Report on the Urban Forest

Heaton Street, US 35, Where are the trees?

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I speak of Desert without repose
Carved by relentless winds
Torn up from its bowels
Blinded by sands
Unsheltered solitary
Yellow as death
Wrinkled like parchment
Face turned to the sun. (Chedid 1995)

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There is a lot less shade on the streets of Knox, Indiana than there used to be. This is one of the reasons that Knox is much more ugly than it was 20 years ago. The widening of US 35 destroyed nearly every shade tree on Heaton Street. Storms and disease have destroyed over 50% of the shade trees on the residential portion of Main Street. The sidewalks of Main Street were once a pleasant shaded haven on a hot summer’s day. Try walking up and down Main Street in the late afternoon. The sun is beating down on you nearly the whole time. The heat absorbed by the street pavement and the sidewalks is released in the afternoon when the temperature would naturally tend to start falling. The result is an unrelenting oven effect.

Other streets share the same problems. There is a city ordinance requiring the planting of shade trees along the streets of Knox. This ordinance has been neither enforced nor observed. Where trees have been planted, people have tended to plant away from the street, in the center of their lawn, and more often than not, ornamentals like flowering crab or the almost ubiquitous ornamental pear have been chosen. These trees will never shade the sidewalk and street. Businesses, governmental units and residences have been guilty of ignoring this basic element in our quality of life.

The social theory is not difficult to comprehend. We give up a personal freedom (in this case the freedom not to have a couple shade trees in front of your house in exchange for a collective (in this case a more pleasant environment and better quality of life). I think that most people do actually agree with this concept. We bemoan the fact that our society is getting fatter, emphasizing the well worn but valid case that we don’t get enough exercise. Well I don’t want to walk the streets of Knox in the summer when the sun is bearing down. So we are now, by not enforcing the city code, collectively discouraging that exercise that we all agree would be such a good idea.

Take a drive around town (or a walk around town for the tougher amoung us). Notice how few decent shade trees remain. What a shame.

Let’s Write a Novel, suggestions from my editors

Typical Knox Scene

Note: The novel from the start can be found by clicking on Lets Write a Novel , my associated blog.

My trusted editors have both read the novel thus far. There is a split decision about the Prologue, 1 for and 1 against. Both agree that Chapter 1 simply will not do. One good suggestion is that I should be much less cute hinting about the main conflict. I have decided to get right to Abraham’s and Ophelia’s main conflict right off the bat in Chapter 1. This will carry forward the gravity established in the Prologue and will allow the elimination of the hints about the future. Another suggestion is that Abraham’s anxiety about Ophelia’s name is not realistic. I must agree and will tone that down, perhaps by discussing biblical context for the importance of naming rather than Abraham’s individual anxiety. ?? More dialog was suggested as was faster plot development. I am considering these suggestions. The novel is envisioned as largely psychological, i.e. the effects of small town life on minority beliefs and traditions. This isn’t simply a Jewish minority question as it really applies to the pressure to conform felt by all.

So, I will be working on a rewrite for awhile. There may not be a posting on the novel for a few days. Your thoughts on these matters, if any, are appreciated.

It may be of interest to note that readers of the “Let’s Write a Novel” blogsite have checked in from the following domain addresses:
Dubai, Dubayy Little Rock, Arkansas (Unknown Country) Spanish Irvine, California
Wendelstein, Bayern, Germany Windsor, Ontario, Canada Portland, Maine Contagem, Minas Gerais, Brazil Long Island City, New York Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Unknown Country) English Perth, Perth and Kinross, United Kingdom (Unknown Country) German So Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil Morristown, New Jersey (Unknown Country) Spanish (Argentina) France Somerville, Massachusetts Singapore Milton Keynes, United Kingdom Cambridge, Massachusetts Riga, Latvia Fort Worth, Texas Eureka, Montana Fort Smith, Arkansas Amsterdam, Noord-Holland Vancouver, British Columbia Amsterdam, Noord-Holland Leland, Mississippi Pakistan Temperance, Michigan Germany Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain Bardolph, Illinois Grovertown, Indiana Fort Wayne, Indiana Leesburg, Indiana Eureka, Montana Bourbon, Indiana Sellersville, Pennsylvania Plymouth, Indiana Knox, Indiana

Thanks for your interest.

