Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.
from The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman
8 November 2009
English 3 AP,
Enjoying the weather this weekend? Hope so!
Band, how did we fare in Indianapolis?
Let's raid the pantries this weekend - bring in food - we have two weeks for our food drive!
ALSO - BIG NEWS - I reserved Madrigal tickets - very excited - for that Thursday!!
Here is more interesting material origins of words and phrases from the 1500's:
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.
(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire... Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
On a more important note, each week I will write a few thoughts on what academic and/or social success take.
Here is number 2!
(What was last week's??)
Class: Conduct yourself with class! Surround yourself with class! Class is displayed in many different ways: what you wear, what you do, what you say, how you act, how you treat others, how you treat yourself. Class is acting in the same manner that your parents would approve of, even in their absence. (I call that integrity.) Class is doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, all the time.
Look forward to seeing you tomorrow. GO BEARS!
Mr. A.