm declining to name, because ideas like his need as little publicity as possible) would go on to repeat the same thing in a subsequent comment.

This is a long thread, but I wanted to get some of my thoughts across for those who choose not to slog through the 72 responses at Jacobs' post (her site looks good, incidentally, and I'll be back). Does anyone here really think that the schools' primary purpose is to serve anything besides the students?

And as I said earlier, it's unfortunate that the almost certain outcome of incidents like the Davis altercation will be lawsuits, but that seems to be the only thing that will work until administrators are empowered to make actual decisions. As one Instapundit reader wrote,

My son had a similar problem here in Seattle. I called the principal and told him to inform the aggressor that assault and battery is a criminal offense and I would press charges if it happened again. Then I was going to sue the school, the district and the principal for not providing a safe place for my son to go to school. Aggression that had been going on literally for years stopped, but only when the consequences got big enough to get their attention.

Exactly. And I like Glenn Reynolds' response to that: "Yep. Violence is only a problem when it's a problem for the people in charge. In general, it's probably better to be a litigious jerk in these circumstances. They've made clear that that's the behavior they want to reward..."

As always, this probably won't be my last post on this subject.

A Tribute in "Tenor Madness" Form

Just a quick heads-up to my fellow Metroplex jazz fans (and yes, as a player, I'm still definitely a fan). You probably know that there's always great jazz on Thursday nights at the Dallas Museum of Art (which I usually have to miss because of evening combo rehearsals), and you certainly recall the unfortunate passing of Marchel Ivery a few months ago. Well, those two things will converge tomorrow night as three of Dallas' best living tenorists--Shelley Carrol, Wayne Delano and Chris McGuire--join with a rhythm section to present a "Tenor Madness" program in tribute to Marchel. (Full disclosure: I went to school with all three of these guys, so I'm happy to plug them, but I'd do so even if that weren't the case.) As always, it's in the atrium of the DMA and absolutely free. This one should be way too cool to miss, so I hope to see you there.

Another Good Solution for Education

I have a good edu-rant coming up regarding something that I read during Christmas week, but first, let's start the new year off with a rave.

Teacher Susan Creighton of Flower Mound High School has a great op-ed piece in today's DMN in which she offers another great idea to solve some of the problems plaguing public education at the moment. At first, the answer seems obvious--money. But she goes way beyond that:

Have you caught any of those investment house TV ads that show well-heeled 50-somethings sitting in a classroom musing how they're glad they were able to retire early so they could try their hand at teaching? The implication is that only with a sizable portfolio would they be able to indulge in their dream of teaching, because, of course, they would never be able to live on a teacher's salary. Sadly, they're right. I was halfway through writing an essay about leadership in America, unabashedly whining about how little teachers are paid in comparison to sports leaders or CEOs when the ugly little truth about education revealed itself to me: It's our fault because somewhere along the line, we've settled for security over accountability.

In every competitive venue in this country, those who achieve are rewarded with better pay and the security that comes with knowing their skills will always be marketable. Why do teachers choose to play by different rules? Why do we default to using unions, the guardians of security over higher pay and the protectors of the least common denominator, instead of establishing a hierarchy that will reward excellence?

When Texas is already using testing as a means to evaluate students as well as schools, why can't results and incentives be established that will introduce into the equation that most effective of all motivators – competition?

That's a great question, and there has to be a better answer than "the unions won't like it." As I've said before, not only do I not care about unions, but I don't think that professions such as education should be unionized in the first place.

But I digress. After refuting some of the usual excuses as to why her idea wouldn't work, Creighton comes to what I consider to be the meat of the column:

My salary is determined simply by how many years I've taught in Texas, regardless of how well I've done my job. Other than just keeping my job, there is absolutely no incentive (other than personal pride) for me to improve my teaching.

This has to change.

Teaching can no longer be considered merely an entry-level position into education. To keep the skilled educators in the classroom, we need to create career paths for teachers that aren't administrative. Some states have established the position of Master Teacher, which puts their best teachers on pay scales similar to administrators' or counselors' and lets them stay in the classroom. Master Teachers should be the mentors and evaluators for others in their department, especially the new and challenged teachers.

Hallelujah. While I'd still like to go even farther than that by requiring that even the administrators remain teachers, Creighton's idea might well serve as a good compromise if need be. I really like the idea that there should be non-administrative chances for promotion for teachers, because I've always thought it was insane that the only way to truly "move up" in the teaching profession was by not being a teacher anymore.

