adult takes risks, gets hurt: news at 11

When the Pennsylvania law that was appealed to allow helmetless riding comes back before the legislature, which you predict with certainty, will they call it "Ben's Law?" Because Ben Roethlisberger would be pissed if they did.

In an interview with ESPN from a year ago, it's easy to spot Roethlisberger's frustration with the protectionist-slanted questions.

ESPN: How do you view that you are putting your employment at risk?
Roethlisberger: It's tough. It's kind of like we say: "Let those who ride decide." I can make a decision. I'm a man. You're not going to make a decision for me, especially if you're not my boss or my employer. You don't have the right to make that decision for me, so I'm gonna go out and be as careful as I can … look how many people are killed in car accidents every day. Its risk whatever you do....

Roethlisberger: There's a lot of people that ride that people don't know about, it's amazing.
ESPN: Why? What do you mean by that?
Roethlisberger: … (John) Elway rode his whole career. (Troy) Aikman. All those guys. They still ride theirs. I bet I'd have to say over 75 percent of the league people ride motorcycles.
ESPN: What would people have thought if they did know that John Elway rode a motorcycle?
Roethlisberger: I have no idea. I don't what would people think. You know … I just know people they make a big fuss like Kellen and I are the first guys ever to ride motorcycles you know I think that's just silly.
ESPN: Can you understand that there is a focus on the risk factor?
Roethlisberger: Yes, but there is a risk in everything you do. (In) everyday life, there is a risk no matter what you are doing. And yeah, there is a risk if I'm out there doing wheelies on a motorcycle. But I'm being the safest rider I can be.

not that it's a state run store or anything

Several Lacey businesses have been busted again for selling ale to adolescents. This line says it all.

"Los Pinos Lounge, Shell and the State Liquor Store are repeat offenders from the last compliance check conducted in March."

Do you think they'll suspend the state store's liquor license for five days, as per usual?

your bargaining team

Coming soon: a series of profiles of the people who continually advocate for you. You'll get to know David Johnston, Jim O'Sullivan, Diane Rae, Sharyn Merrigan, Pat Ferguson, and Duncan Clarke. Watch this space!

if you read one education-based article in the Seattle Times this year

Make it this one. Dreams of reform, now over a decade old, have crashed headlong into reality.

Educators would have up to 10 planning days a year, paid for with $108 million annually. Instead, the state has spent $514 million in 12 years on professional development. Statewide, teachers were funded for four days of planning, then three, then two.

The council envisioned escalating grants every year for readiness-to-learn programs, totaling more than $265 million in the first six years. Instead the state has spent about $3.6 million per year since 1994 for a small number of schools.

The council wanted mentoring for every new teacher and two-year scholarships at any public college or university in the state for deserving high-school graduates — dreams the state is still struggling to fulfill.

And then there's a bold admission by a former governor.

"One thing we never really did implement, and the report never really addressed, was the issue of funding. So Olympia never took it up, either," said Locke, now a partner in a major Seattle law firm. "Clearly there has to be additional funding to help students come up to the standards."

Clearly. In twenty-twenty hindsight.

Lesson: we can't wait for bureaucrats to give us what we need. We have to actively pursue it, whether at the local, state, or national level.

the spam poetry archive

Arranged by title.

altar of the apocalypse
The Lieutenant Colonel
one more free
Summer, 1986
untitled, 8/6/2005
untitled, 4/28/2006
untitled, 5/16/2006
Your life, theory-blind

today's spam poem

for Ezra Pound



altar of the apocalypse

the trade school dairy
strewn with gold foil and manganese,
the steam exhaust of scented ferns

photos of the Olympia waterfront and Capitol Lake

I took these snapshots back in 2002, when I first moved to Olympia after landing my first--and present--job at Capital. There are fewer better places in this world to enjoy a sunset.

not your Grandpa Jetson's smart pills

As a teacher, should I be enthused or concerned?

Cal Thomas: gay marriage will ruin society

This is going to be a long post. Click "read more" if you wish to...

Cal Thomas, as usual, is on a rhetorical rampage. This time, he's tearing up the advocates of gay marriage, with a shortsighted view of history, loaded assumptions, and all the bluster he can summon. (As an aside, the title--not chosen by Thomas--is "Moral sense lost when personal choice guides decisions." Was it meant to tick off libertarians?) Thomas's words are italicized. Mine are straight.

WASHINGTON - "Dearly beloved, we are gathered together in the sight of God and before these witnesses to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony."

