Pariah

Bah. Visible light was good enough for our ancestors, it's good enough for me.

Our question has been this: If the legislature wants to base our pay on the results of standardized tests, can we base their pay on the performance of the economy?

Isn't that dangerous and/or insensitive?

Q - You've decided to blow up Jerry Jones' new billion dollar stadium? Why?! A - The rhinoceros is fine, but the girl in the gorilla suit has to go.

Q - Peter Jackson has decided to make another LOTR-universe movie after installment three of The Hobbit. Guess who it stars. A - Whack it with a lacrosse pole.

You're also an astronomer. The sky is more interesting to look at after the sun sets.

Precisely correct. I had a professor in college who went into excruciating detail on how ineffective standardized tests are: They don't correlate with GPA, they don't measure either content knowledge or critical thinking skills, and they don't predict success in college or the workplace. The only thing standardized tests predict with any accuracy, or so said he, is how students will do on other standardized tests. Naturally, our State Legislature wants to tie teacher salaries to student results on standardized tests.

Q - Will you connect the power source for my death ray already?! A - I don't believe they exist.

I kid, I kid. But I do like ice hockey better than soccer, I won't lie.

From Despair.com:

Could we implement a movie ratings system of S for "Sucks" and DS for "Doesn't Suck"?

Silly Europeans, confusing soccer with football.

3. "Blue Moon Monday" by Asia featuring John Payne

1. "Big Bad Moon" by Joe Satriani - with vocals! 2. "Magnum Opus" by Kansas (The second section, and the only one with lyrics, is titled 'Howling at the Moon'.)

Is that more or less messy than using a nine iron?

As a church leader I know once said, "You have to have a pretty darn good meeting for it to be better than no meeting at all." Generally, I concur with this view.

Don't you laugh with derision at practically everything?

Buzz the Kremlin. And then Vladimir Putin's private residence. Just to see the looks on everyone's faces. New Topic: It's Tax Day here in the USA. Novel ways to 'celebrate' this occasion.

My high school chemistry/physics/computer programming/photography teacher wore nothing but Hawaiian shirts (and similarly loud prints).

They are extremely useful. Just not in my classroom. A place for everything and everything in its place, and all that.

Not the least of which is Lady Pariah, for whom I employ all manner of physical and chemical arachnacidal techniques. When I told her today's story, her response was, and I quote, "That's awesome."

I got to kill a spider in class today, because it was freaking out some of my students. So I killed it with style--big, exaggerated stomp that resonated through the classroom, followed by checking the underside of my boot and saying, "Yeah, he's dead." It was a moderate spectacle.

Who knows anything when they're five years old?

Did anyone laugh at any part of that movie?

He's been dead for more than 40 years and people are still talking about him. He must have known something.