Bite Me!

Last month I wrote about our “tuition problems” at school. As you may remember, 300 or our 1500+ student body were behind in their tuition payments. The administration decided to hold students from class at the beginning of the 4th quarter if they were not up to date. The chaos that ensued made national news when a freshmen parent called a local TV station and report what we were doing. The parent thought that if she could get the media to focus on us as the problem, we would allow her child to stay out of shame for what we had done. Apparently, in her mind, not paying your bill is the problem of the business that was owed the money, not the dead-beat parent who hadn't paid. My sister told me that relatives of her husband(alumni)called all the way from Florida when they saw the report on their local TV. The media was all over us for about 24 hours; our financial problems were characterized as resulting from the general economic problems of the country. Even the mayor of Chicago, Richie Daley, used us to make a point when he criticized the Chicago police union for wanting to picket city hall; reminding them that the economy was so bad that people couldn’t even pay their private school tuition. Publicly he as much as told them they should be happy to have a job. The whole thing became a circus that was blown wildly out of proportion by the media, who are well known for such foolishness (especially on a slow news day).
Apparently though, we were not the only victims of the irresponsible quest for ratings. Later that week I was shocked to hear that a Boston prep school had a vampire in the building. It appears that a group of students, in an attempt to harass a young girl who didn’t “fit in”, started a rumor that she was a vampire. The prank broke bad when the police arrived at the school for some unrelated purpose and the students who started the rumor began saying that they were there to arrest the ”vampire.” Things got out of hand when frightened students reported what happened (or what they thought had happened) to their parents. At this point the principle, in one of the most misguided actions an administrator ever took, sent an email out to parents to assure them that there was no vampire at school and they and their children had nothing to worry about. The local media got hold of the email and all hell broke loose; the story making national news the next day. It should be no surprise why our country is going to hell so fast these days; with a media so retarded that they would even consider reporting such a pile of crap. I apologize to any retarded people who are offended at being compared to the media.
Thank God today is the last day of school before spring break.

Batter Up!

Today is opening day for the 2009 major league baseball season, and my Cubs are in Houston for a game tonight. The White Sox have already postponed their opening day game with Kansas City until tomorrow; US Cellular field being covered in a blanket of snow.
In my last post I mentioned my high school Physics teacher who I saw for the first time in 25 years a few weekends ago. The good sister is, and always was, a diehard Cub fan. In the spring, when the season was just beginning, class would stop every afternoon at 1:20 if the Cubs were playing. We would be given a work sheet and watch the game in her classroom. She had a 10 inch black and white TV, and if the game was away we listened on the radio. This was not wasted time, as she would plan our work around the baseball schedule. Teaching took place when there was no game, or the Cubs were out of town and playing at night; seat work was planned for game day. The year I had Physics was just after the Cubs collapse of 1969. Even though they had disappointed her so, she would still watch every day.
I was a Cub fan myself long before I took Physics. When I was very young, my mother would watch the Cubs on TV while she did the ironing. When she was a young woman during WWII, my mother worked in downtown Chicago. Occasionally, her boss would take all the office girls to a Cubs game as a moral boost and she became a Cubs fan as a result. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Cubs have ruined every one of my summers for the last 50 years. I have given up any hope of seeing them in a World Series before I die.
This year’s team is touted as a powerhouse who is sure to win the division and contend for the title. What a pile of crap! The only thing the 2009 Cubs are sure to do is ruin another summer for me. They are as soft as the over-ripe tomatoes will be in my garden in August. I still watch, but not as much as I used to. My friend in the Theology Department is a Cubs fan as well. We both agree that we will not ever get excited about another Cubs season again until they are playing in the 4th game of the World Series. The last two years she watched every minute of the playoffs. Mercifully, the pain was brief. I on the other hand, I refused to waste my time watching them lose and found more rewarding ways to spend my time.

April is the Cruelest Month

When I look outside my office window on this 5th of April, I am reminded of the Animal Planet program I watched last month about the polar bear. Apparently, according to the “global warming” crowd, the habitat of the polar bear is being devastated by warming in the arctic. Soon there will be no year-round ice in the arctic; then what will the poor polar bear do? I think they will migrate here.
Last weekend my wife and I went with a group of teachers and alumni from my school to the sister’s mother-house. The trip had been planned for months as a 50th anniversary activity and was attended by about 25 people. My main reason for going was to see my high school physics teacher who is retired and living at the mother-house. I haven’t seen her since she was transferred to another school almost 25 years ago. I can’t express how happy I am to find that she is well at 92 years old. She was the one who inspired me to take up science in college and eventually become a teacher. She is still the best teacher I ever had and sharp as ever; looking like she could go into the classroom again. She could teach the hell out of physics.
The weather that weekend was frigid for this time of the year. The first day was characterized by a steady, cold rain that interfered with every activity we had planned. On the morning of the second day we woke to a snow storm. A week later the snow storm outside my office window is raging on. The Sox have already canceled their home opener tomorrow because of the weather. The Animal Planet program told us that polar bears were migrating further south every year to find food. When they finally get here they will feel right at home.
On a sad note, the nun who is in charge of the tuition office at our school had a stroke last week. She is a kind soul who treated parents and students with respect. It is commonly believed by the faculty that the stressful circus that revolved around our “tuition problems” of last month contributed to the onset of her health issues.
Enrollment for next year seems to be leveling out about where most of us thought it would be. About 100 present students have not yet registered for next year (according to guidance) and a little over 400 of the 500 incoming freshmen have paid their registration fee and chosen classes for next year. Baring any new economic disaster, we should be within 200 students of our head-count this year; an acceptable enrollment level considering the troubled economy. The really good news is that, if we lose any students, it will be because of the economy and not because of dissatisfaction with our product.
We were notified this week that there will be no reductions in staff next year, except through attrition, and there will be a 3% pay raise. The pay raise is smaller than we usually receive, but in this economy everyone is grateful to have a stable job to look forward to.