Of course, Creighton's ideas would still meet with resistance from the ivory-tower crowd, as well as the mediocre teachers who benefit from the seniority-based system that we have now:

I'm aware that much of what I've written is considered heresy in the world of education. And I have the privilege of teaching at a high-achieving school where the quality of the teachers is generally very high. But the constancy of low pay for the most vital element in the student's success quotient – the teacher – is universal.

In order for teaching to become a profession of prestige and respect in our society, we teachers need to be held accountable for the effectiveness of our teaching, in return for which we need to be rewarded with a respectable living wage commensurate with our performance.

I couldn't agree more. Hopefully, many more like-minded teachers will rise up over time and embrace these ideas so that someday, real change will come about. It can't happen too soon.

Listing Back and Forth

Happy New Year to all! I hope that you celebrated energetically but sensibly last night, and, if not...well, I hope you slept it off this morning (or afternoon?).

I'll save the big topics for one more day and instead talk about a couple of lists that were released at year's end:

• The Top 10 Greatest Unknown Artists of 2007. From what I could hear, the bands listed ranged from "Oh, that's kinda cool" to "Meh." I say "from what I could hear" because I made a valiant attempt to listen to these, although NPR's media player stopped every thirty seconds or so to re-buffer; it was as bad as using the old RealPlayer back in my dial-up days. (Incidentally, RealPlayer found its way onto PC World's list of The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time.) But, as I pointed out at Althouse, who blogged about this a few days ago, it should have been called the Top 10 Greatest Unknown Pop/Rock Artists of 2007, since no other genres were represented. In the comments over there, I suggested this guy and his big band as my favorite "dicsovery" of the past year (more on the group here).


• On the other end of the spectrum, here's a list of The Worst Band Names of '07, from the AV Club. Read the whole list and laugh (some are NSFW, I'd say, though I hope nobody who reads this is working today). Some of my favorites (at least the ones that can be printed in this blog) are Dyslexic Speedreaders, Haunting Oboe Music, Dance Me Pregnant, and Happy Mothers Day, I Can't Read. (SInce my band, Team Demon/Dingus, is about to rise from the dead again, maybe we can make next year's list.)


• AOL Autos puts forth a list of the Best and Worst Road Rage Cities. Somehow, Dallas/Ft. Worth ends up at #5 on the "most courteous" list.


• Forgotten in last week's busy-ness was the Cavalcade of Bad Nativities '07. I like the one that doubles as a cuckoo clock and the one in which all the characters are rubber ducks.


• In an annual tradition, Lake Superior State University released its list of useless words and phrases for 2007. Among the winners: Waterboarding, perfect storm, under the bus and "It is what it is."


• And finally, BabyCenter has the top baby names of 2007. Some of the rhyming in the top ten for each gender is comical: On the girls' list are Madison and Addison, while the boys' contains Aiden, Caden and Jayden. (Meanwhile, I won't have many new counterparts out there, as Kevin failed to crack the top 100 this year, falling down from #98 in '06.)

But the name doesn't matter if you forget the baby altogether: A man and his wife accidentally left their infant in a stroller on a New Jersey train platform; each one thought the other one had the baby, and they didn't realize their mistake until the train had already departed.

C'mon, Topanga! Former child star Danielle Fishel, best known for her portrayal of Topanga on Boy Meets World, was arrested on drunk driving charges right before Christmas in California.

Poultry in motion: A tractor-trailer in Pennsylvania overturned on Thursday, spilling quite a bit of its load of 6000 chickens.

2007: The Year in Blogging

Once again, a look at notable (at least in the author's own mind) posts from the past year...

JANUARY: A New York Minute
FEBRUARY: Something Good Is Brewing Here
MARCH: An Unusual Power of Music, Revisited
APRIL: A Little April Foolishness
MAY:The End of an Era on Fry Street
JUNE: A Radical Solution for Education?
JULY: Don't Hate Me Because I'm Single
AUGUST: The Summer of Broken Stuff
SEPTEMBER: Bruce Hall-mighty
OCTOBER: A Weeknight Jazz Primer of Sorts
NOVEMBER: Could You Spend a Day Unplugged?
DECEMBER: Watch or Cellphone?

