To thine own self be true

Hot town
Summer in the city
Back o’ my neck gettin;’ dirty and gritty

Been down
Isn’t it a pity
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city

All around
People lookin’ half-dead
Walkin’ on the sidewalk hotter than a matchhead

(1966, The Lovin’ Spoonful)

during the pandemic. The general consensus. So much for turning kids over to technology and assuming kids can navigate sans teachers or with online teachers.

Headline yesterday:

‘Toxicity’ and ‘obstructionism’: Trudeau tells Canadians Parliament is dysfunctional

Arizona, New England, and Cannon Beach, I shall not be travelling to the States ever again. Too many crazies. Too many armed people. Too much violence. Too many meltdowns on planes.

Saner days:

At Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West in Scottsdale.

Staying at Cannon Beach, Oregon.

At “Mending Wall”, Robert Frost’s Farm, Derry, New Hampshire.

Kenney still trying to woo the disenchanted Alberta populace with three lotteries: “O frabjous joy! Callooh! Callay!”

The recent passing of an old senior-high ELA teaching friend, Robin Smith, 78.

Robin and I started our teaching careers in Glenn Martin’s Ed CI class, 1971-72. He stood out in our class with his pipe and intelligent questions and responses.

Over the years, I would reconnect with Robin at ELAC and GETCA conferences. He was always a strong Kirkland-Davies textbook supporter.

Lately, over the past decade, I would see and talk to him at the Monday Stroll of Poets readings at The Upper Crust.

Robin was a very kind, humble, cordial fellow who wouldn’t hurt a fly. He was always for his subject area and the students he taught. We’d often share a laugh and I will greatly miss his presence and spirit. The world is significantly less with his passing.

Belated sincere condolences to Janet and family.

(For more information, c.f. his obituary is online.)

List of the 20 Most Popular Dog Breeds
Here’s the AKC’s full list of the 20 most popular dog breeds in America*, along with each breed’s Best in Show history at Westminster:

Labrador Retriever (has never won Best in Show)
German Shepherd Dog (2 wins: 1987, 2017)
Golden Retriever (has never won Best in Show)
French Bulldog (has never won Best in Show)
Bulldog (2 wins: 1913, 1955)
Poodle: Standard (5 wins: 1935, 1958, 1973, 1991, 2020); Miniature (3 wins: 1943, 1959, 2002); Toy (2 wins: 1956, 1961)
Beagle (2 wins for the 15-Inch Beagle: 2008, 2015)
Rottweiler (has never won Best in Show)
German Shorthaired Pointer (3 wins: 1974, 2005, 2016)
Pembroke Welsh Corgi (has never won Best in Show)
Dachshund (has never won Best in Show)
Yorkshire Terrier (1 win: 1978)
Australian Shepherd (has never won Best in Show)
Boxer (4 wins: 1947, 1949, 1951, 1970)
Siberian Husky (1 win: 1980)
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (has never won Best in Show)
Great Dane (has never won Best in Show)
Miniature Schnauzer (has never won Best in Show)
Doberman Pinscher (4 wins: 1939, 1952, 1953, 1989)
Shih Tzu (has never won Best in Show)
*Based on the popular breeds list released by the AKC on May 1, 2020.

Emily: “I can’t go on. We don’t have time to look at one another. I didn’t realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed….Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do human beings ever realize life while they live it?–every, every minute?”

Stage Manager: “No. The saints and poets, maybe–they do some.”

“Now there are some things we all know, but we don’t take’m out and look at’m very often. We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars…everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for a thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.”

Photographed at night on a street in a New York City rainstorm, 2001 by Brad Burns, my Strathcona High colleague.