How am I a good teacher?

I do not take well to ignorance. People who put things in writing (as my mother always says not to do), should be careful to ensure that what they write is fact. Here is a fact: People in general are not really smrt (as Jeff would spell it). On that note, here is my attempt to just NOT say it:

FROM THE OED (particularly 2, 3 & 4(:

Huckleberry--
1. a. The fruit and plant of species of Gaylussacia (N.O. Vacciniaceæ), low berry-bearing shrubs, common in North America. Also applied to N. American species of the closely allied Vaccinium, more properly called blueberry.

1670 D. DENTON Descr. New York (1845) 3 The Fruits natural to the Island are Mulberries, Posimons, Grapes great and small, Huckelberries. 1796 Ned Evans II. 118 The chief dish is broth made of bears' flesh, dogs, and huckleberries. 1837 HAWTHORNE Twice-told T. (1851) I. xvi. 249 To peddle out a lot of huckleberries. 1858 O. W. HOLMES Aut. Breakf.-t. 357 A small heap of solemn black huckleberries. 1897 WILLIS Flower. Pl. II. 384 The Vaccinium pennsylvanicum..is called the blue huckleberry.

b. attrib. and Comb., esp. as huckleberry pie.
1751 J. BARTRAM Observ. Trav. Pennsylv. etc. 13 The land hereabouts is middling white oak and huckleberry land. 1775 P. V. FITHIAN Jrnl. (1934) II. 68 We have..boil'd potatoes & huckleberry-pie. 1851 THOREAU Autumn (1894) 8 The huckleberry bushes on Conantum are all turned red. 1854 LOWELL Cambridge 30 Yrs. Ago Pr. Wks. 1890 I. 70 The greater part of what is now Cambridgeport was then (in the native dialect) a ‘huckleberry pastur’. a1862 THOREAU Cape Cod vii. (1894) 155 That kind of gall called Huckleberry-apple. 1865 WHITTIER Snow-Bound 479 Dread Olympus at his will Became a huckleberry hill. 1869 [see cranberry pie]. 1947 Mazama Sept. 1/1 Smell that turkey, those roasting ears, and the huckleberry pies? 1972 Punch 1 Mar. 292/3 A sliver of freeze-dried huckleberry pie with apple pandowdy and French fries.

2. U.S. colloq. A small amount, degree, or extent.

1832 J. K. PAULDING Westward Ho! I. 182 [I once got] within a huckleberry of being smothered to death. 1920 E. BOK Americanization of Edward Bok 165 He always kept ‘a huckleberry or two’ ahead of his readers.

3. A person, spec. (derog.) a person of little consequence.

[1835 Gent's. Vade-Mecum (Philadelphia) 22 Aug. 2/4 Orson, the wild man of the woods is nothing to himnot a circumstancenot a huckleberry.] 1868 New Eng. Base Ballist 3 Sept. 17/1 Now then, my huckleberry, look sharp! you're wrong! 1889 ‘MARK TWAIN’ Connecticut Yankee 338 The Saracen..is no huckleberry.

4. In various phrases: to be someone's huckleberry: to be someone's sweetheart, friend, or partner; to be a huckleberry to (or over) someone's persimmon: a proverbial phrase (see quots.).

1832 J. K. PAULDING Westward Ho! I. ix. 80 If the [broad-]horn gets broadside to the current, I wouldn't risk a huckleberry to a persimmon that we don't every soul get treed, and sink to the bottom. 1834 D. CROCKETT Narr. Life ix. 70 But to do this, and write the warrants too, was at least a huckleberry over my persimmon. 1856 W. G. SIMMS Eutaw 553 My larning ain't a huckleberry to your persimmon. 1880 A. A. HAYES New Colorado (1881) v. 68 The first words that we heard him speak settled his nationality, for..he sententiously remarked, ‘Hi'm 'is 'uckleberry.’ 1885 D. D. PORTER Incidents Civil War 204 ‘I am the fleet-surgeon of the Mississippi squadron!’..‘I'm a huckleberry above that persimmon, 'cause I'm the chief cook.’ 1889 [see PERSIMMON 3]. 1926 N. N. PUCKETT in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 8/2 Sir, you is a huckleberry beyon' my persimmon. 1936 J. TULLY Bruiser (1946) 37 Well, I'm your huckleberry, Mr. Haney. 1951 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xv. 56 I'll be your huckleberry.

Hence huckleberrying vbl. n., gathering huckleberries.

1721-2 in Temple & Sheldon Hist. Northfield, Mass. (1875) 160 By horse to go huckle-berrying 0 0 6. 1883 Leisure Hour 702/2, I have joined children in huckleberrying, thimbleberrying..and bilberrying.

