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And then ... a miracle occurred
Apr. 13th, 2006 10:18 pmI scored teacher certification tests. You know that cartoon where right in the middle of the mathematical proof, one of the steps is "And then a miracle occurred"? Well, I saw an awful lot of those today. It was bizarre.
People would start doing the algebra, and then they would get stuck. But many of them could figure out the answer without algebra, and they would just pretend like they had gotten far enough to have figured out the answer.
Some would say things like, "then, by using reasoning, you can see that the answer is ..." Their poor little future students. And we math people wonder how people could have such deep-seated math phobias. If only they would use reasoning...
There was one fabulous miracle paper, though. It began with the statement "Ran out of time." This statement was circled twice. Then the entire problem was done perfectly and concisely on the following lines.
Entry of the day: For drama and humor, read "Another sh***y week" on Chris-Picks, a Yahoo group. It's not very inaccessible, so I'm just going to copy the whole thing here. This is a weekly newsletter where Chris tells you a lot about tens of danceable events to attend plus a little about how her week has been, except in the rare occasions when her life is too crazy and so she doesn't have time to do the list. (Note: the first paragraph is the intro; it is not the funny part.)
People would start doing the algebra, and then they would get stuck. But many of them could figure out the answer without algebra, and they would just pretend like they had gotten far enough to have figured out the answer.
Some would say things like, "then, by using reasoning, you can see that the answer is ..." Their poor little future students. And we math people wonder how people could have such deep-seated math phobias. If only they would use reasoning...
There was one fabulous miracle paper, though. It began with the statement "Ran out of time." This statement was circled twice. Then the entire problem was done perfectly and concisely on the following lines.
Entry of the day: For drama and humor, read "Another sh***y week" on Chris-Picks, a Yahoo group. It's not very inaccessible, so I'm just going to copy the whole thing here. This is a weekly newsletter where Chris tells you a lot about tens of danceable events to attend plus a little about how her week has been, except in the rare occasions when her life is too crazy and so she doesn't have time to do the list. (Note: the first paragraph is the intro; it is not the funny part.)
Well, kiddos, it’s been another black week in terms of elderly mothercare, so there is no list this week. There seems to be a new crisis every other day. Why do I have the feeling this will not have a happy ending?
On the other hand, last weekend’s stay with her gave me plenty of material for a play, which I have already started writing. I’m taking copious notes, and finding humor (albeit rather dark) wherever I can. Believe me, an impacted bowel is not anything I would wish on anyone ever. It is a horribly, horribly painful experience, and the treatment is as bad as the condition itself. Yet…when six people commit a total of 58 combined man hours (in one 24 hour period) to one bowel movement, you know you’ve got material. When you celebrate with shouts of “The Eagle has landed! She shoots, she scores! Goooooaaaaaaaaaallllllllll! Mission Accomplished! Bingo! She ran it all the way! TOUCHDOWN!...” you know it’s been a long night. And when you congratulate yourself on going beyond the call of duty and then fall into paroxysms of laughter, repeating over and over “call of doody. Good one, har har,” then you know it’s waaaaaaaaaay past your bedtime. My daughter the nurse was there with me in the emergency room and we riffed on potty jokes for a long, long time (long enough to watch Shrek 2 three times on the emergency room TV). Too bad my mother couldn’t enjoy the humor. But it kept us going and we celebrated her successful outcome (another good one, yuk, yuk!) by eating breakfast tacos at Whataburger at 2:30 Monday morning.
So go out and have some fun, and say a little prayer of thanksgiving every time you take a dump. No shit. Really. I mean it.
Maybe I’ll be back next week with news you can actually use. In the meantime, I’m still trying to get caught up on my sleep and trying really hard to stop myself from answering the phone with, “Oh God, what now?”
See ya on the dance floor,
Chris