February 17, 2008 by jmmblake.

News and Observer staff writer Steve Ford wrote a great piece about Wake County Schools, in North Carolina.

What Steve tip toes around is the fact that “money is the root of all evil.”

Those new rich transplants lured into the Triangle by the promise of a “chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage” are finding out that lots of different folks are attracted by the glitter of gold.

It’s all about the money! 

As for what Steve says about keeping Wake County School united, I think I would offer IMHO: United– Wake County (Schools) will stand; Divided– it will still stand.

Not that I have a dog in this fight between “Carywood” and “Raleighwood”, but “divorce” of the school districts sounds like it is around the corner. Heck, if they want to spend a few million on building a central office facility, hiring curriculum directors, and maintenance staff,  vehicles, computers, servers, copiers, telephones, cell phones, paying for an international search for a qualified superintendent and on and on well let them spend their money.

Cary’s mayor, Harold Weinbrecht, has stepped up to advise his constituents that firing on Fort Sumter, so to speak, would not be the smartest thing in the world. Not because Sheriff Donnie Harrison would have to send in his deputies to quash the rebellion, but because setting up an independent Cary school system would be so doggone expensive.

Whatever! This school system would not cost as much as a meal at Herons or a stay at The Umstead.

When parents start whining about “leaving a school” or even the entire district, charter schools and private schools get their admissions forms photocopied and placed on the front desk. It’s going to be a boom private school enrollment.

If they do not like the schools, maybe the disguntled parents would rather move to a more rural part of our state commute. What about considering a move to Virginia and commuting.

I would like to let them try to tell our school board what to do. It would be on like Donkey Kong. I could here it now. Our school board members would tell them that they do not care how they did it where they came from.

Does the term “carpetbaggers” strike a familiar note here?

Since 1900 the term has also been used to describe outsiders attempting to gain political office or economic advantage, especially in areas (thematically or geographically) to which they previously had no connection. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpetbagger

I do not feel sorry for the whiners in Cary, who don’t want their precious children to have to sit in a desk next to a child from another cast.

All I can say is where is Dr. Martin Luther King when the disenfranchised families of Wake need him?

Shame on ya’ll!

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February 10, 2008 by jmmblake.

I have always heard that eating too late in the evening can lead to nightmares. Is it true?

The other evening, my wife and I enjoyed a wonderful meal together at San Jose, one of our famous Mexican restaurant. San Jose is in Whiteville, North Carolina. It is located about 18 miles from our home. It is near Wally-World and Hibbetts Sporting Goods which we like to walk through after eating. The walk usually helps our meal digest. This dream may not have been the product of the meal, but it was weird.

In my dream, I had ordered a science kit to use with my students. One of those kits that come with everything we need. The kit arrived and my students were working on another project. Instead of using the kit, I put it way to later. My dream was interrupted by my dog jumping on my head and licking my ear. He does this when my snoring is so loud he can not sleep. I rolled over and fell back asleep.

When the dream resumed, some time had passed and I had pulled out the science kit. Students gathered around the box. It was a black box with handles. As the box opened, a plant-like puppet came out of the box. It was like the plant creature in some play I watched years ago- I think they called the man-eating plant–Seymour. Well, as the students participated in the activity, I noticed a packing slip that had written in bold print: “OPEN KIT IMMEDIATELY, CONTENTS ARE…I could not make out the rest of the notice. But in my horror, I realized that the kit had a human-like being in the kit that ran the puppet. It had been in the box, locked in the cabinet. Another piece of paper appeared stating that if the kit was not opened within two days of arrival, the school would be charged a daily rate of use for the kit. […dreams of fine print? Lord, help me!]

The dream seemed to restart at a point where the bill and the overdue fee for the rental of the science kit had come due. The school board had me sitting at a table and were threatening to fire me. This woke me up!

Someone could make this into a horror short-film. Maybe this summer, I can make the time to storyboard this nightmare.

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