The state legislature passed and Governor Jindal signed the Louisiana Science Education Act. According to the Times-Picayune article I linked,
the law…will allow local school boards to approve supplemental materials for public school science classes as they discuss evolution, cloning and global warming.
.
Didn’t these people learn ANYTHING from the Dover case? In a state as poor as ours, with an education as weak as our kids get, what makes the legislature and our “smart guy! Ethical!” governor think this is a good thing?
Hat tip: The sidebar at the Mormon blog By Common Consent. I’d bet my buddy Mark linked this.
Matt at Addicted to Vinyl (a fun music-interest blog that I’ve added to my RSS feed) linked to a funny Bruce Springsteen parody video today. It’s called “Do Your Job.” I laughed really hard when I was watching it this morning…when I should have been working. Bad Ann. In shallow imitation of VegasJoe’s Video Monday, it’s at the end of this post.
During the first verse:
“They don’t want to do their jobs
They just want their check.
They wanna show up, stand around, and then collect.”
I thought about how much standing around chatting there is when I go work in the office.
Matt was impressed with the lead in to the chorus:
“From the hot dog man to the grocery clerk
I’m the boss…get back to work.”
A little over six months ago, my friend Peggy died. I don’t often cry when I think of it any more, but occasionally I will come across something that so reminds me of Peggy that I yearn for her.
Today I read a poem by Mary Oliver. Peggy loved poetry, and Mary Oliver was one of her favorites. I still have two Oliver poems Peggy thought might bring me comfort and insight in my important papers file. This poem reminded me so much of her, I want to put it here so I don’t lose it.
At Blackwater Pond
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal,
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it,
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
My mother-in-law gave me an amaryllis kit for Christmas two years ago. I never planted it (I’m such a procrastinator). My husband pulled it out and planted the bulbs about three or four weeks ago. They really didn’t do much for a while, and then suddenly, poof! Leaves! Giant leaves, three inches wide and eighteen inches long!
However, some research indicates that they should have flowered first, if they were going to flower. Since they didn’t, we can only assume that they are developing leaves prior to flowering NEXT year. We are also off of their normal cycle, so that may be part of the problem.
We are going to let them continue to grow, bring them indoors in October, and let the leaves yellow, wither and die. Then, about six to eight weeks later, we’ll pull the bulbs out of their dark, cool storage place (anybody know such a place in Louisiana? Maybe we should just leave them outdoors…) and try again.
Blooming amaryllis are beautiful, so I think it’ll be worth the wait.
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