Visual Argument

McDonald's Pandemic

Old Geezer

Every year my family heads out east to visit my grandparents.  When you look at my grandfather sitting in his arm chair watching the Red Sox, he looks like a grumpy old man.  He is a retired Massachusetts cop that very much resembles the comic strip character Crankshaft.  He always greets us with a smile and a hug, which can be difficult with his enlarged mid-section.  He smells like aftershave, and my mom always gets him razor blades for Christmas to which he exclaims "I needed these."  He is balding on the top of his head and has a comb-over with the little hair that he has.

We enjoy talking baseball together and I am quick to rub in the fact that the Twins recently beat the Sox in a four game series.  Every night he can be found watching the game every night on NESN and grumbles when he sees the Sox gave up a home run, and is followed shortly by snide remark about how the the manager left the pitcher in too long, or about how a player "gets paid millions of dollars, and he stinks!"  He was fine with the late manager Bobby Valentine, but always had plenty to say about Terry Francona, and was happy to see him go.  When the game gets really out of hand he switches the channel to Fox News.  It is unbelievable how well he fits the conservative old man stereotype.  He is very cheap and we often accuse him of cheating at cards.

At our cabin out there he tries to do too much work, and my mom scolds him for it and usually tells me to do it instead.  Whenever he walks he hums a little tune.  I can't tell if it is actually humming or if its more wheezing because he is out of shape.  Either way its always the same and I can't remember him not doing it.  The only exercise I have every seen him do are short swims on nice days at the lake, and taking their golden retriever on walks.  He spoils the dog and my uncle calls the only 3-year-old dog a golden receiver that acts like an old lady.  The dog is needs to be dragged if she doesn't get treats while on her walk.  My grandmother always gets mad when my grandfather leave little dog treats in his pockets, and they go through the wash, coming out as little mush-balls.

My family always gives him a hard time, but we love him the same.

Thanksgiving Extravaganza

Thanksgiving is always a fun time of year.  Fortunately, in my family nothing too crazy happens.  Normally my grandparents host Thanksgiving.  However, this year we had it at our house.  I am not exactly sure why, but it was fine none the less.

Barry's Lost in the Kitchen, while funny was not the  full truth this year.  I had to peel potatoes and carrots for our meal.  I did get out of doing the dishes afterward because I was watching football, but I at least helped a little.  As was to be expected, my mom got a bit stressed out.  The whole house was clean and everything was set right, but once the rest of the family had arrived and the gravy was not quite ready, well you just didn't want to be in her way, as was normal when any company came over.  Grandma always offers to help, but my mom always says she doesn't need any.  It is quite the opposite when Thanksgiving is at my grandparents, my mom always helps finish last minute preparations.  My dad is usually the one who carves the turkey, but it isn't a big deal like it is sometimes made out to be in the media.  This year all the food got done, nothing was burned, and the house didn't catch on fire, so it was a plus in my book (not that any of these things happen normally).

It always takes everyone a minute to get seated, even thought the food is already on the table.  There is no particular place for anyone.  For obvious reasons, I always try to find one of the more comfortable chairs that is close to food.  Once everyone is settled my grandfather says grace.  He does this every year seeming reluctant, but I think he really enjoys doing it.  After the food is passed around and everyone is eating, my uncle and I make fun of my cousin, who being a vegetarian has only potatoes, carrots and green beans on her plate.  He has a very distinct and hearty laugh that is easily recognizable and frequently heard at family events.  I was surprised this year to see that he didn't have his usual Mountain Dew with him.  My aunt has an equal loudness about her.  She has an exciting buzz about her that brings an interesting dynamic to Thanksgiving .  I notice that she is the one who always drinks the most wine.  I have yet to discover if there is a correlation between these two things.

No matter how much everyone eats there is always room for dessert.  My grandma always makes delicious pies and real whipped cream.  I think it was a relief this year that she didn't have to cook the whole meal.  Never the less she brought three different types of pie.  My sister exclaims that she can't eat the apple pie that they have in her school's dining hall because "Its just disappointing compared to grandma's."  After a piece of each kind I am thoroughly full.  The conversation goes on about school and how my sister has been.  This is the longest she's been home in over 6 months.  Everything slowly dies down and we clear the table.  I go off and watch football, while everyone else talks more.

Not too long after that everyone leaves.  My aunt and uncle are the first to leave.  This is true no matter where we have Thanksgiving.  I was always upset when we were the last ones to leave my grandparents.  We helped clean up and do the dishes even though everyone had already gone.  Nobody stayed to help us this year, but I don't mind because I got out of doing the dishes too like I already mentioned.  I was conveniently watching football and wasn't asked to help.

I am thankful for the family that I have.  We all have our quirks, but none of us are like the crazy people you hear about in stories.  It is about the same every year, but I don't mind.  It's always good to reconnect with family.  We get to do it all over again in a month.

Cartoons for the Holidays

Here are some comics from recently from some recent holidays that I found entertaining.

