Winter!

Horrible season. Whose idea was it? Make 'em undo it. Good luck getting safely to your training course, Seska.

I hope he said it over a snifter of brandy while wearing a smoking jacket.

He didn't have the mustache for it.

Wonderful news about your mom, Epic!

Much ~ma to your friend and his girlfriend. May they both live to heartily groan many times about the "You'll always be a part of me" Valentine's cards....

That's a very pretty Zen. Cute hair, too.

P-C, good for you. And yes, it does happen again and again, and sometimes it will surprise you. But as with most things, the more you practice, the more adept you become at handling the situation, both head on and surprise versions.

All good thoughts to Typo's friend and to Hec's best man, and to their families and loved ones.

Aims, with my two, a year apart, the elder sounded out letters (recognized the alphabet at two and a half), at three, started putting sounds together and making words by four and was reading for content before five. His K teacher was a little flummoxed at his reading level. The younger didn't get it. He could recite the alphabet and recognize letters when he saw them, but he couldn't put the sounds together to make words. He got very frustrated because he just didn't get it, and then at five, the switch flipped and in the space of about two weeks he went from K to late second, early third grade level.

Both of them devoured books, magazines, anything in print. And then in third grade StE's teacher required them to read a book a week and write a book report--and didn't tell them how to write a book report. When they wrote something and turned it in, he "corrected" it, shaping their skills by telling them what they were doing wrong. This went on for months before I learned about it. StE was very performance conscious and it upset him that he was doing badly and he couldn't bring himself to share that. I was enraged when I found out, though I didn't let StE know how much. I scheduled a conference and told the teacher what I thought of his "teaching" method. He didn't really seem to care. I sat down with StE after that and worked on his book reports--after I'd browbeaten the teacher into giving me an outline of what he was looking for, and *strongly suggesting* he share the outline with the rest of the class and their parents. But the damage was done. StE had lost all joy in reading. And while he read what he needed to for classes, instruction books and manuals as he grew up, he never again read for pleasure.

I hope to meet his third grade teacher if there's an afterlife. I have unfinished business with him.

I'm always very embarrassed that I read so slowly. I get through maybe five fiction books a year (admittedly that's plus the many many sociology books that I read in a totally different way, but still appreciate). Still, I enjoy those five-ish books immensely. Friends and I are about to start a book club to read or re-read those classics we never 'did' in school. I think we're starting with David Copperfield.

Yoghurt

Can't find the video, but in honour of Camden Council and their inability to clear the roads - Mr Plow! [link]

Moby loves Mr Plow!

He didn't have the mustache for it.

Also a crime.

Late to the discussion but i was a very late start reader. Freaked my parents out to the extreme when the first time i ever wrote my name, i wrote it entirely backwards. Pretty sure it had a lot to do with trying to mimic a series of right-handed teachers; eventually my left-handed dad had to show me letters and numbers for them to make any sense in my brain.... Once it clicked, however, i was off like a racehorse and reading at a college level by third grade.

And i was always a Miss Smartypants but never got any resentment or anger out of it....on the contrary, in high school and college all my teachers adored me because i was the only kid who would actually *talk* in class without being point-blank forced to say something and the other students thought i was great for not making it so obvious that they weren't doing the required reading for certain classes. I found it refreshing to be able to discuss literature and philosophy with teachers since other students didn't seem interested. I wish i had known a Willow in school!

• shrug* I sat in the back of the room so i'm pretty sure i would have caught any angry glares directed my weay.....(ok, in elementary school some of the girls reviled me for being too bossy but that wasn't just educationally-based...and the boys didn't seem to mind...)

et fix terrible spelling.

I'm watching Ninja Warrior & one of the guys is named Kobayashi. I puzzled over it for a moment before asking D where I'd heard that name before. Without looking away from his computer game he mumbled, "Kobayashi Maru". durr. Gads we're dorks.

Oh, night shift, how i did not miss the slowness. It's not even 3 am yet (when it traditionally gets slow) and yet i've only handled 5 calls in the last 3 hours. Seriously, i usually handle about 30 in that time frame. Slooooooooooow. I might run out of internet AND my current brain candy book before i get to go home at 6am!

eta: ooooh, i found my sunday newspaper still untouched! all good here for at least another hour.