vivalaultra

Eeek. I meant Pulitzer. It was a long, long day at school. Some girl in my 8th grade Pre-AP class called this one boy a 'queer' right in the middle of my lecture on literary elements. She now has to write me a ten page essay on the Stonewall Riot including citations and bibliography. Hopefully that does her some good. As far as teachers using 'non-literary' works in high schools, I agree. When I was considering my book list and getting together some sort of yearly lesson plan, I checked out a lot of syllabi and I was surprised at how many current/popular novels I saw being taught. I saw Eragon on just about every middle school booklist. I don't see the point of doing something like that over teaching say...Tolkein or some other fantasy book. I even saw (ack!) The Da Vinci Code being taught in one upper level AP class. I'd like to think that although my books are mostly relatively current, they have good literary value. Nothing by Dan Brown shall ever enter foot into my classroom. I should put that in my class guidelines or something.

Hm. I hadn't even considered the ratio of classic novels to more contemporary novels. I didn't eschew the classics on purpose; it just...kind of happened, I guess. Ah well. Re: The Painted House. I originally had To Kill a Mockingbird on my syllabus, but they already had it last year in 7th grade, so I made a last minute substitution with the only Grisham novel I've ever read (and enjoyed a bit). I thought the book fit in with the general themes of my other novels (coming of age, facing challenges, cultural awareness, etc.). Re: The House on Mango Street. There's a large Hispanic population at my school, so I had to include a novel about Hispanic coming of age and this one was the winner. And, as was mentioned, it's easy to read, has good literary value, and good educational/cultural value. Re: The Road. I've already covered my ass on the content of the novels. I sent a letter home with my syllabus. Before we start 'Of Mice and Men', I'm gonna have my students write personal letters to their parents and guardians letting them know that they will handle the content of all of the novels maturely and resonsibly, so I should be good on that front. I really wanted to do a McCarthy novel, if only because I want to make people more aware of his work and this one is the easiest to do. I personally found All the Pretty Horses more difficult to read than this one, and this one has all the hype with winning the Nobel Prize and being down with Oprah and I can use some of the Oprah stuff on McCarthy to show to students. And the 10th graders at my school are pretty morbid, so they'll enjoy the cannabalism. Re: Gaiman. The main reason I wanted to do a graphic novel was to stress the point that there's more to literature than just a standard book and that you can read things like 'comic books' or 'graphic novels' and appreciate them on a literary level. The students were kind of clueless as to what this would be all about when we went over the syllabus, but I brought in my copy of it and then they got the general idea. I'm hoping that when they see the quality of writing and the literary value of the stories, they'll appreciate it as more than just a comic book. There's a big focus on art and graphic design at my school, so I think the graphic novel will go over pretty well. And they have swearing and naked pictures of Calliope in it, so that's cool. Yeah, but now that it's mentioned, I'm really starting to notice the lack of 'classics' in each of my classes. My 8th graders have one out of four and my 10th graders have 'Hamlet' and 'Of Mice and Men'. But I guess that has been the general trend lately in schools. I don't have anything against the classics. At least, I think I don't...

On Friday, I used Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" in my 10th grade Pre-AP Lit. class. Those kids hadn't the foggiest idea what was going on. So, anyway, here's the booklists for my classes. I think I did a pretty good job selecting books. Any opinions? 8th grade: Coraline by Neil Gaiman The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros 'The Diary of Anne Frank' (play) The Painted House by John Grisham I'm either going to plug Lord of the Flies, Farenheit 451, or something else in to round out the year. 10th grade: Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck Sula by Toni Morrison The Road by Cormac McCarthy 'Hamlet' The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien 'Dream Country' (graphic novel) by Neil Gaiman I might have to plug something else in there to fill up the year or just do some short stories somewhere along the way.

So, Zambrano is (to use a wrestling term) playing the 'heel' in Chicago. He got booed after his poor performance yesterday and walked off jeering and yelling and gesturing at the fans at Wrigley and called them out pretty good in his post-game press conference. Good thing he doesn't play in New York or Philly.

It's not exactly a common name. I'm surprised there's even two major leaguers with the last name. On the local morning show on my way to work this morning, they were playing a game called "Major Leaguer or Prescription Drug". The first one the DJ threw out was 'Youkilis'. Somebody called in and said 'prescription drug'.

My five favorite bands that I should've discovered earlier but didn't until recently: 1. Okkervil River 2. The National 3. Hot Chip 4. !!! (I actually used to listen to them back when 'Me and Guiliani Down by the Schoolyard' first came out but I hadn't listened to them lately.) 5. The Eels

So, what exactly does everybody consider indie? Is it tied to a record label? a sound? possibly an ethos-the DIY attitude? Regardless of what you think about their music, would ya'll consider a band like Arcade Fire indie? They're pretty hugely popular, but they're on Merge which isn't a major label. What about TV on the Radio, who is on a major label (Interscope), but isn't like...widely popular? Would a band like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah be the uber-indie band because they self-release all their material? And what about emo-y labels like Vagrant or Jade Tree? Those aren't major labels, but when I think indie music, I don't think of any of the bands on Vagrant Records, not that I could name more than a couple bands on that label anyway.

Yes, I am a complete moron who has somehow completely forgotten the fundamental win/loss rules of baseball and I think that a loss to the Brewers is worth less than a loss to the Cubs or Cardinals to the actual records of a team. Totally. I'd just rather see the Brewers in the postseason than the Cubs or Cardinals. And you are way too high-strung, my young friend. Go eat a Chicago-style hotdog. Those things are all good.

