Friday, May 27, 2016

eDucational ePistle



Famous First Words:  What hath God wrought?  --first telegraph message
May is Homeschooling Awareness Month. --You can tell if people are home schooled if you ask them what grade they are in and they aren't sure ... if they call their pajamas school uniforms.
..........Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist.........Bob Dylan  .....Blowin' in the Wind
Diversity is the magic.  It is the first manifestation, the first beginning of the differentiation of a thing and of simple identity.  The greater the diversity, the greater the perfection.  --Thomas Berry
It is a cloudy Friday morning.  The sky is completed covered with a thick layer of gray without seam or texture.  The sidewalk is streaked with twigs and straw and small decorative gravel that was left by water thickly and rapidly answering gravity's call to the wetlands.  Each tree and clump of grass hides diamond raindrops at the tip of each leaf and the underside of each branch. The air is filled with the feel ...humidity and a need for extra power to take in enough oxygen... and smell of dampness ... soaked soil, damp cement, tattered flowers.  Puck loudly stops 2 rabbits in their tracks; rabbits, no doubt, headed for the grounds beneath the feeders or the neighbor's garden.  But we are safe from them for now and only have to endure Puck's sharp, angry voice in return.**  Birds are out in surround-sound greeting the sunless dawn and assessing last night's storms.  There is no wind left over but the cool (61°F) still begins to seep into the body and we retreat to warmth and light and sweetened, creamy Moose Munch.  What a morning, huh?
** The joys of dog ownership; he should watch it, it Hug Your Cat Day. 
Hope your weekend passes all the standard tests, ePistliers.
The worst thing about homeschooling - made fun of the teacher, grounded for life.  The best thing about homeschooling - everyone made the cheerleading squad.
..........Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline.........Bob Dylan  .....Girl of the North Country
Trivia Questions: Happy Birthday, Dashiell !
^ Any idea where Dashiell Hammett was born?
^^ What do you know about Hammett's wife and children?
^^^ Do you know where he's buried?
^^^^ Hammett wrote 4 screenplays, how many can you name?
^^^^^ He wrote 5 novels, how many can you name?
Fake Library Statistic of the Week: 82% of libraries use pages ripped out of #50shades instead of paper towels in the break room.  https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts&ref=br_tf
Moonbeam: The past resembles the future more than one drop of water resembles another.  --Ibn Khaldun
Sending your child to public school to learn about socialization is like sending them to the candy store to learn about nutrition.  --Brenda Rufener
..........I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests.........Bob Dylan  .....A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Something to Think About of the Week: The design of the mandala is supposed to be visually appealing so as to absorb the mind in such a way that irritating thoughts are unable to get through and a spiritual essence surrounds the individual observing the mandala, which in turn allows the individual a higher consciousness or awareness, almost as though being hypnotized.
    

