Teacher Man – A Review

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Teacher Man: A Memoir Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt


My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed Angela’s Ashes but was disappointed by ‘Tis. I had hopes that Teacher Man would return to the joyful optimism of McCourt’s first novel, and I was not let down.

Teacher Man covers some of the same time span as ‘Tis, but, as McCourt himself says in the preface, he realized after finishing ‘Tis that people may have gotten the impression that he suffered his life as a teacher, and he wanted to right that mis-perception.

Teacher Man is a celebration of what we can learn about ourselves when we help others. McCourt’s own suffering, which he celebrates here much as he did in Ashes, rather than lamenting as he did in ‘Tis, is more of a backdrop to the main story. In each chapter he picks out a story or two to illustrate how his teaching method evolved over the years, and as he learns to trust the pedagogue within him, we watch the shifting times and era of his life.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed Angela’s Ashes. You do not need to have read ‘Tis to read this, and you might be happier skipping it.

View all my reviews.

Sharp Words From Evan Bayh

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Over at MickeyMouse.com, Rick Klien reports on Matthew Jaffe and Julia Bain reporting on Bob Scheiffer getting this cutting comment out of Sen. Evan Bayh on Face the Nation:

“We are not all Georgians now,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” per ABC’s Matthew Jaffe and Julia Bain. “If we were Georgians and the Russians were invading our country and killing our people, we’d be in a state of war. And clearly, that’s not what we want. And John sometimes, he’s a good person, but he’s a little bit given to this kind of bellicose rhetoric, which has a tendency to inflame conflicts rather than to diffuse them, and that’s not what you want in a president.”
Who’s No. 2? Obama Set for VP Pick

Elizabeth Edwards – Once More The Sting

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Pawn well remembers that night in 2007 when we all learned that Elizabeth Edwards had incurable breast cancer. We all felt for her then, and held a sheltered place in our thoughts and hearts for her. Seems we need to open those same places yet again. Here, from Elizabeth’s latest blog post at DailyKos:

…we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007. This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well.
Daily Kos: Today

What a shame that Elizabeth could not get her wish. John, I am sorry you succumbed as you did. Elizabeth, I am sorry your pain must once again be a public affair.

Bad Political Jokes

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Pawn was in a deli this morning, having breakfast, and another diner came in and took his seat at the counter. He leaned in conspiratorially and asked the waitress if she wanted to hear an Obama joke. He then proceeded to tell it.

Obama goes up to heaven and approaches the Pearly Gates. St. Peter is there waiting for him.
St. Peter: Can I help you?
Obama: I’m President Barack Obama.
St. Peter: You were president? I don’t think so.
Obama: Yes sir, I was.
St. Peter: When were you inaugurated?
Obama: Ten minutes ago.

The waitress looked at him with a blank expression. “Get it – he got assassinated. Ha, haha”

Pawn was inclined to offer this version of the joke:

McCain goes up to heaven and approaches the Pearly Gates. St. Peter is there waiting for him.
St. Peter: Can I help you?
McCain: I’m President John McCain.
St. Peter: You were president? I don’t think so.
McCain: Yes sir, I was.
St. Peter: When were you inaugurated?
McCain: Ten minutes ago.

Get it – he keeled over dead with a heart attack, or was it cancer…

Let’s face it, if the joke is offensive and just as unfunny when the shoe is on the other foot, then maybe it doesn’t need to be told.

Brooks on Obama

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Quite the interesting and though provoking piece by David Brooks in today’s Times. In a departure for Brooks, who is given to partisan cuts carefully buried 3/4 of the way through an otherwise thoughtful piece, here he is just thoughtful:

Why isn’t Barack Obama doing better? Why, after all that has happened, does he have only a slim two- or three-point lead over John McCain, according to an average of the recent polls? Why is he basically tied with his opponent when his party is so far ahead?

His age probably has something to do with it. So does his race. But the polls and focus groups suggest that people aren’t dismissive of Obama or hostile to him. Instead, they’re wary and uncertain.