So begins most "traditional" marriage ceremonies in Western culture for as long as anyone can remember.

"For as long as anyone can remember" means "for the past hem-n-haw years," because if you skip back to the time of Moses--you know, Mr. Ten Commandments, source of all Western social righteousness--all of a sudden it's culturally acceptable to have multiple wives. Thomas also limits his moral scope to the West because Right and True are confined geographically....

Now we are told such exclusivity of preserving marriage for men and women "discriminates" against people of the same sex who wish to "marry" each other. Some forms of discrimination are good, because they send a signal and provide an example that certain behavior is to be preferred over other behaviors for the betterment of society.

Finger-quotin' Margo Thomas is admirably frank: being gay is Wrong, ergo allowing gays to be openly gay is Wrong. More on this later.

That a president of the United States would feel compelled, for whatever reason, to make a public statement that marriage should be reserved for men and women is a leading indicator of the moral state of the union.

That Cal Thomas argues in the entire absence of evidence that gay marriage will ruin society is a leading indicator of the moral and intellectual state of Cal Thomas.

Today, right and wrong, an objective concept rooted in unchanging truth, has been dismissed in favor of the imposed rulings of federal judges guided by their own whims and opinion polls (various polls show the country equally split between those who oppose same-sex marriage and those who would allow it). We are now adrift to sort out our choices based on a weather vane principle: whichever way the wind blows is where we'll go.

Thomas dismisses any complex constitutional questions with a wave of the hand, and conflates objective morality with (one particular strand of) Christian morality.

When nothing is either true or false and all decisions about life and morals are based on personal choices and whatever new "trend" happens to capture our attention, we lose our moral sense, which, like an immune system, was established to protect us from cultural as well as biological viruses.

You see, gay marriage is somehow less moral than willy-nilly relationships, gay or straight. People who make a public commitment to remain loyal to the death somehow don't believe in "true or false." Oh, and they're putting us at risk of biological viruses, the only remotely empirical argument Thomas can muster as to why being gay is wrong.

The charge is made that President Bush is "again" using the issue of same-sex marriage to rally his base. But it is not the president who has made this a political issue. Those who would melt the glue of marriage, which has held societies together for millennia, are using the legal and political system for their own ends. In every state where same-sex marriage has been on the ballot, it has been decisively defeated. But like the war in Iraq, the "insurgents" in the culture wars believe all they must do is hang on long enough and the majority will surrender because protracted warfare interferes with our pursuit of pleasure and material consumption.

How will gay marriage "melt the glue of marriage?" We await the argument. (Thomas also forgets himself here, saying that marriage has held "societies together for millennia." Watch out--polygamy is at the back door.)

Some claim that heterosexuals ought to tend to their own marriages before they prohibit people of the same sex from marrying. While it is true that too many heterosexuals divorce (and too many others live together without becoming married), using this as a wedge to undermine a "norm," which, when practiced, serves children and society well, is not a sufficient reason for broadening - and therefore undermining - the traditional definition of what it means to be married.

Ah, so adding people to the club undermines the club. How, Mr. Thomas? How?

Allowing same-sex marriage would be the ultimate in social engineering on a scale even grander than the judicial fiat that brought us abortion on demand. And it won't stop there. People whose beliefs about marriage are founded on religious doctrines can expect lawsuits accusing them of "discrimination" should they refuse to hire someone who is "married" to a person of the same sex. Some countries have enacted or are considering laws that prohibit anyone, including ministers, from publicly stating that homosexual practice is wrong, or a "sin." Remember sin? Sinful is what we were before we became "dysfunctional."

When there is no "no" to any behavior, then there must be "yes" to every behavior. If same-sex "marriage" is allowed, no one will ever be able to say "no" to anything again.

At long last, we have a pseudo-argument. Gay marriage is social engineering, which is inherently bad. Gay marriage will lead to lawsuits against homophobes. Gay marriage is a slippery slope away from legitimizing every possible immoral behavior. Being gay is wrong, something to do with viruses and sin, and discriminating against gays is good social policy. Oh, and the definition of marriage will be undermined in a mysterious and inexplicable way if gays are allowed to marry.

That's the best Thomas can do, and, quite frankly, it stinks.

mixing it up: discussion strategies in the English classroom

I polled my students on their preferred discussion format out of several choices, all encountered throughout the year: whole class teacher facilitated, whole class student facilitated, whole class with Powerpoint paraphrasing and student facilitation (see below), small groups, small groups into whole class, and online. Here are their thoughts.

