The Daily News

The Once-in-a-While

News

Friday, October 14, 2016

1 A few days ago I made the mistake of promising something and then welshing.

2 At least I THINK I promised something, and then welshed.

3 I think I even misspelled "welsh."

4 Sometimes I think I must go mad.

7 What was it?

8 Oh. Yeah. I was going to post a link to all of my Daily Newses going back as far as I could.

9 The Daily News began in 1996, when I would post things on the office hallway wall in the performing arts' building at Yerba Buena High School in San Jose. We were doing Guys and Dolls, and this began as a "where" and "what time" info-center for everyone involved in the Show.

10 I always capitalized Show, as though it were sacrosanct.

11 Anyway, I remembered that I had done a series of writing lessons between September and December in 2015. They were pretty good lessons, as I used Stephen King, Amy Tan, and other great writers as advisors. I also included grammar lessons from an old Warriner's English Grammar and Composition book, as well as a book by a fellow named Roy Peter Clark, who published a little gem called Writing Tools.

12 I also kept the Daily News going even after my retirement from teaching. I had moved from YB up to Evergreen Valley High School, where I worked as the Activities' Director, and as a member of the English department.

13 Even in retirement it was quite a chore.

14 Teaching doesn't play well in movies or on teevee.

15 Schools never play well in films. For one thing, Hollywood provides some of the following idiocies:

a. The class size of most schools is around twelve, with one class clown, one thug, stupid jokes, and some

form of drama.

b. Teachers are rarely shown grading papers at home.

When people would talk to me about teaching, many

would say, "I don't see how you guys put up with all

those kids!" In my eyes, the kids were always the best part of the job. Grading papers, on the other hand...

A good teacher will spend a bazillion hours grading

things and keeping the grade book up to date. It

becomes utter madness, and drives most teachers

insane.

c. Teachers will go to a student's house to try assisting

the student. I don't know about anyone else, but I

rarely had the time to go to Staples for paper.

d. Like all jobs, meetings would drive people mad.

Even the best meetings would wear a person down.

16 You get the point. So the DN ran for quite some time in various guises and apps over the years.

17 I decided that I'm going to get something out there once a week, and hopefully it will link up to old DN's. It's fun to go back in time and scroll forward. I don't know if that is possible.

18 I also don't even know if a lot of the links are still active. I think Blogger probably hunted some stuff down and disarmed things. That means you may run into a dead link.

19 So it goes.

20 So it goes.

21 So that's about it. The Daily News is once more revived, but with no obligations, and with no promises.

22 I randomly stated somewhere that I would try to get things out on Wednesdays, but I don't want to welsh, so I won't promise that one.

23 Anyway, I think I'll cast this line into the stream and see if I get any feed.

24 I'll attempt more lousy analogies and idiotic metaphors as needs be.

25 Why disappoint?

26 And I'll post it on Wastebook. Whyever wouldn't I?

27 <Looking out the window> It's massively overcast. I think I'm going to hit the tanning salon.

28 I gottago.

29 See you again.

30 I promise.