(Hat tip for the idea to do this kind of post: Althouse. And if you want a truly hilarious year-in-review piece, check out the one from Dave Barry.)

With all the car stories lately, I've fallen behind on other things I've wanted to post about; expect a bit of catching up next year (i.e. tomorrow).

Chapter's Conclusion

As of this afternoon, the Kevmobile is back in my custody and running well. There are still a few smaller issues that need to be resolved before she gets back up to 100%, but those things can be done locally without my having to have a rental car. It was nice to watch the temperature gauge stay in the "normal" range all the way home, and it felt like it was running better than it had in a while.

And while I don't have any idea how small the odds would be that one of my 20 readers would break down in Central Texas, if that should happen to you, you can't go wrong with Marc's Garage. The service was good and really quick, especially considering the long-distance thing and the holiday weekends, and Marc and his family went "above and beyond" in helping me get from place to place in my car-less state. I have no qualms about plugging them on this blog.

I'll be back in a little bit with the annual (as soon as I complete this second one, heh) "Year in Blogging" post.

While I Was Out...

Once again, it's time to catch up on all the things that I found blogworthy but haven't had time to blog because of all the car stuff...

• In Pennsylvania, someone put 31 $100 bills in a Salvation Army kettle. This was evidently an attempt to "one-up" the person who had put thirty of them in a similar kettle in the same area a few weeks earlier.


• A woman in WIsconsin received an unusual Christmas present from her husband: A renewal of their wedding vows on Christmas Eve, which was also the couple's 65th wedding anniversary. Her then-future husband had also surprised her with a wedding in 1942, right before he was to ship off to war.


• In a Scroogier moment, a 60-year-old man is taking an 8-year-old boy to court for running into him on a ski slope.


• And there can't be too many worse ways to spend Christmas than being halfway stuck in a septic tank for Christmas Eve, as happened to an Iowa man.


• It also wasn't a very merry Christmas for a Tennessee girl when she found out that the mp3 player her father had given her was loaded with porn and songs with obscene lyrics. (It had been already opened and returned to the Wal-Mart shelf, in violation of the company's own policies.)


• Firefighters in Boise returned from a call to find their own firehouse kitchen on fire. The culprit? The tater tots the firefighters were cooking before they went on their call; they evidently forgot to activate a computerized safety system that would turn off appliances when they leave. (And what's funnier here--the fact that the firefighters caught their own house on fire, or that it was done by Idaho's most famous export, the potato?)


• Remember the runaway kangaroo in Lewisville a few weeks ago (discussed here)? The officer who caught him was reunited with the roo for his family's Christmas card picture.

And finally, there weren't enough of these for a full-blown "Notes from the Road" post, but I did pass two unusual billboards on my trips back and forth:

• "WE SUE LAWYERS!"--an advertisement for, you guessed it...another law firm. I bet they don't get invited to the Bar Association parties that way....


• "Santa is coming to town. Please don't hit him."--a don't-drink-and-drive billboard, of course.

I should be back with a more topical post once the Cowboys game is over.

Watch or Cellphone?

Informally filling in for Lileks at buzz.mn, Brian Lutz points to a recent Gizmodo poll that asks whether you use a watch or your cellphone to tell time. Considering Gizmodo's likely demographic, it's probably no big surprise that cellphone leads watch, 62.9% to 32.7% (the other 4.4% evidently walks around not knowing/caring what time it is, as they chose "It's always skin o'clock" for their answer).

As someone who teaches people from middle school up to college, I've noticed the same thing. The vast majority of my students at all levels (save for the older adults in the evening college combo) aren't watch-wearers. As I said in the comments at the buzz post, I'm still a watch guy. Maybe it's because my Swiss watch was actually bought in Switzerland and is thus a treasured memento of the trip, but I also have practical reasons: In the schools, I teach in 30-minute increments, and it's much easier to look at my wrist to tell the time than to keep reaching in my pocket again and again. I also pointed out that there are some occasions where it's impractical to use a watch to tell time, such as on an airplane during the "cell phones must be turned off" period of the flight (which is the majority of the time), and students in public schools often face the additional obstacle of being required to keep their phones hidden during class time.

