2011 Articles

I have taken on a few social issues in-the-past, most as objects of research interest – but this one is personal – as Percy Anderson, federal judge, has put my favorite chess opponent behind bars for 22 months! Now this “opponent” (actually my buddy) is in an allegedly nice, white-collar institution in Texas; and, will […]

I wrote about ADHD and Autism quite awhile back – and didn’t really feel like revisiting this stuff – but our daughter, Sylvia, (well she’s not really our daughter – but we kinda look at her like she is) has a nephew that she vehemently suggests has Autism, and consequently, should be medicated.  And since

I guess I have been living under the delusion for-the-past-quarter-of-a-century-or-so – that DEEP PURPLE was in The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  I was stunned to learn (probably when I read the article about GUNS N ROSES being inducted just last month) – that DP has yet to be inducted. I’m not quite sure

Herman!  Who on earth did you think you were going to fool?!  Just because you played the White Man’s game – and earned yourself some White-styled dollars – didn’t mean that you were going to play it all-the-way into the White House!  Herman!!  You ain’t no Slick Willie – who had 13 great years with

What an extreme drag it is getting old, and, having shitty genes on-top-of-it…I, of course, refer to my latest (and most painful) of my conditions: the gout.  Not only did I manage to get the Cruise, De Niro, Sandler (not Pacino or Dreyfuss, thank god) genes from my father’s side — but I managed the

It was one-of-those-days in California — one that reminded me of the MAMAS AND THE PAPPAS’ “California Dreaming”; except that, I gather that song was written while the group was away from California — in someone else’s winter.  Still, we had a beautiful driving rain that reminded me of that song.  Actually, we had a

Installment #3: CHARTER SCHOOLS AND A.D.A. A Big Hiccup             Here I thought someone on your side was listening to us RE: Dr. Delgado’s October 21st 2011 missive to the LACOE rank-and-file — which many of us mistakenly understood (including myself) — by thinking that LACOE would NOT be punishing its teachers-with-families by taking out

THE LACOE AGENDA/Installment #1 Union Busting I write to-each-of-you (with the exception of my CC to LACEA president, Brian Christian) out of shock and dismay at the new, anti-teacher (‘anti-union’?) culture that seems to have overtaken LACOE management:  this after 25 years of give-and-take negotiations that had seemingly evolved into interest-based bargaining.  The recent rounds

I’m pretty sure that I’ve suggested this before: that Halloween has supplanted Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving as the number one American Holiday – (I haven’t seen many stores around that are dedicated to the other 3 holidays) — but there are Halloween stores all over the place! And it seems fitting — as the average

Just the other day, one of my right-winged, neo-Nazi, tea-partying, fundamentalist Christian-type colleagues got me off balance, again!  I had sworn to never attempt a discussion with this colleague, as he always likes to pull the “God Card” if he’s on the ropes. But there I was, trying to edjimicate a vacuous, bimbo substitute teacher