Just About Enough

I am really tired of writing papers. I need a husband with group health insurance--oh wait. Thanks to the Democratic Congress, I HAVE to get insurance (with a pre-existing condition) AND I get to pay for everyone else to have insurance, too.

And all employers have to carry insurance, now? What is THIS going to do to small businesses, the economy and the job market?

My "little" tirade

When did it become okay to milk off of the government? Let us say, for example, that a person, for these purposes a girl, had no high school diploma, no GED, and no general clue. This person works part time at a dead-end job. This job has no health insurance option. So, this girl decides that it is a good time for her to go off of her birth control pills and, subsequently, gets pregnant. Duh.

She decides that the government owes her because, after all, it is there, right? She is on public aid, WIC, and some sort of health insurance. Who pays for this? Oh, that's right. WE DO. But she is owed, right?

Aargh. I don't really know what to say. The attitude through which ANYONE thinks that his/her government owes him/her BLOWS ME AWAY.

I mean, there is a big part of me that thinks that someone owes me -- the world owes me. I followed all of the rules. I did what I was supposed to do. I worked and took loans. I got degrees that are all fancy-schmancy. I worked hard enough to get, virtually, straight A's. So, who owes me?

And, if someone were to "pay up," who would it be and where would that entity get the money?

I am angry. Don't tell me I have to have health insurance. Who is going to pay for it? Where am I going to get the money? I can't get private insurance because of MS, so I have to go on Medicaid (however that is spelled). Are they going to give me my medicine so that I can afford it after I have paid the premium? Really, how are AVERAGE people going to afford this fargin' mandate?

You get what you pay for

Oh. And by the way, on November 24th, 2008, I put on this blog that I predicted that Amber would show up pregnant within a year. She did.

Some brief updates

Okay, first ... I find it really ridiculous to return a can of mixed nuts to the cabinet when there are only 3 or 4 nuts left in the can.

I think this is evidence of the hedonism that permeates certain people's lives. When there is no consciousness of the effects of your actions on others, this is careless, silly, and, I think, hedonistic. "If it feels good, I will do it, now."

Now, as far as that one group is concerned ... I was thinking about starting a group on Facebook for those people who were as screwed over by that group . I did, today, find out that they named the Outstanding Journalist award after Kurtis. Totally cool.

Now, I am Connor's godmother. We are throwing a big baby shower for Cat's soon-to-be daughter, Eleanora (not sure of the spelling). Still cleaning out Nana's shithole. Planning a big garage sale over Oswego Days (oh, excuse me, Prairie Fest). Waiting for the squatter to move (says after the baby comes ...).

I'm still just blown away by the whole "nuts" thing.

What is wrong with me?

My grandmother died. I have cried over Jim Ammenhauser's son quite a bit, but hardly at all over losing my grandmother. I miss her, though she was a pain in the ass. I miss her every day.

First, why am I compelled to watch "I'm a celebrity. Get me out of here!"? The show sucks, but it's like the car wreck on the Interstate -- you just gotta slow down and rubberneck.

Next, is it totally wrong to want your landlord to fall off the ladder on which he is working to clean out your gutters? I have two fantasy scenarios: a) I save his life after he lay dying after falling off the stupid thing (and forever ingratiate myself to my landlords); and b) he dies and I get to buy the house that his wife wants to unload.

I'm going to hell.

Stick a Needle in your Eye

Steve is really freaked out by any "procedure" having to do with eyes. He cannot watch me put my contacts in. He gets grossed out by people rubbing their eyes. We were watching House the other day, and there was a guy who needed some diagnostic test. When it came on that the guy way strapped to a table with a needle headed for his eye, Steve jumped up an yelled, "Oh, fuck no!" and took off upstairs.

When I got home after going to 2 different pharmacies to get Nana's prescriptions, I found the driveway TOTALLY shoveled and cleared. I told my mother this on the phone as I was pulling in. She begged me not to tell Steve about Nana's upcoming surgery because he was so nice to have shoveled.

Steve keeps telling me that he shovel(s) because, "2 plus 2 plus 2" equals a lot of shoveling. This morning, I told him, "2 plus 2 plus 6." We got a lot of snow. I also told him that Nana is having surgery on her eye on Thursday that involves "sticking a needle in her eye" to relieve the pressure that is building and causing her pain.

Poor Nana. I feel actually bad for her. This has to suck, a lot.

I don't want to live that long. She turned 90. Wow.

Whatfuckingever

I don't get it. Other than the fact that the title is an "infixed" word. I am getting thinner. I don't have to work at it (bragging) except to push that stupid needle into the muscles of my thigh every week -- oh, and to endure the daily torment of having multiple sclerosis. All of a sudden, people like me.

Or maybe it is just that familiarity breeds contempt and absence makes the heart grow fonder.

As I said, whatfuckingever!