I think it helps when you're mediating the discussion. It helps keep it moving without a lot of clutter and I find it more interesting.

I like the Powerpoint. It helps you keep on track, if you're trying to think about something, and if you zone out, when you get lost, you can look at the board to see what you missed.... I do wish you would talk, though. It gives us reassurance to hear a bleep from your vast range of knowledge.

For me, discussing stuff in small groups works best. Then after we talk in the small groups, we come back to one big group and discuss what we talked about in the smaller groups.

The online discussions were nice because I was able to think through what I wanted to say, and then say it without worrying about a sudden change of topics.

I liked the discussions in small groups best because everyone can get a word in. Instead of calling on people you can have almost regular conversations. Also, if you don't really like to speak up in front of a lot of people it is easier.

The blog, while not anonymous, creates (at least for me) a sense of anonymity that makes it easier to just say what you want to say.

I expanded my use of Powerpoint for some whole-group discussions this year, typing the students' comments as they talked, so everyone, sitting in a horseshoe, could see my paraphrase of the conversation. I almost never talked, interrupting only to redirect a severe sidetrack or to point out when certain participants hadn't yet had a chance to join in.

It doesn't surprise me that each of the different discussion types has an equal number of adherents. If I did the same thing every time, not only would my students die of boredom, but I would, too.

well, duh

You'd think it wouldn't take a study, but they studied it anyway. Turns out quality teachers raise student achievement, while inept teachers "drag it down." (Notice that the article leads with the negative. Hrm.)

Low-income and minority children benefit the most from good teachers, the study found. In Illinois' poorest elementary schools with low teacher quality, the average pass rate on state tests was 31 percent. But in similar low-income schools with higher-ranked teachers, the rate jumped to 43 percent, research revealed.

And how do you suppose we can attract and retain quality teachers?

welcome to the new media, same as the old media

What I love about blogger David Goldstein: his shamelessness, his sleeve-worn sentiments, his vitriolic humor, his dogged partisanship, and, most important, his utter transparency. You always know just where he stands, even if he leaps to a new location.

Following Goldy's announcement that he's joining the KVI team, David Postman points out an obvious instance.

And now that Goldstein is going mainstream, he wants his first official guest to be Tim Eyman, the inspiration for horsesass. In his invitation to Eyman, Goldstein says, "Now I know you might have some reservations about appearing on the air with a host who made his name by calling you names, but this is radio, and you are, after all, a media whore."

Again, please remember that this is radio Tim, radio - tens of thousands of people hearing you talk - so if there really is no such thing as bad press, what do you have to lose? And besides, we're going to talk about you anyway, so why not be there to defend yourself?

But wait, wasn't it Goldstein who was just telling us dupes in the press to ignore Eyman?

So to my friends in the media I'd like to suggest that you take Timmy at his word one last time, and refuse to give him any coverage at all. Zero. Zilch. Nada. No clips on the news, no column inches in the paper... not even to curse him out. The guy just dissed you. (Again.) Don't reward him. Can the press resist?

Apparently not.

Goldstein responds:

For his part, Postman makes a salient point that perhaps it was a little hypocritical of me to advise the press to ignore Tim, and then go and invite him onto my show. Yeah, I guess. At the very least it’s probably bad strategy. I’m not approaching my radio show any differently than I approach my blogging – I’m an unabashed, partisan liberal with an unabashed, partisan liberal agenda – but I suppose I need to give some thought as to how my first, tentative steps into the cold waters of the mainstream might change my role in the media.

I'd also suggest he think carefully about his stated position on KVI's trouble with campaign regulations.

[I]t was with some ambivalence that I approached the controversy over KVI’s shameless promotion of I-912, the anti-road maintenance initiative. On the one hand, I was one of the first “media watchdogs” to publicly express outrage over how blatantly John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur used their shows to actively advertise, organize and fundraise for I-912; without them, the initiative campaign simply would not exist. On the other hand, I’m no dummy – when I get my own radio show I plan to take a page from the KVI playbook and be just as active in promoting progressive initiatives, causes and candidates. It’s not only good politics, it’s damn good for business....

While I admit that the line between advocacy and advertising is blurry, and that I am uncomfortable at the thought of a bureaucrat or even a judge having the power to determine when this line is crossed, there is no question that the line exists, and to ignore it is to open our system to inevitable abuse. If media outlets can use their enormous power to run political campaigns outside the established regulatory framework, they will.

