.
That’s a Peggy Martin climbing rose, from the Chamblee’s Rose Nursery website:
This rose survived Hurricane Katrina, continuing to live in the salt water flooded yard of Peggy Martin in Plaquemines Parish, New Orleans. Chamblee’s Rose Nursery acquired cuttings from the original rose in New Orleans in January, 2007…
I bought a bush, via mail order, in June. It’s quadrupled in size since then, and I hope it will flourish as vigorously here in New England.
There’s been much justified outrage over a Chicago Tribune columnist channelling her inner Bar Bush over the way “Hurricane Katrina gave a great American city a rebirth“ — you know: unions broken, public schools evicerated, and best of all, desirable real estate “cleansed” of burdensome government regulation & burdensome poor people, too!
Mr. Pierce, at Esquire, has the rebuttal. “Ten years after the storm, there’s still a city at the mouth of the Mississippi. Just not the same one“:
… All archaeology is about layers, one city laid atop the others, as though civilization were coming from deep in the earth and piling itself up toward the sky. In the late nineteenth century, when the German adventurer and archaeologist—and part-time fantast—Heinrich Schliemann went looking for the city of Troy, he found eleven of them, one atop another. At one level, Schliemann found a cache of gold and jewelry that he pronounced to be the treasure of Priam, the king of Troy at the time of the events of the Iliad. He was wrong. The gold had been found at what later was determined to be only Troy II. It is popularly believed now that Troy VII was the site of the war about which Homer wrote. There are bronze arrowheads there, and skeletons bearing the marks of horrendous injuries, and there is evidence of a great fire…
There is an archaeology to human lives, too, and it is very much the same. Human lives have layers, one atop the other, as though the individual were rising from the dust of creation toward the stars. Some of the layers show nothing much at all. Some of them, like the dark layers at Troy that indicate a vast fire, show that something very important happened to the lives in question. Hurricane Katrina, and all of the myriad events surrounding it, both good and bad, is that vast, sweeping layer within the lives of the people of New Orleans. Almost fifteen hundred people died. There was $100 billion in damage. The levees failed. The city flooded. The city, state, and federal governments failed even worse than the levees did. It was estimated in 2006 that four hundred thousand people were displaced from the city; an estimated one hundred thousand of them never returned. Parts of the city recovered. Parts of the city were rebuilt. Parts of the city gleam now brighter than they ever did. There will be parades on the anniversary of the storm because there are things in the city to celebrate, but it is the tradition in this city that the music doesn’t lively up and the parade really doesn’t start until the departed has been laid to rest, until what is lost is counted, and until the memories are stored away. Only then does the music swing the way the music is supposed to sound. Only then do they begin to parade.
There will be some joy in the tenth-anniversary celebration because of this, but the storm is there in everyone, a dark layer in the archaeology of their lives. For some people, it is buried deeply enough to be forgotten. For others, the people who live in the places that do not gleam and that are not new, it is closer to the surface. A lot of the recovery is due to what author Naomi Klein refers to as “disaster capitalism.” The city has been reconfigured according to radically different political imperatives—in its schools and its housing and the general relationship of the people to their city and state governments. Many of them felt their lives taken over by anonymous forces as implacable as the storm was. There will be some sadness in the tenth anniversary because of this, fresh memories of old wounds, a sense of looming and ongoing loss. The storm is the dark layer in all the lives. And because it is, the storm is what unites them still, like that burned layer of Troy….
Read the whole thing — it’s a much better use of your time and brain cells than the Sabbathday Gasbag talk shows and the chatter surrounding them.
And then send me some garden photos, so I’ll have something to use for next Sunday’s chat!
OzarkHillbilly
I read this yesterday: Back on song: New Orleans 10 years after Katrina
About how the music of New Orleans lives on. My youngest figures to move there from Baton Rouge, in the next 6 months or so. I see a trip to the Big Easy in my near future.
Gvg
Peggy Martins rose also relates,to this. the gardener survived. her parents did not. they were lost, presumed washed out to sea. they were in one of those small old parishes out side the city that for much less,coverage but it’s,the same story. My mother and I both garden and have grown antique roses for decades so we heard this story too. We both grow this rose. It’s vey impressive and thornless!
I think what has been done to the schools in that state is the most horrifying.
Another Holocene Human
Yesterday was the Sabbath day, silly.
