Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Apes and words

You have narrowly escaped a rampaging sermon. I was all geared up to write one and after rereading the article I was going to rage about, I am so disgusted that I'm going to just point you to this article---- that you couldn't possibly have missed seeing -- and tell you to read it. Be afraid, be ashamed So, read it. It's fucking important. Children's educations (they're young--there's still hope, we haven't fucked them up yet ) can't be entrusted entirely to any school or system, no matter what the accreditation or astronomical tuition. I'm not suggesting there aren't fine, motivated teachers out there--- I know some of them personally. I'm saying that expecting an educational system to fulfill this function is complete lunacy.

Alliteration is a favorite game around here. We do sentences if we're floating in the pool, or waiting for pizza. While we're busy in the kitchen, or driving, we do words. The point of the game is to make the most ridiculous sentence possible, (earning a bow from the competitor with occasional peals of laughter) or some wordplay. Earlier when we played I tried to distract Aubrey with a really stupid kung-fu sort of dance while she was thinking of a 'sh' word. She looks at me and says, pointedly , "Shameless."
My favorite is when we choose an adjective or adverb, and apply it all through the day, to unsuspecting nouns and verbs each time we pass each other in the house. For instance: elated flossing, sinister potato, angry laundry.

Don't mistake this for any picture of domestic bliss, Sometimes we're snippy and tired and don't even want to look at each other, much less speak. I figure, if she's gonna go "out there" she'll be better off armed with a vocabulary.

For the coffee police 'cross the pond: Colombian again, with evaporated milk., and lots of it.

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