CSotD: Monday short takes
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Terri Libenson on a problem I rarely have but can really identify with. One of the issues with freelancing is that, since you are never on the clock, consequently, neither are you ever off the clock.
I don't juggle a boatload of projects, but there is always something lurking, and even when I don't have a hands-on-the-keyboard deadline, I should probably be researching rather than recreating. I've finally gone into heavy writing mode on a children's historical fiction story about voyageurs, but every spare moment for the last four or five months has meant at least feeling like I should be learning more about them, even if I wasn't actually doing anything about it.
It's a neverending source of guilt for those moments when I have nothing absolutely pressing. Mind you, Terri, like her Pajama Diaries doppelganger, has a husband and kids whose needs she can tune into as an excuse to step away from the job. I have to pretend that the dog has not outgrown the need for multiple daily outings.
Fortunately, while he's content to doze on the couch while I work, he's delighted to indulge me in this necessary fiction.
In any case, I'm sure that, in a moment, Jill will think of something she ought to be doing. Probably several things. And she'll feel guilty that she can't get to all of them.
Guilt makes the world go 'round.
(See you in September, Terri!)
Speaking of guilt, yes, I laffed
I'm gonna guess that Jeff Corriveau has close ties to the educational community.
As stated here before, there's nothing wrong with the Common Core itself. The problem is the ham-handed misinterpretation of it by those who create mandates around it, and that, in turn, is due to the top-down imposition of the Core in the form of federal funding requirements.
And education is only the canary in the coal mine when it comes to the unintended (at least one would like to think) consequences of the Reagan Revolution and the quasi-libertarian move to decrease the federal deficit by passing financial burdens down to the states under the guise of "local control."
That is, passing responsibility for the bucks in order to fake fiscal responsibility.
Thing is, we had "local control" before, and that's why we needed the Civil Rights Act and the War on Poverty and other moves, to get the more anarchistic, selfish parts of the country to step up and be part of the social contract, and to equalize the burden among the poorer states and those with greater economic power.
And, yes, it is ironic that the loudest squealing for lower federal spending seems to come from the states that draw the most benefit from that equalization.
Shifting the tax burden to local communities is returning us to the days of rich states and poor states, and, since schools have always been bastions of local control, exacerbating the situation where the suburban school has all-weather tennis courts and the urban school has 15-year-old textbooks and no bunsen burners.
Yeah, well, I thought it was funny when I started, but, then again, the funniest cartoons are often about the least humorous situations.
"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be." — William Hazlitt
Now playing for Big Brother …
In the Bleachers also notes a trend that is a lot funnier in the funny pages than it is in the real world.
There was some hoohah running around the social media last week because a TSA rent-a-cop didn't realize a drivers' license from the District of Columbia was the same as a "state" issued drivers license. Which misunderstanding was immediately cleared up by a superior called over to check it out, but why let that spoil the feeding frenzy?
This is why we need to improve our schools: Not so much to make sure all minimum wage workers are hep to geography, but so that the people who think they are superior intellects will stop missing the damn point.
The outrage, for god's sake, is not over which papers you are being asked to produce.
Based on a true adventure!
Here's a look at some of next year's contenders for Best Picture.
I watched the Oscars for a couple of years after I had stopped seeing most of the movies they were talking about in time to know what they were talking about. Which is a sort of left-handed connection to yesterday's discussion of VCRs, because I don't go to theaters very often anymore.
So last night, I watched the anti-Oscars: TNT aired "Cowboys and Aliens," which I do not believe was up for Best Anything, though I'm sure clips of it will be included when Daniel Craig finally gets his Lifetime Achievement Award for absorbing punishment. The guy takes on brutal, near-death beatings like Meryl Streep takes on accents.
In any case, if you want a sneak peek at the movies they will be handing out statuettes for next year, Ces has them all on a Cracked page, but you should start here.
(My sons are snickering because, of all the examples in the piece, I spotlighted the only arcade game I was ever any good at.)
And speaking of flashes from the past:
Although Garry Trudeau has not, to the best of my knowledge, declared his latest hiatus permanent, Doonesbury has now become Classic Doonesbury over at GoComics. I like classics, have many of them on my daily routine and look forward to reliving the Olden Days along with Mike, BD, Zonker and the gang.
But, wit all doo respeck, I hope newspapers are going to switch to contemporary works and give someone else a chance to make a living. I hear that's happening.
And, in case you missed the original announcement, Trudeau will still be penning a Sunday each week.
Plus writing Alpha House, which I really like. Onward and upward.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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