Speaking of which, I was seeing this guy at work every Saturday and he was wearing a kippa, so I was wondering, you know? One day he says “Shabbat Shalom” on the way out and I didn’t say anything. My literal first thought was “I’m at work–and carrying things.” So is it appropriate to offer a Shabbos greeting when you are so obviously breaking it? I’m so confused.
Another Holocene Human
@Gvg:
Agree. It’s just sick to see fine old early 20th century public schools with charter signs on them, knowing that showing kids videos all day is considered acceptable instruction. Knowing what happened to NOLA’s teachers. Mostly African American, extremely dedicated, looking out for the next generation. Now kids can look forward to Christian madrassas and scam schools so they can be as ignorant as Texans.
Keith G
I see that Julian Bond has passed away. Aside from his very important contributions to social justice in our society, teenager me had a bit of a crush on this very intelligent and handsome man.
WereBear
@Keith G: Yep. Me too.
These maddened mammon worshippers are destroying the very means of climbing.
They’re the Kings, and we are nothing. And soon, if they are not stopped, they will be Kings of Nothing.
Ultraviolet Thunder
My 23 year old niece has lived in New Orleans for 3 years. The family is worried because she plans to head off ambling around southeast Asia for half a year with no particular plans. I think if she can handle New Orleans on her own we have nothing to fear. Laos and Viet Nam won’t be an insurmountable challenge.
The niece went to a magnet high school in Louisiansa. She’s putting off college to work and travel first, which I think is wise. When she settles down at a university we’ll find out if the Louisiana public school system did right by her.
Yesterday was Mom’s funeral. After the memorial service the siblings and spouses retired to a brewpub for beers and conversation. Despite conflicts that erupted during Mom’s illness and after her death it was all pretty light hearted after. If you can combine 10 people and 2 gallons of beer, and laughter results I think it’ll all be OK.
SectionH
@Keith G: Oh damn.
Yeah, me too. He was a cool dude when we needed one.
I was srsly into politics when I was 16. I started college (long story) that year – ’68. I’d been all about Gene McCarthy during the spring, and then between April and June… yeah. well.
I think I was raised right, so in September GOTV was it – in St. Paul MN. And I worked for Hubert. Hard, because otherwise we were going to get Nixon.
Watching that ratfucker Daly basically elect Nixon was tough.
SectionH
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Oh, damn, so sorry about your Mom. I try to keep up here, even though I rarely post, but missed that.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@SectionH:
Thank you. I’ve been intermittently lurking but much too busy with Mom stuff to post much. I sincerely appreciate the condolences from ‘juicers.
Things will change, and who knows what they’ll be on the other side of this shift in the family. But I’m optimistic because everyone’s sane and behaving well.
When things get too heavy I have the GOP in disarray for amusement.
MattF
Via LGM, McQueary wrote:
which can be read [e.g., not… out of a lack of racism] as demonstrating some self-knowledge. But… maybe not. We report, you decide.
MattF
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Glad to hear that everyone came through afterwards. Things happen under that kind of stress that just need to be put aside.
Another Holocene Human
In Maryland, where I finished off my undercollege years, magnet schools were just a craven desegregation order workaround.
Because I transferred in, I had to take the required course “National, State, and Local Government” in summer school with the kids that flunked the first time. One half of the summer I had a white teacher (and working A/C), the second half a Black teacher (A/C went down and we spent several days sitting with the lights off and the shades drawn until they finally gave us another school). Both of them flatly stated: This county desegregated kicking and screaming.
Our county was the summer retreat from mosquito-disease ravaged D.C. Where the slave auction was. (They didn’t teach that last bit.)
Gimlet
WP rumor-mongering
What had begun five months ago as a relatively narrow question about proper archiving of public records has become a bigger, more politically dangerous one: Whether the then-secretary of state and her close aides, in choosing to use a private e-mail system, disregarded common sense and may have put sensitive information at risk of falling into the wrong hands.
Officials have said that Clinton is not a target. But, according to legal experts, this type of security review can turn into a criminal investigation if there is evidence that someone intentionally mishandled government secrets.
An agency spokesman also said that the e-mails had not been marked as classified. According to federal rules, it is the responsibility of the sender of an e-mail to ensure it contains the proper classification designations.
The issues around Clinton’s e-mails have also intensified as it has become clear that a number of her statements defending her actions now appear to be false.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Holocene Human:
Sounds just like St Louis County. I know, I know, you are shocked, I mean shocked! to learn that.
eldorado
that piece is really depressing. also, that mr. pierce guy can write, can’t he?
sharl
The linked Chicago Tribune editorial by Kristen McQueary was re-titled and edited a bit from the original, without any notice in the new version that such editing had taken place.
