Monday, June 28, 2010

Paul's Projects

When it rains, he's in the barn working on the stalls. When the sun comes out, he's on the deck.

R.I.P.

Farewell, Robert Byrd, who proved that if you live long enough, you can change for the better--from active filibustering against civil rights to active support for Obama, from support of the war in Vietnam to virulent disapproval of the war in Iraq. His is a cautionary tale about the company you keep: No matter what nice things they find to say about you, they're still going to spend several paragraphs on your connection to the Klan.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

New Principal

I have it on ear-to-the-ground authority that the new principal at Dryden High School will be Karen Rachetta, longtime Dryden resident and current Associate Principal at Dewitt Middle School in Ithaca. Interesting, since no one seems to have seen the job posted, but it seems like a good choice--younger, relatively fresh to administration (her internship was just about five years ago), and local, with young kids in the district. Her husband Paul is a Dryden Village Trustee who was publicly endorsed by at least one Dryden School Board member.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Required Reading

Frank Rich is exactly correct that today's government fumbles feed the maw of the no-government-is-good-government proponents. Picture a world with no regulation. There are plenty of existing examples.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Elitism

I've been battling lately with Harvard grads who refer to "liberals" as the "intellectual elite." Clearly, they are not alone; now the Prez dares to speak at a tenth grade level, thus leaving his American audience far behind.

I'm willing to bet speeches out of the British parliament don't get parsed in this anti-intellectual way. Could their schools be better than ours?

Monday, June 14, 2010

Stumbling into Summer

Our end-of-the-school year rituals are nearly complete, now that the Big Zs have returned to Waneta Lake, Dairy Day is over, all concerts have happened, petition season has begun, and we're almost through with tests for the year. As usual, Paul has many, many unused vacation days to use up before July 1.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

A View from the Mountaintop

Oil spills and hydrofracking get all the press, but surely the most devastating form of energy retrieval remains mountaintop removal, which is so harmful that it's garnered Appalachian West Virginia #11 out of 15 "Most Toxic Places to Live."

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Man the Palisades!

We imported most of the wood on our house from Louisiana, courtesy of a great Internet deal Paul located. Wood for the deck, on the other hand, was purchased locally, from 84 Lumber. I don't know what conclusion to draw from the fact that after not-even-five years, that wood has crumbled to the point where Paul put his foot right through the deck the other day. He's now tearing it up to replace it with a synthetic. It's back-breaking work, thanks to the fact that he carefully sank every screw, anticipating a twenty-year lifespan.