This title is taken from the line from a classic Shakira song:
"Have I changed my hopes for fears and my dreams for plans?"
Although the line says nothing about wishes, I have seen two shooting stars in two days, so I thought maybe something was up.
I went to an article called The Apocalyptic Meteorite Discovery, but it didn't say anything about shooting stars in the Las Vegas skies in March, so I googled March meteor showers, and found this schedule. Which also doesn't mention meteors in the Las Vegas skies in March.
The suspense is exciting. We'll see if we keep seeing shooting stars.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Memory Eraser
As I predicted as I was leaving Don Sutton's garage on Saturday night to go over to Miss Gokey's and plan our fabulous SPRING BREEEEEAAAAAK!!!!! (upcoming), I sat down today on my freshly-weeded patio, put on my gloves and safety glasses, picked up my preform and remembered...absolutely nothing.
I will prevail, however. Via YouTube and the magical wonderland known as the Clark County Public Library, I will remember how to make a sharp pointy weapon from a rock. That's what Don Sutton was teaching me how to do in a lesson I dubbed "flintknapping for the total beginner." It was super intense. Here are two of the arrow tips that Mr. Sutton demonstrated making for me.
The process of flintknapping is truly amazing, and this past Saturday's excursion to North Las Vegas to see and try it was one of the best possible uses of my time that I can think of. Mr. Sutton is an artist. Here's a link to some of the pieces he makes.
Flintknapping is more physical than any of my other hobbies. Forgive me for saying so, but although my shape is good, I am not in good shape. That's why it took me a day and a half to sit down and try it again. My arms were sore from exerting force, although Mr. Sutton said such exertion was unnecessary and advised me not to grunt. I seem to remember that I also whined at one point, issuing the same kind of whimper as my parents' border collie when he wants to hit the trail but you're not moving.
I am not a patient person, but getting a boulder down to the size of the items you see in the photo above is an exercise in meditative patience. You kind of have to get the rock to talk to you. It's good at first, almost shouting, "hit me here!" But by the end of the process, when you almost have an arrowhead, the rock forgets to say, "Attention Patawan: you are holding me backwards and upside-down."
Imagine the delight of my students if they knew that in addition to talking to my own self, the computer and the walls, I now also talk to rocks.
During a nice Sunday conversation with Dana of Kaleidoscope Faith, I was talking at her and saying that these are exactly the types of skills that we need to learn and pass on to future generations lest they get lost. Judging from the forums and events that happen nationwide, there's no danger of losing this skill any time soon. Nevertheless.
Below is a photo of the kit and sundry goodies with which I left Mr. Sutton's garage. The copper tools simulate the antlers the indigenous people would have used during the Neolithic Age as they chased their food sources around.
I will prevail, however. Via YouTube and the magical wonderland known as the Clark County Public Library, I will remember how to make a sharp pointy weapon from a rock. That's what Don Sutton was teaching me how to do in a lesson I dubbed "flintknapping for the total beginner." It was super intense. Here are two of the arrow tips that Mr. Sutton demonstrated making for me.
Flintknapping is more physical than any of my other hobbies. Forgive me for saying so, but although my shape is good, I am not in good shape. That's why it took me a day and a half to sit down and try it again. My arms were sore from exerting force, although Mr. Sutton said such exertion was unnecessary and advised me not to grunt. I seem to remember that I also whined at one point, issuing the same kind of whimper as my parents' border collie when he wants to hit the trail but you're not moving.
I am not a patient person, but getting a boulder down to the size of the items you see in the photo above is an exercise in meditative patience. You kind of have to get the rock to talk to you. It's good at first, almost shouting, "hit me here!" But by the end of the process, when you almost have an arrowhead, the rock forgets to say, "Attention Patawan: you are holding me backwards and upside-down."
Imagine the delight of my students if they knew that in addition to talking to my own self, the computer and the walls, I now also talk to rocks.
During a nice Sunday conversation with Dana of Kaleidoscope Faith, I was talking at her and saying that these are exactly the types of skills that we need to learn and pass on to future generations lest they get lost. Judging from the forums and events that happen nationwide, there's no danger of losing this skill any time soon. Nevertheless.