And in fact... KVI has. John and Kirby crossed the line, and to make matters worse, they used the public airwaves to do it. The people of Washington have a right to know the true value of KVI’s in-kind contribution to the I-912 campaign. Filing these reports may be a hassle, but then, so is democracy.

It might not be long before Goldstein finds himself at the end of litigation because of his "unabashed, partisan" views. In this strange world of regulated speech, anything can happen--and probably will.

need a creative boost?

As a socially responsible blogger, you should do your part to model healthy behaviors to our nation's youth. "But Jim," you say, "I'm no good at that. My ideas are trivial or dull. What can I do?"

Enter the Centers for Disease Control. Scores of important and pressing topics, tips, and story prompts: AIDS and other STDs in Youth, Alcohol Use and Pregnancy, Allergies, Anthrax, Antibiotic Resistance in Nursing Homes and Day Care Centers, Asthma, Asthma in Children, and Autism. And that's just the letter A.

How about "Bat Bites and Rabies" as a humdinger of a story germ? (No, the good kind of germ.)

The parents of a young child are awakened at night by strange noises in their child's bedroom. They find a bat behaving strangely: not hiding, making strange noises, having difficulty flying. The parents kill the bat and awaken the child. They find no evidence of a bite or scratch from the bat, and the child reports no contact with or bite from the bat. The father saves the bat in the freezer, "just in case." A few weeks later, the child becomes very ill, with fever and flu-like symptoms. The distraught parents rush the child to a nearby hospital emergency room where they are asked about contact with animals. The parents tell doctors about the bat; the doctors suspect rabies. After consultation with the state health department, the doctor seeing the child asks the parents to bring in the bat. It tests positive for rabies and the parents are told their child will not survive.

Alternative Ending: Being cautious, the parents take the child to a hospital emergency room immediately after finding and trapping a bat in the bedroom. Doctors consult the state health department; the bat is tested for rabies and found to be rabid. Rabies shots are administered (vaccine and immune globulin immediately) and four additional doses of vaccine are given over the next month. The child recovers.

Here's how the story might play out "for reals."

"Do you hear those strange noises coming from Cameron's bedroom?" Jen nudged her husband, who mumbled something about puberty and rolled over. Jen insisted. "Sounds like squeaking and flapping."

"Honey, it's nothing to be concerned--"

"Nonsense, Paul," said Jen. "I'm going to check it out." She leapt out of bed and strolled across the hall. To her horror, a furry flying creature was hopping about on the carpet, not hiding, making strange noises, and trying unsuccessfully to fly out the open window.

"Kill it," shrieked Jen to Paul, who had stumbled into the bedroom behind her. His nightgown flowing about him, Paul chased the bat around the room, tripping on Cameron's X-Box and stubbing his toe.

"Sheep!" shouted Paul. "Gosh darn it! Holy heck!" He grabbed a baseball bat and smashed it into the fruit bat, which now lay in a bloody pool on the floor, dead. Cameron, in a hypnopompic stupor, rubbed his eyes and stared in disbelief.

Jen examined Cameron for bites or scratches, and, finding none, told Paul to get rid of the bat. "No way!" said Paul. "I'm going to put it in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. Just in case."

"You absolutely will not," said Jen. "That's gross."

"Ick," Cameron observed.

Paul, with a brisk "Whatever," went downstairs to enact his plan.

Three weeks later, Cameron came home from school complaining about fever and flu-like symptoms. Paul told him to suck it up, while Jen said she'd take him to the hospital. "Just in case," she added. Paul frowned.

Later that evening, after several tests, the doctor announced that Cameron had contracted rabies and would be dead within a few days. He was right. Paul and Jen spent their remaining five years together despising themselves and each other.

Alternative Ending: Paul and Jen took Cameron to the emergency room the same night of the bat-fight. Doctors, testing the bat for rabies and administering rabies shots to luckless Cameron, were able to save his life. Paul and Jen's relationship, though, was given three to six years. It lasted five.

See how simple it is? Give it a try! When you're done, send me the link. We'll have a unique micro-carnival, the Carnival of CDC Edutainment.

50 random questions

I like my list better, but this is the "real" list popping up all over LiveJournal and MySpace.

(For the correct answers, click "read more.")