It has also occurred to me that if everyone stopped wearing watches, the economy of Switzerland might tank, and that would be awful, because Switzerland is a really cool place. If watch-wearing were to continue to decrease, I wonder how long it would be before the Swiss watchmakers went into the cellphone business, or how long it would take them to come up with a combination of the two that's worn on the wrist.

Read the whole Gizmodo story; the comments are especially interesting from both sides. One commenter perhaps sums up my own opinion best:

Its [sic] amazing how many folks would go the extra mile of reaching into their pockets or bags just to tell the time, when there is a perfectly convinient and fashionable solution that has been around for eons.

So let's take our own little (and I do mean little, even if all 20 of you were to answer) Musings poll: Cellphone or wristwatch, and why? Comment away....

Old technology loses one round...: AOL has announced the impending demise of the Netscape Navigator browser. I used this for quite a long time on the Ancient and Venerable iMac before moving into the world of OS X, Safari and Firefox.

...but wins another one: From England comes the story of a toaster that's still serving family members after 56 years.

The Saga Continues Anew

I thought that the latest chapter in the Kevmobile saga was coming to a close, but evidently not.

When I picked it up from the mechanic's place, the catalytic converter had been replaced and the exhaust problem solved. But his test drive hadn't taken it up to freeway speeds, and that was where the problem reemerged; I was back to being totally overheated by the time I was five miles out. (It turned out that the radiator had been nearly drained of fluids in my short drive, and it took three Big Gulp-sized soft drink cups of water to refill it.)

Once I did that, it made it back to the mechanic's with no issues, save one--during the one time when I had to get on the freeway because the service road ended, it overheated again at high speeds. It appears that it could be something as mild as a worn-out hose, all the way up to a blown head gasket. We'll find out in the morning after he gets to dig into it some more.

But in the meantime, not wanting (or prepared) to be stuck again, I bit the bullet and re-rented the car (yes, the exact same one) and came back home tonight. Because of the rental place's hours, it will probably be at least Monday before I can get it back. In the meantime, since this Kevmobile saga seems to be eating my life, blog-wise, I'll intersperse all the other things I'd like to blog about in between the various updates.

Two more things:

1) It certainly seems like we're near the end of the line for Kevmobile 1.2. Any suggestions for a replacement (knowing that I'm not going to be spending top dollar and will be looking for something both cheap and reilable)?

2) For those of you in the Metroplex: Since I'll be using the iPod adapter thingy for the next several days, what is the best frequency to tune it to in this area? I have a few that have worked OK, but I'm sure there are better ones.

A Little Light Conversation

I don't have a lot to add this year, but it wouldn't be the Christmas season if I didn't once again tout all the great holiday lights that can be found in the Metroplex, just like I've done in all four previous Decembers of this blog. Here are the highlights, with accompanying links when available:

• Deerfield in Plano: For my money (which pretty much involves only the gas to get there), this is the best all-around neighborhood in the area for lights. It has a wide variety of streets that are easy to traverse once you've done it a few times, most of the neighborhood participates (though there were more "Scrooge" houses this year than before), and now it features the Zephries house on Old Pond Drive, which has 40,000 lights synchronized to music. There's also another house on Quincy at the north end of the subdivision that has a nice synchronized display as well. The carriage and limo rides make this area an even bigger attraction, and I've always thought it would be cool to park nearby and do a walking tour like many of the neighbors do (though I can only imagine how long that would take; our trip in the car this year took around an hour).


• SpringPark in Garland/Richardson: The classic neighborhood of mostly cul-de-sacs, each with a different theme. The Rudolph theme on Silver Maple (with a nice light display in the grassy middle of the cul-de-sac) is something new that's enjoyable, as is the "Christmas Mishaps" on Foxboro. An oldie but goodie is the collection of giant Santa heads on Becky Court.


• Frisco Square: A relatively new addition to the landscape, Frisco has added even more lights to its amazing display from last year (among the new touches are the lights that go across the two main buildings). As before, everything is synchronized to music, which can be heard either from a low-powered FM radio broadcast or from speakers near the buildings.
  
  And if you make it to Frisco, be sure and drive a few miles east to see the Trykoski house, where the designer of the Frisco Square lights calls home. This year, they have 65,000 lights in their display, which is also synchronized to music. (And need I point out that all of the displays with synced music include the song that's become the unofficial theme of such displays: "Wizards in Winter" from this CD by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I think it all started with this guy in Ohio, whose display became the subject of a beer commercial a few years ago.)


