Skip to main content

Geeking Out

So, Tuesday evening, this happened:

It came from online discussions with local political news enthusiasts who were geeking out about details of who had filed to run for office.


geek out (third-person singular simple present geeks out, present participle geeking out, simple past and past participle geeked out)

To enthuse about a narrow topic, not realizing that most people listening will fail to understand it.

To do geeky things; to act geeky; to speak of geeky things.

The conversation looked something like this:

"After looking at the HoCo and Maryland Board of Election websites when the deadline passed, it's clear: there are more candidates in this state than voters."

"Well House District 13 sure looks interesting. And I remember Atterbeary from 2010, when she ran in District 18. What else? Just two dozen Howard County Democratic Central Committee candidates, 13 Board of Education candidates and 10 Democratic HD 12 candidates. Going to be some long 4th of July parades in Howard County this year."

"Noooooooo....."

"The primary is June 24, so maybe the parades won't be quite so long?"

"You are, of course, correct. Unless there are long, drawn-out recounts in multiple elections (certification doesn't occur until July 7), in which case the parades could witness what could only be described as higgledy piggledy in the streets."

"Fingers crossed."

"Only *we* would have higgledy piggledy in the streets."

"I want higgedly piggedly every d*** day!!!"

So I thought we ought to have a logo. See above.

I share this with you because things have been pretty serious here on the blog lately, and I wanted you to know that some of these serious types in Howard County do have a sense of humor. And we're not afraid to use it. Next to the impromptu formation of the Higgledy Piggledy Party (HiPiHoCo?) the best news of the week was the appearance on Twitter of Ian Kennedy's Beard, @IKBeard . Check it out. I don't know how long it's going to last...

**********

On a more serious note, please check out, sign, and share this petition by HCPSM member Ann Faust with Howard County Families Working Together to Keep Music and Arts in our Schools. Yes, it's a long name, but the petition is brief so take a minute to read it. Thanks.

And tomorrow? Why, the Higgledy Piggledy platform, of course.

 

Comments

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...

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...

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 ...