Update Update

[bort]

Great... then have the meatheads hold up the cars while the real mechanic climbs in and does the work. Eh...?

[Chuck Jackson]

Regularly encountering a vast (both physically and cognitively) of young people must be particularly disturbing to those who buy into the Social Security (Ponzi) scheme, and who can clearly see the upcoming generation as having so little to offer to them.

Oh Joe, must it always turn to this? Yes, the kids may be getting fatter, but they are also:

1. Smarter than we were, they have the world's knowledge at their fingertips and know how to access, apply, and make it work for them.

2. They are more accepting of a changing world.

3. They are more empathetic to causes that they see as definitive to their lives.

4. On the whole, they are great kids. I really enjoy teaching this age group because once in a great while you get a glimpse of the adults they will become and I have new found faith in the human race.

I have no doubt that the majority of highschoolers today will become productive citizens and continue to pay into the Social Security System. Joe, do you plan on sending your checks back when you come of age?

Chuck"is it time to build the bunker?"Jackson

[Donn]

and their ability to GRIP TOOLS (loosen/tighten car parts, etc.) is negligible.

I bet they can tighten the lug nuts on my tires past the point where I can get them off with a tire iron, though. Thanks to the miracle of air power impact wrenches.

[tofu]

and their ability to GRIP TOOLS (loosen/tighten car parts, etc.) is negligible.

I bet they can tighten the lug nuts on my tires past the point where I can get them off with a tire iron, though. Thanks to the miracle of air power impact wrenches.

Quite often, those meat-heads (using non-stepped-down pressure straight from the compressor - combined with their post-Orwellian public-school-instilled attention-to-detail) will CROSS-THREAD lug nuts.

Yeah...I can get 'em off...but only by breaking-and-replacing the studs (only $3 - $6 for the stud and $2 for the nut, but what a ___ -____ hassle).

bloke "When I have a flat that I can't fix (or a tire[s] that needs to be replaced), I take the tire store the WHEEL[s] and NOT the whole CAR."

The real big cost problem of the air guns over tightening the lug nuts is it warps the rotors and these days that means their toast and new ones are not cheap. A lot of people find themselves with bad rotors a couple weeks after getting tires and they never realize why they went bad. I always watch in the shop when I take cars in for new rubber. I have never understood the sit in the customer room and watch tv people do when having work done. They always do a better job when I stand in the shop and chat them up while they do the work.

[Donn]

Coffee's good for you.

[windshieldbug]

My son-in-law ( search.php?keywords=Mark+Houghton&terms ... mit=Search ) was just offered and accepted the position of 3rd Horn with the Pittsburgh Symphony.

[bisontuba]

My son-in-law ( search.php?keywords=Mark+Houghton&terms ... mit=Search ) was just offered and accepted the position of 3rd Horn with the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Joe-
Fantastic-Many congrats !!!
Mark

[Jose the tuba player]

Yet another college shooting in Seattle. Students attacked by a non-student.

sad to hear more violence against innocent people ,and Now for more gun control laws that criminals will not follow anyway.

[Chuck Jackson]

Graduation tomorrow for Class of 2014. 6 of the 10 Valedictorians were members of my Advanced Orchestra. Go figure.

Chuck"who thinks it is indicative of today's "everyone is a winner" attitude that there are 10 Valedictorians. Why not 1 Valedictorian and 10 Salutatorians? Parents, People, Parents!!!!"Jackson

[Chuck Jackson]

admittedly, the second thing I noticed in your post (after I understood that the school's best students are attracted to your class).

I'm more than a little embarrassed. I certainly didn't mean it as a reflection of me, but can see how that came across. I'm actually a son-of-a-bitch in the classroom. That they stay is more of their commitment to pursue excellence than it is a reflection on me and my charming bedside manner. The first thing that I tell kids is that there is no popularity clause in my contract and to please reconsider staying my classes (148 across 4 orchestras) if they need to be told anything other than the truth on a daily basis. Some leave, the majority stay. As one student answered about 10 years ago to my query of where their friend was?; "Off being mediocre somewhere else Jackson". Enough said.

Chuck

[bort]

I was the (one and only) salutatorian of my HS class. (FWIW, my brother was the [one and only] valedictorian of his class.) Unless there is a massive multi-way tie, it has never made sense to me to have multiple people in either position. Frankly, "salutatorian" always felt like a madeup runners-up prize anyway. High school...

[Donn]

I don't remember anything about valedictorians, myself, we might have been too communistic where I grew up to even allow such recognitions of "excellence", or maybe too skeptical of the ways in which we'd be able to measure excellence. Anyway, if it's true we had no valedictorians, then I hope that didn't help bring about the downfall of mankind the way that selecting more than one apparently has done. Rather I hope it could be a path out of darkness - maybe communities who have in the past weakened everyone's moral fiber by selecting too many valedictorians, could in repentance select none for a few years to make up for it?

Apparently it's Latin for "say goodbye."

I like ice cream once in a while, but I know what I'm not going to eat if ever offered any at Mr & Mrs Bloke's place!

[alfredr]

Donn may not have been valedictorian, but he sounds pretty smart.

[ppalan]

a scourge, and - arguably - the beginning-of-the-end of America:

I often wonder how folks 30,40,50 years from now will characterize the advice we give to each other today.

Pete

[Donn]

I often wonder how folks 30,40,50 years from now will characterize the advice we give to each other today.

Or even know anything about it. Which is not generally the case with Spock, who has been demonized since Vietnam. Politics. Advice doesn't really account for much of the outcome, anyway, and apparently that was kind of Spock's point - the first line in the book:

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.

... giving parents the OK to use their own judgement rather than follow the weird science based training manuals that were what you could get at the time. Which is what happens anyway - parenting comes from who you are, not from a book. (Not that I have ever needed to know anything about it!)

We watched a documentary this weekend "Buck", about a horse trainer who was an inspiration for the "Horse Whisperer" movie. Can't recommend it enough, very compelling, and while there won't be much parenting advice per se in it, the connection to horse training might or might not be obvious to anyone who's done either. (That's not me.) If you watch it, stay with it at the end until his adorable adoptive mom, who must be pushing 100, gets to tell her joke, which is a good one.

[bearphonium]

I don't have a sinus infection or wisdom teeth any more. The weather is normal for June. I am drinking iced Lipton tea (oops, wrong thread!)

[MartyNeilan]

We watched a documentary this weekend "Buck", about a horse trainer who was an inspiration for the "Horse Whisperer" movie. Can't recommend it enough, very compelling, and while there won't be much parenting advice per se in it, the connection to horse training might or might not be obvious to anyone who's done either. (That's not me.) If you watch it, stay with it at the end until his adorable adoptive mom, who must be pushing 100, gets to tell her joke, which is a good one.

My daughter likes to watch a netflix movie and make homemade popcorn every Saturday night that she stays with me. So, I suggested Milo and Otis since it had just been added and seemed like a cute movie about a puppy and kitten.

Fortunately much of it went over her head.
Hopefully, no horses were throw off a cliff during the making of Buck.

[Dan Schultz]

Holton sousaphones...they exist...I guess...

??

[scottw]

Holton sousaphones...they exist...I guess...

Yep--I played one all through HS.

[opus37]

About a year ago, I traded a silver 1927 Holton BBb sousaphone to Lee Stofer for a Holton Helicon. I bet he still has it and would be willing to sell it to someone who was interested. So yes, they do exist.