• Interlochen in Arlington: I haven't been here in a few years (and missed it again, as it only runs through Christmas day--a fact I'd forgotten until I was researching this post), but this neighborhood is unique in that several streets back up to a large canal, so the backyards as well as the fronts are decorated. This area is not too far from Six Flags, and, like the amusement park, there are signs along Randol Mill Road listing estimated times until you get to the lights. I need to make this one next year.


• There are a few other cool places in the area, like the house on Dogwood Trail in Rowlett that's all done up in neon (evidently, the homeowner also owns a neon sign company), as well as the house on Timberline at High Sierra in Carrollton that always goes all out, even decorating the garage as a Santa's Workshop. (Are there any I've missed? Be sure and tell me in the comments.)


• Houston bonus edition: Since I spend my Christmases down there, I can also point you to some good places, including Pecan Grove Plantation near Richmond, which always has a great display (and also features carriage and wagon rides), as well as another house synced to music that's located here. I got to see it in action last year, but it wasn't turned on when I went to take Mom and Dad to see it on Christmas night (maybe we were too early?). There's also a great display in a neighborhood with the very Dallas-sounding name of Prestonwood Forest. I haven't been to this northside neighborhood since my parents moved south in the early '90s, but I understand that it's still going strong.

Again, if I've missed anything, please let me know in the comment section. I'm a big fan of Christmas lights, so I'd always be interested in seeing something new.

But wait--there's more: A recent DMN article talks about the light-syncing craze and mentions a house in Rowlett that I wasn't prevously aware of; I'll have to check that out too.

I'm Back, But the Saga Continues

I've returned home for the moment, at least to drop off all the extra stuff I had with me for Christmas, before going down to get the car either tomorrow or Friday. I had an "Oh, no--not again!" moment right before I was going to come back, when my dad discovered that one of the tires on the rental car was nearly flat. Thankfully, the rental company has a contract with one of the major tire dealers, so all I had to do was take it by one of their stores and get it fixed on the company's dime.

That did delay my departure by a few hours, but I still made time to stop by the old neighborhood; I've taken to doing that every Christmas now, just to see how things are and have a brief reconnection with my past. I drove by the old house (picture here) as well as my alma mater, Stratford High School (pictures in the same link). I also made time to grab a hot dog at one of my favorite in-Houston-but-not-Dallas places, James Coney Island in Town & Country Village, before I left town.

I was quite surprised to see that there was hardly any traffic at all tonight; I guess that people either came back already so they could resume work today, or their vacation goes quite a bit past the four-day weekend that we just had. Either way, no complaints from here, and I was quite happy to see that the long-awaited bridges over the San Jacinto River just south of Conroe on I-45 are finally done.

(While I'm on the subject of the I-45 trip, I have to toss out some kudos to whomever owns the farm or ranch just north of Madisonville and decorates all the way from the front fence to the house along a rather substantial driveway. It's a beautiful thing to see every year, tucked away all by itself as it is.)

Some people have wondered why in the world I'd drive back when I have to head two hours south again to get the car, but it was nice to relieve myself of all the extra things I'd taken down for Christmas (tenor, dress clothes, etc.), not to mention getting to sleep in my own bed tonight. Tomorrow, I'll find out how soon I can go get the Kevmobile.

So how was your Christmas? I forgot to ask yesterday. Comment away...

Christmas Greetings

SUGAR LAND--Merry Christmas to all, to those who so celebrate (or even just exchange gifts). It's a quiet Christmas here, since my sister and her family are at her in-laws' place, and after my travel adventures (that story to be completed today), quiet is good. I'll come back on later in the day to talk about "the take," as always. In the meantime, a blessed day to you and yours.

LATER: In terms of getting what was on my gift list, I batted a thousand this year: Speakers for the laptop, a new stand for my bari, the traditional Rangers tickets, and a humongous CD rack that Mom and Dad actually had shipped to Dallas already because of its size (which ended up being a great idea due to the size--or lack thereof--of the rental car). I hope that you not only got everything you wanted, but are getting to be around everyone whom you'd like to be on this day.

The Best Laid Plans

SUGAR LAND--OK, I only thought that I would be making the Dallas/Austin/Houston trip yesterday. Real life seems to have gotten in the way.

(I'll finish this story during the holiday sometime, as I'm really tired at the moment. The story will explain why.)