I prefer my evil undiluted and euphemism-free, so here is the original version. Ahhhh, much better.
sharl
@Ultraviolet Thunder: My condolences to you. I am fortunate to be in a family where loss of a loved one seems to bring out the best in us (so far…knock-on-wood), and it’s good to see you had a similar experience.
WereBear
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I’m so sorry to hear of your loss, but sounds like your family is bearing up. Which undoubtedly will or would make her proud, depending on your belief system :)
Elizabelle
@sharl: Thank you. Haven’t read yet; will start with the original version.
Another Holocene Human
@OzarkHillbilly: Gotta wonder why all the angst when Atticus Finch comes out anti-mandatory-desegregation. Fuck me, who wasn’t who was white? Fucking short list, start with SCOTUS and go from there.
(Card-carrying Communists? If there were any left? They had “social equality” in their platform, started some shit in the South trying to organize cotton mill towns.)
Elizabelle
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Hugs.
In my experience, after-funeral gatherings are kind of fun, and remind me: do an extended family reunion while everyone is still here to enjoy it.
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Deepest condolences on the passing of your mother to you and all your family. I had heard and was hoping to catch you on a thread to say so. So hard losing a parent.
Another Holocene Human
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Agreed. *hugs*
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Elizabelle:
It actually got me thinking that to the extent I’d stipulate conditions for my own service and burial, I’d include a request for a party for family and friends at an appropriate time/place. Church services and luncheons are fine but a keg and a barbecue grille makes people a lot more comfortable.
satby
And because I had reset my Kindle browser, I sent 3 comments into the void before I realized that my nym and info to get published were missing.
Another Holocene Human
About desegregated schools, I know parents always want their kids in “DA BEST” school which means the highest average test scores.
As someone who attended variously desegregated schools and placed high in standardized tests (and got into a good college), I just don’t see how having the poor kids or kids of color in my school hurt my academic performance or my scores or my grades one bit.
Looking back, I’d look more at instructors, actual course offerings (is it college prep, or is it college level), and what support is available if and when Aiden and Emma run into academic or social or emotional difficulties.
Going to schools where my ethnicity and religion were not the majority allowed me to have a more nuanced and cosmopolitan view of the world through my friends.
I think a lot of middle class parents fear “bad attitude” or “bullies” from mixing their pampered kids with poor kids but actually I do not recall that being the case. The bullies I remember were all upper middle class (ie, a lot wealthier than my family), and the people with the worst attitude were middle class and “comfortable” as well. We went to a working class church and I got along just fine with the kids there.
We all end up just believing the myth that poor people merit their poverty or that something is organically wrong with the lower classes (but maybe it can spread).
But I lived this. It’s just not true.
satby
On the topic, because I know a couple of Chicago media people, including a past editor of the online Chicago Tribune digest,I have been discussing the vomitus masquerading as a editorial written by Ms McQuery. She’s being eviscerated by her peers, but so are the editors of the Trib for letting her piece through.People are calling for her firing, and I hope she does get the axe because it was so egregiously racist and offensive and she hasn’t really apologized. Only done that mealy-mouthed ” I was misunderstood” thing that conservatives do when their words bring outrage.
satby
And now I can’t edit to fix the spacing in my previous comment. And, bizarrely, my nym is capitalized but I didn’t spell it that way. I don’t know whether to blame FYK(indle) or FYWP.
debbie
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Sorry for your loss. Speaking from experience, it’s a brief moment when everyone’s priorities are aligned and in the right order. A great way to start off the healing process.
debbie
@satby:
Go with Kindle. I can’t stop my iPad mini from capitalizing my name.
Cervantes
@debbie:
No, it’s an Amazon product!
See if this helps:
debbie
@Cervantes:
Thanks; I’ll take a look. (By “go with Kindle,” I meant to blame Kindle for the problems.)
WereBear
I’ve passed up getting a Kindle yet again; I traded in an old computer at PowerMax and used some of the credit to get an iPad mini. But then, I have favorite apps that I don’t think the Kindle would give me.
End of this week, I’ll have a bigger reading surface :)
Cervantes
@debbie:
Yes, I see that the choice was about where to affix the blame.
(I was simply utilizing your comment out of context to make a point! Sorry.)
