Last week my partner Edson, an architect and interior designer, worked with a team of 4 other designers (all women) for a fundraiser for the Cincinnati Horticultural Society. Various organizations sponsored the decoration of dining rooms in a recently-built retirement center. Guests pay to dine in each of the rooms all this week with all the proceeds going to the society. The Cincinnati Opera sponsored the room Edson's team was to design and construct. Edson designed a sculptural branching structure that sweeps around the room around the dining table.
During the construction, one of the designers from some other room saw Edson coming in with the cut sections of PVC pipe. As he passed he sarcastically said to Edson: "Oh good, the plumber is here!" Too bad Edson isn't sarcastic enough to reply as such.
During the grand opening reception Monday night we saw all the rooms, and none of them looked anything like Edson's. All were very elegant and rather restrained in a very conservative, "old money" way.
On their way out the guests were asked to mark which room design was their favorite. Apparently the guests are tired of what most of the rooms represented as Edson's group (the plumbers) won! Karma comes around to smack smart-asses awfully quick in the 21st Century, doesn't it? =D
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Worth Investigating
Fact: S&P took money in exchange for AAA ratings. This begs the question: Would they accept money to DOWNGRADE a rating? Say that of the US government? Notice no other ratings agency followed suit. Anyone want to check to see if the Koch brothers made out real well after the recent downgrade? They don't seem above wrecking the nation for their own gain...
Friday, July 1, 2011
Handwritten
Yesterday the state of Indiana joined 40 other states when it said it was no longer mandatory to teach handwriting in schools.
I take the bus to work each day and I see the print in the notebooks of University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati State College students. They all look as if a 5 year old was the one to take their notes. Everything is printed and ill-spaced. It is embarrassing.
Japanese students must learn hiragana and katakana (over 40 characters) plus kanji (2,000 characters) as well as our alphabet (26 letters) and how to form all these on paper and we can't even teach something as simple as handwriting? Studies have proven that handwriting helps people learn and retain information(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531932754922518.html), yet states and even many parents are saying handwriting is a waste of time.
Are Americans really this stupid?
Yesterday when WKRC-TV Channel 12 in Cincinnati broadcast the news about the decision in Indiana they took a viewer poll and the results showed over 90% of viewers were against the idea of eliminating handwriting from schools. What I want to know is if we don't teach 1st graders this, what are we teaching them in its stead? Indiana claims it is typing. Typing has been shown not to help in memory retention or learning, unlike handwriting. So are we helping or hurting our children? I know geography has largely been eliminated already. Is school really just another baby-sitting service? Do we care?
Or are Americans really just that stupid?
I take the bus to work each day and I see the print in the notebooks of University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati State College students. They all look as if a 5 year old was the one to take their notes. Everything is printed and ill-spaced. It is embarrassing.
Japanese students must learn hiragana and katakana (over 40 characters) plus kanji (2,000 characters) as well as our alphabet (26 letters) and how to form all these on paper and we can't even teach something as simple as handwriting? Studies have proven that handwriting helps people learn and retain information(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531932754922518.html), yet states and even many parents are saying handwriting is a waste of time.
Are Americans really this stupid?
Yesterday when WKRC-TV Channel 12 in Cincinnati broadcast the news about the decision in Indiana they took a viewer poll and the results showed over 90% of viewers were against the idea of eliminating handwriting from schools. What I want to know is if we don't teach 1st graders this, what are we teaching them in its stead? Indiana claims it is typing. Typing has been shown not to help in memory retention or learning, unlike handwriting. So are we helping or hurting our children? I know geography has largely been eliminated already. Is school really just another baby-sitting service? Do we care?
Or are Americans really just that stupid?
Friday, March 25, 2011
"Partner"
So today one of my co-workers tells me about his doctor appointment yesterday. It was with a new doctor, and he was giving the doc all the information he needed and telling him a few things about himself. He began speaking about his work and was telling the doc the story of how he has been working at his job for the past 17 years with a guy he has known for over 30. He referred to this guy as my partner. So the doctor stops him and asks about his sex life.
Oops!
Apparently my partner has become such a common way for we gay people to refer to our significant other that it has lost its original intent as a business relationship. So my poor co-worker had to go about defending his heterosexuality before his new doctor! (I can so picture Married With Children's Al Bundy in this situation!)
Anyway, after relating his adventure, my co-worker tells me "this is all your fault - messing with the language!"
My reply? "Gay people wouldn't have to give new meanings to words if straight people would just let us marry. Until then, we're going to screw with you. You brought this on yourselves."
Now don't be misled that any of this was a serious conversation. All of what he said to me was completely in jest. The smile on his face as he said it and his howls of laughter at my reply were testament to that.
Oops!
Apparently my partner has become such a common way for we gay people to refer to our significant other that it has lost its original intent as a business relationship. So my poor co-worker had to go about defending his heterosexuality before his new doctor! (I can so picture Married With Children's Al Bundy in this situation!)
Anyway, after relating his adventure, my co-worker tells me "this is all your fault - messing with the language!"
My reply? "Gay people wouldn't have to give new meanings to words if straight people would just let us marry. Until then, we're going to screw with you. You brought this on yourselves."