LATER: OK, I'm well-rested and can now tell the tale...

Things were going smoothly enough at first. In fact, I was noticing how the car was running much better when I put a slightly different brand of gas in there at the beginning of the trip (I had gone for the cheap stuff a week ago, but I filled up with something rated "top tier"--no need to advertise here--soon after I left the house. I reminded myself to go for the better gas all the time with this older car.

But just south of Waco, things started running roughly. I had noticed on the way to Thanksgiving that the car would start to heat up a bit when I climbed up a big hill, and the same thing happened at this point in the trip. But unlike a month ago, when the temperature would return to normal, it just kept rising...and rising...and rising. When it started to hit the red line on the "H" side of the temperature gauge, I pulled off to the side of the freeway.

I didn't stay there too long, however; it didn't seem like a safe place to be. (Whoa--that truck almost grazed me!) So I made it to the next exit ramp and pulled off on a side road off the service road when the gauge hit "H" again. Five more times I did this, inching little by little to the first gas station I saw, there in the not-so-booming not-so-metropolis of Eddy, Texas (it's right next to Bruceville, if that helps. Heh.)

Looking back, I was at least fortunate to be able to stop where I did; if the need arises to stop in the middle of nowhere, at least this middle of nowhere had 1) a restaurant in which to eat lunch and 2) people behind the counter who called me a mechanic that did road calls. It certainly could have been worse.

When the mechanic eventually got there, he was able to make a diagnosis: The catalytic converter had gone out. There was so little exhaust coming out of the car that he was able to stick his hand over the pipe and not get burned in any way. When the car worked hard, as it did on this trip, nothing was able to be emitted from the tailpipe, so the car got, well, exhausted and started to heat up.

That mechanic didn't do exhaust stuff, so I had a diagnosis in search of a cure. The inevitable call to AAA followed, and they were able to locate me a mechanic who not only did exhaust work, but was open on Sunday to take the car (even if his parts suppliers were taking the entire four-day weekend). I was close enough to his shop that, with a few hours of rest, the car was able to limp there without incident.

But I was still stuck in Eddy, with the rest of the Austin and Houston trips still to go. Renting a car is a challenge on Sundays unless you're at an airport, and I had no way to get the 25-30 minutes to the one in Waco to meet with the open rental counter. Out of the kindness of his heart, the mechanic let me borrow his Internet to reserve a car in nearby Temple for the next morning. And in an even kinder gesture, he let me borrow his old parts truck to drive to Temple and find a hotel to tide me over until then.

Needless to say, I was bored, bored, bored that night. If only this were the year I'd brought the laptop! I napped, I watched football, I read a lot (at one time moving the reading part over to the Starbucks next door, just to be around people for a second).

In the morning, I got the rental car (I'm tooling around in a podlike Chevy Aveo at the moment) and continued on to Austin and then Sugar Land--a most tiring Christmas Eve, but at least I got here in time to play in church and enjoy the holiday with Mom and Dad. (Speaking of pods, I did get myself an early Christmas present while in Austin--a car adapter for my iPod. I would've gone crazy on all these trips with just a radio, that's for sure.) My car will be done on Thursday or Friday, so I still have to figure out the logistics of that, but I'm leaning towards going back to Dallas and dropping off all my stuff before I change vehicles again.

I hope your holiday travels were much, much more routine than mine!

Travel Advisory

I'm off to Sugar Land by way of Austin (the Big Triangle, as it were), playing Santa in the process. Blogging will continue as it normally does, maybe as soon as this evening. If you're on the road as well today, have a safe and enjoyable trip.

Another Holiday Cornucopia

The weird holiday stories, they just keep on a-comin':

• Police in Rancho Cordova, California are pulling over motorists who are doing a good job driving and rewarding them with Starbucks cards for the holidays.


• You've heard of a "turducken" (a hen stuffed inside of a duck stuffed inside of a turkey), correct? Now, somebody in England has created a roast made from 48 birds of 12 different species.


• One New Jersey dry-cleaning establishment will probably get a lump of coal in its stocking after it lost Santa's suit.


• Burglars in New Zealand had sort of a Grinch-like change of heart when they returned the Christmas presents they'd stolen from a family's home a few hours before. (I say "sort of" because most of the items were returned with some sort of damage.)