Below is a photo of the kit and sundry goodies with which I left Mr. Sutton's garage. The copper tools simulate the antlers the indigenous people would have used during the Neolithic Age as they chased their food sources around.
It would be so cool to be able to say, "Make a pointy weapon from a big rock? Yeah, I can do that."
I can't say that yet, but I will be able to someday.
Happy working on your marketable skills, loyal readers!
Sunday, March 25, 2012
I Can't Even Say It!
It's the most perfect line ever. I used it on my Nevada Reading Week door. I used it in my March 23 Friday letter. It's on my souvenir plastic cup. Therefore I feel it would be weirdly redundant to put it in here, so I'll type it really small.
May the odds be ever in your favor.
By the time this post goes live, I hope that most people who read this page who are going to see The Hunger Games have already gone and seen it. (Don't worry, I won't be a plot-ruiner.) I also hope that all who are going to see the movie have already read the book.
I read the book a while ago and did not re-read it before going to the movie. I'm glad I didn't re-read it. I must say the movie is fabulously beautiful and as faithful to the book as it can be without merging into the second book.
My reading of The Hunger Games trilogy was definitely the first event on my personal post-apocalypse preparation timeline. The Hunger Games was written by a graduate of my own alma mater, Indiana University, and according to some, she plagiarized the idea from a Japanese novel written in the '90s called Battle Royale.
That novel is on its way now.
Perhaps my being so enthusiastic about the film means that instead of being a person who prepares for the apocalypse, I am a person who falls for the first clever marketing ploy. Be that as it may, I would not trade my $10 ticket or my $3 souvenir cup.
There's something about arriving at the movie theater at 11 p.m., loading up on nachos and coke, and then bursting into tears within the first 15 minutes (yeah, it's that good) that just makes me feel really American, in a good way.
I'm guessing that thanks to this movie premiere, nuclear war will be trending on the Doomsday Dashboard.
Let's check it...
Nope. Weirdly, "megaquake" has hit an unbelievable 49% as today's scenario of choice. Personally, I'm not finding anything in the news feeds or my twitter feed regarding recent earthquakes, so...
an anomaly. Please, if you know about an earthquake, tip me off. Thanks.
And now there is nothing I can say about it that hasn't already been said, so I will leave you with some advice from Haymitch:
Here's some advice: stay alive.
Enjoy the movie.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Fresh 52 and the Greeks
$2.41
That's how much it cost me in fuel according to Road Trip America to go to The Fresh52 Farmer's Market, which happens each weekend in extreme southeastern Las Vegas. I don't think I'll be going to Summerlin on Tuesday afternoons anymore if I don't have to.
Don't get me wrong. Fresh52 is just as scrawny, with a majority of the booths selling bread (which I can make at home instead of buy - shoot, after that recipe I got from Pinterest, I'm convinced I should be selling loaves, not buying them), popcorn, pizza and hot dogs.
My issue was that even after my roommate sold me a bottle of Clover Honey for $0.00 so that I would have an emergency supply, I was running out of honey and was about to have a conniption fit if there was not a beekeeper at the corner of Eastern and Silverado Ranch. Lucky for me, a youngish guy with a pickup truck advertising his dislike for some of my favorite presidents and his support of some candidates I think are kind of crazy was hawking one flavor and some little wooden honey dippers. He bent the ear of the person in front of me for nearly six full minutes. The person was clearly not going to buy anything, while in the meantime I was mentally (and maybe even out loud, it's hard to say) chanting honeyhoneyhoneyhoney.
I walked away to another booth where I saw honey bears. Although orange flavored honey probably would have been delicious with that Pinterest cake (ahem, I mean bread...), I decided to go with what I knew. I did what every person who ever went to a crowded bar in their 20s knows how to do: I pulled out my money and waggled it at the salesman to indicate that I actually wanted a product. He winked at me. *shudder* But I got what I went to the market for. I also came home with spinach, asian pears and four really large, beautiful lemons.
