Happy New Year to all of my current and former students. I hope 2012 is even better than 2011.
We’re going to be taking a few days off here. The blog will return after the vacation ends.
Bowling Scores For the Week: 154, 154, 177. My average is now a 159. Not bad for only bowling 3 times in 4 months.
Top Blog Stories of 2011
The Newest Addition To the Dowling Family
Last year was DJ’s turn to be number one. This year it is Casey. On June 11, we welcomed Casey into our family. Although she was 5 weeks early, she arrived healthy. After two weeks in the hospital she came home and has brought joy to my family for nearly 7 months now.
I wonder what the number one story will be next year. Early votes are for the 2012 World Series Champion Cincinnati Reds. Actually, a reporter for Sports Illustrated predicted a Reds championship. I always liked Sports Illustrated.
Top Stories of Years Past
2011-Casey’s Birth
2010-DJ’s Birth (it even beat out the Reds return to the playoffs!)
2009-The Krispy Kreme Hamburger
Bowling Scores This Week
When I became a sub this year for my bowling league I expected to bowl semi-regularly. I wanted to pick my spots and perhaps take a week or two off each month. Instead, I’ve only bowled twice in twelve weeks of action. I guess the good news is that I get to spend more time with my family.
My scores this week were 150, 160 and 191. I was also able to guide my team to a clean sweep of victories. Always nice to win when you’re subbing for someone.
Speaking of subbing, it was nice to get a positive report from our sub this week. Mr. Shackel said everyone was great and worked hard. I had to attend a conference on the school’s website program. Nothing says excitement quite like 7 hours of computer programming.
Reading
While not quite a book, I just finished reading a lengthy magazine special from Time Magazine on Benjamin Franklin. It was the type of magazine you see at the supermarket commemorating a new President or the death of a famous person. It wasn’t a hard hitting volume but it was an enjoyable read. There were a few ideas in the magazine that were interesting. I was always under the assumption that Franklin never owned slaves. He did actually. It wasn’t until later in life that he began his anti-slavery crusade.
While I was aware of the fact that Franklin played a huge role in relations with France and England during the war, I never knew how long he spent in Europe. It seems he spent more time there than he did in the colonies. Franklin was wildly popular in Europe, especially in France. In fact, women of that time modeled a fashion after Franklin’s fur hat that he would wear.
I enjoyed the light read and I thank Mr. Buchman for sharing it with me. It only took me approximately a year to get around to reading it.
Ever since we did more outside reading, I’ve been focusing on my own reading as well. It has allowed me to get more reading done. Hopefully by the end of the quarter I can end up with 5 extra credit points as well! For more information, click on Outside Reading Extra Credit on the right of the screen.
Perhaps I should just stop rooting against the Cardinals. Clearly it is not working.
Bowling Scores For the Week: An old update has returned. I haven’t bowled at all since May. Since I’m not an active member of a team in my league there won’t be weekly updates. I’ve decided to simply sub when my schedule permits me to do so. My scores were 152, 155 and 146. I was relatively consistent but not at the level I’d like to be. Look for more updates in November.
100 Year Old Runner
Next time you’re having trouble running your mile during Physical Education Class, think of this man. Fauja Singh is 100 years old and he just broke the record for being the oldest person to finish a 42km race. His next goal is to run a full marathon tomorrow.
Follow Up-The 100 year old runner did finish the marathon this weekend. It took him over 8 hours to do so. That is quite an accomplishment. For the record, it would probably take me about 8 hours to run 26 miles also.
Personally I think it is a fraud. This guy doesn’t look a day over 93!
Moose In Backyard Pool
How would you like to wake up and find a moose in your pool? Apparently it took a long time to get him out of the pool. The large animal was probably just shy and didn’t want everyone to see him in his swimsuit. He’s a bit bashful!
Check out the video.
My favorite part of the video is the end when the woman is heard saying “keep going, keep going” like it was such an easy task to pull the darn animal out of the pool.
Our next topic in school is Explorers. We will be joining Mr. Joseph’s class for 2 double periods this week to discuss writing, quoting, citing sources, plagiarism, etc. The Social Studies focus will also be writing of course and Christopher Columbus’ exploration.
I watched Last Man Standing this week. It stars Tim Allen and its pretty good. I loved Home Improvement when it was on the air in the 90s. You can still watch that show on re-runs on various cable channels. I missed good, old fashioned sitcoms. I found this one to be a good one. It is on ABC on Tuesdays I believe. Check it out.
Are there any new shows that you are currently watching?
Thank you for those of you who participated in the Extra Credit Extravaganza. A good time was had by all. This was an opportunity to not only gain a few extra points but also to review for the final. Be sure to read over some of the responses. I’m sure they will help to refresh your memory a bit.