1. Your name spelled backwards.
Eman Ruoy.

2. Where were your parents born?
Just outside the womb.

3. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer?
This question-generating password-stealing life-destroying sinus-congesting virus.

4. What's your favorite restaurant?
What's your favorite restaurant, huh? Huh?

5. Last time you swam in a pool?
Last time I swam in a pool what?

6. Have you ever been in a school play?
"No Exit." Directed and starred.

7. How many kids do you want?
Are we talking goat kids or human kids?

8. Type of music you dislike most?
Yours.

9. Are you registered to vote?
In three states.

10. Do you have cable?
If you've a pulley.

11. Have you ever ridden on a moped?
If I had, I'd never admit it.

12. Ever prank call anybody?
I prefer wasting people's time with pointless conversation starters.

13. Ever get a parking ticket?
They drive on parkways.

14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?
I spit upon your false dichotomy.

15. Furthest place you ever traveled?
All the way from the foul line to the hoop. I am Tiger Woods.

16. Do you have a garden?
Chiaroscuro.

17. What's your favorite comic strip?
A.D.

18. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem?
I wrote them.

19. Bath or Shower, morning or night?
Yes, yes, yes, yes.

20. Best movie you've seen in the past month?
MySpace or Yours: A Cautionary Tale

21. Favorite pizza topping?
Potato skins.

22. Chips or popcorn?
Potato skins.

23. What color lipstick do you usually wear?
Delectable.

24. Have you ever smoked peanut shells?
With alder or hickory on medium heat for eight hours or until the meat falls off the bone.

25. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant?
My life is a beauty pageant.

26. Orange or Apple juice?
Cranberry. I still despise your dichotomies, you narrow-minded nabob.

27. Who was the last person you went out to dinner with and where did you dine?
Ronaldinho, at a tiny Vienamese noodle house on the south side.

28. Favorite type chocolate bar?
I am allergic to chocolate, you insensitive clod.

29. When was the last time you voted at the polls?
When Dewey defeated Truman in '48.

30. Last time you ate a homegrown tomato?
The last time I stole into my neighbor's garden.

31. Have you ever won a trophy?
Most Likely to Fritter, 1996-present.

32. Are you a good cook?
Is Emeril Lagasse a good cook? If yes, then yes, because I'm Emeril Lagasse. If no, then yes, because you are a provincial boob, and I am Emeril Lagasse.

33. Do you know how to pump your own gas?
Speak to my attorney.

34. Ever order an article from an infomercial?
You never get just one article. That's the entire point of an infomercial.

35. Sprite or 7-Up?
Sierra Mist?

36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work?
They called it an institute, or institution, I can't remember.

37. Last thing you bought at a pharmacy?
A duck call.

38. Ever throw up in public?
I'm about to.

39. Would you prefer being a millionaire or find true love?
I'd prefer having a perfect grasp of English grammar.

40. Do you believe in love at first sight?
Ever since I first saw a mirror.

41. Ever call a 1-900 number?
Sierra Mist?

42. Can exes be friends?
Some things take geologic time.

43. Who was the last person you visited in a hospital?
Myself, in an unforgettable out-of-body experience.

44. Did you have a lot of hair when you were a baby?
I am a mammal. So are you, I'm guessing.

45. What message is on your answering machine?
"If you like more options, press one."

46. What's your all time favorite Saturday Night Live Character?
Gumby, dammit.

47. What was the name of your first pet?
Do any of these questions seem like the ones you're supposed to answer when you've forgotten your password? Don't answer them, okay?

48. What is in your purse?
Potato skins.

49. Favorite thing to do before bedtime?
Speak to my attorney.

50. What is one thing you are grateful for today?
These questions. They've made me reconsider nearly every aspect of my life, and discover that I'm not nearly as big a loser as a lot of people I know.


[103rd in a series]

36th Skeptics' Circle posted

I need to check my email more often--it went up Thursday as it always does.

Head over to The Examining Room of Dr. Charles, and don't forget your insurance.

where have all the science bloggers gone?

Why, to ScienceBlogs, of course.

Joining the crew among the current blogroll: Bora Zivkovic, who's renamed his home A Blog Around the Clock, and Carl Zimmer, still blogging at The Loom.

Makes me wish I had followed my Biology 101 professor's advice and switched majors.

WASL wait over

And the results, as you probably know by now, aren't pretty.

Well over half of the 71,136 students tested passed the reading test - 60,873; 10,263 failed to meet the standard.

