Interesting: Members of the earth’s earliest known civilization, the Sumerians, looked on in shock and confusion some 6,000 years ago as God, the Lord Almighty, created Heaven and Earth. According to recently excavated clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform script, thousands of Sumerians—the first humans to establish systems of writing, agriculture, and government—were working on their [...]

Just a quick holiday gift, since music is the food of Life: my budding song-list on blip.fm. Mostly night music, for solitaries and dreamers. The Candle by Rickydavid

Forty research papers. Then 100 China and Western Civ exams, all with essays. All in the last five days. I need a massage. I also need a Do Not Go to Doghouse pass. The birthdays in the last two weeks: My wife. My Dad (Happy  Birthday, Dad! You’re just waking up in Alabama while I’m [...]

wrote Mark Twain, “have been greatly exaggerated.” True here as well, but only slightly. Autopsy The lines from Nick Cave’s song, “Hallelujah,” sum it up: My typewriter had turned mute as a tomb And my piano crouched in the corner of my room With all its teeth bared Change “piano” to “Gilgamesh” and there’s not [...]

Announcing… ΨΨ The Winner of the McCain Stump Speech Wordle “Write Your Own Caption” Competition © ΨΨ I am pleased to announce the winner is the very talented Vincent Robletto, whose Kerblotto blog screams “Subscribe” for its verbal and graphic wit and creativity. Vincent’s submission rose above thousands hundreds tens ones of rivals. So, without [...]

Andrea Hernandez tagged me for this Wordle Meme: 1. Create a wordle from your blog’s RSS feed. 2. Blog it and describe your reaction. Any surprises? 3. Tag others to do the same. 4. Link back here and to where you were first tagged. (I don’t know what “link back here” means, but Technorati is [...]

[Update: Oh my goodness. Seems the student writing below is, shall we say, not entirely original. I'm still thankful for the gesture, oddly.] Call me slow. I’m spring cleaning in December. Old papers may as well follow old leaves. And I come across this, which a 15-year-old student,  who never said much of anything (in [...]

Found linked in a recent WaPo article, “Should Teachers Ignore Poverty’s Impact?” Just a bit of fun, because I hope this isn’t the serious viewpoint of the “accountability” fetishists out there. Enjoy a few laughs watching the Nice White Lady’s Burden:

Just a note to say my wife and I are going to an Extensive Reading conference for a working weekend in a resort area a couple hours south of Seoul. I hear there are hot springs, which sound good this cold week. So Happy Thanksgiving and see you on the other side. Enjoy the live [...]

“Joe Jobless already trying McCain economic plan.” A reader last week mentioned this “Wordling Political Speeches” as a NYTimes lesson plan, so I Wordled McCain’s stump speech in Colorado this week. I thought I’d have fun with it by turning it into an open thread for readers to play with. Here are the rules: Write [...]