Marian

The New Main Street, Million Dollar Road to Nowhere

Alley behind 5-Star with new Main St. on the right

This spring the Main Street extension project was completed. Main Street was extended 2,000 feet to the south. Then the entrance to the cemetery was repaved to meet the new street. That is about 600 feet. This is First Class work: nice and wide, deep asphalt, concrete curbs, sidewalks. It cost over $1,000,000. This was an Indiana Department of Transportation project.

This is a road to nowhere, with nothing on the way there. The Project starts at the intersection on Main Street and Redskin Trail. Proceeding South along the $1,000,000 Street, we have the alley behind the 5-Star Mall (on the left) and the High School tennis courts (on the right). The School property continues on the right about 1,200 feet. On the left, once you get past the hind end of 5-Star there is a vacant lot that is behind the carwash, McDonalds, and the bank. This developable land is about 375 linear feet. Further on, on the left side is the subsidized apartment complex and the Sandy Acres Park. On the right side, once you get past the high school’s property, there is about 750 linear feet of wooded area that may be in private hands. Then the Million Dollar Road to Nowhere turns east to hook up with US 35 on the cemetery road (150 S). There is about 300 linear feet of vacant land behind the church. The rest of the way has the park on the left and the church on the right. This gives us access to a total of about 1, 425 linear feet of developable land. The cost of the project was $1,051, 000. So that is a cost to you and me of $737 per linear foot. To put that in perspective, that means a 100-foot lot, 1 city block deep, now has a government investment of $73,700. Is there any sane businessman or even human being that would even pay that much for a lot on this Godforsaken stretch of road? I doubt it. There is no commercial reason whatsoever that there will ever be any traffic on this road.

Worthless! Stupid!

Hmm. Makes me wonder who owns those few feet of developable land in question. I'll have to check that out!

Let’s Write a Novel - Chapter 5, Paragraphs 9, 10, 11

Note: The novel from the start can be found by clicking on Lets Write a Novel , my associated blog. I have recently done a bit of rewriting there so it will be a bit different than the original posts on this blog.

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North Washington Street

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Chapter 5, Paragraphs 9, 10, 11
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---------Pardon me. Excuse me. Remember me, Ophelia’s daughter, the hard soul narrating this story. Well I’ve noticed that something odd is happening. As I extract from my memory these fragments of my family’s history and commit them to paper the story that I thought I knew is changing. Every family has private happy tales, sort of inside jokes, where all that needs to be said is a key word or phrase. Then the mind of the family is one, is communal. These are the stories that, although entirely true, are now myths, more true than truth. Do you need an example? Probably not. Your family, I’m sure has their own stories that have come to define you, you in the plural. At least for your sake I hope so. In our family the stories are what you are reading. The glorious department store, the opera house, the strange family in Rye, these are the family myths handed down to me. Also included in these myths are the other family stories. The ones not told at the dinner table: the grievances, the hurts, the grudges. These are told in confidentially, secretly. A mother may recruit a daughter to share a grudge. A mother may nurse a wound for many years, just waiting for a daughter to be old enough. These family tales, I also have begun to share with you. As I just said, I’ve noticed that something odd is happening. I thought I knew the story I was to tell. The memories are coming together in an unexpected way. It is like gluing together the shattered pottery shards dug from the sands of Illium. The pieces are all there, spread out on the archeologist’s table, but you can’t be sure what the thing will look like until you get it put together. Well I’m starting to put the pieces together and, for now, Abraham seems like a pretty good father. This is not exactly the story I expected. I, the archeologist of my family’s myths, am surprised at the emerging shape of the urn.
Again, sorry for the interruption. Just keeping you up on things.---------

Let’s Write a Novel - Chapter 5, Paragraph 8

101 North Washington Street

Chapter 5, Paragraph 8

The two girls became friends and were happy spend some time together that summer, including an overnighter at each others house. Ophelia was shocked to learn that all fathers weren’t so gentle as her own. Israel Moszkowski was the lord of his household. He was 50, fat, slovenly and arrogant. There were 4 boys living at home ages 9 to 17. Israel more or less ignored Naphtali, preferring to browbeat the boys. That is how Ophelia learned some Yiddish: putz, shlemiel, eisl, nebbish, faygeleh, pisher, meshuggina. So Abraham’s plan was certainly a success.

