Jim Rittenhouse's semidaily journal of news, commentary and reports
For all of the folks in Facebook who invite me to participate in a game: Sorry, don’t have the time to play them, and I distrust a lot of the join-this stuff in Facebook anyway. For all the folks anywhere who invite me to events out of town (Chicago): Sorry, too laid up after the [...]
..very quick one. In a fair amount of pain from the operation (and doped up with T3), which went well – lost a pint of blood, and assorted parts of my left foot. Can’t use it at all – very strict doctors orders. And for all those asking, no, I won’t be going to the [...]
I’ve been asked to speak at a Wright State University forum; their Honors Institute is having a symposium on Chinese-American relations called “Connecting With China”, and I’m to talk on “Exploring Issues in Cross-Cultural Adoptions” from 2-4 pm, February 17th. The event is free to the public, but you have to register in advance to [...]
This part of a piece that Garrison Keillor wrote about his brother’s death really caught me: He always knew what you were doing and he kept his critical opinions to himself. He called me once to ask how I was doing and I knew without his saying so that he knew about some nonsense I [...]
Meredith has the idea that I was always a straight-A student in school; it’s not true. My worst grades in grade school: Handwriting and an English Class in 8th grade when the teacher wanted to teach one book (Treasure Island) for the whole damn year. I blew up in class at her, and she gave [...]
I don’t know what’s worse – the idea of stupid trolling tricks or people bragging about them (whether or not they actually pulled that off). When I was in Wilbur Wright High School, in 1974, the VP of the Junior Class (this is when I was a Senior) streaked a school band concert with only [...]
Going back to my response posts, I want to stress that I never assume that anyone voting against Obama is a racist, or that Republicans are racists, or that either on the Republican ticket is a racist. I know better. I’ve lived with serious racists, had racism and sexism used against me and mine (you [...]
My first exposure to computers was in high school; there was a teletype terminal to the Dayton School System’s mainframe, and you could run paper tape programs through it, and it was seated in Mr. Goubeaux’s room (the guy who taught the more advanced math classes). Goubeaux was something like Mr. Ratburn on ARTHUR; demanding, [...]
My great hero in freshman year at my high school was Tim Langley; a great actor, well-spoken, intelligent, kind, a fighter for the underdog, and just in general an admirable guy. He was well-chosen in my freshman (and his senior) year to play Cyrano De Bergerac…and he was also the news editor on the paper. [...]
At this point (fall of 1973), I’m the editorial editor for the high school paper, and my, I was a lot more conservative in those days in a lot of ways. This paper brings up two items that were controversial in the day, and aren’t uncommon anymore… First, the reaction to the Board of Education [...]
Another clip from my high school paper (December 1972) on the development of beards and mustaches and the like at the school when it was still very very much frowned on by the adults in the area as ‘hippie crap’. I had longish bushy curly hair my freshman year and finally grew sideburns in my [...]
Piece from my high school newspaper about a Black Panther who was brought in by a civics teacher to talk to the class. Quite a shocker to the kids; it may read like something in the Onion to the younger folks here, but – well, this was 1971, and a poll in the same issue [...]