shamash says...

The Problem with Starting School in August

No one could have said it better. The dog days of summer, indeed, are depicted in this encomium to August from EYEWEAR:

"The semi-mythic month of August has arrived. April may be cruel, but August is vast, vacant, quiet, deserted, even slightly dusty. August is an empty Paris of the mind, where one can wander shuttered streets at noon, and meet no one. August is when parliament is out, and the fish are jumping onto the banks of the river. August is when you realise you have wasted your life, then turn over in the hammock for another forty winks…" 

Head on over to read the piece in full; I hope it will make you smile as much as it did me.

(Thanks, Sherry, for the link.)

Image: Untitled #94 gelatin silver print 3 1/4 x 4 3/4  by MASAO YAMAMOTO via Moon River

The Mall of America: Bigger? Better? Best?

  I realize that I’ve entered this place with the eye of a stranger in a strange land. An American expatriate who has lived in a developing nations for over ten years and who is coming from a lands with power outages, lack of medical care and extreme poverty, my perception of this mall is quite different to those who have made a visit to this place part of their summer vacation.

(images by shamash)

The Dead - Billy Collins Animated Poem

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US Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads his poem "The Dead" with animation by Juan Delcan of Spontaneous. In honor of two friends of mine who died today.

Hosptial Holiday

Thailand is known for its sex industry, its SCUBA diving, and its ecotourism. This Christmas, I unexpectedly learned a secret about

Bangkok

that I’ll bet you never knew. And the worst thing was thatI had to remove my nose ring.

-image by Pirate

When Will We Stop Killing Each Other?

This is my Lebanese friend Anila who lives in Beirut.

No More Walls

Is_ it too childish of a question to ask,

"Why can't we all get along?"

-image via Banksy's website

The security barrier separating the occupied territories from Israel.

West Bank, Palestine 2005.

Cherbourg, France: Wine and Time

“A day in France is just the thing you need,” said Sir Edward of Portsmouth. So, taking his kind advice, Ash and I hopped aboard the Cherbourg Express on the Brittany Ferry across the English Channel. Little did we know that a $20 roundtrip ferry ride would end up costing us close to $200 dollars each, and an unexpected overnight stay in a seedy hotel with condoms in the welcome kit.

Original photos by shamash

Football (a.k.a. soccer, for ye Yanks) Fever

This English teacher/computer geek who writes poetry in her free time is starting to like football. Put a small-town gal from the corn fields of America in the streets of Europe, and strange things happen.

More than One Person

Life would be so much simpler if we were allowed to live multiple lives.

It’s the best solution I know to being torn in so many directions.

Image:_"Multiple_Mindy_Flattened" found here.

Plagiarism: A Learned Behavior?

If you've been reading the news lately, you've probably seen the story of Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard sophomore who has admitted to plagiarizing portions of her book.  Terry has a post on it, as does Snarkaholic. I've also read with great interest Steven Sleigh's post about the role of the "book packager" in the publishing industry.

An article published earlier this month sheds light on the life of this teen. In it, she is quoted as saying,

"I was surrounded by the stereotype of high- pressure Asian and Indian families trying to get their children into Ivy League schools."

It is difficult for educators to teach the importance of honesty and integrity when the academic culture supports success at any cost.

How can teachers make a difference, when the All Mighty Grade is more important than originality? Should a teacher encourage the gifted artist to go to art school when the father will accept nothing but an MBA from MIT?

How do we teach our children that being true to themselves is more important than grades and that integrity is so much more important than laurels gathered under false pretenses?