Skip to main content

The Weekend


 

If there’s one thing that derails the blog more than anything else it would have to be waking up with a migraine. My apologies for turning up so late this morning.

So far the only news story that has caught my eye is an article entitled “Photographer Captures A Rare Octopus With Transparent Head”. It occurs to me that having a transparent head might be useful, though I’m not quite sure why. And, besides, it’s not a local story so it’s best I not dwell on it, right?

A bit closer to home, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott made a pitch for staying healthy and safe this weekend with the following social media post:

@MayorBMScott Don't be a clown. Stay at home for the Super Bowl! The decisions you make have an impact on our entire community as we navigate this #COVID19 pandemic.


I’d like to believe his words might sway someone, anyone, to rethink plans for Super Bowl socializing, but I feel like attitudes are so entrenched at this point. People who care, care. People who don’t, dont. Do you think that there may still be folks out there in the middle who can be reached by his appeal?

As for socializing at our house, it hasn’t been a thing since before March 12, 2020. And as for football, we’ve never particularly been fans. We swore off even the annual SuperBowl festivities a while back out of concerns for player traumatic brain injury and the obvious culture of systemic racism. We haven’t missed it.

My daughter and I are big fans of the Puppy Bowl and have been known to plan our own festivities around that. We can sometimes drag my husband in to watch the Kitty Halftime Show. (He’s a cat person.) Thank goodness there’s something else to get excited about this weekend if you’re not a football fan.

What about you? Is the SuperBowl a big part of your weekend plans? Do you have any strong feelings about it one way or the other? And, in a last ditch effort to make this local, where’s the best local establishment you’ve ever visited for watching the SuperBowl, and why? 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more