the fabulous tale of "the huge stupendous blizzard attack" here it goes:
one foggy monday last novemeber, the buffalo public school system decided to have school. all the students in the city marched like good little worker bees to their respective institutions of learning, and commenced a day of mind-expandment (expandment??) when they happened to notice that they couldn't see more than 5 feet outside the window. Turns out, the "huge stupendous blizzard attack" was in their midst, and before they knew it there was zero visibility, 2 feet of snow, ferocious winds, and an hourly snow fall of about 8 inches. a little girl (little because she was short, not little because she was young) who had just discovered she had a nickname, chini, was scurrying to catch her bus afterschool when her sister yelled at her that they were going to get picked up by their dad. in a bout of idelible foolishness chini listened, and she missed her bus in favor of an elusive ride after school. after about a half and hour and still no ride, chini called home with her terrible terrible cell phone that never works and discovered that her father had abandoned all ideas of picking them up. his "excuse" was that his van (the one that's tall enough for jim to stand up in) was stuck in the driveway, and that alas they would be wise to try and catch the bus home after school.
after repeatedly throttling her sister for making her miss her first bus, a lumberjack/computer teacher noticed the murderous gleam in chini's eyes and offered to give the two sisters a ride home. eagerly, chini nodded and they piled into his lumberjack/computer supply van. four hours later during a typical 8 minute drive home, after driving two mph, sticking heads out the car window to try and see the road ahead, getting into another car to help get them out of a snowbank, and narrowly avoiding freakish displays of pink lightning, chini and her sister were dropped at the corner of their street, treked two blocks home, and were immediately diagnosed with frostbite and were forced to climb fully clothed into a bathtub of hot water. chini's other sister never made it home, and she slept at a friend's house after their school bus got stuck. many of chini's friends spent the night at school (eating cafeteria cookies for free), another slept at the house of another student she barely knew, and many others slept in their cars on the highways, bus depots, fire stations and supermarkets. ever since that fateful day when nearly 2,000 students never made it home, buffalo has been a "snow pansy," and we get roughly 6 unnecessary snow days per year.
Saturday, February 02, 2002
Friday, February 01, 2002
Thursday, January 31, 2002
Tuesday, January 29, 2002
Walk through any mall in America. Browse through the racks at Old Navy and Abercrombie & Fitch and the Gap. The colors are bright and chipper. The sales staff is peppy. The look is vaguely retro—upbeat 1962 pre-assassination innocence. The Gap's television ads don't show edgy individualists; they show perky conformists, a bunch of happy kids all wearing the same clothes and all swing-dancing the same moves.
In short, at the top of the meritocratic ladder we have in America a generation of students who are extraordinarily bright, morally earnest, and incredibly industrious. They like to study and socialize in groups. They create and join organizations with great enthusiasm. They are responsible, safety-conscious, and mature. They feel no compelling need to rebel—not even a hint of one. They not only defer to authority; they admire it. "Alienation" is a word one almost never hears from them. They regard the universe as beneficent, orderly, and meaningful. At the schools and colleges where the next leadership class is being bred, one finds not angry revolutionaries, despondent slackers, or dark cynics but the Organization Kid.
- from the atlantic
In short, at the top of the meritocratic ladder we have in America a generation of students who are extraordinarily bright, morally earnest, and incredibly industrious. They like to study and socialize in groups. They create and join organizations with great enthusiasm. They are responsible, safety-conscious, and mature. They feel no compelling need to rebel—not even a hint of one. They not only defer to authority; they admire it. "Alienation" is a word one almost never hears from them. They regard the universe as beneficent, orderly, and meaningful. At the schools and colleges where the next leadership class is being bred, one finds not angry revolutionaries, despondent slackers, or dark cynics but the Organization Kid.
- from the atlantic
Monday, January 28, 2002
do you ever wonder what will happen if someone finds out? would it bother you if it became your reputation, your moniker?-- *yournamehere* ?...do wonder what would happen if "harvard" or "yale" found out, or how it could limit you if someone knew?...do you worry that one day someone could expose you? -- that at your presidential inaguration, a shadow from the past would exclaim and point fingers? could you leave it all behind?...
do you ever wonder if one day you'll become addicted? that what started off as play could consume you or become your religion and culture?
do you fear that one day, there will be synapses and cells you won't be able to reach -- thoughts or abilites that have clouded over? do you every worry that your mind and consciouness will be fundamentally different than before?
is this all cliche -- over glamourized and romanticised? are you different from upperclass prep school kids who posture to rebel? -- do you want to be? is this a philosophical/psychological experiment? do you care about the ethics of it all, or do you ever attempt to rationalize things? what would you tell your kids -- the lingo or the "truth"?
what is it like to be a hypocrite?
do you ever wonder if one day you'll become addicted? that what started off as play could consume you or become your religion and culture?
do you fear that one day, there will be synapses and cells you won't be able to reach -- thoughts or abilites that have clouded over? do you every worry that your mind and consciouness will be fundamentally different than before?
is this all cliche -- over glamourized and romanticised? are you different from upperclass prep school kids who posture to rebel? -- do you want to be? is this a philosophical/psychological experiment? do you care about the ethics of it all, or do you ever attempt to rationalize things? what would you tell your kids -- the lingo or the "truth"?
what is it like to be a hypocrite?
