I'm avoiding work too, or at least the physical building of work.

Playing hooky used to be more fun.

In Israel, all schools (that aren't universities) start on the 1st of September. They all have the same vacations (around the Jewish holidays). Obviously, we don't have troubles like plenty of snow days to take care of.

The public schools here (kindergarten through high school) are under individual state control, not federal control, which accounts for some of the difference. Then within each state, there can be differences from district to district.

I have no idea why I'm googling all this.

Um, because that's the power of the hivemind? One person asks a question, is too lazy to google herself, so some other person finds the answers for her?

Um, I mean, thanks. It's really interesting, in its own way.

individual state control, not federal control

Gotcha. I keep forgetting that difference, silly me.

Playing hooky used to be more fun.

Maybe you should do it under some other district's schedule? Maybe you're on vacation already according to one, and therefore playing hooky, when you anyway aren't supposed to work, has less of a flavor?

Maybe you're on vacation already according to one, and therefore playing hooky, when you anyway aren't supposed to work, has less of a flavor?

I love Nilly's spicy brains.

Gotcha. I keep forgetting that difference, silly me.

I think we're a silly country.

In a lot of the ways that have the most to do with day to day life, the US is really more like 50 individual countries, than one. Each has its governor, legislature, etc.

Yay, juliana both thinks I'm smart and likes me!

(Oh, and, juliana? Other than the fact that you looked absolutely amazing in pretty much each and every picture you appeared in from the F2F, and I include the ones in which you were sleepy and tired and up despite all that? There was a teacher I saw today, who looks like the cousin - or something like it - of the way you looked in those pictures. She has your bone structure, similar build (I think) and now I imagine your voice as hers. The only difference is that she had her hair longer, but it was also very red.)

the US is really more like 50 individual countries, than one

I guess that this is what my tiny little brain can't wrap itself around (well, it's hard for it to do the acrbatics that wrapping requires, when it's small and not stretch-y). That you're both one big state, but at the same time, very much not.

I'm reading a great book right now called "April 1865," which is about that pivotal month in American history (end of the Civil War, Lincoln's assasination, beginning of Reconstruction). One of the main points in it is how the United States developed in the years prior to the Civil War as a "federation" more than a nation, with "federation" being based in the Latin word "fides" and leading to an interpretation of the country as a group of states working together and cooperating with each other. Secession was always an option to the states, and in fact, the Founding Fathers viewed it as a real possibility (most of them viewed the whole nation-building process as not much more than an experiment in progress, and definitely did not foresee it lasting more than a few decades at most).

The United States was always viewed by its citizens as a plural--"The United States are..." What the Civil War did (in Shelby Foote's immortal words) was "turn us into an 'is.'" After the war, the phrasing rather quickly became "The United States is..." and has remained so to this day.

t /ends history lecture for the day

Yay, juliana both thinks I'm smart and likes me!

juliana thinks you're BRILLIANT and adores you. And I love the idea of a cosuin in Israel.

The United States was always viewed by its citizens as a plural--"The United States are..." What the Civil War did (in Shelby Foote's immortal words) was "turn us into an 'is.'" After the war, the phrasing rather quickly became "The United States is..." and has remained so to this day.

Funnily enough, I'm currently reading The Causes Of The Civil War, which is a collection of writings (essays, newspaper columns, speeches, debates) on the War, spanning from the 1840s up to present-day. It's very interesting tracking the shift in the conception of the states and the nation.

Mathy Buffistas might enjoy this silly video created by psychology graduate students at the University of Oregon.

[link]

I warned you that it was silly.

I'm playing hooky from work too!

I'm camped out in Starbucks trying to rewrite an unreadable report (it's supposed to be understandable to the average 10th-grader, and since I can't understand it, it needs some work), hiding from my work email.

The fact that I get free unfiltered wifi down here is just gravy. No, really. I'm already way more productive than I would be in my office.