Good lord. Former Crowded House drummer Paul Hester has died: [link]

Thanks, Trudy. And good job on the puke-machine aiming.

ND, no prehensile tail! She needs corsets, makeup and a tiara, not a tail.

I had another wish for her as well, that didn't involve a tail.

Joe thought that the tail would be pretty cool too.

Good lord. Former Crowded House drummer Paul Hester has died.

I just saw that on the news. It's so terribly, terribly sad.

Thanks, Trudy. And good job on the puke-machine aiming.

I think that was ND saying (through Trudy) that he remembered to point the puke machine away from himself. Trudy got puked on good and plenty.

I'm looking forward to lots of pictures from Puke MachinePrincess Emeline's ceremony.

It looks like the Bush bothers bit off more than they can chew with the Schiavo case. Protesters are turning their rage at them for not doing enough. Calls for them to have the manhood to ignore the courts and step in to protect her. Calls for the National Guard. The family has for the last couple days tried to get them to calm down somewhat, but not exactly gonna happen. [link]

What a quote:

"If Gov. Bush wants to be the man that his brother is, he needs to step up to the plate like President Bush did when the United Nations told him not to go into Iraq," Randall Terry, a protest organizer, said of the governor. "Be a man. Put politics aside."

Sadly, as I expected, my mother gets teary eyed and feels the poor "disabled" woman in being murdered. She made us promise not to starve her to death. She was rational enough to listen to some of my points and I encouraged her to read the actual court documents and not the fanatic quotes. Her Catholic beliefs are a factor here. I feel sad when she is in pain.

I hate that this private family matter has been made yet another political battle.

"Be a man. Put politics aside."

You misspelled the law, Randall.

In my head, there are a number of nasty epithets that end that last sentence.

Real men don't need no stinkin' laws.

(soon to be) X-posted with Bitches...

Question for teachers:

Tomorrow, Ben begins taking MCAS exams--our state's leap into the sort of standardized testing that is not only an assessment, but also counts for/against the students, teachers, and school district. Students in higher grades (Ben's only in 3rd grade) cannot graduate unless/until they pass.

Third graders are tested on reading. Ben reads well, and seems to have done well enough on his practice exercises. We sent him (voluntarily) to a before-school enrichment class this month. For practice, the students read a one or two page essay or story, and answer approximately 8 objective questions. Ben does well on these.

There is an open-ended question at the end, usually asking for detail to support the question. Unlike his mother, Ben has no patience for that which he considers trivial. Although he understands what detail means, he is reluctant to provide it. He can, if I pull it out of him. I don't have to lead him to the details, but it just isn't his nature to give it on his own. It's not even that he doesn't absorb it. In fact, he never has to go back to the essay to give me detail. He's just not into giving it. At all. I blame his father, whose work stories are always about the guy, but I digress. *g* The teacher who leads the enrichment course has not provided any feedback to say whether or not his answers would be acceptable on the actual tests.

In his usual coursework, Ben does well. He's mostly an A student, with his worst grade in penmanship (B-). When he misses something on a regular quiz or test (not too often), it is usually because he has glossed over the directions, or has been careless because he was rushing.

I have written a note to his teacher, asking her if she has any test-taking strategies to recommend to him (or for us to recommend to him), beyond the typical go to bed early; eat well; get outside and play. I also asked what level of detail is expected on the open-ended questions, for third graders, and if she had any feedback to offer, specific to his open-ended answers.

All our Buffista teachers are so bright and committed, that I thought I would ask you, too. Even though (as far as I know) none of you teach at the elementary level, is there anything any of you would recommend? I don't want to stress him out. I just want to ensure that since he is capable of fully answering questions, that he does. Also, if you have any general test-taking strategies, I would be thrilled to learn about them. Thanks in advance.

ita gave Perkins tamarind balls and then Perkins gave Nicole a tamarind ball and Nicole is still using the tamarind ball seed as a strange mouth toy.

Oh, crap. I didn't try a tamarind ball!

I was even able to ignore some kind of odd celebrating that seemed to be happening today. Was it some kind of holiday today?

I find it interesting that one never hears comments like this about Purim, or Yom Kippur, or Diwali, or Ramadan.

(ND, I swear I'm not singling you out; your comment just prompted me to post. Because over the weekend I heard [IRL] and read [on the internets] lots and lots of comments that are insulting to and dismissive of people who celebrate the most holy day of their faith. And it bothers me.)