And the root of it is probably this: Obama has been a sojourner. He opened his book “Dreams From My Father” with a quotation from Chronicles: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers.”

There is a sense that because of his unique background and temperament, Obama lives apart. He put one foot in the institutions he rose through on his journey but never fully engaged. As a result, voters have trouble placing him in his context, understanding the roots and values in which he is ineluctably embedded.

Op-Ed Columnist – Where’s the Landslide? – Op-Ed – NYTimes.com

Pawn has read all of those articles he references here, and must admit he is on to something…

Present Foot…Load Weapon…Ready, Aim, Fire

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Every four years, like clockwork, the far-left fringe of the Democratic Party comes out of the woodwork with one or another idea which is sure to polarize the electorate against them, driving vast tracts of voters into the waiting embrace of the right, and ensuring another insufferable term of Republican leadership. I know, I am a member of the far-left fringe. But, I can see this for what it is; a bad idea with the potential to screw the party out of yet another opportunity to lead.

“The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business,” Frank said during a Capitol Hill news conference. “I don’t think it is the government’s business to tell you how to spend your leisure time.”
Legislators aim to snuff out penalties for pot use – CNN.com

Four years ago it was Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, who just couldn’t wait for the law to catch up to his ambition, and almost single-handedly started the stampede towards same-sex marriage in California. This time it’s Barney Frank and marijuana. Jeez!

Must we? How does this do anything but help the right? Barack Obama will have to choose between endorsing the move, giving a potentially powerful wedge to McCain, or opposing it, further disenchanting a sizable chunk of the youth vote who are already disillusioned by his rightward tack on FISA and other recent changes (be they real or perceived).

Why did Frank have to bring this up now? What possible purpose is served when he knows, and he must know, that it will not possibly pass his own house, hell even his own caucus, let alone get to the president’s desk.

Yikes what poor legislative reasoning he has. Must have an old pot debt to clear.

Do us a favor Barney, go back to reading the New Yorker.

Checking In On An Old Friend

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Back before this was a blog, when it was nothing more than a rant mailing list, I wrote about a website a friend had turned me onto featuring a motorcycle ride through the ruins of Chernobyl, in Ukraine. I just revisited that site, and found Elena’s photoreportage of the Orange Revolution:

Since the Soviet Union collapsed Ukraine became one of the most corruptive countries of the World. (only Guatemala and Sudan have been ahead of us) the difference between rich and poor was tremendous, our wages have been lowest and oligarch richest in a region. Life was good only for a president and bunch of his friends and relatives. Everything was hopeless like in a medieval Asia and my first discovery of that morning was that I live in Europe.[emphasis mine]
Stolen election.

I recommend this site again, her account was quite moving.

After 17 days of a peaceful protests the regime of president Kutchma has fallen and results of election were canceled.
Leaving a snow figures, people went home. Our gaining is believe that our votes means something and won’t be stolen in a night after election.
It was also gaining for many people all around the world. When autocracy win, it is win of one clan, when democracy win, it is victory for all people.
I witnessed this event and documented, as I believe it is important.

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Presidential Hubris Or Truth? You Decide

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In a move that puts the ass in classic, Geo. Bush left his final G8 summit with this parting shot:

As he prepared to fly out from Japan, he told his fellow leaders: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”

President Bush made the private joke in the summit’s closing session, senior sources said yesterday. His remarks were taken as a two-fingered salute from the President from Texas who is wedded to the oil industry.
Bush to G8: ‘Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter’ – World Politics, World – The Independent

Remind me again why we should be anything but grateful to see him leave the world stage?

New Book Titles

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Pawn had dinner tonight with sister HG and an unexpectedly large number of book titles were spontaneously birthed as a result.  Here are three of them (copyright © 2008, all rights reserved):

Luminary Misfits

A Nasty Tussle in June

Jesus Has Two Mommies

I won’t go into all of the back stories or plot lines of these titles.  But there you have it.