Classic Film Friday: The Apartment

The Apartment is tale of C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) and how he trades the use of his apartment to superiors so that they can have sleazy trysts outside of their marriages in exchange for political favors. On his way up the corporate ladder Baxter falls for elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). The only problem is she happens to be the mistress of his boss.

There’s an all-star supporting cast in Ray Walston and Fred MacMurray, but it catches one off guard to see such familiar faces, (Walston on My Favorite Martian and MacMurray on My 3 Sons) entering into such sordid situations.

Baxter essentially makes a deal with the devil, constantly selling out his morals for a better position in the company, but each advance only makes him that much more miserable. Will he find happiness, love, and job security with no morale compass? Watch The Apartment and find out.

The Iraq Pose-Off

Before I go on, I want to reiterate that this is really not a political blog. Seriously. Not. Political.

Listening to the radio during lunch yesterday, I heard a live feed of the congressional hearing on the “surge” in Iraq and the related benchmarks and what I thought was supposed to be a question/answer session with General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. I say “thought” because there was actually very little “questioning” taking place. It seems the hearing was really nothing more than an opportunity for senators to get whatever is bothering them off their chests. The 5-minute long soliloquies coming from both the right and left, only gave me that sinking feeling about our legislative branch of government. Needless to say there was plenty being said, but not a whole lot of listening going on.

That’s not to say I support the war or immediate withdrawal, because on this particular issue, I’m torn. But the posturing and overly obvious baited questions have solidified my view that the people in government are only looking out for one thing, and it’s not the public interest or our troops or even something as inconsequential as oh, let’s say… The Constitution. These people would all sell their grandmother to a salt mine operator if it would get them re-elected.

Meanwhile the results of this hearing give everybody involved plenty to go home and talk about and none of it will produce anything meaningful. The left seems content to sit in the position of complaining without doing anything and the right is just trying to not get caught with their pants down in an airport men’s room (amongst other things). Everyone is scrambling to say whatever it takes to keep their job. So much for civic virtue...

Photo Illustrations on TV

To those who might not know, a photo illustration is a photograph that has been somehow altered, usually to help to support a story or help convey an idea. It’s important to remember the ratio (and believability) of “photo” to “illustration” varies wildly with each particular case, but ultimately the piece is never anything more than a work of art, emphatically not a factual representation of anything. That said, photographic illustrations bother me. I’m not against the practice completely but when they are used to depict an idea or story as true there’s potential for crossing a line. Take the infamous fake hurricane photo illustration for instance.

Ok so we’ve been here already what’s this about TV?

I’ve noticed a common practice in TV sports coverage (NFL and NASCAR in particular) where a representation of a giant screen is used to give the appearance that a humongous video screen lives atop the stadium. These resemble large screens found at many sporting arenas, except they are quite a bit larger (perhaps 10-fold), and the engineering required to make something like this a reality would be astronomical. ESPN even makes the screen fold out as if it were the convertible top on an automobile. These pretend screens are almost always used when cutting to or from a commercial and (to me anyway) give the impression that the stadium experience is much more technologically advanced than reality would prove.

So what’s the big deal?

I can only answer that by saying nothing in sports is supposed to be “enhanced” or “altered”. Why then do we need a visual lie to somehow improve the viewing experience of an inherently “real” event? Also consider that these jumbo screen illustrations are so good, more than one person I know has asked “is that real?” I searched for the actual depictions I mentioned but came up empty handed. Perhaps this means nobody else notices or even cares. But I say if they’re willing to go through so much trouble to fool you here, who’s to say they aren’t lying to you about something else... oops, maybe they already did.

Standards

It seems the use of standard American English has become something of an inconvenience to so many people (and their kids) these days. The topic of personal speech can become so heated regarding how one chooses to talk or write and whether or not anyone should accept something other than standard English or if anyone has the right to judge another based solely on how they communicate… I decided to look up the SC state standards by grade level.

You can use these to “grade” your friends, poke fun at your enemies, or if you have a school aged children you can reference these standards in parent-teacher conferences and/or compare them to testing material your child brings home (I highly recommend this option).

Click each grade for a breakdown on academic standards and what to expect throughout the year.

1st Grade

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

4th Grade

5th Grade

The middle/high school info I was able to obtain is a bit dated (a year or two old). You can find the official state standards (warning: these are 100+ page documents, some of them dated as well) for each subject area in its entirety at the South Carolina Department of Education’s website. It is not as easy to access or as condensed, but if you’ve gotten this far, it’s probably important enough that you’re willing to wade through page after page to find what you’re looking for.


6th Grade

7th Grade

8th Grade

9th Grade

10th Grade

11th Grade

12th Grade

Classic Film Friday: Double Feature

In case anyone didn’t notice, I had a Netflix snafu a couple of weeks ago which left me with no movie then, and lots of classic movies now. To celebrate I offer two classic films this week (yes I know it's a bit late).

