Are they not teaching anything to teachers these days? Everyone with a brain knows that one size does not fit all, and sometimes you have to make decisions based on what's good for the child involved rather than what it said in the book, for God's sake! Well, everyone except George Bush, I guess. Here's a little tale I heard just the other day from the (bf)twins' mother:

These 2 boys are fraternal twins and, although they have always been very close, they are very different from each other. BF is very smart and quiet and not outgoing. BFtw is friendly and very sociable, if a bit naive. So BF always kind of let his brother be out there and stayed under the radar. The school thought it was best to split the twins up so they wouldn't be dependent on each other. Well after a year or 2 of that, their mom demanded that they put them together because BF hated school and was upset almost all the time. They put him with his twin and he felt safe again and totally blossomed into a top student and brilliant musician. So there. Mama knows best.

As I remember it, that beach is all black. Really. The only all black beach on the NC/SC coast that I know of. Of course it's probably integrated now. Gotcha, didn't I?

I agree with you on the NC bbq, I'm afraid. All vinegar-y. They do that to vegetables too, either that or cook 'em to death in greasewater. No, I don't know what greasewater is either, but I swear that's what they cooked the veggies in when I was in school. We moved to NC from NY when I was 10, so the differences were glaringly obvious to me. Not that they served bbq in school, but we got it a lot at church suppers (why am I on about church suppers today?) and stuff. Blecch. On the other hand, if you go to one of these country/traditional NC restaurants, they usually do pretty well on things like fried catfish, hush puppies, greens, things I would never have thought to eat 20 years ago, but when I get a chance I do now when I drive through.
Say "rough" and draaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwww it out in a drawl. Doesn't it sound like "riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifffffffff"? Not a short and snappy "rif". I used to get so confused when I was a yankee transplant kid, when people would ask me for a "pin". I would ask them what kind of pin. They would say "an ink-pin."
Not if they all learn English. I don't know, it wouldn't hurt us to become a bilingual society; might make us a little smarter. Course where I live, there is little need for Spanish, but lots of use for French.

I'm very mad at those people in the Panera's, Peachie. That was rude.

Holy Cow, Bagz, Congratulations to Mister Bagz!!! What a wonderful thing to win!!!
Hmmm I didn't see your message before I left. Of course, we were in charge of a passel of teenagers, so culinary diversity was not high on the agenda, unfortunately. The 1st night we ate in NJ at a mall, which sounds pretty hideous, but there was a Cheesecake Factory restaurant there and the food was pretty good. And of course there was cheesecake. Friday we split up into groups for dinner, and my group went to the Hard Rock Cafe. I wasn't expecting much, but it was actually really good food (and very fun atmosphere). I had a caesar salad with grilled salmon, very yummy. Sadly DD's group which was supposed to go to a French restaurant, couldn't find it and ended up at Applebee's. Some of that group ended up at Hooters on Sunday , while DD ate at Planet Hollywood which she said wasn't very good. She was not impressed with her chaperones. Anyway on Saturday we had to have dinner on the Circle Line cruise. It wasn't bad, but it was like a church supper. Sunday, my group was supposed to go to a place called Norma's, which was a gourmet breakfast restaurant, but we couldn't find it so we ended up at a small but nice Italian restaurant on 57th St. I had pappardelle with sundried tomatoes and mushrooms. It were yummy.

All in all, not a culinary triumph, but you really can't drag many kids to exotic food in general. BFtw, who is a culinary student, was very excited about the possibilities, and he was fortunate to have finally gotten to the French restaurant that the other group couldn't find and had his first taste of pate de foie gras. He was pretty happy. A bunch of us also found a cheese store in Greenwich village which made us all gaga. I bought some old parmesan and homemade pasta. I'm cooking it tonight. Right after I finish this message in fact.

Speaking of food, the menu for bunco sounds out of this world, Wabbit. I would vote for the seafood, since I won't be there to eat it and have an allergic reaction...

Re: NY: We had a good time, will tell you all about what we did other than eat when I get back here later.

Kiwi

Holy Cow, I'm wordy

Be the first on your block to buy this book, written by my lovely friend George. I just pre-ordered my first copy, due out in October. Everyone on my Christmas list is in danger of receiving one.

Welcome back Kiwi! I was laughing all through your post even though I have no reason to laugh because I have another effin' sinus infection and my head feels like it's going to explode, but anyway. That's really interesting about putting the twins together again in class. They always talk about keeping twins apart to make them more independent but I can definitely see how sitting beside someone you shared a womb with could be very reassuring and it's so great that it worked for those boys. I hate it when they try to squish kids into a certain mold. I have one of those kids who refuses to be squished, but we like him just fine the way he is.

