Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Learning About Life in Catholic School
So…. today I get an email from my high school alumni group and decide to take a few minutes to poke around the St. Blabla site
www.freedigitalphotos.net Image: Carlos Porto
to see how things have progressed in the umpteen years since I attended.
To my dismay, but not to my surprise, NOTHING seems to have changed. But the stand-out is the dress code, emblematic of all that was 1965, with the possible exception of the mention of “multiple piercings.”
My favorite line: “Judgement (sic) concerning the appropriateness of any student’s attire rests with the administration.”
Such is, and was, the life of the teenage girl who attends(ed) this school.
Now I ask: If “judgement concerning the appropriateness of any student’s attire rests with the administration” how and when do students develop their own judgment concerning appropriate attire?
This, in a nutshell, was my experience attending a Catholic girl’s high school. “No need to think for yourselves. We’ll do it for you!”
Below, if you are curious, is part of the CURRENT dress code, which, if memory serves me, is identical to the 1960′s.
“Students are required to adhere to the following dress code:
* Uniform skirt or uniform pants (when Permitted)
* Skirts are to be a presentable length for school. They may not be rolled up at the waist.
* The School shoes must be worn at all times-either the loafer or lace shoe, whichever you choose.
* Dark stockings are required; black, charcoal gray, navy tights or dark knee socks must be worn. Fish net and patterned stockings are not permitted. Students are to arrive, remain, and leave in the school uniform/dress code.On days that uniforms are not required, it is expected that each student will select attire which will not call attention to her in a negative way. Judgement concerning the appropriateness of any student’s attire rests with the administration.
Students may not have visible body piercing (e.g. eyebrow, lips, nose, tongue, etc.) except for earrings, and no more than 2 pair of earrings may be worn at school (these earrings should be small in size.) No headwear is permitted in class. Only one neck-chain may be worn-and one ring on each hand.”
Is this still the way to go?
Do you think this teaches anything?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Watch the Conference on Distracted Driving Online Now
The U.S. Department of Transportation thinks distracted driving ( texting, phoning and drinking) is enough of a problem to convene a two-day Distracted Driving Summit. You can listen to right now online.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Recycle Your Old Shoes-Unless They Add Chocolate, This Can’t Get Any Better
Here’s a great way to clear out some closet space with a clear conscience, do a good deed and get a receipt for your income taxes in the process.
You all have them. Those several pairs of shoes you never wear… but can’t bring yourself to throw out?
The fashion faux pas shoes. The gee-when-did-my-feet-grow shoes? And those cool cross-trainers that gave you dime-sized blisters both times you wore them.
New shoes. (Courtesy of soles4souls.org)
Some of the shoes Soles4Souls.org has collected went to tsunami survivors and to those who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina. Others go to the homeless, or to shelters for battered women, or to hospitals. Way better then going to waste in the landfill.
And Soles4Souls will happily accept not just your shoes, but the gently-used shoes and boots your toddlers have outgrown, your teenager will no longer leave the house in, or that just plain hurt your husband’s feet.
Click here for your closest Soles4Souls drop-box location.
Quick, easy, painless sustainability and recycling. By my reckoning, unless you add chocolate to this deal, it just doesn’t get any better.
See an earlier, related post on sustainability.
And then do a good deed for your shoe-aholic friends by passing this post onto them.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Four Great Reasons to Garden
While we were gone.
” A garden is a thing of beauty… and a job forever. ” So proclaims the pretty little needlepoint pillow one of my dearest friends crafted as a gift for me.
Sometimes … like after the pounding rains that washed my lettuce seeds far out into the Jersey Meadowlands somewhere; that insatiable ground hog, who stretched to enormous heights to eat every last one of the moonflower buds; the endless mosquito bites and poison ivy; a tomato blight that splotched, and ultimately ruined, all of the lovely green orbs… I wonder… why am I doing this?
But then comes a morning, like one just passed, when everywhere I look presents a natural wonder, a trick of light, some small delight.
Sometimes, especially in a garden, one picture is worth a thousand words.
And so I share with you four great reasons to keep at it.
Enjoy.
Please leave a note about your garden/gardening. Or send a picture of some garden delight to share here… write4@att.net.
Early morning visitor
I "heart" gardening.
All the zinnias are pink this year!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
What’s Up With All the Noise?
Close your eyes and imagine, if you will:
An incessantly barking dachshund, tied in the adjoining backyard for hours, (yip, yip, yip …..yip, yip, yip….yip, yip, yip…yip,yip,yip.)
Tricyrtis or toad lilies in my garden last Fall.
What seems like at least a dozen consecutively run, gas-powered lawnmowers.
A landscaper, cleaning up after a weed wacker with a leaf blower.
A neighbor washing rocks (I swear) with a power washer.
A radio, blaring a baseball game.
Assorted high-pitched, whining, woodworking tools, at a distance.
A baseball pitching machine.
A tinny “Turkey in the Straw”, played over and over and over, by an ice cream truck s-l-0-w-l-y meandering the neighborhood.
All this, and more, was the background noise for a Sunday afternoon spent in my suburban garden.
Do you think it would be ok to suggest that “they” arrange to all make noise at the same time and get it over with, so that I could have an hour or two of QUIET to listen to the wrens singing and hear only the bees buzzing and the fountain splashing and the leaves blowing in the breeze?
Nah …I don’t think so either. But I can dream, can’t I?
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Happy 4th of July
by LIz Noffsinger from www.freedigitalimages.com
Here’s a link to a terrific little video with some gorgeous photos of our country. ( It opens with a shot of the Arizona Memorial, in Pearl Harbor, near Honolulu, HI, which is as solemn, moving, eerie and haunting a place as you will ever visit. Just seeing the photo produces a lump in my throat.)
The background music is “America, The Beautiful”, which, if I had my way, would be our national anthem.
Though I’m not sure how it sits with Native Americans — when you read all the words, and not just the verses we sang in school — I’d much rather we’d be known around the world for “amber waves of grain, purple mountain’s majesty, fruited plains and brotherhood, (though just plain personhood would be nice to acknowledge. But that’s yet another post!) then for “rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air.”
On the 4th, we’ll be waving at friends who are marching in the parade here in Ridgewood, NJ and then reconnecting with other dear old friends at the July 4 bash they’ve hosted for more than thirty years.
And, there’s no RAIN in the forecast. Perfect.
What are YOU doing for the 4th? (Leave a comment, below so I know someone’s out there.)
Enjoy the day.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Garden & Gun?
Received an email today inviting me to subscribe to a recently launched, upscale, lifestyle magazine titled — of all things– Garden & Gun.
Check it out. Looks great, doesn’t it?
And take it from a long-time freelance writer. A new magazine in this economy is certainly something to crow about.
As a self-avowed magazine junkie, I’ll do my best to pick up a copy on my next trip below the Mason-Dixon line.
But what about that title– Garden & Gun?
A bit incongruous, especially given the chi-chi content.
Is it just me?