We have talked about Halloween in class and I have posted some other things about it around that time. Even though it has almost been a month since then, it delights me to revisit it.  In this cartoon we have the stereotypical Halloween scenario, a creepy tree, crescent moon, jack-o-lantern, and a trick-or-treater.   It is custom to dress up as something frightening for Halloween.  This cartoon plays on poor economic times, which can be very serious, in a joking manner.  What is more scary than opening your statement to find how much money you have, or don't have?  Looking past the fact that the kid probably doesn't know what and investment statement is, and the drawing of the man's face (I'm assuming it's fear) this cartoon give me a little chuckle.

In the spirit of the upcoming holiday this week we have a look at the characters from Sesame Street.   The cartoon features most of the fiction characters from the popular children's television show. To his misfortune, Big Bird is not joining them for the mean, rather he is the meal. He is identified with his distinguishable by his orange legs.  To a young child's horror Big Bird is probably more than enough to feed the cast of the show, with enough for left-overs.  What makes it more humorous are the expressions of the others characters.  Those that we can see either show ignorant delight or evil excitement.  Romney's cuts to PBS must look pretty good to Big Bird with the situation he is in right now.

"Don't Trust Anyone Under 30"

Although it took most of term one, we have finally reached the conclusion of "The Dumbest Generation."  Here is a look back.

The argument of Bauerlein's book goes deeper than, simply the unintelligence of the upcoming generation.  I boil his argument down to two main points.  Education has not progressed, even through technological advancements, and the young generation is lacking intellectual motivation.  He talks extensively about what kid should be learning in the classroom, the efforts of schools to better their students, and the dwindling numbers aspiring to fill necessary careers.  The investments of schools in computers, iPad, and such is not yielding positive results.  Students do not retain knowledge like previous generation, but this is not completely the schools' fault.  Students do not have the same desire, or need to learn.  Bauerlein spend a great deal of time on teen's use of technology.  They have infinite information, literally at their fingertips, through the internet, and do not wish to spend their time in study.  These arguments give way to his call to action.  Something must be done this generation, and they aren't headed down a path to help themselves.

I have found some places where I especially agreed with what Bauerlein said.  "Young people have never been so intensely mindful of and present to one another, so enabled in adolescent contact. Teen images and songs, hot gossip and games, and youth-to-youth communications no longer limited by time or space wrap them up in a generational cocoon reaching all the way into their bedrooms." There is even a saying for this, #yolo.  I very much agree that with social networking and internet devices my generation lives in the here and now.  Why should study for that history test and not go out with my friends? You only live once.  Another instance I found is this "Digital technology might brighten the students' outlook not only for the obvious reason that it gives them mouses and keyboards to wield, but also because it saves them the effort of acquiring knowledge and developing skills.  When screens deliver words and numbers and images in fun sequence, digital fans assert, the students imbibe the embedded lessons with glee, but, in fact while the medium may raise the glee of the students, we have little evidence that the embedded lessons take hold as sustained learning in students' minds." I am a skeptic of more and more technological involvement in the classroom.  My school has a plan to  give iPads to students in the coming years, and for what?  I do not believe that they will improve anything.  I connect both of these passages to real world events and agree with the outcomes.

Perhaps it is due to the fact that they do not pertain to me, but there were segments where I disagreed with the Bauerlein.  "Undergraduates in 2006, it turned out, scored 30 percent higher than students in 1982 on the narcissism scale, with two-thirds of them reaching above-average levels.  The researchers traced the rise directly to self-esteem orientations in the schoolroom, and lead author Jean Twenge groused, 'We need to stop endlessly repeating, 'You're special,' and having children repeat it back. Kids are self -centered enough already.'"  Sure I was praised in elementary school, and have can have a large ego regarding certain things, but in no way would I think school is producing narcissist.  If anything I have been broken down by teachers.  I also found this:  "As long as adolescent concerns didn't take up every leisure hour of the day, as long as mentors now and then impressed the young with the importance of knowledge, as long as book reading held steady, intellectual pursuits maintained some ground in the out-of-school lives of kids.  They weren't required for work or school, but they still contributed to a young person's formation.  They included reading for fun, visiting museums, listening to what music educators call 'art music,' browsing in libraries and bookstores, attending theater and dance performances, joining extracurricular groups (such as French Club), and participating in politics, say by volunteering in a campaign."  I was offended by this list of things that students used to do but are no longer.  I am currently re-reading the Hobbit by Tolkien, playing in the pit orchestra for "The Sound of Music," have been to local, national, and international museums, and enjoy listening to some Glen Miller, music rich in American history that I would classify as "art music."

I have mixed feelings about the effectiveness of Bauerlein's argument.  There were certain times when some of the things that he said made absolutely no sense, and other times when his persuasion worked. However, I find it a bit ironic, formatting the book the way he did.  It is written in such a way that the generation he describes, the dumbest generation, would never read it.  He cites information how teens like to skim, and get the information they need quickly.  Then Bauerlein does the opposite.  His 250 page book is full of facts and figures that bog the reader down.  This along with his call to action show that his intended audience is older.  Even though they are not the group taking the criticism, his allegations come across hard.  He backs his claim up with extensive information to get his audience to believe in the problem.  The sheer quantity of figures may be slightly excessive, but they provide plenty of backing to make his claim believable.  My personal reaction is just "meh", I certainly wouldn't have read the whole thing on my own (which probably further proves his argument).