Another Holocene Human
@satby: I hope they embarrass themselves in public like the Gawker staff.
Cervantes
A bit of an understatement.
Martin’s house and garden were in twenty feet of salt water for two weeks.
moonbat
@Another Holocene Human: Seconded. When I was in junior high our family moved from mostly white suburb of North Kansas City, MO to Greenville, MS. I don’t feel like it hurt my education at all. In fact, it gave my whiter than white bread young life a much needed shot of diversity. Of course this was all before the re-segregation of the schools in that city. God knows what the public schools are like now.
RK
So genes are not the dominating factor in occupational and academic success? Why is it that when it comes to other areas like sports or the arts genes are neither glossed over nor shied away from but usually identified as controlling?
Ultraviolet Thunder
I read about 40 books a year and I’m constantly being told to get a Kindle.
Kindle Pros:
1) visible in low light
2) holds more than one book
Kindle cons:
1) fragile (I travel and my stuff gets beat up)
2) battery life
3) not really random-access like a paper book
4) most titles I want not cheaply (used paperback price) available in ebook format
5) difficult to give away ebook when finished
6) costly to replace if lost
Personal priorities:
1) read book once and pass it on
2) only read one book at a time
3) spending as little as possible on reading
I get why e-readers are popular, but for my reading I’d rather stuff a scuffy paperback in my jacket when I board a plane. And for my entertainment purposes a tablet provides much more functionality, taking the place of a laptop for browsing and media viewing, as well as having e-reader functionality.
It’s not surprising to me that the paper book is still around and e-reader acceptance has stalled.
WereBear
@RK: Genes are also turned on, and off, by the environment.
Not to mention that even the genes of the likes of Michael Jordan wouldn’t find expression if they were for an expensive sport and he had a poor family.
RK
Most ebooks are free if you know where to look.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@RK:
I don’t necessarily read new releases. Often I’m buying a used copy of an out of print book on Amazon for $0.01 + $3.99 shipping. That price makes it inefficient to look around to see if a free ebook version is available.
Mrs. Thunder reads a lot of ebooks, and uses an Android tablet for the purpose (and a lot of other purposes, like watching TV shows in bed).
OzarkHillbilly
@RK: It’s not ‘Nature v Nurture’, it’s nature AND nurture. Where one ends and the other begins is impossible to tell. Albert Pujols could well be the greatest* baseball player ever, but if he had been born 25 years earlier nobody would have known it.
* hyperbolic
debbie
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Check your local library. I don’t read eBooks, but I know my library lets you ‘take out’ books for two weeks, at which point, it dissolves itself.
RK
@WereBear:
But all children go to school so sports for the rich isn’t applicable. Never heard genes being turned on and off before or whether that matters if indeed the poor have generally inferior ones. I’m not saying there aren’t factors outside biology that effect success but I just wonder how dominant genes truly are.
gelfling545
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I have a Nook e reader & still buy actual books as well. I use the Nook for times when I’m away from home & can’t carry around a ton of books. First person I knew to actually have one was my son in law when he was in Afghanistan where having a lot of books around was just not possible. Then my daughter got one when she was going to be in Poland for 2 months and, again, taking the needed number of books was out of the question. I’m the type of person who gets twitchy if it looks like I won’t have something to read handy so this seemed good to me. Also, when the arthritis i my hands is bad the Nook makes things easier. I generally buy books on Nook that pretty much nobody I know would have an interest in so there’d be nobody to pass them on to. Best of both worlds.
Betty Cracker
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I’m so sorry to hear about your mom. It is good that siblings and in-laws were able to come together afterward, put some of the stress of that time behind you all and have some fun together.
I lost my mom about a year and a half ago, and per her wishes, we had an outdoor party out in the country near the river she loved the most in lieu of a traditional funeral. That’s one of many examples she set that I intend to follow.
RK
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
There are a lot of older books for free if you know where to look. The less popular the book was, however, the less chance it’ll be available.
JPL
@Ultraviolet Thunder: The gathering would have made your mom happy. Happy travels to your niece.
WaterGirl
If it’s Sunday, it’s
Meet the Pressthe Sunday Morning Garden Chat. What happened? No pictures? Really?JPL
@WaterGirl: Anne needs pictures. It’s tempting to take pictures of my dried up tomato plants. It’s been so hot here that the garden has been hard to maintain.
