Great Marley's Ghost, It's Snowing!

Okay, it's not really sticking here today. This image comes from a church in Ann Arbor, but you get the idea.


Shades of Siberia! Here on Trump Island, the freshly bloomed tulip cups are filling with frostflakes. It makes me a little sentimental. Usually, that's a Chicago Easter for you. Forget the old proverb, daffy-down-dillies, sometimes it doesn't pay to wake up early.

Also, on this day of 1:02:03 on 4/5/06, special birthday shout-outs to you-know-whom.

1) In warmer news, I've been included in The Education Wonks' latest Carnival of Education, and, surprise of surprises, I'm not alone in singing this refrain. And it's an ex-teacher with actual offspring agreeing with me at The Thomas Institute. Whether you think it's possible or not to get by without college in the white-collar world, I'd hope you might agree that the prevailing predjudices against skilled labor beyond the factory floor isn't helping appropriate students find their way to making legitimate, important career contributions that we need and they could build lives upon.

2) If you think the world's a cruel and cynical place, dismiss your disaffected publicist and look at these stories of honesty and rectitude, whether online or to the tune of 1 million dollars. Mwa-ha.

3) Pardon the alliterative spasms today. How can smoking the legendary mellower-of-men marajuana make you anxious, paranoid, and hallucinatory? Do it with about 40,000 hits of ecstasy. Even though the extreme paranoia stopped with the cessation of the spliffs, the patient still couldn't give up the ganja.

4) One of the most interesting things about this woman who remembers every trivial detail of what's happened in her life is that she's otherwise so normal. She's been studied for several years now to help scientists discover what's unlocked in her that isn't in the rest of us, and why her amazing ability doesn't seem to have been coupled with the impairments some others with exceptional memories suffer.

5) You many not care, but if you're one of my writer-readers, Library Journal has a very good article about the latest trends and names in crime fiction entitled Dark is the New Cozy. But don't fret, traditionalists, it appears a new wave of classic whodunit is on its way.

Thanks to Bonnie, I'm playing the Place the State game over and over until I get 100%. The first middle ones are especially tricky.