Big Hello Correction: Last week the hello was mckcm which is from the language of Efik spoken in Nigeria.  I failed to mention the language which is so like elfish.  Sorry.
Big Hello: Hej - Elfdalian (Sweden)  ~~Another actual elf language
Week of the Week: National Backyard Games Week (May 23-30) --Seriously, the Olympic badminton players were apparently trying to lose on purpose.  But really, if you trained day and night for 4 years to be in the Olympics for badminton, in a way haven't you already lost?  --Conan O'Brien
Quote of the Week: Solutions nearly always come from the direction you least expect, which means there’s no point trying to look in that direction because it won’t be coming from there.  --Douglas Adams   (For Towel Day, May 25th)
Five minutes after Mindy died trying, Brice finally understood fractions. / My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school.  --Margaret Mead
..........I'm a thinking and a wonderin' walking down the road.........Bob Dylan  .....Don't Think Twice
^ Samuel Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland, MD
Almanac: It is Friday, May 27, 2016.  The moon will be last quarter on Sunday and is in Aquarius. It is Cellophane Tape Day.  Nigeria celebrates Children's Day.  In Turkey they remember Freedom & Constitution Day (1960, 1961).  Because it is the 4th Friday it is also Heat Awareness Day and National Title Track Day.  Because it is the Friday before Memorial Day it is Don't Fry Day (see also Heat Awareness Day). Finally because it is the last Friday it is Hug Your Cat Day.
Among those born on this day were Ibn Khaldun (1332), Bonaventura Furlanetto (1738), Francis Beaufort (1774), Cornelius Vandrebilt (1794), Amelia Bloomer (1818), Julia Ward Howe (1819), Henry Wylde (1822), Josef Joachim Raff (1822), Wild Bill Hickok (James Butler, 1837), Blind Tom Bethune (1849), Arnold Bennett (1867), Louis Durey (888), Dashiell Hammett (1894), John Douglas Cockroft (1897), Hubert Humphrey and Vincent Price (1911), John Cheever (1912), Sam Snead (1912), Herman Wouk (1915), Henry Kissinger (1923), John Barth (1930), Harlan Ellison (1934), Lee Meriwether (1935), Louis Gossett Jr. (1936), Rene Koering (1940), and Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Volkov (1948).
On May twenty-seventh Denmark and Sweden signed a ceasefire (1660), McLean patented his piano (1796), Samuel Morse completed the first telegraph line (1844), the first Preakness Stakes was run (Survivor, 1873), bubonic plague broke out in San Francisco (1907), Afghanistan achieved sovereignty (1921), Austria banned the Communist Party (1933), the Federal Securities Act was signed (1933), the golden gate bridge was dedicated (1937), the US forbade racial discrimination in the war industry (1943), Huis Clos premiered (1944), the first black light was sold (1961), Kennedy announced the US goal to reach the moon (1961), Bob Dylan released Free Wheelin (1963), construction began on Disney World (1969), Trujillo became president of Colombia (1990), and Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia (1994).
Tonight's Sky: visible Planets -- Morning... Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.  Evening... Jupiter, Mercury.
This Week: Saturday, May 28 - International Jazz Day and Sierra Club Day
Sunday, May 29 - Learn About Composting Day and Put a Pillow on Your Fridge Day
Monday, May 30 - Mint Julep Day and Memorial Day
Night Sky, May 30: Mars makes it closest approach to Earth for the year.
Tuesday, May 31 - World No-Tobacco Day
Wednesday, June 1 - Oscar the Grouch Day and National Go Barefoot Day
Thursday, June 2 - Leave the Office Early Day and National Bubba Day
Lecture in the car on the way to a play date with other homeschooled children: Now don't mention that we didn't get up till 9:30 or that your little brother can't read...or that we buy our bread from a store...or Disney movies...and whatever you do, try not to say the words Batman or Power Rangers...and for goodness sakes try to act SMART!!!
..........Two men died 'neath the Mississippi moon.........Bob Dylan  .....Oxford Town
^^ Hammett spent time in the Army hospital where he met Josephine Dolan, whom he married.  They had two daughters, Mary Jane and Josephine.  Health Services nurses informed Dolan that due to Hammett's TB, she and the children should not live with him full-time. Dolan rented a home in San Francisco where Hammett would visit on weekends. The marriage soon fell apart, but he continued to financially support his wife and daughters with the income he made from his writing.
Moonbeam: Disarm, disarm. The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.  --Julia Ward Howe
Art Exhibit of the Week:  This week Marilyn (the Bread Ladye) and I went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum (KCMO) to see the exhibit Reflecting Class in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer.   She summed it up quite well, " Wow, those Dutch painters painted SO well!"   The exhibit is all Dutch painters, some I'd heard of some I hadn't.  I am still reflecting but I have some gossip and a few stray facts.  There are 67 dogs and 1 cat (or 66 dogs and 2 cat, with one figure it's hard to tell) total in all the pictures.  The Netherlands in the 1600s was protestant and therefore allowed women to serve in political office and in commerce.  But the famous "Dutch Masters" painting of a bunch of men sitting around a table is because the women had their pictures painted separately from the men.  So the city council portrait is two - one for the men and one for the women. 
I loved all of it...even the table cloths.  Gossip:  The exhibit opened in Boston and KC is the only other museum to display it.  Boston had a second Vermeer but the Louvre wouldn't let it be gone that long and Boston had a third Rembrandt which the Queen Elizabeth wanted back.  It was the director (or curator or some other title) who suggested the exhibit to the woman in Boston and that's why KC got it, we think.  Sunday is the last day.  http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/exhibitions/rembrandt-vermeer/
Late Night Snacks: The Wall Street Journal just reported that America has a surplus of cheese and that every person in the country would have to eat an extra three pounds of cheese this year to get rid of it. So the next time the pizza guy judges you for ordering extra cheese, just say, "I'm doing this for America."  --Jimmy Fallon / Now, some car companies might focus on making cars that don't hit people. Not Google. No way. So if one of these cars hits you, you will be spread-eagled, stuck to the hood as the car slowly rolls to a halt, because that was the problem with getting hit by a car before: It just wasn't embarrassing enough.  --James Corden / The National Parks Service is so desperate for cash that they just announced that, for the first time, they are going to solicit corporate sponsorship. Pretty soon, those sequoias could be brought to you by Viagra. Remember, if your redwood lasts more than 2,000 years, call your lumberjack!  --Stephen Colbert / American Express is suing Charlie Sheen for an unpaid credit card balance of over $200,000. How did he blow that much money? Oh, right. Answered my own question.  --Seth Meyers
We live now in a global village and we are in one single family.  It's our responsibility to bring friendship and love from all different places around the world and to live together in peace. --Jackie Chan
There's no such thing as an atheist homeschooler...after a week, students,  teachers and the family cat are crying out to God.
..........Please don't take away my highway shoes.........Bob Dylan  .....Down the Highway
^^^ As a veteran of two wars, Hammett was buried at Arlington National Cemetery (Section 12 Site 508).
Worthless Fact of the Week: Approximately 1.3 million cats are adopted from shelters each year.  Hug Your Cat Day !!
Weird Word of the Week: Jafaikan - a new multicultural dialect in London.  It is a blend of Jamacian and African.  http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-jaf1.htm
Wacky Uses for Common Products: Polish Furniture. Spam purportedly makes good furniture polish, according to the New York Times Magazine.  http://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/spam.html
...because I have seen the village and I don't want it raising my children. / I am not talking to myself; I'm having a parent teacher conference.
...........Is just lookin' for a needle that is lost in the sand.........Bob Dylan  .....Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance
^^^^ Screenplays by Hammett include After the Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man, The Glass Key, and Watch on the Rhine.
Word Shakespeare Made Up of the Week: Advertising - the action of calling something to the attention of the public especially by paid announcements.  Measure for Measure Act V Scene I  (Duke Vincentio)
 Puck the Brave Episode of the Week: Here's our fearless Puck scanning the skies in the case of Yossarian's Yoranian.

