More on Croquet

There was a local report on NPR about the match, if anyone would like to listen.

Victory

The St John's-Navy croquet match was on Sunday. St John's won. Yay! Even if the weather was bad (it was raining off and on all day).

We're out of the cellar

Baltimore, which long had the lowest high school graduation rate in the nation, has clawed its way up to only fourth worst in the nation (1/3 of students in the city public school system graduate from high school). But we still have the biggest gap between urban districts and suburban districts (Baltimore County is in the 80s for getting their students to graduate). It's not in the article, but on the radio they said that the three cities doing worse that Baltimore are Detroit, Indianapolis, and Cleveland (Detroit being the worst).

But possibly even worse than the fact that kids don't graduate, is that the ones who do aren't really prepared to go on to anything else. I was helping my dad's file clerk get ready to take the placement test for Anne Arundel Community College (AA is the county south of Baltimore where Annapolis is), and she was struggling with the practice questions that were basic reading comprehension (what's the main idea of this 5 sentence paragraph) and basic algebra (they give you f(x) and then ask the value of say f(3)). And the only reason she's going at all is because my parents are telling her she should have some education after high school. Because neither her parents nor her school care what she does now or what she does once she graduates. The school will just wash their hands of her once she leaves because her parents are doing the same thing, so they can.

Happy Easter

Just in time for Easter, it's this year's collection of dioramas featuring marshmallow peeps from the Washington Post. I'm partial to "The Wizard of Peeps" and "Peepbusters". And there's also last year's, which includes my personal favorite - "Reservoir Peeps". Not all of them are movie/tv scenes, though. There's art (Warhol and Renoir) and some scenes from real life. Enjoy.

Congratulations S

My sister got into law school and will be attending the University of Maryland next year. So congratulations to her.

Classic Cinema 2.0

Some clips from the Hollywood of yesteryear - as interpreted by the cast of SpongeBob.

Ahhh, Berkeley

The city of Berkeley, CA has attempted to ban Marine recruiters from working in the city. Because they are using their free speech rights to stop the marines from trampling on other people's free speech rights - to say that they want to join the marines. I know, I don't understand Berkeley's argument either. Not that I'm in favor of the war, nor do I think it's okay that the military is seen as the only opportunity for advancement by many inner city kids, since the military is almost the only institution in the US that will provide training to people who were otherwise forgotten by the system. But that doesn't mean that the military in evil as a concept. It just means we have problems in America in addition to the war, and Berkeleians seem to have forgotten that in their rush to make their statement. That and banning speech doesn't exactly protect free speech. It in fact hurts the cause of free speech.

Articles here, here, here, and here.