The best letter we've read in a while!

THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2022

From yesterday's New York Times:  We should have posted the letter yesterday. It came from that day's New York Times.

It's the best letter we've read in a while. Heading included, it went exactly like this:

The Day I Skipped School

To the Editor:

Re “Your Kids Can Handle Dangerous Ideas,” by Matt Gross (Opinion guest essay, April 30), which opens with an anecdote about skipping school:

In 1943, on a warm spring afternoon, my mother was swayed by my pleas to skip school the rest of the day. I was surprised but delighted. The next day I brought the teacher my excuse note, written in my mother’s best hand, which said I had suffered an attack of spring fever.

At 90, I still remember lying on the lawn, watching drifting clouds.

Margaret Mary K— C— / Cleveland Heights, Ohio

In our view, the writer's mother seems to have gotten it right.

Fuller disclosure: On one or two occasions, our own sainted mother let us stay home from grade school to watch the seventh game of the World Series.

Such games were played in the daytime then. They involved the Milwaukee Braves, not long removed from our own native Boston.

Casey Stengel had once managed the team, when they were called the Boston Bees. Based upon an anecdote, our sainted mother, as a young woman, had dated one of Casey's players way back and long ago then.

If you're lucky enough to be able to do so, remember to drift with the clouds!

26 comments:

  1. This is Somerby's effort to diffuse criticism of his recent nonsense (which is no different than his long term nonsense, whatever) by suggesting he is high on some kind of medication.

    Good try! We're not buying it though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You got him right where you want him LOL

      Ever consider he doesn't even read your garbage?

      Delete
    2. Do you think I got him so he does not know what he is doing, that he can't sleep at night? I really got him? I really got him?

      Yo Jimmy Page, how about a tasty and somewhat sloppy solo?

      He does not read my garbage, we do not even live close to each other.

      Somerby is a bit of a snowflake, he should not read his comments if he does not want to acquire feelings of incompetence.

      Delete
    3. Who knows if he reads the comments. For the most part he does ignore them. If he did read them, however, it would go far to confirm his view that most of us liberals ain't that bright.

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    4. Yes when I first started reading here I was absolutely convinced the comments were meant to illustrate his points.

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    5. @1:38 Which of his points are you talking about? That the msm is not liberal? That is correct, and was a point he used to make years ago. That the msm undermined Gore’s candidacy? That is also correct. That the msm are members of the liberal tribe, a point he frequently makes now? Wooops. That contradicts the first point I listed. What else? That liberals don’t really care about anything and “exude a moral squalor” (look up that phrase in his blog). Or that all liberals think and say exactly the same things? Or that all liberals look to Rachel Maddow as a “thought leader” and are uncritical of the msm? That’s absurd. You take your pick. Some of his points are ok, some not, not to mention his views about Trump being “mentally ill” and that liberals shouldn’t prosecute Republicans when they commit crimes. Unless you believe Somerby is right about everything, there is plenty of room to criticize him.

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    6. I was talking to AC/MA I'm not interested in engaging the hive mind. Just consider it a win for you.

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    7. @2:53. coward

      Delete
  2. I still fondly remember when in 9th grade Biology class, studies took a back seat temporarily, as a TV was wheeled in so we could watch the Cubs in the playoffs.

    Of course that ended badly but at the time it was a great moment!

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    Replies
    1. Forgot to mention, 1984.

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    2. Same year, my 9th grade Biology teacher casually fondled the female students - rubbing shoulders, hands on legs and arms, inappropriate squeezing, etc. They hated it. Everyone knew this but no one spoke up.

      My kid is female, I appreciate the #Me Too movement.

      Delete
  3. My dad used to take us out of school to go to the horse races.

    Somerby's calling his mother "sainted" is vaguely offensive given that he didn't like her much. It has a faintly ironic tone, as if she didn't deserve the honorific.

    I do know quite a few teachers who complain a bit when the well-off parents of their students pull them out of school to go skiing or to take a vacation to the Caribbean. It disrupts learning because the kids must then try to catch up with what they missed. it also subtlely communicates to the children that school is less important than other activities and can be skipped at will. This is an attitude kids will take into a job as they get older.

    No teacher is fooled by "attack of spring fever" into thinking any real malady is involved. Somerby seems to have internalized the attitude that school is optional and less important that other life activities, based on his attitude toward college and his disdain for expertise and higher learning.

    More of the same today.

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    Replies
    1. anon 3:57 - as to your keen observation that no teacher is fooled by the 'attack of spring fever' excuse, I would suggest you have the sense of humor as a mollusk, albeit not quite as much wisdom.

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    2. Yes, the lack of sense of humor is on full display here. Dare I say they are a bunch of angry, humorless, vindictive folks.

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    3. ac ma finds it amusing to repeat falsehoods when they were already debunked. that's a disturbing sense of humor

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  4. "If you're lucky enough to be able to do so, remember to drift with the clouds!"

    If you skip school enough days, you can drift all the time. Just put a cup on the pavement and people will pay you to do it.

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  5. Do you people ever relax and enjoy the moment?

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    Replies
    1. We don't need Somerby to teach us how to do it.

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    2. Somerby is the one who seems uptight, constantly angry about Rachel Maddow or the media and all the shit liberals who keep disappointing him.

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    3. I don't think he seems uptight at all. He is jovial and upbeat, especially considering he is describing the decline of intelligent discourse in our society.

      Maybe an example of how he seems uptight might serve.

      Delete
    4. Why would anyone be jovial and upbeat about the decline of discourse and the end of democracy, unless he were a sociopath?

      Delete
    5. I thought he was uptight and angry? Can't decide?

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    6. No, you suggested he was jovial and upbeat, which makes him a sociopath.

      Delete
    7. So which is he, upbeat or uptight? For those following at home.

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    8. Somerby's agenda is immoral, so are his ultra lame fanboys.

      Delete
  6. Here is an example of Republican concern for life:

    "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott demanded that Biden stop providing baby formula to migrant babies in US custody on the border."

    ReplyDelete