In The News

The weekly “Starke County Leader” is the only real newspaper in Starke County, Indiana. Knox, Indiana happens to be the county seat. So that makes “The Leader” Knox, Indiana’s only real newspaper. Editor, John Read made mention of a Knox blog in his opinion piece titled, “Let’s try a ‘blog’ concept” on June 7, 2006. There have been several Knox blogs rise and fall, but my blog seems to be the only active Knox blog. So I’m going to say that the Blog referred to by editor Read is in fact this little blog.

The opinion piece “Let’s try a ‘blog’ concept” hurt my delicate feelings because John said that comments are in “really random order”. Jeeze! Are my blogs in really random order? Sorry. I’ll try harder. I mean I’ll try harder NOT to be in really random order.

Since it has been awhile since I have looked at a “Leader” it occurred to me that I should give it a review. Since isn’t fair to compare a local weekly to a big city daily, I will compare “The Leader” to “The Newshawk”. “The Newshawk” is an upstart tabloid based in Knox, just a few years old. It costs 2 bits, exactly half as much as “The Leader”. So, for cost, I give the Leader 1 STAR, the Newshawk 2 STARS.

When the “Newshawk” started I had high hopes of better journalism. At that time “The Leader” had been in decline and had been bought out by another newspaper. Local news content had withered. It seemed as if there was little concern with being a Starke County newspaper. It is my pleasure to report that “The Leader” seems to be more of a local newspaper again. Editorial content and local coverage have increased. Odd bits that seemed to have nothing to do with Starke County have gone away. BRAVO! But sadly, “The Newshawk” is a failure. The content has withered. Production quality is poor. So, for quality, I give the Leader 2 STARS, the Newshawk ½ STAR.

Now I’m going to get VISCIOUS! On the Leader’s Opinion Page is a feature called “Did You Know?” Here are 2 items mentioned:

Item 1: “A rat can last longer without water than a camel.” NONSENSE! Maybe some hopping kangaroo rat in the desert, but not a Burmese Water Rat!

Item 2: “There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple, and silver.” NONSENSE! Syringe, Nipple, Vancouver. You didn’t say it had to be good rhymes! Here is a perfectly horrid poem to prove my point:

Wrapped my arm in orange,
Stuck my arm with syringe,
Blood the color of purple,
Drips upon my nipple,
Is it a cloud lined with Silver?
No, Just another day in Vancouver.

HA!

Let’s Write a Novel - Chapter 5, Paragraphs 5, 6 & 7

1912 Cole.

Note: The novel from the start can be found by clicking on Lets Write a Novel , my associated blog. I have recently done a bit of rewriting there so it will be a bit different than the original posts on this blog.

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101 North Washington Street.
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Chapter 5, Paragraphs 5, 6 & 7
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Sara understood Abe’s concern but didn’t fully share it. She did feel a little guilty because she hadn’t been properly looking after Ophelia’s religious upbringing (as was expected of a Jewish mother). But thus far that little feeling of guilt hadn’t caused her act. So Sara sighed. Israel and Esther Moszkowski lived in the village of Rye, 7 miles out of town. Their youngest, Naftali, was Sara’s age. A quick round of letters resulted in a warn invitation for Sara and Ophelia to lunch with Esther and Naftali.

The Weisses and Moszkowskies had traveled together on the train to religious services in Valparaiso. On one occasion the Mr. and Mrs. Moszkowski stayed overnight in the Weiss home after arriving back in Knox after sunset. Sara thought Israel rough and ill mannered and Esther seemed rather downtrodden. They both spoke with heavy accents and Esther, especially, seemed more comfortable speaking Yiddish than English. As Sara was not fluent in Yiddish it made conversation difficult. Although she was apprehensive about lunch, Sara enjoyed the adventure of driving out to Rye. It was the furthest she had ever gone afield at the helm of the Oldsmobile. (Abe’s store janitor rode in the back seat in case of breakdown).

