One Good Minute

So today, then:

Teaching, at least at the high school level, is 85% patience and 15% frustration. An example.

I'm talking to my Seniors about persuasion, about how it has become an industry not to be fucked with, called marketing. We watched a PBS special called The Persuaders, and we were discussing the implications of a free-press being taken over by advertising and marketing (a Boston tabloid sold its cover-page to JetBlue, effectively selling whatever soul they had left to sell). Not to toot my own horn, but this shit is interesting and vital to understanding why corporations are not our friends.

A girl in the front row opens a magazine. Not like slyly opens it, trying to avoid my attention and therefore being mildly tolerable. Actually puts it up in the air to crack the spine, makes a big show out of it.

I say, "C_______, what are you doing?"

And she gets all offended and says, "What? I'm just looking for my horoscope!"

One good minute.

Allow me to recommend:
Victory at Sea--Memories Fade
Marilynne Robinson--Gilead
Two cans of Mountain Dew at nine a.m.
High School Cafeteria Pizza