• Enjoy the Cavalcade of Bad Nativity Scenes.


• Someone stole the baby Jesus statues from the nativity scenes at twelve different people's houses. They ended up at the foot of the Virgin Mary at a nearby church. (Unintended funny line at the end of the video: The homeowner who says "I think I'll nail it down" to avoid future thefts.)


• And finally, even though the originator of the "Secret Santa" tradition in Kansas City (a guy in a Santa suit randomly handing out $100 bills to strangers) died earlier this year, someone has taken up the mantle--anonymously, of course.

I decided to post these early because there were so many of them; if there ends up being a lot more by the time Tuesday comes around, I'll post them then.

A Midwest Primer

Random stuff that happened during our trip to Chicago this week:

• We flew an airline where you have to cart your own checked baggage to the X-ray machine instead of having the gate personnel send it over on a conveyor belt. Usually, TSA people are pretty serious, but this guy asked me two normal questions and one weird one:
  1) Are you carrying any firearms? (No.)
  2) Is your bag locked? (No.)
  3) Are there any dogs or cats inside? (Huh? That one threw me for a second. I smiled and said, "I sure hope not!") I found out that others in my group didn't get the dogs-and-cats question.


• Needless to say, Chicago was cold. Really, really cold. We're talking 20's and 30's for the duration, with the city's signature wind in abundance most of the time. (Many in our group were amused by the "Caution--Watch for Falling Ice" signs that were all along Michigan Avenue.) But upon my return, being up there made the "cold" down here in Texas feel like nothing.


• We stayed at the Palmer House Hilton, a 135-year-old hotel that's undergoing yet another renovation. The grand lobby is quite ornate (so much so that one of the students in our group said that he felt underdressed just walking in there), and upon our arrival, it was not only festooned with Christmas trees (I told you I love that word!), but a live choir was singing carols as well. It made for quite the holiday atmosphere around there.


• The Midwest Clinic itself is a big band and orchestra convention on the level of TMEA (but without the elementary or vocal divisions). The exhibits were impressive if confusing (they were spread out over four rooms in the basement of the Chicago Hilton, as opposed to the football-field-sized rooms that we're used to in San Antonio), and we got to play a lot of new horns and mouthpieces.


• Also in the exhibit hall, we had the pleasure of getting to meet Mike Smith, a fellow UNT alum and Frank Sinatra's former music director. It was cool just listening to him try out mouthpieces and ligatures, and he even let us play one of his own horns.


• The most unusual trinket received at the convention: A combination key ring/bottle opener/shaker (as in the percussion toy), from Alfred Publishing.


• We had a short trip, but we did get to walk by Millennium Park several times; it looked really cool and warrants further exploration on another visit.


• I was impressed with the vibrant downtown area (and we were supposedly in the less-interesting part). Being able to get a full dinner at 11:00 at night on a Wednesday is not something that's too common in downtown Dallas. I really enjoyed the two places we had dinner--the Elephant & Castle, which specialized in English food with funny names like "shepherd's pie" and "Yorkshire pudding," and the Italian Village. I also was introduced to a very good chain that's also around here, Corner Bakery.


• My only complaint: We once again had a Too Young to Listen? moment, where a live jazz performance that nearly all our group would have enjoyed was put out of reach by city ordinances that evidently keep people under 21 out of venues where alcohol is served (it must have something to do with the ratio of food to drinks served, because this place had an extensive dinner menu as well). I've ranted about this subject at the linked post and this earlier one, but, suffice it to say, I believe that the sale of alcohol should not prohibit college music students from seeing live music.


• Fortunately, there was one more late-night concert at the clinic, with special guests Wycliffe Gordon and Steve WIlson performing with Steve's alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth. I could have listened to those two guys (and VCU's trumpet prof, Rex Richardson, the other guest) all night.


• On our way back to DFW, we had a very Southwest Airlines moment on an airline that's usually known for being much stodgier than Southwest: The flight attendant read the entire safety speech as a holiday poem! "The Flight Before Christmas" was an unexpected surprise, even if the jokes were sometimes groaners at 7:30 a.m.

I'll be back tomorrow with a collection of odd stories that have come up since I left for the trip.