Now don't be misled that any of this was a serious conversation. All of what he said to me was completely in jest. The smile on his face as he said it and his howls of laughter at my reply were testament to that.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Riding the Bus
I ride the bus every Monday, Thursday, and Friday to and from work. Sometimes I read, other times I listen to music on my ipod, and other times I just sit, listen, and observe.
That's what this post is about: what I listened to and observed on a few notable occasions lately.
On one trip I happened to overhear the young woman behind me talking to her friend on her cell phone....
First she begins by saying she doesn't feel like getting off the bus. She'd already passed her stop and was heading downtown, but just didn't feel like getting off the bus. Didn't know what she'd do that day, but didn't feel like getting off the bus.
Then she calls in to work and asks the person on the other end if her co-worker can fill in for her. She'd left home and was on the bus, had passed by work, but just didn't feel like getting off the bus.
Then she calls someone else and tells them she's not at work, still on the bus, and doesn't feel like getting off the bus. Doesn't know if she'll get off before she gets home because she has nothing to do and no money.
That's where I got off the bus.
I was left thinking "hmmmmm....has no money and doesn't feel like getting off the bus to go to work....ya think there's a connection?!"
The next occasion was even more interesting...
A guy sits down beside another guy and begins to tell him his life story. He isn't old; in fact, he tells the guy he's just 25. Apparently he's been in prison the past seven years. He's glad he got his high school diploma before he went to prison, otherwise he'd have been there another three years. He was upset that a security camera hidden inside a stuffed toy caught him as he committed the crime for which he was sent to jail. The guy beside him agreed that it was wrong to have hidden cameras - unfair to guys like them trying to get by.
You could see and feel the looks of astonishment by those sitting around them. I expect to see his mug shot on the local news soon.
On a third occasion...
I was seated directly behind a large woman with a slight cough. Seated beside her was another woman - younger, and holding a cell phone. Apparently the young woman was annoyed with the large woman's slight cough - almost imperceptible to me. I could see what she was texting on her phone. The text read: "Ima gonna kill this bitch she coughs one more time."
Did she think that the woman couldn't see her texting and read it as well as I could? The phone was only a foot or two away for crying out loud! I wanted to slap her right then and there.
Lastly...
During one recent conversation I had a very difficult time as I couldn't understand much of what was being said due to the dialect of the three women speaking. They were certainly loud enough though. Even the bus driver had to shout to them to keep it down. I think he did so as much in response to their volume as their vocabulary. A good three-quarters of every sentence consisted of "hell", "damn", "bitch", "ni**a", "ho", "fuck", etc. Most memorable was when one said, "Dat ho come at me, Ima pop that ni**a bitch."
Classy. Real classy.
Really, if any of these people want to know what's wrong in their lives, all they have to do is look in the mirror.
That's what this post is about: what I listened to and observed on a few notable occasions lately.
On one trip I happened to overhear the young woman behind me talking to her friend on her cell phone....
First she begins by saying she doesn't feel like getting off the bus. She'd already passed her stop and was heading downtown, but just didn't feel like getting off the bus. Didn't know what she'd do that day, but didn't feel like getting off the bus.
Then she calls in to work and asks the person on the other end if her co-worker can fill in for her. She'd left home and was on the bus, had passed by work, but just didn't feel like getting off the bus.
Then she calls someone else and tells them she's not at work, still on the bus, and doesn't feel like getting off the bus. Doesn't know if she'll get off before she gets home because she has nothing to do and no money.
That's where I got off the bus.
I was left thinking "hmmmmm....has no money and doesn't feel like getting off the bus to go to work....ya think there's a connection?!"
The next occasion was even more interesting...
A guy sits down beside another guy and begins to tell him his life story. He isn't old; in fact, he tells the guy he's just 25. Apparently he's been in prison the past seven years. He's glad he got his high school diploma before he went to prison, otherwise he'd have been there another three years. He was upset that a security camera hidden inside a stuffed toy caught him as he committed the crime for which he was sent to jail. The guy beside him agreed that it was wrong to have hidden cameras - unfair to guys like them trying to get by.
You could see and feel the looks of astonishment by those sitting around them. I expect to see his mug shot on the local news soon.
On a third occasion...
I was seated directly behind a large woman with a slight cough. Seated beside her was another woman - younger, and holding a cell phone. Apparently the young woman was annoyed with the large woman's slight cough - almost imperceptible to me. I could see what she was texting on her phone. The text read: "Ima gonna kill this bitch she coughs one more time."
Did she think that the woman couldn't see her texting and read it as well as I could? The phone was only a foot or two away for crying out loud! I wanted to slap her right then and there.
Lastly...
During one recent conversation I had a very difficult time as I couldn't understand much of what was being said due to the dialect of the three women speaking. They were certainly loud enough though. Even the bus driver had to shout to them to keep it down. I think he did so as much in response to their volume as their vocabulary. A good three-quarters of every sentence consisted of "hell", "damn", "bitch", "ni**a", "ho", "fuck", etc. Most memorable was when one said, "Dat ho come at me, Ima pop that ni**a bitch."
Classy. Real classy.
Really, if any of these people want to know what's wrong in their lives, all they have to do is look in the mirror.
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