WaterGirl
@Ultraviolet Thunder: So very sorry about your mom. In my experience, the sibling thing can get quite complicated you have lost a parent. Glad you were able to spend some good time together. Big hugs.
Penus
@Keith G: I was lucky enough to take his class at UVA. His response to 9/11 – canceling class and leading those who showed up in spirituals – was perfect.
Elmo
Regarding school quality – I went to a high school that had one (1) black student while I was there. Some Latino/as as well, but probly 95% white Anglo.
10% on average went on to college.
Two AP subjects, English and History. No advanced Chem, Phys, or Bio. Trig was the highest math class – no calculus at all.
But we had the best Auto Body department in the State of California!
Matt McIrvin
@RK:
Are they? Even the seemingly obvious case that people usually mention, Kenyan distance runners, is actually controversial; though it is plausible, it’s by no means universally accepted among scientists in relevant fields that their advantage is genetic.
Kay
@Another Holocene Human:
We have 50% low income (with the measure schools use that means about 25% poor-at or below the poverty level).
I’m on a school committee and we had a series of really blunt and honest parents forums. Higher income parents are afraid of scarcity- the allocation of resources. Low income kids are often “high needs” in school for a whole host of out of school reasons. Higher income parents believe that directs time and attention and resources away from their kids. It’s true to a certain extent. It’s triage, right? If a group of 3rd graders aren’t reading that’s a priority over kids who may need to go more quickly. It’s worthwhile to admit this and address it because it’s true. “High needs” ripples, too. It’s a systemic issue because if the school is putting resources into remediation and “intervention” they can’t offer “extras”- music and art and sports and higher-level classes.
The school addressed this in 2 ways. They put an additional teacher in high needs classes- they do small group tutoring so the rest of the class can go forward. My son was in one of these classrooms last year and he does well in school.
They also track (which was hotly debated and wildly popular with some parents but hated by others). In 7th grade they essentially take the top 10% and put them in more difficult english classes. They do the same thing with math in 8th grade. This was a compromise. Many parents want them tracked earlier. It’s voluntary. They test in but you can “opt out” if you don’t want your child pushed in that manner.
It’s just really hard to keep everyone on board and we don’t even have race as an issue. It’s 95% white. I do think it helps to admit these issue are real, though. There are priorities and trade-offs and everyone doesn’t get everything they want.
raven
Awright, Trump is going to send troops to take over the oil and give the money to the wounded warriors!!!! Fuck yea!
raven
Trump gets his military advice from “watching shows”.
Emma
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I’m sorry to hear about your Mom and I’m truly glad the family was able to move past the stress together. As I’ve seen in my own family, sometimes the cracks that develop become permanent.
gene108
@RK:
Diet and nutrition, for example, especially during childhood, have a large impact on how people develop as adults. Average height has increased over the last several hundred years, because we have better access to food than earlier generations.
Children in WW2 Europe turned out to be shorter as adults than earlier generations, because of acute food shortages.
I think brain development can also be impacted by early childhood nutrition.
There are probably other factors in nature, which can generally limit how inherited attributes express themselves.
Amir Khalid
@raven:
I pity the fool who signs up to advise President Trump on foreign policy.
dmsilev
@Amir Khalid: You’re assuming that person is a fool. Could equally well be a grifter.
gene108
@RK:
To get adequately proficient in ice hockey, for example, requires skates, hockey stick, sweater, and pads and time to practice on ice to get better.
Even, if you live in a cold climate, you may still want to practice in non-winter months, which requires the resources to get onto an ice rink to skate.
I think baseball is going down the route, in the USA anyway, of becoming of those sports that costs money for kids to play and practice at enough to get a shot at making money at it, with the rise of travel teams.
Kay
I just think it’s interesting that the conservative op ed writer forgot to mention the massive infusion of federal and charitable foundation funding into New Orleans after the storm. It’s nice to think it was all about firing 7000 mostly African American school teachers and markets and importing The Best and The Brightest to replace the 20% of the population who were displaced but I think I’d prefer a reality-based analysis that includes funding.
NotMax
@raven
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Emma
@Elizabelle: Cubans tend to do it during the wake/service at the funeral home. At around 10pm someone says “let’s go for coffee,” which translates to “let’s go to the local all-night place and bring back as much food as we can carry.” Sometimes food is provided for ahead of time: my favorite cousin’s wake was catered by his sister’s employer!
Of course it’s not necessarily a solution but that’s because Cubans suffer from the acute version of Irish Alzheimers!