The first is family friendly and somewhat obscure Disney classic The Ugly Dachshund. This movie is a dog lover’s dream. A Great Dane puppy raised amongst a family of Dachshunds results in all kinds of compromising situations. Dean Jones (from the popular Herbie movies) plays an artist that finds life with his wife’s doting on their show dog dachshunds a little less than “manly”. When the opportunity presents itself to own a Great Dane it’s an offer he can’t refuse. There’s plenty of doggy mischief and good hearted fun in this 60’s classic.





Next up is a film that should be firmly on the list of “must see classic movies” of all time. I’m referring to the 1934 murder-mystery-comedy The Thin Man. This movie is the quintessential example of why movies don’t need big budgets or extravagant effects or gratuitous sex to tell a great story.

Nick Charles (William Powell) and Nora Charles (Myrna Loy) are a high flying, heavy drinking (swimmingly drunk even), and overly witty couple with nothing better to do than solve mysteries involving their murdered friends. The one liners and sarcasm come out by the truckload and the ending isn’t certain until the very last minute. The first movie in a series of six, The Thin Man entertains in layers of dialog, plot twists, and sharp comedy.

North Area (Whale Branch) High School Debacle More Apparent

Let’s face it, this issue is a festering wound. The only reason it hasn’t drawn more controversy over the years is because it’s been for the most part ignored by the press because it is heavily laden with racial innuendos. But it certainly hasn’t gone away. The Beaufort County School Board and District are now justifying the construction of the $35 million Whale Branch High project by saying it will help more kids to graduate.

Really?

New schools will help children graduate?

I’ll let that soak in for a moment.


They claim that by building a new school, bus ride times will be reduced and thus preventing kids from dropping out. I’d hazard the argument that if a child is willing to drop out over an extended daily bus trip, that child has already failed to realize the value of an education and will likely drop out anyway.

Remember this school is at least 3-4 years away from being completed (they haven’t even started construction yet). Remember also the original referendum for this school was over 7 years ago. Also keep in mind that the board has justified this school as a means to escape its responsibility to ACE, which is a slap in the face to all Beaufort (and Jasper) County residents.

My point is, the district and board haven’t exactly shown much intent toward getting this school built or any kind of commitment to bettering education whatsoever. My best guess (I’m just blindly taking a stab here) is that once the high school is built (if it ever gets built), the board members that use race and ignorance as their platform will have to pay the piper when that new school fails just as miserably as the old one did (that is if they’re paying attention)... so other than getting folks in a tizzy and attaching emotional baggage to yet more political posturing, there’s no hurry here. Can anyone else see the windmill in Orwell’s Animal Farm?

The district (and board) once again doesn’t get it. If they’d just look around in their own house for half a second they’d realize that the problem they face is real, but it is not relegated solely to the rural areas in the northern part of the county. Regardless, the solution they’ve contrived will help nothing. Kids all over southern Beaufort County ride the bus just as long as those poor, pathetic kids up north. My daughter could ride her bike to/from school faster than it takes the school bus to make the trip (about an hour).

The real solution lies in having an adequate number of buses and routes to efficiently and effectively serve the children of each attendance zone. This would prevent or lessen those long bus rides, save us all from a $35 million dollar burden, and create a positive impact right now (instead of years down the road).

Northern Beaufort County residents have as much right to a decent education as the rest of the county, but this waste of money will not give them what they seek. This forces one to consider that either the district is woefully inept or crazy like a fox, neither of which bodes well for the folks footing the bill. It’s time to tell the school board to stop playing games and stop wasting our money.

Click Here for School Board Member contact information.

Labor Day Education Rundown

Rumor has it (and this is strictly rumor) that elementary school PACT test scores, at least those in the Bluffton cluster are looking good. If this is actually true and how this will translate to academic excellence remains to be seen, but we can hope for now that it will mean better days are ahead.

But how are we going to pay for it? This article underlines, highlights, and circles why Beaufort County continues to get the lowest return for the most amount of money. In fact 5th worst according to Forbes (whatever that means).

Massive overcrowding in primarily white and rapidly growing southern Beaufort County takes a back seat to a (now 7 years late) promise made to rural, declining population northern Beaufort County (that happens to be predominantly black).

The school board, at least in its current form is still not ready to make tough decisions germane to the problems at hand, instead opting to use their position as leverage to promote government waste and collusion via the race card. This won’t change until the folks pandering to ignorance or those too scared of the panders pointing them out as racist are forced out of office. Meanwhile the predator-type contractors and others that profit from such poor money management are laughing all the way to the bank.

Private school just keeps looking better and better.