Take a look at this photo of a 1906 American schoolroom. It is a language class, yet there is something most unusual even for today and I can’t figure it out. Can you spot it? I was again looking for data about Braille. Did you know there was no “w” in the original system? The reason is the letter "w" is rare in French. Braille got started when working with a secret military cypher which often rounds off an alphabet to 25 letters so the charts are easier to print. (English combines I/J as one letter.)
What do I know about Super Bowl? Nothing. But I know about the parties and that’s what I’ll be attending on February 5. Down Miami way with the family, a small gathering, 25 people. What’s the bets that vampy blonde from Ft. Loddy will be there? Oh, she’s out of the picture because she spurned me the first time, but she’ll have friends, know what I’m sayin’? Trivia: Super Bowl is the second highest food consumption day in the US. (After Thanksgiving.)That’s my life, going to a banquet with my diet. As luck turned out, I live a half-mile from one of the highest acclaimed Chinese restaurants in town. Yet I’ve had Chinese food maybe twice in this century. I say I don’t mind, but there remain four things from the past that regularly appear in my dreams. Peanut butter, chocolate, Chinese food, and Robyn.
France weighs in with government thought control, passing a law making it illegal to deny that Armenian genocide occurred. And they back it up with a stiff $60,000 fine. I would be okay with such laws in America for the following:
A) Saying your children are the next generation of leaders. Are you living in Disneyworld? Your kids are snot-nosed little pricks and that’s all they’ll ever be.
B) Using the word “free” on the Internet in connection with any produce or service. Since partial control is impossible to police, ban the word entirely.
C) Stating people who don’t like queers are afraid of them. People who say that should be poisoned like their little minds.
D) Cops asking if you know why you are being stopped. The Constitution bans self-incrimination.
E) Repeating any television commercial more than twice in a 24 hour period. The worst bastards in the world are with me on this one.
F) Prescribed damages against anyone who uses the word “paranoia” as an insult. Such people are not to be endured.
G) Claiming your IQ is above 110. It’s not. And if it was, you’d know better. No mercy.
H) Calling anti-immigration advocates “rednecks”. Unless they are allowed to prove it by kicking the shit out of you in the nearest K-mart parking lot. We’d be okay with that.
I) A gag order on bozos who still say, “Have a nice day.” Maybe some jail time, as well, to improve their concept of a nice day.
Addendum:
I toyed with an on-line currency calculator. I thought it revealing to put some dollar-figures from my very own past into 2012 money.
A) The price of my first car: $11,464.74.
B) My first year university tuition: $2509.20
C) My lowest hourly wage ever: $6.11
D) My parents combined annual income the year I left home: $101,116.55
D) The amount of money my parents promised me (for school): $86,600.91
E) The amount my parents actually paid: $106.45
F) My highest income year at the phone company (no overtime): $75,071.44
G) The most I spent in one year traveling: $36,891.47
H) Total lifetime student loans: $30,293.21
I) Total lifetime expenditure on tuition: $61,436.70
That’s revealing. My first car was a new 1974 Maverick. The student loan does not include penalties. My parents had promised me tuition, room and board for four years. They claimed they could not “afford” to keep their promise. They were lying through their teeth. My lowest wage was as a stock clerk—I made more total playing in a band at age 13 though, like today, I wouldn’t want to calculate that out by the hour. Considering the drop in quality, my lifetime tuition compares very well with what student’s get for their buck these days.
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