Debbie
@raven:
“From watching shows”: Team America?
WaterGirl
@RK: For soccer and volleyball, the sports I’m most familiar with, you have to be on a good club team to get recruited to play in college. Playing on a club team costs big bucks.
Emma
@Ultraviolet Thunder: My Kindle Fire, first gen and still kicking, has traveled with me constantly since I got it. Fragile isn’t a description I would use. And there are ways to “go to” the page you were reading when you left off.
I do still buy lots of paper books but a large number of out of print non-fiction is only available as e-books these days. And in public libraries the biggest demand seems to be for e-books.
MattF
@Amir Khalid: ‘Advising’ Trump on anything is obvously a thankless task. On the other hand, the competition is Jeb!, who gets foreign policy advice from his brother and his brother’s advisors.
Kay
@raven:
I heard a piece of a FOX News interview and he is really going after Clinton. I was surprised because I’ve only heard about his outrageous statements on issues. He’s also throwing anti-Clinton red meat to the base, which is much more like your average GOP candidate. He’s not a maverick there.
Yatsuno
@Kay:
Ugh. I HATE that phrase! The last thing you want for a President is a maverick! Regardless of what you think of Congress the President DOES have to work with them and yes sometimes that means coddling them when they’re having a tantrum for whatever reason. Maverick implies anti-social behaviour.
EDIT: Nothing against you Kay. Just that terminology sets my teeth on edge. I’m pretty sure it was Grandpa Walnuts that ruined it for me.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
Well, the Donald is a Serious Candidate now, what with the lead in the polls and everything.
Woodrowfan
@Emma: Irish Alzheimers! ???????
HinTN
@Betty Cracker: Mama died in ’91 after about a year of cancer. We kids shd her siblings had the time to adjust and make our goodbyes. At her direction we had an open house party with bartender. At one point a rainbow set itself down in the front yard and my sisters went chasing after it. Mama’s advice was good.
sharl
@Woodrowfan: When I saw that, I assumed it was the same thing as “Balkan Alzheimers”, which someone on twitter described as ‘eventually losing your memory of everything except the grudge(s)’.
rikyrah
RIP, Julian Bond.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone
rikyrah
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
I love my Kindle Fire. But, there are some books that I want in my hands.
scav
@satby: I very much hope her editors as well as the vomiter are being properly mangled by peers, neighbors, loved ones and household appliences for finding that appopropriate not only to print but to (apparently) defend because that little ol’ me is nice wiggle is sadly ridiculous. The ChiTrib has earned its reputation in my family since 1901 and still managed to sneak in a few meters further below baseline.
Emma
@Woodrowfan: You know, “forget everything but the grudges”. A dear friend from Galway defined it for me.The acute version is “and I’ll be waiting for you on the other side to give you a piece of my mind!”
PurpleGirl
While we are talking about public schools and remembering the schools we went to, I want to make a statement or two (or more) about NYC’s public schools.I went to the public schools in a working class neighborhood, roughly 1956 to 1969. Those glorious great schools that so many people seem to remember — they existed in select areas like the Upper West Side or the Upper East Side, in some area of the other boroughs like Forest Hills. They did not exist throughout all the boroughs.
In the 1950s, NYC tracked students by THEIR ORAL READING ABILITY in the 2nd or 3rd grade! (Let that soak in for a bit.) I’ve always stuttered; where the hell do you think I got placed in the tracking scheme? I wasn’t in the slow group but not in the fast group either. I was somewhere in the middle but needing “help”. (Not that I got reading help or math help, but half-assed speech help that only made my situation worse.)
But I’ve always been a reader. I would spend most of a Saturday at the library, reading there and bringing home books to read. I devoured books. In the 6th grade I had my first standardized reading test; holy hell for the school when my score came back, I was reading 10.9. That is reading at close to the level of high school junior and they had to shift me to the academic college bound track. (Fine with reading but my mathematics skills and understanding were woefully lacking and continued to affect me into and through college.)
I had some good teachers, one or two great teachers and many only so-so teachers. (One teacher who was often lauded for having good students help slower students, but I’d say she was a fraud and one of the worst.) In high school I began to work in a school department’s office and got to know the teachers there. They were a spectacular help to me in getting through college applications and the using the rules to help myself. (And fighting for things I wanted, as when my official adviser didn’t want to allow me to take chemistry, the Chemistry Chairman over-ruled him.)