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The lunch was surprisingly pleasant. Esther had already fed her husband and 5 boys and shooed them out of the modest house. Naftali and Ophelia played grown-up and managed a tea party with some Teddy bears. After lunch the four ladies strolled past the busy packinghouse along the tracks. There was the not entirely unpleasant smell of pickles being soaked in huge oak vats. Cartloads of potatoes pulled by horses or mules were lined up waiting to be weighed, graded, and unloaded. Just past the packinghouse they stopped at the tiny post office where Ester checked for mail and introduced Sara to the postmaster. Behind the building, next to the railroad tracks, grew wild plums. There Naftali introduced Ophelia to that little wonder of nature.

Let’s Write a Novel Chapter 5, Paragraphs 3 & 4

Note: The novel from the start can be found by clicking on Lets Write a Novel , my associated blog. I have recently done a bit of rewriting there so it will be a bit different than the original posts on this blog.

101 North Washington Street.

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Chapter 5, Paragraphs 3 & 4
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That isn’t to say that Abraham didn’t love his daughter. He adored her. Some afternoons Abraham would take Ophelia to the store. His wonderful 5-year old would happily skip along the sidewalk. She had to stare awhile at the fascinating barber’s pole and say hello to the men in the barbershop, where they knew her well enough to consider her a sort of mascot. Just a few steps from the Weiss Department Store, her daddy had to pick her up for a sip of water at the public fountain on the corner of Main Street. Ophelia loved the store. She could explore the mysteries of her daddy’s office, spinning the dial on the safe and then jumping on his chair making it swing wildly on its springs. Out on the sales floor, the sales ladies would let her try on hats and crank the cash register when they rang up a sale for an indulgent customer. Sometimes her daddy took her upstairs to explore the Opera House or downstairs to explore the dark corners of the stock room. Abraham took good care of her.
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Abe worried a little about the lack of Jewish influence in her life. Occasional visits from her Grandparents weren’t really sufficient. It was about this time that Abe suggested that Sara and Ophelia should make some visits to the other two Jewish families and invite them over to the house more often. Abraham thought that getting to know the Weinstein and Moszkowski children would be good for Ophelia’s “Jewishness”. It is a cause for concern for Jews living in small towns. It easily could happen that their children won’t grow up to be Jewish, that they won’t absorb their ancient and holy traditions, that they will perhaps convert and marry a Christian. This is something that Abraham most sincerely did not want to happen to Ophelia. It troubled him that Sara seemed more interested in introducing Ophelia to art, music and Alice Roosevelt. But Sara seemed quite good-natured about his suggestion and said that she and Ophelia could certainly make some social calls in the near future.

WBWA, Part 2, Great Schools I Have Known

Columbia College, at Columbia University established 1754
Leading advocate of Core Curriculum in higher education

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I said in Part 1 WBWA, MYOC, that MBWA, Management By Walking Around, is just common sense. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of common sense. As often as not common sense is flat out incorrect. So please allow me to modify my statement: MBWA is generally good managment practice.

Indeed, I have seen MBWA used to with wonderful results at schools around the country. In Arizona I visited several elementary schools that were based on a concept called Core Curriculum. These schools were lead by dynamic school principals with strong support from their Superintendents and School Boards. The Principals often observed every classroom in their school each day. They would walk into the class unannounced, take notes, make comments, and ask questions of both the students and the teachers. They would examine the classroom displays and bulletin boards (only student work allowed and only work pertaining to that week’s school wide Core theme). They saw to it that Art, Music, and Physical education were related to that week's Core instructional unit. These Principals were two important things: expert teachers and intense taskmasters. They believed in and completely understood their curriculum. They had the courage to demand adherence to the curriculum and used very close oversight to correct or weed out bad instruction. Another thing these Principals had in common is that they delegated nearly all non-educational responsibilities to their non-professional office staff, leaving them time to do what the title Principal used to mean, that is Principal Instructor.

In Knox Principals have a hands-off approach to the classrooms. This actually might be the best thing considering the shortcomings of the administration and school board. If the administrators aren’t expert teachers they don’t have much business telling teachers what to do. That is why I found the attempt by our School Board and Superintendent to do some MBWA to be so very pathetic. All management techniques are only as good as the people implementing them. The School Board has to have a competent and quality vision for the school system. The Superintendent they hire must also be competent to bring that vision to fruition. I don’t believe that we have either of these elements in place. MBWA at Knox is destined to be ridiculous.

Too bad. In small system like ours it could be great.

Let’s Write a Novel Chapter 5, Paragraphs 1 & 2

"Princess Alice", 1902

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Note: The novel from the start can be found by clicking on Lets Write a Novel , my associated blog. I have recently done a bit of rewriting there so it will be a bit different than the original posts on this blog.

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101 North Washington Street.
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Chapter 5, Paragraphs 1 & 2
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I could easily use to a rather weak metaphor, but I would just as soon not implicate the innocent flatware. Let’s just say Ophelia was raised atypically. Take a look at her nursery at age 5. It wouldn’t be common for a child to have this abundance of space and goods until 100 years later. There were many confluent factors; an only child, 12 room house, wealthy parents, and a mother terribly happy to have a little girl to mold to her ideal of girlhood. She had 3 full rooms. Abraham’s “den” was removed to the downstairs library to give her three adjoining rooms, facing East, overlooking Washington Street. Sara was most excited about the corner room, Ophelia’s studio. Side by side easels, one for the master, Sara, and a tiny replica for the apprentice, Ophelia, took full advantage of the Northern exposure. The middle room was the playroom fully stocked with hobbyhorse and fancy dollhouse and most certainly Teddy Bears. The suite was completed by a quite frilly bedroom done in the shade of blue made so popular by “Princess Alice”, the very popular the lovely daughter of the President.

Sara admired Alice Roosevelt tremendously. What a marvelous modern woman! Alice damn well did what she pleased: smoking cigarettes, zooming about in automobiles alone with men, and partying all night long, all this while living in the White House. Alice was not just a party animal. She was a skilled diplomat as well, helping end the Russo-Japanese War that won her father the Nobel peace Prize. The repressed wives of America loved Alice. Their husbands were less enthusiastic. Sara Weiss wanted Ophelia to be just like Alice but with an added artistic bent. It would be wonderful to have such a daughter. Abraham “guessed” he agreed.

WBWA, MYOC

Acronyms make me uneasy. I always wonder what comes next. A special danger is when the acronym is converted to a verb and then used on me! In the case of WBWA, I think that I would hate it if my boss started WBWAing me. Ouch! I’ve been WBWAed!

I call the scholarship that goes into getting a Doctorate of Education, “Educationist Theory” (Or to get in the spirit of this title of this blog, let us call it ET!). ET Educationist Theory, (I repeat for the benefit my regular readers with short term memory problems) is an ersatz scholarship consisting of freely borrowed jargon and broad concepts from other fields of genuine scholarship. ET borrows these legitimate concepts and then uses them as metaphors for educational problems. These ET concepts result in bizarre theories of teaching coming out of University Education Departments on a quite regular basis. Here let me note: I freely admit that I paint with too broad a brush. In point of fact, I have known brilliant Doctors of Education.

My God! There is a long list of this destructive crap that has come out of our Universities in the last 30 years and then imposed upon our students. Ask any veteran elementary school teacher. Think New Math (anti-counting), Whole Language (anti-reading), Self Esteem (classic cart before the horse) and Higher Thinking (anti-rote learning crap that assumed that to have an actual fact in your head was crowding out a kid’s ability to think). All this stuff got it entirely backwards. All this stuff was based upon untold hours of worthless and phony research.

Good News! After 30 or so years of wasted and destructive effort there is now a cadre of educational professionals that seem to be getting their heads around the idea of the scientific method. ISTEP is a good example of what has been needed for quite some time. That is why I am so very pleased with the Exemplary classification, based upon ISTEP results, in the Knox Elementary School. ISTEP isn’t some fancy feel good metaphor for learning. It actually sees if the kids know anything.

So what is MBWA? Management By Walking Around. This is a business management practice that was popular in the 1980’s. It is so common sense that it seems outright stupid to even give it a name, much less an acronym. In a nutshell: a good manager needs to know what is going on in the enterprise she is managing. DUH! Rather than rely on subordinate toadies that regularly cover up problems and pander to their boss, the boss walks around and sees what is really going on. This concept MBWA does require that the boss is competent enough to know what she is observing.

The Knox School Board recently renewed the contract of Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Kimberly A. Knott. I am not privy to the confidential discussions but I did observe that Dr. Knott’s contract was extended for only one year. This shows a certain lack of confidence by the Board. Shortly thereafter Kimberly was escorted about town by Ed Hasnerl. They hit the coffee clutches. I assume the Board told her that they wanted more community involvement. Then she made a few appointments to actually sit in a few Knox classrooms. Of course the Principals arranged the whole thing. I suppose the Board wanted a bit of MBWA.

Dr. Knott was a Physical education instructor prior to becoming an administrator. Do I really need to finish this blog? Why don’t you, my dear reader simply MYOC, that is make your own conclusion..

Miscellany: Schools and Lilly Scholarships

Dr. Kimberly A. Knott Superintendent

Knox Community School Corporation
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In prior blogs, Make it a true merit scholarship and Problems with Merit
I wrote about the Starke County Community Foundation’s Lilly Scholarship. I thought that a follow up may be of interest. There were 2 winners this year. As always, a North-Judson San Pierre Schools’ graduate captured this fabulous $100,000 plus award. This year we do have a Knox graduate. Here are the names:

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Lauren Akers, of North Judson, a graduate of North Judson-San Pierre High School, will study math education at Purdue University.

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Hope McIntire, of Knox, a graduate of Knox Community High School, will study pre-pharmacy at Purdue University.

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The Starke County Community Foundation web site has no information regarding this year's Lilly Awards. Why not? Don't these outstanding students deserve a bit of publicity?

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Another follow-up is concerning

Wow! Knox Elementary, Exemplary School. My scoop was correct, the State of Indiana did announce that Knox Elementary was ranked "Exemplary". Again Congratulations! The law breaks schools down every year into five categories. Those categories, from best to worst, are: exemplary, commendable, academic progress, watch and probation Knox High School was in the “Watch” Category The Knox Middle School was scored as “Academic Progress”. One shouldn’t make too big a deal about a “Watch” without knowing the entire story.

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There can be some pretty meaningless reasons for the State to issue a “Watch”. So Dr. Knott, Superintendent, of schools, explain away. The school’s web site has zero, nada, nothing. The link called “Dr. Knott’s News” is empty, zero, nada, nothing. Not very impressive is it?

Let’s Write a Novel Chapter 4, Paragraphs 5 & 6

Note: The novel from the start can be found by clicking on Lets Write a Novel , my associated blog. Some corrections and changes appear there as well as some notes and questions I need to address. As you have no doubt noticed, writing a novel is, at least for me, a bit ragged.
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101 North Washington Street.
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Let’s Write a Novel Chapter 4, Paragraphs 5 & 6
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¶5
I suppose I shouldn’t make such a fuss about Abe’s little grudge. Of course it would have been much nicer for everybody in the family if he had a clean emotional slate. Ah, but who among us has an emotional tabla rasa? I nurture a grudge towards my Grandfather Abraham because he held a grudge towards my Grandmother Sara. And then his grudge crippled my mother, Ophelia’s happiness, because that she carried a grudge in her gut as if she had swallowed a blacked brick from a tragic home fire. And me? I am writing down this story to get even with Abraham. I guess I know it’s the nature of tragedy, all this grudging nonsense. Why don’t I just get over it and get on with my life? Of course, that is why I am doing this. I want Starke Center, the little townspeople, with their own little problems, not one among them who even remember Abe or Sara but for the old cornerstone on the dilapidated downtown building, these little people who have almost entirely forgotten Ophelia who once was a shining young woman, then later a rich and influential matron, these village folks, only a few who only vaguely remember me, should remember our story. And I don’t really even care about Starke Center. I often an not even certain that I care about Abe or Sara. Perhaps it is just my tight, dark, little grudge, echoing down 3 generations that I care about.

¶6
This talk of grudges has my head spinning. What I need to do is just tell the story, the story of Ophelia Weiss. I would like you, my old and new Starke Center acquaintances, to get to know her better.

Mourning at Bass Lake

A place I don't live.

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Oh the rending of garments. Oh the gnashing of teeth. Or in more modern parlance: Oh, the pissing. Oh the moaning. Property taxes at Bass Lake are brutal. However, I, blogger Knox Indiana, do not live at Bass Lake, I live in the city of Knox where my property taxes have declined steadily for years. So my complaint is with all the noise from the rending, gnashing, pissing and moaning.

We residents of crappy old Knox have watched the property values of nearby Bass Lake skyrocket. I can say (as can every other schmuck in Knox) that I could have, should have, would have, bought a nice property at the lake for $30,000 back in 1972, or whatever. But I didn’t. So now my homestead is worth $150,000, or whatever. And that crappy cottage at the lake is worth $600,000, or whatever. So, yah, I’m envious.

The psychology of envy is fascinating. Firstly, don’t confuse envy with jealousy: 2 different words, 2 different meanings. Lots of folks use the word incorrectly, thereby ruining the delicious badness of the concept of envy. Jealousy is the feeling you get when someone wants and threatens what you already have. Envy involves somehow hating somebody that has something that you somehow feel that you deserve for yourself. It is strictly a malicious, deliciously evil feeling. Oddly only near-equals or equals are envious. If you were an old incontinent gal in the nursing home, you would be envious of the fart that gets his nappy changed before yours. However you wouldn’t be envious of the Doctor’s new car. Only another Doctor, or more likely, a Lawyer neighbor, would be envious of the new car.

So, yah, I’m envious of those lucky stiffs out at Bass Lake with their million dollar homes. They used to be just like me. Now due to dumb luck they’re rich. So when they piss and moan about $8,000 property tax bills I put on my fake sympathy face and say, “Oh my. It must be tough being rich.”

Seriously folks, (don’t ever believe what somebody says when they preface it with “Honestly” or “Seriously”) this big property tax thing at Bass Lake is a real problem. Honestly, I think something ought to be done about it.

So here is my solution. If a Bass Lake property owner wishes to undo the horrible mistake they made of owning a house that quintupled in value damn near overnight and ended up with an unbearable property tax bill, I’ll trade houses with you. If you don’t want to do that, you can try a reverse mortgage. Or if you simply cannot afford to pay your taxes, no matter how hard you try; realize that you are a poor person trying to live amongst the rich and sell the place. The situation is what is called cognitive dissonance, or trying to have your cake and eat it too.

Honestly. I’m sorry about your big tax bill.

Let’s Write a Novel Chapter 4, Paragraphs 2 (rewrite), 3 & 4

Raphael. Adam and Eve (ceiling panel). 1509-1511.

Fresco. Vaticano, Stanza della Segnatura, Rome

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A question for those that believe in a literal interpretation of the Book:

Did Adam and Eve have a belly button?

Note: The novel from the start can be found by clicking on Lets Write a Novel , my associated blog. Some corrections and changes appear there as well as some notes and questions I need to address. As you have no doubt noticed, writing a novel is, at least for me, a bit ragged.
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101 North Washington Street.

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Let’s Write a Novel Chapter 4, Paragraphs 2 (rewrite), 3 & 4

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¶2
According to the Book, the first man gave the name woman to his fitting helper created by God from man’s rib. Most all the people of the Book understand that their Book’s stories and names and words are rich with many meanings and great significances. The idea of a plain reading, a literal interpretation, of the book would be exceedingly ignorant. It simply doesn’t make sense that way. After all, man hasn’t one less rib than woman. (However odd it may be that many of their Christian cousins believe as such, despite x-rays to the contrary). What then is the meaning of the naming of woman and her creation from the rib? Ah, of course, that has been debated with passion for thousands of years. And there is a rough sort of consensus of course. An elegant interpretation is that the essential difference of man from beast, the essence of being human, is the power to name. The man’s first act (thus symbolically the most important) was to name the beasts. The meaning of the rib? Ah, that’s a tricky one. Is it that the male is superior to the woman? Although that interpretation isn’t really possible from a close reading of the text, that is how men (not) man have chosen.
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Abraham wasn’t a particularly religious man. Sara and he observed an informal and low-keyed religious ritual as compared to the other Jewish families in and about Starke Center. Then and now the Weiss family would be called assimilated. Nevertheless Abe was a member of that ancient people for whom the Book in which the words and names were of importance, beyond significance. That Book was the river that flowed though his veins, through the veins of his ancestors, and would flow, perhaps not forever, but at least through the blood of his offspring.

¶4
Ophelia wasn’t a name in that river of meanings, myth and symbols. When his little girl pondered her name, trying to figure out who she was and meant to be, what was she to think? My God, perhaps that she should drown herself? So that is why Abraham Weiss forever held a grudge. It was in his people’s book and blood. It was a man’s and a father’s right. It was a man’s and a father’s delight. Of course he was delighted, delighted and proud beyond words. After 10 years of marriage, he and his beloved were to be blest with a child. He hoped (in vain as it turned out) that it would be a son so that little knot in his gut, that slight twist of fear, resentment, and anger would be forgotten.

Wow! Knox Elementary, Exemplary School

A handy little learning aid circa 1763

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On June 6th Dr. Suellen Reed, Superintendent of Public Instruction will announce the results of Public Law 221 (Indiana’s school accountability legislation) Category Placements for all School Corporations and Schools. Knox Elementary School has been named an exemplary school.
P.L. 221 places Indiana school corporations and schools into one of five categories based upon “performance” and “improvement” data from the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus (ISTEP+). The categories are:

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1. Exemplary Progress (the best!)


2. Commendable Progress


3. Academic Progress


4. Academic Watch


5. Academic Probation.

Placements are based on the percentage of all students who pass English and math tests (averaged across subjects and grade levels) and the improvement in passing percentage of students over time.

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Knox Elementary teachers and administration deserve our heartfelt appreciation and thanks for the very hard work that went into attaining this designation. I am convinced that this is quite meaningful and accurate. This means that our elementary school students are reading and writing and ciphering better than any time in our recent history.

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I don’t suppose that Harold Welter, school board member will retract his comment, “more pay for less work”, regarding the last teacher contract. The contract negotiations aren’t going well. One wonders how many good teachers will want to stay in such an adversarial environment. I suppose the school board members will be quite happy to take some glory here. Let’s be clear about this. The School Board had little or nothing to do with this.

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But for the moment let us all be happy about Kindergarteners reading and 5th Graders not going backwards as they seem to do in so many schools. Bravo!

Let’s Write a Novel Chapter 4, Paragraphs 1 and 2

Der Engel verhindert die Opferung Isaaks
(An angel prevents the sacrifice of Isaac)

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, 1634

Hermitage, St. Petersburg

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Note: The novel from the start can be found by clicking on Lets Write a Novel , my associated blog. Some corrections and changes appear there as well as some notes and questions I need to address. As you have no doubt noticed, writing a novel is, at least for me, a bit ragged.

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101 North Washington Street.

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Chapter 4, Paragraphs 1 and 2

וַיִּצֶר יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים מִן-הָאֲדָמָה, כָּל-חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה וְאֵת כָּל-עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם, וַיָּבֵא אֶל-הָאָדָם, לִרְאוֹת מַה-יִּקְרָא-לוֹ; ְכֹל אֲשֶׁר

יִקְרָא-לוֹ הָאָדָם נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה, הוּא שְׁמוֹ.

Genesis 2:19
And the LORD God formed out of the Earth all the wild beasts and all the birds of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each creature, that would be its name.

¶1
Shortly after Abraham was born he was given the name of the father of Judaism (and Christianity and Islam). And Sara’s name, of course, was from Sarah, the wife of the original Abraham and the mother of Judaism and Christianity. (Hagar is the mother of Islam.) Jews are the people of the book. Words, and most especially names, are filled with ancient history and meanings, special meanings, complex, hidden, superstitious, poetic, allegorical. All children ponder their own names, trying to tease out their parent’s secret expectations, the special destiny or fate connected with the name. It probably was not entirely coincidental that Sara married Abraham and that their parents were pleased with union and the special significance of the joining of these 2 names.

¶2
According to the Book, the first man gave the name woman to his fitting helper created by God from man’s rib. Most all the people of the Book understand that their Book’s stories and names and words are rich with many meanings and great significances. The idea of a plain reading, a literal interpretation, of the book would be exceedingly ignorant. After all, man hasn’t one less rib than woman. (However odd it may be that many of their Christian cousins believe as such, despite x-rays to the contrary).