In writing, 59,196 of the 70,812 students met the standard; 11,616 did not.

In math, 37,866 of the 70,255 scored met the standard; 32,359 did not

Running a back of the envelope calculation...

1. Assuming that 50% of roughly 70,000 students ultimately have failed all three sections--a reasonable estimate, in my reasonable estimation...

2. Assuming the state's per-student dollar figure at the upper bound holds for 50% of the 50% (in other words, assuming that half who failed, failed miserably)...

3. Assuming that the 28.5 million figure isn't sheer puffery...

Then the state is ready to spend roughly $7.85 million on remediation. (If every single sophomore failed miserably, the state would spend $23 million.)

So... why the gap? Where does the rest of the money go?

Time to investigate.

Added: Here's the breakdown [pdf], thanks to OSPI's handy-dandy website. Something you might not know:

(6) School districts may carry over from one year to the next up to
20 percent of funds allocated under this program; however, carryover funds shall be expended for promoting academic success programs, and may be used to provide extended learning programs for students beyond their eleventh grade year who want continued remedial assistance to pass the WASL.

animals are smarter

Would you be disappointed if a chimpanzee beat you at a short-term memory game?

Would you become angry if it cleaned you out at the blackjack table when your lover was watching?

Would you curse at the chimp, but under your breath and in your second language?

Would you write a letter to the CWAPC begging for support?

Would you be upset if NewScientist mysteriously stopped recognizing your username and password?

Would you hoot and holler and fling feces at the screen?

Would you sigh in bemusement and pick lice from your lover's scalp while waiting on hold for tech support?




[102nd in a series]

WASL woe for some, relief for others

The preliminary--and by preliminary, I mean satisfying in the way only a blogger could appreciate--results of the WASL-that-counts are in, and they're a mix of "gains" and disappointments.

KOMO:

Well over half of the 71,136 students tested passed the reading test - 60,873; 10,263 failed to meet the standard.

In writing, 59,196 of the 70,812 students met the standard; 11,616 did not.

In math, 37,866 of the 70,255 scored met the standard; 32,359 did not.

Seattle Times:

Preliminary numbers show nearly 86 percent of 10th-graders passed the reading section of the 2006 WASL; 84 percent passed writing and 54 percent passed math.

But those initial scores, released this morning by the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, do not include about 10,000 student records that, for a number of reasons, need to be examined. Some students have been counted twice, for example. Others are special-education students who this year had the option of taking the fourth-or seventh-grade versions of the WASL.

The Olympian:

Of the 70,255 who took the math test, 37,866 met or exceeded the standard and another 32,359 did not pass. The improvements in mathematics were most noteworthy in the movement of students out of the lowest achievement level — a one-third reduction, state officials said.

Of the 71,136 who took the reading test, 60,873 students met or exceeded the standard and another 10,263 did not pass. More than half of the students — 43,758 — scored in the highest performance level. This year’s results also show a two-thirds reduction in the number of students scoring in the lowest performance level.

Of the 70,812 who took the writing test, 59,196 met or exceeded the standard and another 11,616 did not pass.

There were nearly 10,000 more students than last year who achieved the writing standard, and there were two-thirds fewer students performing in the lowest level.

Gains were probably due to the fact that the test had to be taken seriously. The disappointing result in mathematics, though, means that close to 45% probably failed all three sections, though it's impossible to be sure with so many discrepancies (and the fact that the three statistics can't be combined).

There are also discrepancies in last year's statistics. KOMO claims, "Last year, 46.9 percent of 10th graders who took the WASL passed all three sections," while the Times claims, "Last year, 42 percent of sophomores passed all three."

I won't know for some time how my own students fared.

today's spam poem

...comes at a bad time. The announcement prefacing the gibberish:

YOUR OWN CASINO!
- Your USD 888 BONUS!
- Freeplay non limit
- 70+ ANY games

Alas, gambling away your life savings (or even a penny) is now an "unranked" felony in Washington state.

"I think the government has a lot more important things to do than to worry about online poker," says Bob Holley after winning a hand at poker at a local casino.

With that in mind, today's poem considers the greatest gamble of all. No, not love.



one more free

The car slips into the spot ahead
like a friendly gopher snake.
Scanning the side street with a telescope,
Dr. Mahseredjian, Armenian, psychology faculty,
molds a hare-mad strategy.
Left signal: bluff.
Duck right into the last space as
driver behind flips goose.

One more inference a theory makes.