Friday, February 11, 2011

Cheatin', singin', fussin' and fumin'...

Analysis of Atlanta area public schools standardized tests shows that erasures of answers is down from about 10% last year to around 3% this year. What happened? Eraser shortage? Smarter, more confident student test takers? Nope. They caught teachers and administrators doing most of the erasing last year, cheating on the tests. Teachers aren’t cheating this year.

Auburn University paid about $170,000 in lawyer fees over their star quarterback Cam Newton’s case. Pooh! Chump change to get a national championship. Money talks, and often ethics walks, in big time college football.

File this under Go Figure: An Atlanta woman driving a car with an handicap tag was fussed at for parking in a regular grocery store parking space. She was told she shouldn’t take up a regular space if she was handicapped.

Wanted: Someone to sing our National Anthem. Must know the words, be willing to sing and be done with it in a reasonable amount of time and then sit down and shut up. Singers whose style declares that ‘it’s all about me’ need not apply.

The state of Mississippi is considering a commemorative tag for one of the Civil War’s outstanding Confederate generals, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Oh yeah, Forrest was connected with the Ku Klux Klan. Opponents suggest that a tag be designed with a hooded figure in the center. This ought to be fun.

President Obama has stopped smoking. Good for him. I guess this means, though, that he will never be one of those Baptist men who stand just outside the door of a SBC church and make churchgoers pass through a cloud of smoke to get inside.

Have a nice weekend.

1 comment:

Stephen Fox said...

Just left a beatific note on JPierce Baps Today blog about my Feb 12.
As for the slight on Obama, again, you nor anybody in Barrow County Georgia is qualified to pass judgment on this great man until at minimum they read David Remnick's The Bridge.

But I do remember the deacon smokers at Bethany Baptist in Gaffney, and the grand Andy Padgett, a three pack a day fellow at Truett Memorial in Hayesville, North Carolina.

Jim Evans at ed.com has different take on public education, though you have fair assessment of sorts on Atlanta. Birmingham has similar difficulties. When you find a solution there in Winder, let us know.

While you are thinking Michelle Norris memoir of Bham may mollify your thinking a little, her spot on family stories of being raised black in Bham in the 50's.

Obama had a great speech about Egypt this afternoon. You can read the text online at NY Times.

If you didn't catch the Duke Carolina game Weds night, hope you catch the next one.

Your friend

Stephen Fox

See my thoughts on Egypt at bl.com; and you may want to weigh in on the MTV Skins discussion at sbcimpact.