As late as 1969, the largest group of students dropping out of NYC schools were Italian-American males who began working on the docks as longshoremen.
Sorry for the length of this but this is what I remember.
rikyrah
@Another Holocene Human:
You tell the truth about the schools.
sharl
Good Morning rikyrah.
Julian Bond’s passing has been getting a lot of attention on the radio news programs I listen to, and deservedly so. Congressman John Lewis had a nice remembrance of him (I think I heard that on NPR).
As you said: RIP, Julian Bond.
bystander
@Keith G: Me, too. One of the first speakers I heard in college. RIP.
Now, for the ridiculous. Martha Raddatz (and the rest of ABC) is gushing about Trump’s helicopter. She cannot stop raving with unbridled enthusiasm about his helicopter. They even covered the insiders’ children getting ready to fly on his helicopter. It makes me want to puke.
PurpleGirl
@sharl: I wouldn’t have admitted this at the time publically, but I had huge crush on Mr. Bond as a teenager. I thought he was so cool and good looking. (Helped me to become the bleeding-heart pinko commie liberal in my family.)
Yes, RIP Julian Bond, you lived a good life.
bemused
CBS Sunday Morning was good viewing today. Steve Hartmann has a passion for native wiId fIower pIanting and confesses to having a weed addiction, spending hours weeding. The guy who inspired Hartman says weeding can create a meditative state. It’s true. I hate weeding but if the weather is moderate and permit forgetting I have many other things to do, I can get into a time doesn’t matter zone.
Many good Today segments incIuding AI Franken interview.
GregB
The Tribune should fire McQuery for plagiarism.
She lifted her whole shtick from Travis Bickle without attribution.
Thank God for the rain.
Kay
@Yatsuno:
I use it sarcastically, but I get your annoyance. It was just kind of disappointing to hear this Big New Thing sounding exactly like the other 17, or however many there are. I resent that they compare him to Bernie Sanders because Bernie Sanders doesn’t go after individuals, with the exception of the Koch Brothers, but even there he mostly sticks to the policy he opposes.
I don’t know why they always do compare/contrast. Some things are not actually like other things. It’s not a rule. One can’t just apply it to everyone and everything :)
Kay
@GregB:
It must be a well-loved theory in some circles because the head of the Aspen group said the same thing, and Arne Duncan said something very much like it.
I personally think it’s gross. It goes to the sort of scolding, patronizing tone various powerful people adopt when they’re talking about the public. They have to tell us “hard truths” because they are the “truth-tellers” except they never apply this rigor to their own fucking performance. They punch DOWN, always. It freaking enrages me and I hear the tone a lot. I feel like it’s an indication of how removed they are that THEY can’t hear it. They have to stop scolding us. No more stern lectures delivered to the rabble. It’s offensive.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@Ultraviolet Thunder: So sorry to hear about your mother. I still think about calling up my parents to tell them some bit of news, especially Mom.
Your idea to have a celebration of your life in a more relaxed setting is a very good one.
Original Lee
@Ultraviolet Thunder: so sorry to hear of your loss. Glad your family was able to meet amicably.
Yatsuno
@Kay: There really needs to be a sarcasm font on the Internet. Then again how do we get into faux outrages if we do have it?
It seems more and more there really is nothing new under the sun. Hell even our little young republic has been here before. History is definitely rhyming here.
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
Part of the problem with sports and genes is that when you’re considering the very elite ones, you’re looking at the extreme end of the distribution. In that case, you really need to have everything line up- best genes, nutrition, training, coaching, etc.- in order to reach the very top. The men’s 100m is a good example of the problem. The race has been dominated by blacks since the days of Jesse Owens, but they’ve predominantly been blacks from the Americas or the Caribbean; only one black African has reached the podium in the 100m. In fact, there have been far more white Europeans to reach the podium than black Africans. So the success of blacks at the 100m may show the importance of genetics, but the predominance of runners from wealthy countries in Europe and the Americas shows that opportunity factors are probably more important. The very top runners have both.
J R in WV
I started using jalapeno peppers when they showed up at Krogers anytime a dish called for green peppers. It added a little heat compared to green bell peppers.
But then a year or two ago I noticed that the jalapeno peppers weren’t hot any more – I presumed in order to sell more peppers the seed people/commercial pepper farmers started to breed less heat in their jalapeno seed stock.
