Roger O Green

Lydster: school days, reimagined

rigorous sans being onerous

albany-city-school-district-squarelogo By Friday, March 13, the rumors were rife in Albany, NY that there would be no school the following week because of the pandemic. Specifically, Albany County had confirmed two cases in the county the day before. Two of my daughter’s teachers gave her homework for the following week, just in case. At about 4:35 p.m., it was official: no school for the next two weeks.

The district had links to old exams, Khan Academy and other materials. As it became obvious that the schools would be closed well beyond the initial March dates, the district started distributing Chromebooks to students to assist families with computer access at home. Some free WiFi options were touted.

A new schedule

On Monday, April 6, teachers were to begin new instruction at all grade levels. For high schools, it meant classes at 9 and 10:30 a.m., lunch between 11:30 and 12:30, and classes at 12:30 and 2.p.m. The online learning is through Google Classroom. So the daughter is up by 8 a.m. to start her reimagined school day.

It was interesting to me how the course work has been recreated. Her physics teacher has worksheets and short videos, featuring herself. Others were making use of existing worksheets from various sources; some are great. Some, though, were difficult for even me to follow.

I have helped my daughter with her physics, math and French homework because of my experience from a half-century ago. My wife, the ENL teacher, who is also working all day from home, assists with English Language Arts, as they call it, and art, not that my daughter needs the assistance there.

Electronic resources continue to be available. Given the fact that these classes weren’t designed for online learning, the schedule seems rigorous enough without being onerous. It would be trickier, though if she were taking two classes of the same category, such as math, science or language. Or if she and siblings were sharing a Chromebook. Fortunately, this not the case. I feel very glad that I’m not in the position to have to homeschool my daughter, just help her a bit.

One real drag: the spring break, scheduled for April 10-17, became instead “scheduled days of instruction in alignment with Governor Cuomo’s executive order closing all New York schools through April 29 due to COVID-19.”

Motown Memories: found list

Too Many Fish in the Sea

Marvelettes Here’s another found list, this one labeled Motown Memories. I like the fact that most of these songs are not the obvious choices.

I’m A Road Runner – Jr. Walker and the All Stars. #4 RB, #20 pop in 1966. I never owned any of his albums. Yet I remember what the cover of the album containing the song looked like. It appears on the various inner sleeves of the Supremes, Temptations, and Four Tops albums I owned.
Girl, Why You Want To Make Me Blue – the Temptations. #11 RB, #26 pop in 1964. The single just before My Girl.
Don’t Look Back – the Temptations. #15 pop, #83 RB in 1965. The B-side of My Baby.
Ask the Lonely – the Four Tops. #9 RB, #24 pop in 1965. this was covered by the Jackson Five.

I’ll Be Doggone – Marvin Gaye. #1 RB, #8 pop in 1965. His first soul #1. His first pop #1 would be I Heard It Through the Grapevine.
Beechwood 4-5789 – the Marvelettes. #7 RB, #17 pop in 1962. I’ve read that people with that real phone number were inconvenienced for months.
Too Many Fish in the Sea – the Marvelettes. #5 RB, #25 pop in 1965. I may have heard the Young Rascals version first.
Tracks of My Tears – the Miracles. #2 RB, #16 pop in 1965. Smokey Robinson!

I’m Gonna Make You Love Me – Diana Ross and the Supremes & the Temptations. #2 for three weeks RB, #2 for two weeks pop in 1969. It was kept out of the #1 spot by Marvin Gaye’s Grapevine.
Walk Away from Love – David Ruffin, #1 RB, #9 pop in 1976. A big hit from the former Temptation.
My Whole World Ended – David Ruffin, #2 RB, #9 pop in 1969.

And finally

Baby I’m for Real – the Originals. #1 for five weeks RB, #14 pop. Produced by Marvin Gaye.

That’s the end of the list, but I figure I’d add the massive hit, already mentioned twice.

I Heard It Through the Grapevine – Marvin Gaye. #1 for seven weeks on both RB and pop. The Miracles version was famously rejected by Motown boss Berry Gordy.

But he allowed the iteration by Gladys Knight and the Pips to be released. It went #1 for six weeks RB, #2 for three weeks pop in 1966. It was kept out of the top pop spot by Daydream Believer by the Monkees, then Hello Goodbye by The Beatles.

I hope you enjoyed someone else’s Motown Memories. I know I did.

Puerto Rico pill organizer

“free time”

The Puerto Rico pill organizer is my daily reminder. As are most of us, I am a creature of habit. After I retired, my ability to remember to take my daily medicines seemed to have gone out the window.

It’s not that there are THAT many of them. One statin pill. One aspirin, what they used to call a “baby aspirin” when I was growing up. And most notably, four calcium/vitamin D3 pills.

Apparently, because I have an autoimmune disease – the vitiligo – this has an effect on my calcium retention. It’s supposed to be at 3000. Three thousand what I have no idea. It was at 1600 three years ago, 2300 two years ago, and 2400 last year. So I was to take 2400mg of calcium daily. But I’d forget.

My family went to this flea market in the fall. At the end of the day, they had a bag sale. All you could get in a bag for five bucks. There was a seven-day poll dispenser from the Villa Cofresi Hotel, in Rincon, PR.

Essentially, bag sales allow one to buy stuff you don’t know if you need. Still, for about three seconds I resisted picking the pill dispenser. That would mean that I must be old. Then I realized, “Well, I’m unlikely to see my 132nd birthday, so I’m more than middle-aged.” AND I was neglecting taking the pills.

I’m doing MUCH better. Even when I miss a day, it’s ONLY a day, not three or four or who knows how many.

Retired

Do you know what I miss since being retired, pre-COVID? Taking a sick day. I had about a week and a half of “flu-like symptoms” in the fall. Somehow, not going to work was a measure of “geez, I must REALLY be sick.” I suppose missing two choir rehearsal and a church service was the closest approximation.

With all this purported “free time”, you might think I’ve had a couple massages. I’ve had none. This must be rectified – well, when I can again!

Fighting digital divide: national defense

DARPA

As a librarian, I’ve been hearing about the digital divide practically from the beginning of my career.

It is defined as “the growing gap between the underprivileged members of society, especially the poor, rural, elderly, and handicapped portion of the population who do not have access to computers or the internet; and the wealthy, middle-class, and young Americans living in urban and suburban areas who have access.” Three years ago, it was a quarter of the nation.

If we’ve learned nothing else from the COVID-19 experience, it is that When School Is Online, the Digital Divide Grows Greater. The problem has not improved greatly in recent years. Americans turned to technology during the COVID-19 outbreak. An outage would be a problem.

A highway is a highway

I’m wondering if the previous arguments have been off. People I know speak of the digital divide in terms such as “economic justice” or “fairness.” That might attract us liberals, but meh. They see underserved as one letter off from undeserved. We need to sell it as a Defense Initiative. Internet Force! Y’know, like Space Force.

And there’s a lot of history behind this. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has funded projects that “have provided significant technologies that influenced many non-military fields, such as computer networking and the basis for the modern Internet, and graphical user interfaces in information technology.”

There may be not enough money in the domestic budget for such an initiative. But there seems to always be money in the Defense budget. This is a national security issue. This will keep us safe in the next disaster. The interstate highway system was purportedly built, in part, “in case of atomic attack on our key cities, the road net [would] permit quick evacuation of target areas.” In the case of the next disaster, we need our people to have access to the information highway as well.

Earth Day 2070, for good or ill

This Is Insane

The National Geographic had a “flip” magazine issue for Earth Day. Where will we be in 2070? Will we have saved the world? Or will we destroy the planet?

Based on the past three years, I am pessimistic. The current regime has rolled back vehicle emission standards and the Clean Power Plan. It has appointed a former coal lobbyist to lead the EPA, who replaced a guy equally unqualified. Scientifically inaccurate information about climate change is regularly inserted into scientific reports.

Regularly, court cases break down protections. For instance, in March, toxic copper sulfide mining in the watershed of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was permitted.

The effects of climate change appears everywhere we look. Fires are pervasive in Australia, California, Siberia and elsewhere. In fact, “wildfires in California today burn 500 percent more land per year than they did in 1972.” We’re also seeing devastating hurricanes such as Harvey, Dorian, and Maria.

Yet, and ‘Holy Crap This Is Insane’: Citing Coronavirus Pandemic, EPA Indefinitely Suspends Environmental Rules. “The EPA uses this global pandemic to create loopholes for destroying the environment.” The regime indeed has “issued a total suspension of enforcement of environmental laws, announcing that companies will no longer need to meet environmental standards during the outbreak. The EPA has set no end date to the policy.”

That was the absolute wrong takeaway. What would happen if the world reacted to climate change like it’s reacting to the coronavirus? In spite of some failures in addressing the pandemic, we’d be going in the right direction.

COVID and the environment

Some semi-good news: Could COVID-19 Spell the End of the Fracking Industry as We Know It? “Seven of the most active companies involved in fracking in Texas have already cut $7.6 billion from their budgets as a response to the oil price collapse.”

And some actual good news from the Boston Globe: Amid coronavirus pandemic, air pollution declines in Boston and elsewhere. It’s an antidote to the cooped up, post-COVID-19 world: a walk or run to get some sun and breathe the spring air. And yes, it’s no illusion born of captivity, the air is actually fresher.

“Pollution — in a remarkably short time — has abated. In the past few weeks, satellite measurements have found that emissions from cars, trucks, and airplanes have declined in metropolitan Boston by about 30 percent, while overall carbon emissions have fallen by an estimated 15 percent.

“Such a sudden drop has few precedents in the modern era, a testament to the scale of societal disruption caused by the virus.”

Do we really need a pandemic to make our planet less polluted by Earth Day 2070? If so, what does that say about us?