How do I feel about buying honey from a guy who wants to string me up and take away my rights? Um...I'll get back to you on that.
In the meantime, while you're waiting for my response to that somewhat accusatory question, check out this article in the Guardian if you haven't already seen it on Facebook. I was just telling my students two weeks ago that Greece was busy getting bailed out just like us. It seems they're cutting out the middle man in Thessaloniki.
Our Europe unit is over, however. We will have to wait until next year to talk about Greece again. In the meantime, we are studying the continent of Africa, and I am following Proverbs of Africa on Twitter.
I will leave you with one from the Congo:
"He who looks for honey must have the courage to face the bees."
Bon appetit.
That's how much it cost me in fuel according to Road Trip America to go to The Fresh52 Farmer's Market, which happens each weekend in extreme southeastern Las Vegas. I don't think I'll be going to Summerlin on Tuesday afternoons anymore if I don't have to.
Don't get me wrong. Fresh52 is just as scrawny, with a majority of the booths selling bread (which I can make at home instead of buy - shoot, after that recipe I got from Pinterest, I'm convinced I should be selling loaves, not buying them), popcorn, pizza and hot dogs.
My issue was that even after my roommate sold me a bottle of Clover Honey for $0.00 so that I would have an emergency supply, I was running out of honey and was about to have a conniption fit if there was not a beekeeper at the corner of Eastern and Silverado Ranch. Lucky for me, a youngish guy with a pickup truck advertising his dislike for some of my favorite presidents and his support of some candidates I think are kind of crazy was hawking one flavor and some little wooden honey dippers. He bent the ear of the person in front of me for nearly six full minutes. The person was clearly not going to buy anything, while in the meantime I was mentally (and maybe even out loud, it's hard to say) chanting honeyhoneyhoneyhoney.
I walked away to another booth where I saw honey bears. Although orange flavored honey probably would have been delicious with that Pinterest cake (ahem, I mean bread...), I decided to go with what I knew. I did what every person who ever went to a crowded bar in their 20s knows how to do: I pulled out my money and waggled it at the salesman to indicate that I actually wanted a product. He winked at me. *shudder* But I got what I went to the market for. I also came home with spinach, asian pears and four really large, beautiful lemons.
How do I feel about buying honey from a guy who wants to string me up and take away my rights? Um...I'll get back to you on that.
In the meantime, while you're waiting for my response to that somewhat accusatory question, check out this article in the Guardian if you haven't already seen it on Facebook. I was just telling my students two weeks ago that Greece was busy getting bailed out just like us. It seems they're cutting out the middle man in Thessaloniki.
Our Europe unit is over, however. We will have to wait until next year to talk about Greece again. In the meantime, we are studying the continent of Africa, and I am following Proverbs of Africa on Twitter.
I will leave you with one from the Congo:
"He who looks for honey must have the courage to face the bees."
Bon appetit.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Short and Sweet (More Food for Thought)
Tomorrow is a very special day! First, it is Jodi's 35th birthday. It is also, however, PI DAY! This is the annual occasion when I get to wear my shamrock pi shirt, shown here during a 2009 trip to the Rhyolite Ghost Town:
Woot! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!! Since I still suffer guilt from having stolen an image from a Scholastic publication, I will go ahead and promote them by telling you to check this out! Then just google "pi day" and read all about it. When it became a school tradition, I don't know. The first time I heard of it was 2007. I think I got the shirt in '08.
What does this do to help us out in the apocalypse? Well, if you're me, it prompts me to type "zombie pie" into google, learn that iPad users have access to a free app called "Zombie Pie" which allows them to throw cartoon pies at some cartoon undead, and get insanely jealous because you (meaning I) have a humongous iPod CLASSIC and an Android. Oh, well. Undaunted! Onward and upward!
*giggle*
*giggle**giggle*
Warning! This link is not for those who do not curse. This link is not for those who are easily offended. This link is not for social conservatives or people who do not appreciate sarcasm.
You're not going to believe this. Really, you aren't. Are you ready? Here it is.
That's right. I own that. It's not really for the apocalypse, because all the recipes call for ovens and such.