There's Trouble Brewing Here For Sure

I'm back from Chicago, and I'll post a summary of the trip tomorrow, but I heard this story on the radio on my way home from the airport this afternoon, and it was too funny not to blog right away: Six Flags Over Texas and its sister park, Hurricane Harbor, want to being selling beer next year:

Six Flags Inc., which owns the two parks, has applied to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission for a license to sell alcohol at the parks. In accordance with state law, signs were posted in the park Monday, beginning a 60-day public comment period.

f the application is approved, the park may begin selling beer sometime in March, said John Bement, senior vice president of in-park services for Six Flags Over Texas.

The parks' New York-based parent company has lost money recently, but Mr. Bement said the decision was not financially motivated.

"Truthfully, revenue is not the driving force here," he said. "For some time now, many of our guests have requested beer as an option while enjoying a meal at the park, and it's really for that reason that we've taken these steps."

Some other Six Flags theme parks, including Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, already serve alcohol. Mr. Bement said the company would take strict measures to ensure that minors do not have access to alcohol at the park.

Of course, that's the first concern that many would raise upon hearing this news--keeping beer out of the hands of minors in a place that touts itself as a "family" park. But there's one other aspect of this that should raise concerns: they're mixing beer and rollercoasters...

You can see how this can be a problem, and I wonder if anyone thought this through. Are they going to have to issue plastic body coverings to keep people from being hurled upon while riding the Titan? Will there be signs saying "You must be this tall and this sober to ride the ride" at the entrance to each line? And will there have to be extra medical personnel on hand, since someone will inevitably try to substitute beer for an actual thirst-quenching drink on a hundred-degree afternoon?

The article notes that Six Flags has already done this at its Fiesta Texas park in San Antonio, so they must have already thought everything out. Still, it strikes me as a bad idea. Do you agree? And if you've been to Fiesta Texas since they started this, has the presence of alcohol detracted from the family atmosphere at all?

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday Dad! I rarely get to see him on "the day" anymore, but I will be visiting at Christmas. (As I've said before, when I was a kid, we'd simply bring a present out from under the tree five days early and then take him out to dinner on his own credit card. If you have a close-to-Christmas birthday, is it cool or not cool to have the two main gift-giving days so close together?)

Travel Advisory

I'll be in ChIcago for the next two days, attending the Midwest Clinic with a group from school. Blogging will likely be nonexistent unless someone brings a laptop or there's an Internet court in the exhibit area like at TMEA and IAJE. I'll be back midmorning on Thursday and will catch things up afterwards.

This School Got a Dressing Down

Earlier this year, I noted in a news story at the bottom of this post that a girl in California had been suspended from school for wearing Winnie-the-Pooh socks, which ran afoul of the "solid colors only" portion of the school's dress code.

Well, it appears that the student may have the last laugh:

Officials in a Northern California school district might not think Tiggers are such wonderful things after agreeing to pay $95,000 in lawyers' fees to five families who sued the school over its dress code.
The parents went to court after a student was disciplined for wearing socks with the "Winnie the Pooh" cartoon character Tigger on the first day of school last year.

And the district is no longer allowed to require students to wear only solid colors, according to terms of the settlement.

Some may say that this is a big waste of taxpayers' dollars, and that's certainly true. But if school officials had been a little smarter, they could have avoided this altogether. Let me say it again: Nobody here is denying that schools have a right to impose rules like this, but common sense (which is sadly lacking in bureaucracies of all kinds) dictates that the school ought to pick its battles a little more wisely. As I've said on many occasions, I'll bet that there are plenty of marginal students who might not mind school if they didn't continue to be subjected to things like suspension for having one's shirt untucked. And, as I've also theorized, most dress codes are less about safety and more about power for those in charge. It's good to see someone have to pay when they go too far, and, in a perfect world, the fines would be deducted from the salaries of the administrators who made the decision to suspend the student with the Tigger socks (but I'm not holding my breath).

And need I say that I have a really good way for administrators to keep from losing touch with the real world?

The robber got mugged, in a way: Did you hear about the Dunkin' Donuts employee who clobbered a robber with a coffee mug so that he "wouldn't look bad on YouTube" when the surveillance video eventually made it there? Well, the footage is up, so you can be the judge.

And speaking of getting clobbered: A guy in Germany didn't want to give up his vodka to the new airport carry-on rules, so he decided to drink a liter of it right then and there before going through security. (He actually suffered life-threatening alcohol poisoning in the process--and missed his flight as well.)