My goodness!

[conuly]

Somebody really has made a recipe for Time City's butter pie!

Upon re-read, I realize that there is a small problem with the timeline in the book. Not in the usual time travel sense, which would be more or less okay, but in the educational calendar.

Vivian arrives in Time City during their half term, which I understand to be a short vacation in the middle of the semester - like midwinter recess in NYC. She attends school for two or three days, maybe as long as five - and then the whole city shuts down for two days of ceremonies! (And also the dramatic conclusion, but nobody knew that yet while the ceremonies happen every year.)

If they know, as they must know, that the kids will all have two days off, why not schedule their break a few days later so as to encompass the holiday? Instead of this on-again, off-again nonsense, which can't be good for their learning.

(Of course, I'm saying this from a city which only a few years ago started school on a Wednesday and then immediately took the next two days off for the Jewish New Year. Which, okay, it's an important holiday, but still. Start the year on a different day then!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Never Buy Drawing Paper Again With This Endlessly Reusable Art Notebook

Why Northern Long-Eared Bats Love Nantucket

Robot, heal thyself (I'll confess - I love headlines the most when they make a pithy reference. I don't care if it's a sophisticated reference or a very low-brow one, I love them, and I love being able to say I got the joke, no matter how obvious it was. Also, this is a cool article. It's not just the headline. But I love the headline.)

You’ll Never Be as Radical as This 18th-Century Quaker Dwarf

The Story of the DuckTales Theme, History’s Catchiest Single Minute of Music

Tougher than steel: Japan looks to wood pulp to make lighter auto parts

Why NASA is sending bacteria into the sky on balloons during the eclipse

How America's First Self-Made Female Millionaire Built Her Fortune

Glass may not seem an obvious material for a bone replacement. But UK surgeons are finding that bioglass not only is stronger than bone: it can bend, bounce and even fight infection.

American evangelicals’ antigay gospel forced him to flee Uganda. Then Christians in California offered him a home. A refugee’s story in words and pictures.

I’ll get my goat: Kazakhstan's ancient sport for modern times

The Moral History of Air-Conditioning

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The Repercussions of the Black Teacher Shortage

They were partners in fighting crime. The only problem: Neither was a cop. But when one friend turned on the other, things got real.

Same-sex couples do not influence their adoptive children's gender identity

The Wealthy Activist Who Helped Turn “Bleeding Kansas” Free

“Barack Obama is to blame”: 13 Alabama conservatives on Charlottesville

Confederate statues removed across southern US states – in pictures

Eight Confederate leaders are honored with sculptures in the halls of Congress.

Historians Question Trump’s Comments on Confederate Monuments

What Trump gets wrong about Confederate statues, in one chart

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What possessed a family man from Ohio to smuggle a Bible into North Korea?

Young Afghans see opportunities dwindle as security worsens

How a Conservative TV Giant Is Ridding Itself of Regulation

The nation’s current post-truth moment is the ultimate expression of mind-sets that have made America exceptional throughout its history.

Indonesia clinic gives relief to Muslims with tattoo regrets

It took decades to unravel Nixon’s sabotage of Vietnam peace talks. Now, the full story can be told.

Popular Pesticides Keep Bumblebees From Laying Eggs

70 years later, survivors recall the horrors of India-Pakistan partition

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Sentenced To Adulthood: Direct File Laws Bypass Juvenile Justice System

Comments

[elf]

In the US, school schedules are tightly arranged around the minimum number of days in an official school year; cutting out an extra couple of days at the beginning means adding them somewhere else - removing another holiday, or extending the year. And since they generally need to have a cushion in case of closing for horrible weather or natural disaster, they can't make it too close.

Changing the end date scrambles the summer school schedule along with coordinated dates arranged with other schools in the district and colleges and such. So you wind up with weird half-weeks here and there.

It is true that everyone's actual learning goes to hell with 1-2 day weeks with vacation days filling out the rest, but they're not paid according to how well students learn, just according to how many butts are in the seats when they take attendance.

[conuly]

In Time City, that's the only school in the city. They could've shuffled the calendar a bit.

In NYC, this was our first year with the new contract giving teachers an extra prep day after Labor Day. Honestly, not a single teacher I spoke to approved of the way the contract screwed the scheduling. Somebody signed off on this, but it wasn't them!

Benjamin Lay's determination and persistence

[jesse_the_k]

reminds me how long some change takes.

Good on him!

Re: Benjamin Lay's determination and persistence

[conuly]

I wonder if he has any statues up.

[wpadmirer]

OMG! So many links I want to read!

[archangelbeth]

In our town, there are a few days of school, then a long weekend -- it's sort of a "shakedown" where the kids mill around getting lost in the school (for the ones who have just moved to Middle or High school buildings, especially), figuring out their classes, panicking, and figuring out what to buy.

So I can actually totally go with "a few days that no one really counts because it's all going to be logistics and no learning," a long weekend to get things straightened out, etc.

[pipilj]

Lots of interesting links to go through. In India we normally have five day weeks.There are periods when there are more breaks when the festive season starts. With breaks in the Summer, Diwali and Christmas, the school gives a fair bit of holiday homework during the period.

[conuly]

US schools sometimes give vacation homework, but it's rare for it to "count".

[zesty_pinto]

That butter pie recipe has given me an excuse to make endless Paul McCartney jokes. Thank you for your service (my friends probably hate you for it though, hah).

Me and the fiancee were talking about how much cars have changed in their time, as reflected through how much head room I get. I'm curious how the supply and materials chain would also help bolster "green" jobs as carbon zero materials get considered more. Disposal of cars will be more interesting too though.

[warriorsavant]

That Kazaki sport is also played in Afghanistan, where it is called Buzkashi. I've played it seen it played. Once having seen that, all other sports are no longer macho: football, soccer, WWF fighting, "extreme" whatever... are all for wimps.

[conuly]

Hurling?

[warriorsavant]

Nope. Close but no cigar. Not even hockey counts in comparison to buzkashi.

[purple_crocus]

School starting times are one my my pet peeves. In Europe you don't get time off for Jewish holidays and it was always either the first few days of school or school picture day. Cue always missing the first day of class or not being in the class picture that year. Why they could never reschedule to not fall on holidays always baffled me.

[conuly]

Why they could never reschedule to not fall on holidays always baffled me.

Because they don't want to bother to accommodate you. In NYC, they make the effort because Jews comprise a fairly large percentage of the population (and also now we're getting off Eid and Lunar New Year on the same reasoning about Muslims and Asians) but most districts in the US don't bother either.

[purple_crocus]

That is indeed true. I was usually the only Jew in my year group so why bother? Hmmm.