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Take Heed ‘Cause I’m a Lyrical Poet
In the world of education, the last couple of decades have focused on buzzwords like “collaboration” and “group work” and “experiential learning.” Of course, that means my kids’ curricula at the local music magnet school—where, according to promotional materials, every aspect of the school day is “infused with music”—are largely based around work sheets…
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Underneath the Driver’s Seat of the Mini-Van
…roosts a treasure trove of random crap: gum wrappers, quarters I could’ve used for the meter, water bottles, Cheerios, plastic doohickies, tupperware containers of goldfish crackers, ex-boyfriends (now shriveled and woebegone, embodiments of life without me). This post is just that: a heap of random crap that I can’t be bothered to clean up. See…
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If My Rack Doesn’t Give Me a Black Eye, the Catholics Will
The other day, Duluth was coated with six inches of new snow (I hate it when old snow falls–it’s all crochety and hunchy, hollers at me me to get off its lawn, and wears black socks with sandals when it mows), which means my winter attitude has been reinvigorated. See, I only hate winter…
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Win One for The Mommy
When I was about 25, I attended one of my mom’s college reunions with her. Beyond this being a sad, sad commentary on the state of my twenties (Problem #1: I spent most of that decade dating a guy in his forties who just wanted to stay home and watch Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes…
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In Which I Act Like I Invented Portland
Although life has been beddy, beddy good to me, the last month has tested my fortitude. Men with scalpels hacked at my husband’s Special Softies; rain on top of snow turned the immediate world to ice; Niblet was diagnosed with shingles; I have—ewww!–ringworm; and our fish is depressed. Of late, I have felt that the…
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Hey, Anonymous: From Your Mouse Clicking, I Have Intuited That You Like Me; You Really Like Me
Last fall, in a boffo bit of log-rolling, I nominated a colleague for an online teaching award, and she nominated me. Mostly, we were thinking, “Excuse me? Did someone say free trip to either Oregon or Florida?” What neither of us realized at the time was that a condition of accepting the nomination was making…
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Musee Des Beaux Burglars
There’s a famed regional photographer in these parts named Jim Brandenburg; he gets a lot of cred for being the best nature and wildlife photographer around. Admittedly, if you have a taste for foxes emerging from cattails and bison sporting icicle beards, Brandenburg is your shuttershooter. His photos are crystalline and mystical and make…
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Brabeaten
Contractually, I’m required to hold a certain number of office hours each week, during which I am available to students, ready to answer their questions, comb through their rough drafts, soothe their wounded souls, listen to their tales of unwanted pregnancy and court dates. Contractually, I am supposed to be buzzing and pacing and…
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When It Rains, It Pours Barf From the Upper Bunk
I love typing blog posts, you know. It’s way big many muches of fun. However, it takes some time, and that I don’t have this week… …now that The Flu has moved in, and we’re all fighting off low-level nausea, the likes of which I last felt when watching Steven Bochco’s Cop Rock back in…
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And He Hasn’t Even Heard Ethel Merman Yet
Generally, unless our orange-jumpsuited kids are off using pikes to stab at garbage in highway ditches, we don’t turn on the tv during the daytime hours. Really, there’s just dummm stuff on all day, and their little developing brains need to be applying themselves to more important work than watching Thomas the Tank Engine, work…