One such recipe appears on the Good Food blog. Feel free to make it tomorrow for Pi Day, but it's not the pie I'm going to make, because I need my pie to be far less complicated. Like...no-bake, for example. But that's just me.
In the meantime, since I can't practice aim with Zombie Pie, I'm headed out to the patio to play with the Nerf Darts.
What does this do to help us out in the apocalypse? Well, if you're me, it prompts me to type "zombie pie" into google, learn that iPad users have access to a free app called "Zombie Pie" which allows them to throw cartoon pies at some cartoon undead, and get insanely jealous because you (meaning I) have a humongous iPod CLASSIC and an Android. Oh, well. Undaunted! Onward and upward!
*giggle*
*giggle**giggle*
Warning! This link is not for those who do not curse. This link is not for those who are easily offended. This link is not for social conservatives or people who do not appreciate sarcasm.
You're not going to believe this. Really, you aren't. Are you ready? Here it is.
That's right. I own that. It's not really for the apocalypse, because all the recipes call for ovens and such.
One such recipe appears on the Good Food blog. Feel free to make it tomorrow for Pi Day, but it's not the pie I'm going to make, because I need my pie to be far less complicated. Like...no-bake, for example. But that's just me.
In the meantime, since I can't practice aim with Zombie Pie, I'm headed out to the patio to play with the Nerf Darts.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Confessions of a Screen Zombie
I have some information for you that you can't get unless, like me, someone you know subscribes to Scholastic Scope. That information is as follows:
"The average teenager spends more than 53 hours a week in front of a screen." The question we came up with (well, she did, and it blew my mind) is this: Does that count the PowerPoint presentations?
The point of Are You a Screen Zombie is that scientists are studying the effects of social networks, texting and TV on reflexes, grades, mood and weight. Scholastic Scope is a magazine for middle-level learners. Therefore, of course, the conclusion is that teens should reap the positive benefits of their tech toys, but turn them off before they get addicted. The website linked above has some other interesting stories on it. Here's an image of the cover; hopefully, it's not tooooo copyrighted. There's very little you can get from Scholastic without paying.
For the grownups among us, in its "10 Ideas that Change Your Life" story, Time (yes, I fell for it again) has a similar two-page spread called, "Your Head is in the Cloud." The story agrees that we don't remember as much as we used to due to our increasing reliance on search engines. The memories we form, the story contends, are not of the information we find, but of where we can find the information again later on. This revelation goes a long way toward explaining some of the baffling situations we teachers face in our classrooms. This short piece ends with a warning for adults that is similar to Scholastic's warning for our teenage progeny.
I am obviously not immune to the addictive qualities of electronic gadgets. I also clearly have a magazine problem. That's a different issue, though. Currently my roommate and I are both victims of the one-yard stare, with our phones nearby and Dual Survival (my idea, and a questionable one) just ended on TV. We're now moving on to Deadliest Warrior. This week, I accepted a pinterest invite, as if I have gobs of spare time. But I have an excuse! A great excuse! I'm a licensed practitioner of public education, so I must constantly do RESEARCH. There's my excuse. That's it, that's all I've got. And I didn't remember it...I looked it up online. Therefore, I don't have to wait for the apocalypse because at times I'm already a zombie.
Notice how with this blog, I slyly turn you into one too, the long-distance equivalent of munching on your brains. :) Sorry about that. (I'll apologize, but I don't plan to stop my behavior.)
I would challenge us all to spend one hour a day away from screens, but the fact is that I love my life. Despite (oops I forgot to mention the New Super Mario Bros.) video games, the internet, the PowerPoints, TV, the iPod and the phone, I and pretty much everyone I know still take walks, read books made of paper, have meals with friends and go out on the town. Personally, I plan to keep filling my brain with more information in a year than my great-grandparents consumed in their lifetimes.
"The average teenager spends more than 53 hours a week in front of a screen." The question we came up with (well, she did, and it blew my mind) is this: Does that count the PowerPoint presentations?
The point of Are You a Screen Zombie is that scientists are studying the effects of social networks, texting and TV on reflexes, grades, mood and weight. Scholastic Scope is a magazine for middle-level learners. Therefore, of course, the conclusion is that teens should reap the positive benefits of their tech toys, but turn them off before they get addicted. The website linked above has some other interesting stories on it. Here's an image of the cover; hopefully, it's not tooooo copyrighted. There's very little you can get from Scholastic without paying.
For the grownups among us, in its "10 Ideas that Change Your Life" story, Time (yes, I fell for it again) has a similar two-page spread called, "Your Head is in the Cloud." The story agrees that we don't remember as much as we used to due to our increasing reliance on search engines. The memories we form, the story contends, are not of the information we find, but of where we can find the information again later on. This revelation goes a long way toward explaining some of the baffling situations we teachers face in our classrooms. This short piece ends with a warning for adults that is similar to Scholastic's warning for our teenage progeny.
I am obviously not immune to the addictive qualities of electronic gadgets. I also clearly have a magazine problem. That's a different issue, though. Currently my roommate and I are both victims of the one-yard stare, with our phones nearby and Dual Survival (my idea, and a questionable one) just ended on TV. We're now moving on to Deadliest Warrior. This week, I accepted a pinterest invite, as if I have gobs of spare time. But I have an excuse! A great excuse! I'm a licensed practitioner of public education, so I must constantly do RESEARCH. There's my excuse. That's it, that's all I've got. And I didn't remember it...I looked it up online. Therefore, I don't have to wait for the apocalypse because at times I'm already a zombie.
Notice how with this blog, I slyly turn you into one too, the long-distance equivalent of munching on your brains. :) Sorry about that. (I'll apologize, but I don't plan to stop my behavior.)
I would challenge us all to spend one hour a day away from screens, but the fact is that I love my life. Despite (oops I forgot to mention the New Super Mario Bros.) video games, the internet, the PowerPoints, TV, the iPod and the phone, I and pretty much everyone I know still take walks, read books made of paper, have meals with friends and go out on the town. Personally, I plan to keep filling my brain with more information in a year than my great-grandparents consumed in their lifetimes.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
The Monsoon Apocalypse!
It's all fun and games until two towns in your home state get wiped off the map! RIP, Henryville. I can't find the name of the other town in the news sites.
I read a USA Today story about one couple's canceled checks. The couple from Chelsea, IN died, and their canceled checks were blowing into yards in Cincinnati. Ugh.
Here's a line that I stole from RTV6, "The Indy Channel:"
"The Federal Emergency Management Agency will get a firsthand look at the devastation left behind in Clark County, assessing tornado damage to determine whether the area will be eligible for federal aid.'
Stay classy, FEMA! Here's a story about the local volunteers helping the victims. What's the point of this post? I suppose it's to remind myself and my five loyal readers that the apocalypse comes for each of us when we are least expecting it, and sometimes in the weirdest possible way.
I was busy "teaching" 6th grade girls' PE (don't ask) on Friday when I received a text message from Jodi in Indianapolis: "Well all of the kids are hunkered down because we have a tornado warning." Later, she elaborated: "We dismissed 20 minutes late to let the storm pass. I feel bad for the kids because they were 'in the position' for 30 minutes." I can't imagine being in duck-and-cover that long.
I do, however, think I got a taste of what Indianapolis saw on Friday as I was wrestling my car to keep it on the road during my 20-mile commute today. My first sign that something was a little off came as I exited the school building to get two eyefulls, two nostrilsfull and one mouthful of desert sand. As I turned out of the school parking lot, visibility was about 1/4 mile and the road was obscured by the same sand blowing across. Palm trees were bent in half. As I turned onto Nellis, cardboard boxes were blowing across the road and dogs were running for their lives. Two of my preset radio stations blinked out, and I can only assume that their towers blew down. Finally, during the last five miles, I was dodging large sheets of aluminum siding blowing over the wall from the neighborhood next to Vegas Valley.
I'm not trying to say I have any idea what it's like to be a resident of Henryville right now. I'm just saying I was wondering about my disaster preparedness kit and whether it would get me through the next few days on the off chance that my school blew away. Have I practiced the preaching I ripped off from Anderson Cooper? Only I can be the judge of that, but after reading the stories, it seems like I still have a long way to go.
