Groundhog Day is tomorrow. Again. And because our time is a little more limited tomorrow night, we chose to hold our annual viewings of "Jack Frost" and "Groundhog Day" tonight in the great hall. Only three people came to the first showing of "Jack Frost," that being Madison, Mommy and myself. Mainly because they were the only ones invited. But it was still fun seeing Pardon-Me-Pete once again, and seeing all the power this large rodent wields! Winter itself must yield to the might of this commanding groundhog!
Each year we make a big deal out of Groundhog Day, and it's always fun. Tomorrow morning, we'll watch the livestream from Punxsutawney, along with thousands of others, asking the big question, "Six more weeks of winter? Or is spring on the way?"
Tonight we had ballet practice, and a bit of grocery shopping as well. Madison was busy dancing, and then doing some homework afterwards, reciting a big passage about the levels of government and using words like "ratified" and "amendment." It's a tougher passage, but this business of reciting passages is doing her a world of good with her speech. She's learning new words, and learning how to pronounce them as well. If only we thought of this sooner!
Madison is also doing a paper sort of like the one she did last quarter, this time on the famous American Franklin D. Roosevelt. Fortunately, that's the one she chose. Other choices were Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Abraham Lincoln. Oh, who are we kidding? This is a public school, and therefore the other choices were - and I'm not making this up - Caesar Chavez, Lyndon B. Johnson, Thurgood Marshall, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. And of course, the book she's reading tonight - and taking an online test about - is covering the life of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer. Fair and balanced indeed! At least she doesn't have to do a paper on Bill Clinton.
Speaking of which, his wife won - just barely - the Iowa Caucus tonight. It was literally so close that they tossed coins to determine the winner for some delegates. Daddy was explaining a bit more of the electoral process to Madison this morning, and of course this is a huge teachable moment. But how do you logically explain to a child that it makes perfect sense to toss a coin in order to determine the results of the election of the next leader of the free world? I don't remember reading about that in the Constitution. Maybe that's one of the parts some crazy Supreme Justice* legislated.**
Of course, it's not in the Constitution. It's a political party idea, and it's apparently pretty normal. My thought is this though: if you're going to leave the decision of who the next leader of the free world is up to chance, why not go with something more elaborate?
For example, why not a game of Yahtzee? Imagine the building excitement for your candidate as they get a small straight, and then a three-of-a-kind, and this next roll could be the one where we get Yahtzee… and a scream of celebration bursts out from all the supporters: "Yahtzee!"
Of course, there is a little bit of strategy in Yahtzee too. But at least this idea pairs the random nature of the decision with a tiny bit of intelligence. Okay, will Bernie Sanders' team try for the four-of-a-kind, or settle for the full house? Meanwhile Hillary Clinton's supporters are gambling on that large straight, as our nation looks on with frenzied excitement. Who will win this game of Yahtzee and win the primary? Forget the 'votes' part. This is where the real strategy excitement happen!
Anyway, Mrs. Clinton won the Democratic Primary. If it's any consolation for disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporters, the highlight of Mrs. Clinton's victory speech wasn't Mrs. Clinton at all. It happened to be a guy who is now known as "the Sticker Kid." He was there behind her as she spoke, a guy with stickers on his face, spending a good minute and a half making strange faces behind Mrs. Clinton as she was speaking. And no one stopped him! As you can imagine, this was the thing people remember, over anything that the candidate actually said.
Now we will say as funny as it was, it is also amazingly disrespectful, and with that said, we probably won't be showing the video to Madison. Heaven forbid she acts like the Sticker Kid. His parents must be sort of embarrassed. Unless they're Republicans.
Moving on: Madison knows enough about the political process to know what's going on, and she's been learning quite a bit at school, and from the episodes of "School House Rock" that we've been showing her. Remember "I'm Just a Bill" and those other cartoons? Madison has been watching those at home, and at school too. At least they have enough sense to show the classics!
* Like the one mentioned above.
** Yes, they're not supposed to legislate.
Each year we make a big deal out of Groundhog Day, and it's always fun. Tomorrow morning, we'll watch the livestream from Punxsutawney, along with thousands of others, asking the big question, "Six more weeks of winter? Or is spring on the way?"
Tonight we had ballet practice, and a bit of grocery shopping as well. Madison was busy dancing, and then doing some homework afterwards, reciting a big passage about the levels of government and using words like "ratified" and "amendment." It's a tougher passage, but this business of reciting passages is doing her a world of good with her speech. She's learning new words, and learning how to pronounce them as well. If only we thought of this sooner!
Madison is also doing a paper sort of like the one she did last quarter, this time on the famous American Franklin D. Roosevelt. Fortunately, that's the one she chose. Other choices were Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Abraham Lincoln. Oh, who are we kidding? This is a public school, and therefore the other choices were - and I'm not making this up - Caesar Chavez, Lyndon B. Johnson, Thurgood Marshall, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. And of course, the book she's reading tonight - and taking an online test about - is covering the life of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer. Fair and balanced indeed! At least she doesn't have to do a paper on Bill Clinton.
Speaking of which, his wife won - just barely - the Iowa Caucus tonight. It was literally so close that they tossed coins to determine the winner for some delegates. Daddy was explaining a bit more of the electoral process to Madison this morning, and of course this is a huge teachable moment. But how do you logically explain to a child that it makes perfect sense to toss a coin in order to determine the results of the election of the next leader of the free world? I don't remember reading about that in the Constitution. Maybe that's one of the parts some crazy Supreme Justice* legislated.**
Of course, it's not in the Constitution. It's a political party idea, and it's apparently pretty normal. My thought is this though: if you're going to leave the decision of who the next leader of the free world is up to chance, why not go with something more elaborate?
For example, why not a game of Yahtzee? Imagine the building excitement for your candidate as they get a small straight, and then a three-of-a-kind, and this next roll could be the one where we get Yahtzee… and a scream of celebration bursts out from all the supporters: "Yahtzee!"
Of course, there is a little bit of strategy in Yahtzee too. But at least this idea pairs the random nature of the decision with a tiny bit of intelligence. Okay, will Bernie Sanders' team try for the four-of-a-kind, or settle for the full house? Meanwhile Hillary Clinton's supporters are gambling on that large straight, as our nation looks on with frenzied excitement. Who will win this game of Yahtzee and win the primary? Forget the 'votes' part. This is where the real strategy excitement happen!
Anyway, Mrs. Clinton won the Democratic Primary. If it's any consolation for disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporters, the highlight of Mrs. Clinton's victory speech wasn't Mrs. Clinton at all. It happened to be a guy who is now known as "the Sticker Kid." He was there behind her as she spoke, a guy with stickers on his face, spending a good minute and a half making strange faces behind Mrs. Clinton as she was speaking. And no one stopped him! As you can imagine, this was the thing people remember, over anything that the candidate actually said.
Now we will say as funny as it was, it is also amazingly disrespectful, and with that said, we probably won't be showing the video to Madison. Heaven forbid she acts like the Sticker Kid. His parents must be sort of embarrassed. Unless they're Republicans.
Moving on: Madison knows enough about the political process to know what's going on, and she's been learning quite a bit at school, and from the episodes of "School House Rock" that we've been showing her. Remember "I'm Just a Bill" and those other cartoons? Madison has been watching those at home, and at school too. At least they have enough sense to show the classics!
* Like the one mentioned above.
** Yes, they're not supposed to legislate.
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