I hope I didn't just give away the ending

New Radicals, Maybe you've been brainwashed too.

Yep, that's how the dude capitalized & punctuated.

Also, after his one hit Gregg Alexander decided to quit the business so he would not be a one-hit wonder.

(!?!?!?!).
This dance-funk-groove record sold a few back in '98-'99, thanks to that one hit, "You get what you give." (Again, album-cover capitals.)

I will warn you here, too: the dude wrote some pretty good lyrics.

& the album features a back-up singer named Danielle Brisebois, who had been a child "star" as Edith's niece Stephanie.

How about that for some trivia?

You 're welcome.

(oh, & the post title is another song title.)

NON-POLITICALLY-CHARGED REFERENCE TO A (SADLY) POLITICALLY-CHARGED TOPIC ALERT:

I just today finished reading Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman.

Wow.
The book was written by Jon Krakauer, whose Into the Wild you were supposed to read last year

I had a grandfather, an uncle, several neighbors, & various other folks in my life fight in wars, & I have never done enough to thank them.

At the base level I probably think of Veterans Day & Memorial Day as barbeque days.

Let's all be honest: how often to we stop for a moment to think of those who, as we say, "gave all"?

Here's a guy who gave up millions to do the right thing, to stand up for what he felt was right, to defend the freedoms we like to discuss. Anyway it can be parsed, that comes out as "hero."

There's a book about him because of his fame as well as the horrific lies that were told in a cover-up of the facts of his death.

There are thousands of others who get no books, just mourning relatives & friends.

LIFE-LESSON TO BE LEARNED FROM ALL THIS ALERT

I honestly do not care what one thinks of the wars--& sadly, I think too many of us do not think of them at all--but I do care that all of us realize the sacrifice that goes on daily by those who wear the uniform.

This is in no way a "left" or "right," "liberal" or "conservative" issue.

It's a human issue.


Juniors:
As we read The Waste Land, let us ponder,as Eliot did, the horrors of war.

Great things can come from war, but no sane person can say that war is great.

Great things arose in class today, as I asked you for a key line you had noted or a line you happened upon when opening the book this morning.

Some examples:

Memory and desire

Winter kept us warm

A heap of broken images

Your shadow at morning striding behind you

Fear death by water

Are you alive or not? Is there nothing in your head?

Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you

Here there is no water but only rock

Shantih shantih shantih

Sophomores:
You took an open-book quiz on the material we read aloud in class yesterday.

Many of you did very well, mixing the CDs & the CMs.

You analyzed the chorus's response to Antingone & Creon.

You discussed Haimon & Creon, how the son is just like the daddy in many ways, especially rhetorically.

We have finished a big chunk of the play, & we will do more Monday.

Also, next week TUESDAY will be unit 4 synonyms, THURSDAY will be unit 4 completing sentences.

Soon, you will be submitting those quotations you were assigned, 4 from each scene, including the ones we did in class, from the Prologue as well as Scene 1.

Until then we march FORWARD!!!

be cool