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Back to School

Tuesday, September 2, 2003

• TITLE: "Back to School" School terms - which used to be synchronized with the growing season (kids needed to help out with the planting, weeding, and harvesting and so there was no school in the Summer) now start earlier and earlier in August.

  Interestingly, the first "snow day" of the new school year in the Washington, DC area occurred on August 27th when schools across the region were shut down for lack of power following a huge thunderstorm which had swept through the area the day before.

  Thunderstorms always "sweep through" someplace. Tornados "tear through." Heat waves "stifle," and snow storms "dump."

  One of the reasons they shut the schools was because there was no air conditioning. No air conditioning? When I went to grade school we were lucky to have AIR - conditioned or not!

  We are in grave danger of growing a generation of French people.

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• "... Subscription Drive ..."
  Want to subscribe? Take a look here.

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• "� Air & Space Museum �" We went there every Saturday, then rode the carousel on the Mall, then had lunch, then went home. One weekend, he had to do something with "the guys," and that was the end of that.

  Space suit shells, and carousels give way to other toys.

• "� Middle East �" As we have discussed before, when I worked at Electronic Data Systems, I had people in Dallas, in England, in Israel, and in various Arab countries at various times. Not only did we have to deal with all those time zones, and all those languages, but we had to deal with three different work weeks:

  Monday through Friday - Western
  Sunday through Thursday - Israeli
  Saturday through Wednesday - Arabic.

• "... Puff the Magic Dragon ..." I know the conventional wisdom of the Peter, Paul & Mary song is that Puff is a metaphor for marijuana. I don't believe it.

• "� Both Sides Now �" "Both Sides Now" is a Joni Mitchell song that Judy Collins sang in the hit version. "Four Strong Winds" is a song by a 60's folk duo named Ian & Sylvia.

  Here is my favorite stanza from Both Sides Now:

  But now it's just another show,
  you leave 'em laughing when you go.
  And if you care, don't let them know,
  don't give yourself away.

  
  And, boy, at two in the morning, I could SELL that line.

• "� in pieno voce ,,," Literally, "In Full Voice."

• Mullfoto of the Day:
  
  
  Tens of thousands of parents looked at signs just like this one above Andrews Hall on the campus of Marietta College over the past two weeks, moved their kids into their dorm rooms, went back to their cars, sat there, stared out the windshield.
  And cried.

  The freshmen, having waved a fond farewell to their parents, were busily comparing fake IDs.
  
  
  

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  World War II Poster
  

•     Mullings' Catchy Caption of the Day:
  
  What ever happened to that time-honored
  folk saying:
  "Lips that touched Dennis Rodman's will
  never touch mine?"

  (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson )