Today, the Matron and her husband attended a little awards ceremony at Stryker's Junior High School -- a ceremony in which the roughly 350 seventh graders were recognized for honor roll, track, French club and All That.
When Stryker's name was called, the Matron (who was experiencing an acute cardiovascular event over the hour + wait she was experiencing without a BOOK or WORK!) there was a low rumble of approval from the assorted seventh graders --and a couple of whoops -- when the announcer (his algebra teacher) said this:
"Next, A honor roll, excellence in Magnet Science, excellence in Advanced Algebra, excellence in Advanced English and computer club--Stryker Thompson."
Beat
"Next, A honor roll, excellence in Magnet Science, excellence in Advanced Algebra, excellence in Advanced English and computer club--Stryker Thompson."
Beat
"Soon to be just Stryker, we hope."
And a low growl of approval rolled through the 300 + crowd.
The Matron thinketh her son has the advance team out, working the field.
The Matron thinketh her son has the advance team out, working the field.
Speaking of which, nobody was felled by gunfire or inflammatory rhetoric at Wednesday night's game, but the astrological powers that be have decided to torture the Matron with EIGHT HOURS OF BASEBALL tomorrow.
Certainly, someone's psyche will crack. The Matron might just be first in line.
14 comments:
I must say, you did your part by giving him a great stand-alone first name.
Dear, you must take up knitting. I couldn't survive an awards assembly or sports event without it.
You waited without a book? I'm so sorry.
Ernest had to be at the school music program 1/2 hour early...I took my kindle. I can't wait without a book.
We are not getting out of this depression anytime soon. Its going to get a lot worse for most of us. It didn't have to be this way. Greed ruins everything. If you don't believe it, then ask any professor of economics.
"As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption; mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth -- not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced -- to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery. Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped."
Marriner Eccles, FDR's Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank - 1959
In other words, the first Great Depression was caused by greed. The rich couldn't settle for reasonable pay. They had to have more and more and more. That caused a giant shift in buying power from the majority to the rich. When the majority lost their buying power, they lost their ability to support the economy. Einstein said basically the same thing in 1949.
Its even worse now. Ordinary people havn't only lost their relative buying power. They have also lost their savings, home values, pensions, and benefits. This has been happening gradually for the last 30 years. Meanwhile, the rich have become super incredibly rich. The richest 500 Americans are worth about 2 trillion dollars. More than the bottom 40% of American housholds combined. The richest 1 percent are worth about 17 trillion dollars. More than the bottom 98% of American households combined. Thats just insane. I don't care how much work for humanity the rich claim to do. Its nothing but a cover for their own greed. We don't need anymore rich people to create jobs or make donations for charity. We need them to get reasonable about how much money and assets they keep for themselves.
Don't believe their excuse about paying more income taxes. They don't pay enough. For every tax they pay, they get an obscene profit, bailout, or kickback from our government to cover it. We had a progressive tax system that worked for over 40 years. It prevented too much wealth from accumulating at the top. In 1976, the middle 80% owned about 2/3 of America's total wealth. Reagan lowered taxes for the rich. Bush lowered them again. Now, the richest 5% own about 2/3 of America's total wealth. The lower 95% own about 1/3. America's wealth has been transfered from poor to rich again. Now, we have another depression.
Don't believe it when the rich claim to be getting poorer. Property values have gone down for everyone. Thats because of the concentration of wealth and income. When the economy slows down, property values tank. So when rich people complain about lower net worth, its a trick. They still have the same buying power on average.
Everything that is happening with the economy is happening because too much wealth has been taken away from the majority and concentrated into the private vaults of rich people. The same ones on TV telling us how much they want to help the world. Its a big lie. Just another way to promote their own business and get more of our money. Rich people don't want to help the world. They want to own it.
Now, the economy is ruined. Obama can't fix it because the rich won't let him. There will be no bailout for the people because the ones with all the money won't settle for less. They want more. Its going to get a lot worse. Say goodbye to the American dream and hello to the American nightmare.
Please copy and spread the word.
Wow. I will send good (should we wish for relaxing?) baseball vibes. My sister also has a hunk of her life consumed by baseball at this time of year. Knitting might help...
Yup! I would definitely take up knitting otherwise your psyche will crack. Knitting is a very meditative activity and productive also.
Stryker is such a good name to stand on its own. It's a very masculine name and carries a punch. You chose well, Matron.
Yeah. Bono, Madonna, Prince, Stryker. Good names.
Knitting is the hobby for people with little patience. It fills those waiting times with calming productivity and the wonderful tactile sense of luscious yarn.
Reading the comments makes me on the verge of taking up knitting as a hobby. I understand that Martha Stewart has "learn to knit" instruction on her blog. Just thought you might want to know...
Wow, you have quite the troll there.
I wonder where Stryker gets his personality from? **looking in the Matron's general direction**
Say what? Wow! I think SOMEONE needs their own blog.
I must agree with Jenn, you did give Stryker a great stand alone name. :) Also with the knitting, it is wonderful and so relaxing. It makes waiting so much more tolerable because you are actually making something in the process.
Knitting is great for people with little patience? Really? Because I am finding, as an impatient person, that the several weeks/months it is taking me to knit a prayer shawl is driving me C R A Z Y. It is taking forfrickingever, thanks, and I work on it nearly every day.
I was going to suggest what my Mom used to do - take a section of a larger cross stitch project along with everywhere. She managed, over the course of two children taking piano lessons, playing sports, etc to finish panels to assemble into two beautiful twin sized quilts.
Cross stitch materials seem easier to manage transportably speaking. If I had to knit on this shawl thingie and have it all sitting on my lap outside in Texas in June I'd melt. Or kill somebody. Or both.
Well, it worked for Cher.
There really is something cool about a one-name moniker. It's really cool in that Beyonce, Bono, and yes, Oprah way.
cool
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