07 October 2011

Assorted Stuff Post

What do you think about Lily, the "poverty-stricken" Muppet?  Should 4- and 5-year-old kids hear about "food insecurity" and the evils of the multinational corporation?  Help Elmo get out to the protest? (Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Occupy Wall Streeeeet?)

I say we have a super-rich kid on Sesame Street as well.  He doesn't talk to the other kids on Sesame Street very often; he goes to the private school with the rich kids on the next block.  The neighbourhood is changing because families like his are buying buildings and renovating them and not only that, they get to do so without paying taxes on their property for 20-odd years.  It's called "TIF."  Can you say that, boys and girls?

Some of the stores are leaving because Wal-Mart is now a mile away. In our latest episode, Grover does some SUPERRR-browsing at amazon.com and realizes he does NOT need to pay $45 at the local Mom-n-Pop when he can get the same item for $35 plus free shipping.  Big Bird has a girlfriend move in with him, but Snuffy finds some dirt on her on one of his facebook friends' pages.  The pictures are coming up in the next episode.  Later in the season, Ellen DeGeneres helps Ernie and Bert make an important announcement!

I dunno... I guess I just want my puppets cute and funny and teaching me alphabet letters.  I get enough reality during the other 23 hours of the day. 

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Is it unethical for Mom to do Junior's homework?  Joanne Jacobs' post inspired a LOT of comments.  The snippy tone of some of these "educators" on the crapfulness of the parents they have to deal with (oh the trials!) just make my eyeballs almost pop out from all the rolling.  I suppose my short answer would be that they shouldn't help, but until "education" is no longer compulsory, I sure wouldn't call it unethical.  "Subversive" would be a better term.

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Ms. Cornelius at A Shrewdness of Apes blogs against the Missouri facebook law.  Yep.  Here, teachers are somehow not allowed to be "friends" with kids on facebook in some twisted effort to keep kids safe.  I'm way more concerned about the other teens than the teachers, but ok. Instead of the current law, "how about making it illegal for districts to cut deals with miscreants who have crossed the line-- for instance, in exchange for a resignation, the district writes a neutral recommendation, merely pawning off creeps onto the next unsuspecting school district faster than you can say 'pedophile'"?  Hm, that sounds like common sense to me, which means likely it will not be law in the near future.


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How about a math puzzle?  Can you solve this?  I was able to without the fancy-dancy stuff they recommend in the "answer" link.  I think it is prolly just basic algebra.

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Is that a condom in my hair, or are you just disgusted to see me?  Verified by snopes.  :)

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Finally, Saturday is NATIONAL CHESS DAY!  I put this link last because some of my readers are complaining that I post too much chess crap.  *shrug*  I guess this isn't your holiday, then.  Emperor and I will be going to an all day chess thing, complete with sleepover.  Elf will not be going because he is in trouble for whatever it is he did in school this week.  Sigh.

6 comments:

  1. Oh, honey, you are ON A ROLL!!! This is a classic!

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  2. Are you serious about all the Sesame Street drama? Pllleeease tell me you are joking. That is crazy.

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  3. lol thanks Braiiins!

    Virginia, I'm sorta serious. They do kinda push the politics a bit and they HAVE had Ellen on in past shows... they've just never been quite that brazen about it. But I made up the stuff about Elmo occupying Wall Street and stuff. :)

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  4. About those puzzles - I'm glad you were able to solve them without the fancy-dancy algebra, but I would like to caution solvers, especially home-schooled students.

    Don't automatically dismiss the algebra as being too much - sometimes it is simply another way of demonstrating that which we think we know, a way to "prove" that our intuition is correct.

    I am a big fan of homeschooling but I've seen too many fall back on intuition as their sole solution method and miss out on the tougher problems that intuition can't handle or that intuition gets wrong.

    Each problem in that particular series is designed by the creator to require a fundamental mathematical rule to solve. BTW, pencil and paper only, no calculators or other technology.

    I'll be posting two a day for the next couple months -- feel free to drop by.

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  5. I think you just won the hyperactive brain contest.

    Sesame street.... I'd pay to watch that, maybe they should do an adult verson.... wait... never mind.

    student-teacher facbook thing. I get it. It is better to make sure you are giving NO impressions of impropriety than to take chances. Of course, the law is probably more to protect the school districts from liability than the kids from pervy teachers

    Used.condom.hair.bands.... ew. I'd rather rip my hair out with old-fashioned rubber bands.

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  6. Sesame Street- My kids are beyond that by a bit and I'm glad for that. After hearing the busty Katy Perry was on there and they computerized and 'insert' to hide her cleavage I had to laugh to myself. Why did they fil it like that?? Was it for the googly eyed crew's sake??? Yuck.

    Yep- solved the Math problems, giving the first one to Gavyn this morning as a challenge. :)

    Bouncing all over the place with this post! hahahaha

    Have a great day!

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Non-troll comments always welcome! :)

Bringing Garbage Home

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