Some say the world is going to end today. I say if you believe that then give me all of your money. You’re not going to need it after today anyway…
Reds blew a 4-0 lead yesterday against the Indians. At least they didn’t lose any ground as the Cardinals also lost to the Royals. Perhaps I’m too much of a traditionalist but I’m not a big fan of interleague play. I guess I feel that way especially because the Reds have to play the Indians 6 times, the Yankees 3 times and Rays 3 times.
This week doesn’t get any better for the Reds either. After finishing up with the Tribe, they go to Philadelphia.
Bowling Scores For the Week
189, 213, 185 for a clean sweep of games this week. It also allowed my team to finish in 2nd place. Not bad at all. Bowling has been a frequent topic on the blog since it first started. However, next year I will not be a full-time member of the league. I’ve decided to continue as a sub only. Bowling every Friday night can become a bit of a grind and I’m sure Mrs. Dowling and DJ are looking forward to having me home Friday nights.
From Newsday
Mickey D’s defends its clown
McDonald’s Corp. chief executive Jim Skinner came out swinging yesterday when asked about Ronald McDonald and whether the burger chain hooks children with junk food. Skinner, speaking at the company’s annual shareholder meeting at McDonald’s headquarters outside Chicago, said that newspaper ads Wednesday calling for Ronald’s retirement had prompted an outpouring of support, with parents and customers asking Skinner “to defend their right to choose.” A group called Corporate Accountability International paid for the ads, which said Ronald is encouraging unhealthy eating habits and contributing to childhood obesity and related diseases such as diabetes. At the meeting, shareholders defeated a proposal the group had helped craft asking McDonald’s to issue a report on its responses to childhood obesity.
What’s your opinion on this? Is a clown the reason that some youngsters are overweight?
If it were that easy, wouldn’t all restaurants have goofy clowns outside of their doors?
Did You Know?
Only 4% of comic book collectors are female. I guess that’s why the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons is single.
Mr. Cooke shared this article with me. You might want to check it out.
Pretty sad story about what this youngster had to deal with. Drugs are terrible and impact so many people around you.
I can’t imagine pitching a no-hitter and then following that up with 4 homeruns. That is like a season’s worth of highlights in one day.
Speaking of major accomplishments, a bowler I bowl with was 2 strikes away from a perfect game last night. He had to settle for a measly 289. Boy, I really hope that one day he learns to be a better bowler! I, on the other hand, stunk up the joint with my scores of 120 (we lost the game by one point), 145, and 175 (we lost the game by 3 points). We are now mathematically eliminated from finishing in first.
Speaking of mathematically eliminated, I’m sure all of Weber is glad that state math tests have been eliminated from our schedule. Our parting gift is next week’s field test. Will it ever end?
Have you seen this Geico commerical? Simple, yet funny.
How about this one, which yet again reminds me of Toonces the Driving Cat.
The Reds came back last night from being down 4-0 to win in extras against the hated Cardinals. Joey Votto came through in the clutch with the walkoff base hit. However, Edgar Renteria’s walk to put Votto to the plate was huge! Glad to see Nick Masset is getting hot. He was lights out last night. It was especially important for him to get dominant now that Chapman is struggling. Although this game made me feel like I needed to reach for rolaids, I’m glad it ended happily for the good guys. Now the Reds have to do it again today at 4. You can watch the game on the MLB Network. You might want to check it out. It is the first time that Johnny Cueto is facing the Cards since the brawl last August.
Did You Know?
I read this today. Obviously just because you read it doesn’t make it true. Listen to this one: Andrew Jackson’s pet parrot was in attendance at Jackson’s funeral. However, he had to be removed after he began squawking profanities. Could this really be true?
I’ve added some items to the 8th grade section. You may want to check them out if you are in 8th grade.
The first place Cincinnati Reds go for 3 in a row against the Cardinals today. It won’t be easy. The Reds face nemesis Chris Carpenter and Pujols hasn’t hit much lately. He’s due for a huge game. Then again, other than being walked (and a walk off hit), Joey Votto hasn’t done much either.
2 days until the budget vote.
It was announced yesterday that Mike Huckabee will not be running for President in 2012. It should be interesting to see who will be the Republican candidate in 2012. Too early to tell at this point. It seems that the Republicans have candidates that are too conservative or not conservative enough. Any thoughts?
It’s been awhile. It was a busy weekend so there wasn’t much time for blogging. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even go near a computer for the entire weekend.
I hope you guys were good to all the moms out there.
Bowling Scores For the Week: 171, 166, 173. Unfortunately, once again my team lost all 3 games. While we remain in second place, we have to be nearly perfect the next two weeks to finish in first. I was hoping for back to back championships.
Reminder: The school budget vote in one week and a day away. Remind your parents (and siblings over the age of 18) to vote.