For homeschooled families you can call your family reunions high school reunions on odd numbered years.

..........Gal, where you been so long.........Bob Dylan  .....Corrina, Corrina
^^^^^ Hammett's novels are Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key and The Thin Man.
Month of the Week: May is National Barbeque Month --Experience is simply the name we give our barbeque mistakes.  --Oscar Wilde
Famous Kansans: Samuel Wendell Williston was born in Boston (1851) but raised in the Kansas territory.  He was the first to propose that birds developed flight cursorially (by running), rather than arboreally (by leaping from tree to tree).  http://www.jstor.org/stable/30063514?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Today's Peace of History May 27, 1940:  The US Supreme Court ruled a sit-down strike was not a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act even if it interfered with interstate commerce.  The Court said that if the strike were found to be a restraint of trade, then “practically every strike in modern industry would be brought within the jurisdiction of the federal courts under the Sherman Act.”
When Johnny misbehaved at home school, his mother sent him to Public School for a 3 day suspension.
..........Like Judas of old,  you lie and deceive.........Bob Dylan  ......Masters of War
Science Fiction Convention of the Week: 47: ConQuest Prime - May 27-29, KCMO Sheraton KC Hotel at Crown Center.  http://www.conquestkc.org/   ~~Where The Bull  Really Flies !
    

Week of the Week Too: Old Fashioned Player Piano Weekend (May 27-29) --He would make a good lamp post if he'd weather better and didn't have to eat.  --Kurt Vonnegut      Player Piano
Moonbeam: It will not do to say that it is out of woman's sphere to assist in making laws, for it that were so, then it should be also out of her sphere to submit to them.  --Amelia Bloomer
Cost of War:
Tax dollars spent in Afghanistan: as of 5/26/16: $737,690,673,879.
Tax dollars spent in Afghanistan: as of 5/19/16: $737,012,219,977.
Tax dollars spent on the Iraq war since 2001 as of 5/26/16: $819,491,988,384.
Tax dollars spent on the Iraq war since 2001 as of 5/19/16: $819,472,157,518.
Tax dollars spent on Daesh conflict as of 5/26/16: $9,758,740,289.
Tax dollars spent on Daesh conflict as of 5/19/16: $9,654,461,708.
Tax dollars spent on the Pentagon Slush Fund as of 5/26/16: $120,493,873,983.
Tax dollars spent on the Pentagon Slush Fund as of 5/12/16: $119,913,597,604.
Tax dollars spent on all wars since 2001 as of 5/26/16: $1,690,348,362,810.
Tax dollars spent on all wars since 2001 as of 5/19/16: $1,688,931,333,101.
Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity; and let us put aside all selfishness in consideration of language, nationality, or religion.  --John Comenius
..........Oh, there ain't no use in me workin' alla time.........Bob Dylan  .....I Shall Be Free
The only thing you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.  --Albert Einstein .  / Warning!!  Unsocialized Homeschooler  Communicate at your own risk!
Famous Last Words: 15 F.R. 3175, 64 Stat. 1265.  --Securities Act of 1933
May Peace be your curriculum
And Joy your text book
prairie mama
christine

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