Every day, I show my Explorations students CNN Student News, in a move I ripped off from John Faulds and Kathryn James jointly. Yesterday's transcript reflects an interview with Ohio governor John Kasich, who had this to say: "The fact of the matter is, people that live here are resilient, God fearing. They`re tough and we`re knocked down but not we`re knocked out."
A woman the transcript identifies only as, "unidentified female" had this to say;
"Got a lot of good friends. We still got our family. What more can we ask for?"
Best of luck to the people in the flattened parts of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky as they rebuild their lives after their own real-life apocalypse.
I read a USA Today story about one couple's canceled checks. The couple from Chelsea, IN died, and their canceled checks were blowing into yards in Cincinnati. Ugh.
Here's a line that I stole from RTV6, "The Indy Channel:"
"The Federal Emergency Management Agency will get a firsthand look at the devastation left behind in Clark County, assessing tornado damage to determine whether the area will be eligible for federal aid.'
Stay classy, FEMA! Here's a story about the local volunteers helping the victims. What's the point of this post? I suppose it's to remind myself and my five loyal readers that the apocalypse comes for each of us when we are least expecting it, and sometimes in the weirdest possible way.
I was busy "teaching" 6th grade girls' PE (don't ask) on Friday when I received a text message from Jodi in Indianapolis: "Well all of the kids are hunkered down because we have a tornado warning." Later, she elaborated: "We dismissed 20 minutes late to let the storm pass. I feel bad for the kids because they were 'in the position' for 30 minutes." I can't imagine being in duck-and-cover that long.
I do, however, think I got a taste of what Indianapolis saw on Friday as I was wrestling my car to keep it on the road during my 20-mile commute today. My first sign that something was a little off came as I exited the school building to get two eyefulls, two nostrilsfull and one mouthful of desert sand. As I turned out of the school parking lot, visibility was about 1/4 mile and the road was obscured by the same sand blowing across. Palm trees were bent in half. As I turned onto Nellis, cardboard boxes were blowing across the road and dogs were running for their lives. Two of my preset radio stations blinked out, and I can only assume that their towers blew down. Finally, during the last five miles, I was dodging large sheets of aluminum siding blowing over the wall from the neighborhood next to Vegas Valley.
I'm not trying to say I have any idea what it's like to be a resident of Henryville right now. I'm just saying I was wondering about my disaster preparedness kit and whether it would get me through the next few days on the off chance that my school blew away. Have I practiced the preaching I ripped off from Anderson Cooper? Only I can be the judge of that, but after reading the stories, it seems like I still have a long way to go.
Every day, I show my Explorations students CNN Student News, in a move I ripped off from John Faulds and Kathryn James jointly. Yesterday's transcript reflects an interview with Ohio governor John Kasich, who had this to say: "The fact of the matter is, people that live here are resilient, God fearing. They`re tough and we`re knocked down but not we`re knocked out."
A woman the transcript identifies only as, "unidentified female" had this to say;
"Got a lot of good friends. We still got our family. What more can we ask for?"
Best of luck to the people in the flattened parts of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky as they rebuild their lives after their own real-life apocalypse.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
The Hysterics of the Past 88 Years
How often does Mammaw's 88th birthday fall on a blog-posting day in the year of a supposed apocalypse? We don't have to be math geniuses to know that clearly, this will happen only once. I thought that since today is a special occasion (also the anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials), I would examine the impending apocalypses of the past 88 years.
Mammaw was born on March 1, 1924, the year that Vladimir Lenin died. Following are my top eight picks for the Impending Apocalypses of her lifetime, in chronological order:
1. The Sacco and Vanzetti execution. Their deaths are a symbol of the Red Scare for secondary history teachers everywhere. Paranoia was rampant during the Red Scare, and anti-immigrant feelings for people coming into the U.S. from southern and eastern Europe may have contributed to their convictions.
(On a positive note, in between items #1 and #2 fits the invention of sliced bread. So, whenever you hear anyone talking about "the best thing since sliced bread," what they really mean is "the best thing since 1928.")