Did your parents always let you win when you were younger? How did you feel when you were finally able to beat your dad/mom at something when you legitimately earned it?
When I play my nieces or nephews at anything, I always go for the win. That way when they finally beat me they will feel like they have accomplished something. Perhaps I should be letting them win, but it seems we do enough of that in little league and elsewhere. Everyone gets a trophy, everyone gets a chance. I think youngsters need to have experience with failure and adversity. That way they know how to pick themselves up, make adjustments and get better.
Your thoughts?
This Day In History
1754-The first political cartoon in American was published. The cartoon was found in Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette.
Remember, this cartoon was about the colonies uniting during the French and Indian War. Although that didn’t exactly happen the way Franklin envisioned it, the colonies did unite as the American Revolution approached.
Did You Know?
For most species, the average snail’s pace is 25 feet per hour. I assume this would be slower on the LIE.
I would like to publicly thank Cablevision for sparing me all the pain, blues and agony that I would have received yesterday. Thanks to a malfunctioning DVR I was spared from having to watch the beating the Reds took in Arizona yesterday (13-2). For a week I’ve been wondering why Dusty Baker hasn’t pitched Matt Maloney at all. He came in yesterday and gave up 7 runs. I guess we now know why.
Arroyo needs to stop the bleeding tonight.
Bowling Scores For The Week: 117 (Pathetic-I wanted to go home), 172, 196. My team is now 2 points out of first place. Sadly, there is a 2 week layoff from bowling. Reports will return in late April.
You have to check out the show “Extreme Couponing” on TLC. The other day a woman bought 218 boxes of pasta, 128 bottles of Gatorade, 76 bottles of sauce, 100 bottles of shampoo…you get the point. Overall, she bought over $1000 dollars in merchandise and paid…….$50!!! This is exactly why I will continue to call TLC “The Freakshow Channel”.
Did You Know?
There is a Hamburger Hall of Fame. It is located in Seymour, Wisconsin. There’s even a Hamburger Fest in August. Check out the website.
This Day In History
1865-Robert E. Lee surrenders his army at Appomattox Courthouse. This ended the Civil War. As you will learn in class, “In 1861 the war had just begun, in 1865 not a rebel was alive.”
2003-In Baghdad, Iraqis and American soldiers celebrate the fall of Saddam Hussein by toppling a giant statue of Hussein.
Bowling Scores For the Week: 169, 174, 153…good enough for a clean sweep. Although my team has the toughest remaining schedule, we’re still in it to win it.
Speaking of winning it, I did not win the Mega-Millions jackpot. Oh well, I guess it is back to work on Monday. Who needs $304 million anyway!
Red Alert
I have reason to be worried. The Reds are very banged up right now. Scott Rolen has an elbow injury. Ramon Hernandez has an elbow injury. Bronson Arroyo has mono. Johnny Cueto is experiencing shoulder trouble and will start the year on the disabled list. Homer Bailey is experiencing shoulder trouble and will start the year on the disabled list. A team with a very deep talent pool for starters just got a lot more shallow. Sam LeCure will be the Reds 5th starter. He’s not a bad option at all but he’s no Bailey or Cueto.
Right now it seems like the team that will win the central is the team that is most healthy. I’m not giving up on the Reds but a strong start is definitely important.
I haven’t heard of any injuries in Milwaukee.
This Day In History
1953-Dr. Jonas Salk announces that he had successfully tested a polio vaccine.
1982-The groundbreaking ceremony is held for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.
Did You Know?
Presidents Grant, Eisenhower, Taft and Hoover never held any other elected office before becoming President.
I read earlier that the Yankees traded for former Reds outfielder Chris Dickerson. Dickerson has ability and it was a pretty good move in my opinion. To me, the biggest problem that Dickerson has is staying healthy. On top of that, he has never played on a big stage. When the Reds got hot he was injured and then traded to Milwaukee who were already terrible by then. Time will tell.
A very notable name in US history has passed away. Before we had the likes of Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, we had Geraldine Ferraro. Ferraro was the first woman to run on a major ticket for President. Ferraro was the vice-presidential candidate along with Walter Mondale in 1984. Although they did not win, Ferraro can definitely be considered a trailblazer for women who play such a prominent role in politics today.
Bowling Scores For The Week: 145, 153, 233. My team is likely to move up to a 2nd place position after yesterday’s bowling. We have a lot of ground to make up if we hope to take 1st place.
Staying strong in the March Madness basketball tournament. Louisville losing hurt. In one of my brackets I had them going to the Final Four. I didn’t have a good feeling about St. John’s this year in the tournament. I think they are going to be strong 2-3 years down the line. Villanova’s lose was disappointing and I thought Xavier was better than they played. What happened to Georgetown? And wow…the Big East is everywhere in this tourney! There is some amazing competition in that division, especially this year.
