Teachers' Lounge

Best thing I've read today

Walking to paradise (Scroll up from the comments to read the post, then read the comments that follow.)

Journalism done right

Just yesterday I'd read Steve Klinger's review of SiCKO in the Grassroots Press. Right on, I thought. So, this morning, I was pleased to see the review on Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics web site.

I've been following Haussamen's columns for a while now. He deserves to be read because, unlike the spoon-fed reporters in the mainstream media, he goes behind the curtain to get the real story . Here's a good example of his work. (It's just my opinion, but... the main reason the Las Cruces Sun-News finally entered this particular fray is because Heath Haussamen's journalistic legwork was becoming an embarrassment to the paper's news department.)

Get inside their heads

Lots of teachers blog. Teacher Magazine's Blogboard offers up some of the more notable offerings.

While you're waiting for Godot (or someone like him)...

...you can let the hours slip by at Little Fluffy Industries.

See you at WhizzBall!

"I have never seen a sociological document of such beauty - the photographs alone are shattering. I shall treasure it always..." Harper Lee (author of To Kill a Mockingbird)

"Common white trash has very little in the way of pride, and no manners to speak of, and hardly any respect for anybody or anything.” White Trash, however, “never failed to say ‘yes ma’m,’ and ‘no sir,’ never sat on a made-up bed (or put your hat on it), never opened someone else’s icebox, never left food on your plate, never left the table without permission, and never forgot to say ‘thank you’ for the teeniest favor. That’s the way the ones before us were raised and that’s the way they raised us in the South.” - From the Florida swamps, a cookbook that turned a slur into a badge of honor.

Having lived in Alabama some 30 years, and being an elementary school teacher in the "Heart of Dixie", I came to know a lot about white trash, and about White Trash. When the book, White Trash Cooking, hit the shelves, I grabbed several copies... one for myself and the others for gifts. When I moved to New Mexico in the spring of 2001, I regretfully, but dutifully, left my copy behind. So, it was Happy Happy! Joy Joy! when I spotted the book yesterday at Hastings.

POTATO CHIP SANDWICH - 2 slices of bread, mayonnaise, potato chips
Spread the mayo generously across the bread. Pile the potato chips on to one of the slices as high as you can. Then top it with the other slice and mash down until all the potato chips are crushed.
Pardie Tickette says: "Wash it down with a Pepsi, it's some good!"

HIGH CALORIE PICK-ME-UP - Pour a small bag of Tom's peanuts into a cold Pepsi. Turn it up and eat and drink at the same time.
Raenelle told me that this was one of Betty Sue's concoctions. She said: "But it's so trashy she won't own up to it!"

LOW CALORIE PICK-ME-UP - 1 glass skim milk, 1 envelope sugar substitute
Blend in blender until foamy, then add 1 teaspoon McCormick's vanilla extract.
Try this on hot days when your cardboard Good-Shepherd fan makes you even hotter.
Betty Sue says" This is a life-saver before Sunday dinner and just after church, when it's so hot you cain't hardly stand it!"