2. The Stock Market crash of 1929 and the subsequent decade of Great Depression, including the Dust Bowl. If you think the unprecedented number of natural disasters and the scarcity of jobs are bad now, you should read The Grapes of Wrath. Yeesh!
3. World War II. Included in WWII are whatever sinister forces allowed Hitler to come to power, the Holocaust, Japanese-American internment, and the invention and subsequent use of the atomic bomb, which has now advanced to even gnarlier bombs. I'm pretty sure 1939-1945 were probably the scariest years humanity had ever known up to that point.
4. The creation of the state of Israel. Someone's been threatening to bomb someone else over it ever since.
5. McCarthyism, a.k.a. "Red Scare Part Deux," or, "We now return you to your regularly-scheduled Red Scare." ARE YOU OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A MEMBER OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY!?!?! (To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For this reason I recommend pausing your blog-reading here and immediately watching the film Good Night and Good Luck.)
So tempting, but...nah. We're not going to talk about disco.
6. Jim Jones and the whole Kool-Aid incident.
7. Y2K. Remember that? That was actually pretty funny.
8. The Global War on Terror. Which reminds me, Global Thermonuclear Warfare is still trending #1 on the doomsday dashboard at 24%.
These eight are only the examples that I know the best from what have probably been hundreds of world-ending freakouts that Mammaw has lived through. It may be a childish thing to say, but I have always been of the opinion that if you have seen that much in your lifetime, you pretty much have the right to say and do whatever you want. But that's just me. For all of us, let her life so far be a lesson in the fact that no matter when and no matter where, the world is always about to end. Our task is to start where we are and prepare ourselves the best way we know how. The best way *I* know how is sideways. And very carefully.
Mammaw was born on March 1, 1924, the year that Vladimir Lenin died. Following are my top eight picks for the Impending Apocalypses of her lifetime, in chronological order:
1. The Sacco and Vanzetti execution. Their deaths are a symbol of the Red Scare for secondary history teachers everywhere. Paranoia was rampant during the Red Scare, and anti-immigrant feelings for people coming into the U.S. from southern and eastern Europe may have contributed to their convictions.
(On a positive note, in between items #1 and #2 fits the invention of sliced bread. So, whenever you hear anyone talking about "the best thing since sliced bread," what they really mean is "the best thing since 1928.")
2. The Stock Market crash of 1929 and the subsequent decade of Great Depression, including the Dust Bowl. If you think the unprecedented number of natural disasters and the scarcity of jobs are bad now, you should read The Grapes of Wrath. Yeesh!
3. World War II. Included in WWII are whatever sinister forces allowed Hitler to come to power, the Holocaust, Japanese-American internment, and the invention and subsequent use of the atomic bomb, which has now advanced to even gnarlier bombs. I'm pretty sure 1939-1945 were probably the scariest years humanity had ever known up to that point.
4. The creation of the state of Israel. Someone's been threatening to bomb someone else over it ever since.
5. McCarthyism, a.k.a. "Red Scare Part Deux," or, "We now return you to your regularly-scheduled Red Scare." ARE YOU OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A MEMBER OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY!?!?! (To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For this reason I recommend pausing your blog-reading here and immediately watching the film Good Night and Good Luck.)
So tempting, but...nah. We're not going to talk about disco.
6. Jim Jones and the whole Kool-Aid incident.
7. Y2K. Remember that? That was actually pretty funny.
8. The Global War on Terror. Which reminds me, Global Thermonuclear Warfare is still trending #1 on the doomsday dashboard at 24%.
These eight are only the examples that I know the best from what have probably been hundreds of world-ending freakouts that Mammaw has lived through. It may be a childish thing to say, but I have always been of the opinion that if you have seen that much in your lifetime, you pretty much have the right to say and do whatever you want. But that's just me. For all of us, let her life so far be a lesson in the fact that no matter when and no matter where, the world is always about to end. Our task is to start where we are and prepare ourselves the best way we know how. The best way *I* know how is sideways. And very carefully.
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