Schatz - We have this giant barbeque book, the Barbeque Bible or something. Most of the recipes look pretty yucky and there's one in there for Pulled Pork North Carolina Style with Vinegar Sauce, and I'm thinking, "vinegar sauce"? Sounds...um...interesting. I had no idea. Our idea of barbeque is opening up a bottle of Kraft barbeque sauce and brushing it on whatever happens to be on the grill.

Wabs - I could never, ever decide between your oustanding seafood lasagne and your fabulous baked ziti and would whine until you made both. And your little bunny wunny foo foo is just SO darn cute! How do you stop yourself from eating her up.

Peachy!!! The check is in the mail. Again.

Bagziee!! The fun never stops around your place. Outstanding citizens, every one of you.

Kiwi,,,,,,, you have a friend who wrote a book???Is this the guy who used to come over, take off his shirt, and pretend he was fixing your roof??? I want to know who George is. Is he a spy?

I've probably mentioned this but I'm supposed to take my favorite book to the next class which starts in a few weeks. It can be a novel, a picture book, the Bible, whatever. This got me thinking about favorite stuff. I have a favorite book since high school but I dont' want to have had the same favorite book forever. So how do I know when it's time to update? Anyhow, it's supposed to be the one book we'd grab if we were going to an island and could only take one. Should take a book on boat building but I am gonna take one of those old Norton's Anthologys. This one is 18th Century English lit. It should keep me busy for a while.

How could you go before a group of adults and say, "My favorite book is Courderoy" or "Harold and the Purple Crayon." I bet Harry Potter will be well represented.

My hair is so dry and I can't get a decent cut and it looks awful. Plus I look awful. My frame is too thin for all this fat that's hanging on it. And I've stopped wearing makeup because I don't know how anymore. It's easy when you have young firm smooth skin but I don't want it to drift into the wrinkles and make me stripey. I saw this woman once who wore makeup and powder on the makeup and it was the grossest thing I ever saw because she had these huge pores that had sopped up all the makeup on top of them, giving her a super 3-d effect as the top of the power was measurably far from the bottom of the pores. Gross, yes?

DS comes home tomorrow. I'm supposed to be putting together a list of his interests and hobbies for the scholarship lunch people tomorrow. Interests: school and scouts. He doesn't even do much computer stuff or game playing anymore. He doesn't do scouts either but something has to be on the list.

Kiwi, from what I've seen they don't learn English. Their kids will but the adults come into the store and stare at me when I tell me their bag of chips and bottle of soda come to $6.37. Sometimes they smile. They do not talk.

Speaking of which ... there are these beautiful Asian young women working with us now. They are "guest workers" who are left their university for three months to come to the U.S. For three months, they clean condos and the agency that brought them here takes part of their salary. And charges them rent on their own apartment. And charges transportation to the condos. So .. without telling the agency, they also work where I work. They work all the time. They are so sweet and smart and speak varying degrees of English. One curtsies when you speak to her.

The weather is soooo gorgeous here that it's killin' me to be at work. I went home at lunch and worked for 20 minutes in the yard. Just enough to make me want to not go back to work.

A friend of DH's (one of his old guy buddies - he's in his late 70's) stopped by and brought me some strawberry strudel bites from the bakery. I think they were supposed to be for everybody, but 1/2 of them are gone. I couldn't say where In fact, he was the 2nd old guy buddy that stopped in to see DH today. It must be geezer's day out. Hee. Actually old guy buddy #2 is in his 70's too, but he is the most handsome 70ish man I've ever met. Nice too.

Has anybody been watching Big Love on HBO? It's about a polygamist family in Utah. Sounds strange and it is--- like a train wreck you just can't help but look at. Anyway, one of the characters has a blog. It's written just like she's a real person (I have no idea who actually writes it) and from some of the comments, there's a lot of ppl out there who think she is a real person.

I'm blathering on b/c I don't have any fascinating trips to the big apple to go on, and no glittering awards banquets to attend to ---- Kiwi, your trip sounded like a blast. I bet you were just one of the kids.

I couldn't pick just one favorite book, Peaches. It changes all the time. Right now I'm reading a book called Family Matters, which is written by the same guy who wrote Fine Balance. It's really good so far. Situated in India.

OK. I'm leaving now. I really didn't have much to say anyway.

Oh good Lord, Peach, I think that lady w/ the wrinkles is my twin --- did she have really big pores? It's my doppleganger. eek.

We are entering page 4 ... I wish to start a new thread so that Her HIGH KIWINIENESS may post her doins in da Big Apple....

Look for somethin, um Cow related....