Now most jalapeno peppers are as hot as green bell peppers were when I was a mere sprout in the 1950s and ’60s, when Krogers stores were the size Rite Aide drug stores are today.
So now I buy serranos when I want some heat. I keep a pepper sauce on hand that I make. I slice serrano peppers the size of dimes, a big bunch of them, and crush garlic, also a big bunch of them.
I simmer vinegar with nuoc nam sauce (Thai fish sauce) and a tiny spoonful of sugar, cram all the peppers and garlic into a corked bottle, like a bourbon bottle, and pour the boiling vinegar over the peppers. You can replenish the vinegar a couple of times before you have extracted all the heat. I use a little in any dish you want spicer than oatmeal, esp soups and stews.
I marinate chicken and such in it before grilling and then swabbing with BBQ sauce, which I adulterate with pepper vinegar as well.
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I will say I honestly love my Kindle Fire so much that when one of my rescues chewed the screen of my first one I bought a second one. I use it as my laptop substitute when I don’t want to boot the big thing up, and to watch movies when I travel. It’s how I do my morning reading over coffee too. I like having a solid book too, and I can fall asleep equally well reading either book or Kindle.
schrodinger's cat
@J R in WV: Have you tried Thai hot peppers? They are tiny and pack quite a punch. You can get them is Asian and Indian grocery stores.
ETA: If you like hot peppers, try this combination, hot green pepper (1 whole, seeds and all), freshly grated ginger, freshly minced garlic and a handful of cilantro. Blend everything together with a little bit of water. Its a great base for fish, chicken or meat or even veggies like eggplant. Use sparingly depending on how much heat you can take.
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: I agree about the jalapeno peppers in the stores, but if you grow your own they can still pack some punch.
I’m with you, though, I love Serrano peppers. Nice heat and great flavor. Did you see the pepper discussion in the open thread last night? (the “he’s no donald trump” thread)
satby
@Woodrowfan: yeah, WTF??? I’m sure it’s meant as snark.I hope.
raven
@J R in WV: I keep asking you if you are sure Don West was fired from Emory and not Oglethorpe and I never can catch you.
satby
@Emma: ahh, gotcha. I thought it was a joke about drinking.
I do get so tired of the “alcoholic Irish” jokes. Not really an amusing disease to those who live with the consequences of it.
Emma
@satby: I never find those funny. A cousin of mine died in his 60s after a lifetime of binge drinking. By the time he stopped it was too late.
WereBear
This is the biggest transition since Gutenberg. We have our noses pressed against it and it’s hard for us to see it.
I’ve going through an ugly bout of ill health and I adore my iPod touch app, Oyster. For ten bucks a month (the cost of one ebook) I have access to almost a million books. I have read 127 and there are over 1200 on my Reading List.
When I’m sick in bed I can chew through a fun thriller in a single day, and start a big history big and be done by the weekend. I’m a fast reader who likes many subjects, so this is a wonderful way for me to read on a device I always have with me anyway (calendar, address book, reminder, etc.)
I still do buy inexpensive books when they are not available on the ebook outlets, and pass them on to the library most of the time. They will sell it to keep the library going.
One of the great things, though, is that books are being reprinted after having languished in the Out of Print limbo. It’s the return of the MidList! Writers can actually make a living without being best-selling writers.
We haven’t even gotten to the middle of this revolution yet. To each their own.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@satby: I feel the same way about my Nook. I bought a second one so that I don’t have to wait for my husband to fall asleep in order to read my books.
Cervantes
@raven:
Is it the Rosa Lee Ingram case you’re asking about? Don was never on the faculty at Emory. He was at Oglethorpe, then fired because of his involvement in the case — and his wife, Connie, was fired by the public school district where she worked.
Bill Murray
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Kindle cons:
7) Amazon is a terrible company http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
CaseyL
@Ultraviolet Thunder: @Elizabelle:
Condolences to you and your family, Ultraviolet Thunder.
One of the best family gatherings I’ve ever been to was – good lord, nearly 20 years ago – for the unveiling of my grandparents’ graves. (Jewish tradition, takes place a year after the funeral.) It was just the immediate family, and we sat around a big dining room table, reminiscing and laughing so hard we cried. Like an Irish wake, but with fewer people and (slightly) less booze.
Ruckus
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Sorry about your mom. The celebration of her life by family sounds like it went well. Doesn’t always happen that way, it’s grand when it does.
We did that for both my parents and my sister. Much better to celebrate their life than commiserate about your loss.