Oswalt just hates the Cubs THAT much...obviously. A.B.C.-Anybody but the Cubs (or Cardinals).

You really know how to take a joke that was marginally clever and/or amusing to begin with and run with it. I'll give you that much. If you're patient, you might get to see actual prospect Josh Anderson in the outfield.

Craig Counsell.

Can you give your opinion on TNSTAAPP and possibly some examples to back it up? I agree in context with the theory, but I'm not sure if I agree with the theory in context.

Tal's got the hill named after him so he's a credible name to fill the gap for the Stros. Randy Smith was scouting director for the San Diego Padres from 1989-91. The best players they drafted in those years were Tim Worrell, Jay Powell and Joey Hamilton. Smith took over the Detroit Tigers in October '95, following a 60-84 season. He took a fourth place team and led them to a franchise record for losses in a season. Given a five-year rebuilding project, Randy managed to build a 55-106 team in 2002 and set the building blocks for the 2003 fiasco in the process. He has shown no ability to build a winning team and if the Astros hire him, it will be disaster for the Astros and their fans. I agree. I've heard nothing good about Randy Smith, but, he's Tal's son, so he'll at least get a long look. I wish the Astros could somehow lure Gerry Hunsicker back from the D-Rays. They only got rid of him because he didn't want to resign Biggio after the 2004 season. I'm glad that Biggio got resigned, but Hunsicker was a good GM.

I'm a little surprised that both Purp and Garner got the axe. I liked Phil. However, I also like his replacement Cecil Cooper a lot. Yesterday at the Bagwell Jersey Retirement, they announced Tim Purpura right after they announced Mike Scott and Nolan Ryan and I've never heard a crowd go from overwhelming applause to hateful boos so quickly. I had heard that Randy Smith (Tal Smith's son) will take over as GM next season and I guess with his Dad being interim GM, that lends it more credibility.

So, I got a job teaching 8th and 10th grade English/Language Arts at a charter school here in Houston. I had the first of my many pre-school faculty meetings today, and I was happy to find out that I get free health care. The company that funds my charter school pays $300/month for employee health care and the state of Texas pays $75 a month for employee health care. The best health care package that I can get (being single with no children) costs $354/month. Ergo, I don't have to pay for it. And it's a pretty good plan, $500 deductible and an 80%/20% copay. $10 prescriptions. However, it's only medical. I'm on my own for dental. Still, it's good to know that I can go to the doctor if I need to; it's been a long time since I've had a physical...and this thing on the back of my neck isn't getting any smaller...

Xavier Nady + Brad Lidge= BFF. I think Nady paid Lidge off in an effort to help pad his stats. It seems like every AB Nady has against Lidge ends up in a homerun.

Mike Skinner aka The Streets is white and British. Dizzee Rascal sounds neither white nor black; he sounds Martian.

The Braves have designated Bob Wickman for assignment. I guess that makes either Octavio Dotel or Rafael Soriano the closer? Maybe that Aussie, perhaps?

I appreciated the stage directions. Without them, I would've had no idea which character was speaking. D'Angelo? Avon? My Mom used to sell Avon briefly in the early 90s. I once knew a kid named Brian Avet, but I nicknamed him Avon and the nickname stands to this day. I give good nicknames. I, unfortunately, have no nickname and have never been given one. I'd like a nickname. If I gave on to myself, it would be 'Mr. Superawesomestudlywondermantothemax!!!!!!!!!'

David Wells has found a home with the Dodgers. He'll certainly be better than Brett Tomko, I think.

Re: The Vin Scully quote- Vin's simile is saying this, I think: An argument about the quality of a player, good or bad, shouldn't be based upon statistics, but on an other argument. However, statistics should be used to enhance the argument, one way or the other. Statistics should be used for support, but not for illumination. You should use statistics to back up what you're saying, but you shouldn't act like by using some statistical argument that you've flipped on a light switch and made some big point about something. Now, for homework, write a 50-word short essay on the meaning behind the following Joaquin Andujar quote: 'You can sum up the game of baseball in one word-You never know.'

...and it's part of a double-header AND right before the game, the Orioles announced that Dave Trembly would be the manager next season. I can't imagine zee fans are pleased.

I concur, but I still think the award is Braun's to lose. Had Pence not gotten injured, I would've had Pence in first followed by Braun and Tulo, but at this point in the season, I'd go Braun first, Tulo second, Pence third, and Chris B. Young fourth. After all, everybody knows that defense counts for nothing in awards voting (including Gold Glove voting).

Not to completely discount the possibility of injury, but last year's K/BB ratio is hardly dominating (especially considering that he worked over 200 innings) and he outperformed his career ERA by over a run. Why couldn't last year be a fluke, especially given his track record leading up to it? That's my opinion. If you look at his ERA+ up until last year, the only time it topped 100 (108) was his ROTY season in 2002. You could say that it was the 'Coors Field' effect working against him for most of his career, but he actually pitched better at Coors than on the road. As a #4 starter or an innings eater, Jennings would be passable, but as a #2, it's just not gonna happen and it makes it doubly bad when the Astros traded away a much loved leadoff man with great defense in CF and a guy who has pitched better than Jennings and is under club control for the next few years to get him.

Jason Jennings is out for the year with a torn flexor tendon. Yeah!!!!! The Astros front office will probably use his injury to justify his hideous performance and sign him next year so they don't look bad for trading away talent for crap. Boo!!!!