Happy birthday to my big brother David who turns 44 today!

Here’s a picture of us spending some quality time together in 1971 for you all to enjoy. I’m guessing my dad put those socks on me, considering they look hideous and don’t match my shirt (just kidding, Dad).

Happy birthday, bro!

Something on your mind? Something you’d like to discuss? Here’s your chance to get it off your chest. I’ve got writer’s block today, so please feel free to talk about whatever is important to you.

Hello everyone. Did you miss me? I enjoyed my mini-vacation. It was refreshing and so nice to be “unplugged” for a few days. Of course, that meant I had roughly 30 billion e-mail messages when I returned. I’m sorting through them now.

I haven’t read through the papers or checked any other blogs for the past four days, so I feel a bit out of the loop at the moment. I did happen to see the “Another View” letter to the editor in Sunday’s paper (the heading was the misnomer of the year since it’s not “another view” but exactly the same view as the paper’s) and today’s “Word on the Street” (which was right on point).

While I’m catching up, feel free to use this as another open thread to talk about whatever you wish.

I won’t be able to blog for the next few days. I’m taking a little mini-vacation this weekend. So, in the meantime, please feel free to comment on anything you’d like. The place is yours; make yourself at home!

Wow, there’s so much news on which to comment, I don’t know where to start! Why don’t you kick things off on this open thread in the meantime?

I’m working on entries for: Parental accountability, Kellar Branch options to come before the city council, Museum funding, District 150 restructuring information, Bradley’s expansion, the upcoming elections, and some other odds and ends, so stay tuned….

I’ve got a lot of plates spinning today, but you guys always come up with such interesting topics, please feel free to use this as an open thread to discuss whatever you’d like. I have some interesting Kellar Branch news to share. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it posted tonight sometime. Also, I’ve posted the Introduction and Key Elements of Bradley’s new Institutional Plan. You can link to it from my previous post now, or just click here.

Happy Monday, everyone!

I know I haven’t posted anything lately, but I’m researching a couple of things I hope to have up soon. In the meantime, feel free to comment on whatever you’d like.

“There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don’t have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.”

— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I was reading about Richwoods High School on the Historic Peoria website tonight, and it reminded me of something I hadn’t thought of in a long time.

In 1987 I was a junior at Richwoods, and the school dress code didn’t allow any students to wear shorts. Fair enough. However, the dress code did allow the girls to wear mini-skirts. Many guys saw this as a double-standard and complained pretty loudly about it, especially as the days (and the classrooms) got hotter.

At one point, several guys actually came to school in mini-skirts. That was funny, and more than a little disturbing. I didn’t participate, being more shy and reserved back then, and I’m relatively certain that Sean Matheson (who was a year behind me at Richwoods) didn’t either.

Well, the administration put a stop to that pretty quickly. So the next course of action, naturally, was for the students to go “on strike.” That’s right, they skipped class and sat out on the sidewalk in front of the school with hand-made signs to protest the “no shorts” dress code policy.

All of this garnered the school a surprising amount of local publicity. I remember seeing it on the news, and Crow Carroll even did a parody song about it to the tune of “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. (If you haven’t heard Crow Carroll parodies before, check out Wayne R. Miller’s site for some samples; “Metamora Girls” is especially good. These were a staple of local top-40 radio when I was in high school.)

Believe it or not, the little student-uprising worked, and Richwoods finally relented and allowed students to wear shorts when it got above a certain temperature. As I recall, we all considered it a great moral victory at the time. Looking back on it now, though, I think we probably could have put our efforts to better use… like, maybe, studying.

In case you’re wondering why blogging is so light today (and will be tomorrow, too), it’s because I’m in Kansas City — well, actually Overland Park, Kansas. I couldn’t tell you ahead of time because I was coming out here for a surprise anniversary party for my aunt and uncle. They’re celebrating their 25th anniversary this month! Well, they were very surprised and a good time was had by all.

I’ll be driving back tomorrow, so it will be another light posting day. Also, the Dead Sea Scrolls are on display at Union Station in KC…. If they’re open tomorrow, I might have to take a look at that exhibit!

Feel free to consider this an “open thread” and comment on anything you want while I’m gone.