So Long Ago: It was on this day in 2003 that the US began its war against Iraq. I hope that it can come to a safe conclusion for the world and especially our men and women who risk their lives every day to protect us. They are true heroes and should be treated that way.
Did You Know? The most commonly sung song is Happy Birthday to You. It was written by Mildred and Patty Smith. I wonder where the Green House song is on the list of commonly sung songs.
The Mets finally cut ties with Luis Castillo. I’m sure Mets fans are glad to see that they can finally turn the page. His tenure was starting to become Bobby Bonillaish.
Is Oliver Perez next? I’m surprised that he never rebounded from his troubles a few years ago. I thought he would eventually become a dominating pitcher. If Perez wants to rejuvenate his career he should move to the NL Central. That way he can play more often against the Reds. Perez is 9-5 in his career against the Redlegs, his best record against any other team. He used to kill us. Then he went to the Mets.
More of the same for the Mets?
WOW! Did anyone else see the end of the Butler-Pitt game? There is no denying that the NCAA tournament and college basketball in general is extremely exciting. I tuned in after seeing the blue blinking light on CBS alerting fans to a game worth watching on another channel. At that point Butler was up by one with 9 seconds remaining. Pitt had an extremely wild pass into play. Had Butler stayed away, the clock likely would have run down and Butler would have won. Instead, Butler accidentally fouled putting a Pitt player at the line. He happened to hit one shot and miss the second (1.4 on the clock). The only problem is that A PITT PLAYER FOULED A BUTLER PLAYER! Oh the drama! Howard of Butler sank his first shot and then intentionally missed his 2nd to let the clock wind down and put Butler into the Sweet 16. Pitt had a number one seed. Who knocked them off? I guess we can officially say that “The Butler Did It!!!”–Yes, that is about the 1,000,000th time someone has used that pun but it’s only the first time on this blog. You can never have enough arms on a baseball team. Johnny Cueto, slated to be the Reds number 3 starter this year has experienced tightness in his arm during his last two spring outings. Cueto, who signed a 3 year $27 million extension this offseason, is very much in doubt for the start of the season. Lucky for the Reds they also have Arroyo, Volquez, Bailey, Travis Wood and Mike Leake who are all capable starters. The Reds have a few options:
1. Give Cueto some time to heal and then slot him back in the rotation. He’s running out of time to get regular-season ready.
2. Slowly allow Cueto to get better and see if he’ll be ready by April 9. The Reds will not need a 5th starter until that date because of off days. Volquez, Arroyo, Wood and Bailey could hold down the fort until then.
3. Start Cueto on the DL and allow him to get ready for the long haul. I know the Reds definitely don’t want to see what happened to Volquez (Tommy John surgery-missed an entire season) to happen to Cueto.
One thing is for sure, the Reds cannot afford mediocre seasons out of the likes of Bailey, Volquez and Wood. If this is a playoff team, they need to pitch like playoff pitchers.
This Day In History (March 20)
1942-General Douglas MacArthur solemnly swore that he would return to the Philippines after being sent to Australia by FDR. One month later the American troops in the Philippines were subjected to a huge surrender and the 65 mile Bataan Death march to prison camps.
Eventually MacArthur did return to the Philippines after “island hopping” his way to victory.
Did You Know?
Ever had a twin popsicle?
What a tasty treat! Did you know that this treat was invented before the Great Depression so that two children could share one treat? Pretty interesting (and economical). In fact, I could go for one right now and I’m typing this at 7 am!
Bowling Scores For the Week: 180, 170, 170. However, my team only won one game. There’s always next week.
Did You Know?
The Hollywood sign in California was originally “Hollywoodland” but the last four letter fell down during World War II.
This Day In History
1947-President Truman issues the Truman Doctrine (I wonder how he came up with such a creative name). This was when the United States government, during the early stages of the Cold War, sent aid to countries like Greece and Turkey to resist Communism.
1912-Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts. Interestingly enough it is always around this time that I end up with boxes and boxes of girl scout cookies. I have 3 boxes already and I haven’t even gotten my entire order from my nieces.
1933-President Roosevelt has his first fireside chat. For those of you that don’t know about FDR and fireside chats, this is when Roosevelt would perform radio addresses to the American public during the Great Depression urging calm and faith in the American banking system. You will be learning about this next year.
Laughs and Lunch continues…Believe it or not, we’re almost finished with the Looney Tunes portion of our sessions.
We say this one yesterday which to me is two of the better Looney Tunes cartoons.
For your enjoyment, I bring to you Laughs and Lunch: The Home Edition
I’ve never seen this one but it seems to be a sequel to One Froggy Evening, a great cartoon.
For those of you who have been at Laughs and Lunch, what was your favorite cartoon that we’ve seen this year?
