whoa, whoa, HANG ON

okay, so, this story, blah blah blah, kids are overweight and unhealthy, not really news.

two things, though:

During a Wednesday after-school session at Matsunaga, [physical education teacher Cindy] Lins [who is preparing 200 kids for some event in Rockville] cheered every student who rounded the edge of the schoolyard to complete a lap.

"I know you're going to be running in college, I just know it," she told one student.

"How in the world can you be pooped? I don't understand that," she teased when another girl jogged by slowly.

*sound of buzzer*  maybe the reporter is just not so good at communicating the tone, but speaking as someone who used to be that kid?  no, the gym teacher shouldn't tease a student who's worn out from running.  "i don't understand how you can be tired" means "something must be wrong with you."  way to go, cindy.

At Forestville Elementary School in Great Falls, third-grade teacher Anne Collins developed her own wellness policy last year after she got engaged and decided to lose weight.

She began walking each day at recess and invited students to join her.  After stepping up her workout routine outside school as well, she has gone from a size 18 to a size 4.

*boggle*  from 18 to 4 in one year?!  i hope that's a typo and she's gone from 18 to 14, because am i crazy, or is that just like among the least healthy things i've ever heard?

can't trust that day

went to the gym today!  half an hour on the eliptical, and hung out at about 126 strides per minute the whole time.  w00t, but why can't i ever keep moving like that when i have someplace to be?

also got some work done!

also, in a completely fortuitous move, sold a book i've never even opened to a new student in my department!  bought "a history of old english" last january and almost immediately changed my thesis topic, but not so immediately that i could still return the book.  had just noticed it on the shelf the other day, and regretted the £20 i'd spent on it, because while books (and books about old english) are good, books i may eventually consult but only out of curiosity are evidence of money that could have been better spent elsewhere.  but then my department "daughter" mentioned that she was off to blackwell's before it closed to get this book on old english, and i said Oh, i have a book on old english i'd be happy to sell you if you want it, and didn't it turn out to be exactly the book she needed!  and i mean it was in mint condition, so she gave me the cover price for it!  go me!

did in fact send a letter to the washington post:

A couple of things concerned me in Maria Glod's article "A Hop, Sprint and Jump Beyond PE" (October 17).  The article describes Cindy Lins, a PE teacher at Spark Matsnaga Elementary School, as "[cheering] every student who rounded the edge of the schoolyard to complete a lap" in preparation for the Darcars Young Run -- but then goes on to describe her encouragement of one student:  "'How in the world can you be pooped? I don't understand that,' she teased when another girl jogged by slowly."  In my experience, elementary school kids do not find it encouraging to be "cheered on" by teachers who mock them.  "I don't understand how _____ can be difficult for you" tends to come across as "There must be something wrong with you, because _____ is easy."  It's bad enough to hear that from a classmate; they shouldn't have to hear that from their teachers.

A few paragraphs later, another teacher, Anne Collins (and is there any connection to http://www.annecollins.com?) is noted as  going from a size 18 to a size 4 in one year.  Granted, the article doesn't talk about the specific weight loss involved; that nevertheless seems like a really startling change in a frankly very short time.  Assuming the sizes given are correct, and there are no typos, one hopes the teacher concerned is going about her "wellness program" under some kind of professional supervision, and not holding up this dramatic weight loss as necessary or even always desirable.  In a position to influence eight- and nine-year-olds (a group particularly vulnerable to eating disorders), a teacher should emphasize the importance of being healthy rather than necessarily being thin.  Children are never too young to learn that their results may vary.

and, finally, today's bpal, which is hellcat:

A soft, sensual, luxuriant blend with a wicked bite:  hazelnut, buttercream, honey mead, rum and sweet almond.

it shouldn't surprise any of you by now to hear that i can smell the almond a lot more when the stuff is wet than when it dries.  as it warms up and the almond fades, i can smell the buttercream quite a lot, and what must be the honey mead and the rum -- and then when i move my wrist away from my nose (to type, for example), the hazelnut comes out quite nicely.  as if the hazelnut has a longer wavelength, or something.

don't know if i'd order this again -- i wouldn't refuse to (see 'wrath'), and it does get a serious push from the name :-), but it's just pleasant; it doesn't really sing to me.

and let's make sure our vowels are full of mediterranean sunshine

apparently, the guy directing last week's rehearsal is the conductor, not the guy who will be preparing the chorus.  (i'm used to these being two different people; only i figured last week's guy was the chorus guy, because, well, he was there.)  rehearsal-director guy was here tonight, and he was a stitch.  i wish i'd taken notes.  he talked about how the 'ave maria' variations from verdi's quattro pezzi sacri were written in response to a challenge -- there was a public contest to see if anyone could write a harmonization on the scala enigmatica, and verdi ('being verdi', says the director) wrote four, and won.  and about how you can tell from the score what bits verdi was particularly impressed with, because he accents them; this is verdi going -- well, it's a visual gag, but imagine him pointing to the score and going 'huh?  yeaahhh,' fonz-like, and pointing to himself.  there's an a-flat in the soprano part of the 'stabat mater', the last beat before figure 5, that is basically verdi going 'oh, yeah, i am awesome.'  he talked about puccini's gloria being an examination exercise (which it was):  you can tell, he said, because the kyrie lasts about six minutes, the gloria lasts about twelve, and then he seems completely to have lost interest -- the sanctus lasts about two or three minutes, and the agnus dei only about four, and don't we all remember writing essays like that?, where you get to the end and just rush?  there are short solos in the puccini, he says, that professional singers long for, because in pounds per note it's the best rate you'll ever get.  at one point in the kyrie he told the altos how he wanted them to sing:  so that he could hear straps breaking.  (i about fell down laughing.)

and my personal favorite:  "this is italian music.  it is not from barnsley."


maybe you had to be there.  :-)

oh!  and!  i got anonymous props!  which is to say, i got the props, but he didn't know he was giving them to me.  in one warmup, a simple thing where we were counting down on a minor scale (reinforcing the comfort level with half-tones vs. whole tones), i was the only person -- definitely in my section, possibly in the room -- who was watching the director, so i held on a note and finished the scale with him while everyone else just carried blithely on in their own time and got there sooner.  and he said "aha!  see, i have a friend -- she was watching me!"  but he wasn't looking for me (and i wasn't in the front row), just gesturing over at the sopranos.  but i knew it was me, and everyone around me knew it wasn't them.  [preens]