I love the Oscars too. Where else can you see someone come out of the audience, physically assault the host, and then 15 minutes later getting an award and a standing ovation.
I've never heard of that title but I will definitely check it out.
Didn't get through Oppenheimer. Struggled to stay awake.
Really liked Barbie - clever in the message it delivered and just fun.
It's about time that the usury ended with the credit card companies.
Next it's time to tackle the processing fees of these companies so small business owners don't lose money every time someone uses a card. Many places are.now charging the customer an extra fee to use a card.
I hope that Bones of Crows will be available for sale or rent or streaming and best yet, available at libraries. Thank you for highlighting this movie. Sorry I missed it. What you detailed about the essential nullification Consumer Protection agency during the last administration was true about environmental protection agencies also. Those were also resuscitated by the current administration, with more improvemements still pending. As tough as these times are, we simply can't allow this human wrecking ball and his cronies to prevail.
For this reason alone, WE NEED to keep Biden in the Whitehouse. Now, let's see how much time the main-stream media will give this momentous occurence for the benefit of the middle class.
The revelations of the Canadian "boarding schools" for indigenous children are beyond sad. PBS broadcast a series this year called Little Bird (https://www.pbs.org/show/little-bird/) about their heartbreaking consequences. Bet it can be streamed, and should be.
I'm planning to leave some money for New York State indigenous young women to help with tuition at Vassar College - my far more well-intentioned "boarding school." We need to talk more about finally achieving equality for the First Americans.
Most Americans, when asked, say they feel the country is on the wrong track. Then depending on where they get their information they lay the blame on something, be it Trump, Biden, regulations, lack of regulations…I could go on, but you get the picture. The pervading sense on all sides of the political spectrum, though, seems to be that things are going to hell in a hand basket. I suppose my own particular point of view is colored by the years I have spent working in a school, but I lay the blame squarely on the education system, which since No Child Left Behind (2001) has become more and more about meeting “standards” and passing state tests, and less and less about teaching children to think for themselves.
I think the NCLB Act was an attempt to reform the prior system, the one most of us older folks grew up with, which put children onto tracks early on, set low expectations for the kids in the “slow” class, and concentrated effort on the kids in the “smart” class. Instead of giving up on the late bloomers, the dyslexic, the economically disadvantaged, and yes, minorities, schools were tasked with setting high expectations for every child, and making sure those expectations were met. A laudable goal. But the way they went about it, with the testing and requirements and the need to break learning down into discrete, quantifiable chunks so they could be measured and compared, changed education and not for the better, in my opinion. To put it in really simple terms, the focus changed from teaching children to cook to teaching them to follow a recipe.
I remember some years after the state testing began in earnest, a veteran teacher who I really admired, who loved teaching and was really good at it decided to retire early. The reason, she told me, was because the pressure on teachers to have their students pass the tests was so extreme, and the kids had to be trained on how to take the tests so that they could meet the one size fits all standard, and it went against everything she believed in. The English Language Arts test at the time would give children, 4th graders, a reading passage, let’s say on whales, and then the children would have to answer a few questions about it, and then write a short essay about it. The standards for passing dictated, among other things like proper punctuation and spelling, that there had to be at least three details from the reading passage included in the essay. A child who really loved whales and read books about whales and watched National Geographic specials about whales and wrote a lively and interesting essay about whales could fail to meet the standard, and could be relegated to remedial reading, while a child who dutifully regurgitated the three details, no matter how dully, would pass. The teacher found herself saying one day during test practice, “Don’t use your prior knowledge, just stick to the passage.” And that’s when she decided if this is what teaching has become, she could no longer do it.
The tests have been tweaked over the years, but the basic problem remains. You can’t really quantify learning. It’s like the wind. You can’t see it, but you can see what it does. The old system turned out educational haves and have nots. The new system turns out educational robots. And robots are only as good as their programming. In my opinion, if you want to fix what’s wrong with our country, you need to start with education and teaching people to think.
Thank you Tanya for your personal and professional insights into the weaknesses within our current educational system, and the impact this has on teachers as well as students. Your essay is well worthy of a state/national editorial page submission to reach more people.
I do not understand how such a highly rated movie is not available to stream on ANY service. Who controls that distribution and why is it being withheld?
I think it comes down to business decisions. If movies did not get a wide distribution or any marketing, then sometimes they are ignored. If not for my role at the film festival, I would not have heard about it.
Thanks for the background on both counts: Oscars and credit cards. Would like very much to se Bones of Crows. As to credit cards, as one who tries to pay off balances monthly, my heart goes out to those who are not able to.do so and are faced with exorbitant interest charges. Bringing down late fees is great, but how about capping interest charges?
Thanks for pointing to Bones of Crows. Re recent super books on the topic, but focusing on the indigenous in the US , the great David Maraniss has written a two fer of sorts - a sports profile of Jim Thorpe that coincidentally centers on the outrageous behavior of people like Pop Warner at Carlisle, the granddaddy of Indian institutions back in the day. And a less well known sports book, “Brothers on Three”, focuses on slightly more subtle mistreatment involving a basketball team in Montana.
Credit card fees aka the best (sic) bank scam ever
• our lives (or mine) are almost dependent on credit cards
• in the last couple of years I have walked around with $20 in my pocket for months because I make most of my purchases with credit cards
• when I travel, I can't imagine carrying $2,000 with me. Not sure if you can get traveler's checks. And if you were to depend on using the Automatic Teller Machine.. you might end up paying more in fees
• if you miss a payment... you sometimes one can call and ask for the charge to be forgiven... you probably can't do this every month.. But if you miss a payment every 18 months, and make your payments -- you can be forgiven
• I feel that businesses embraced credit cards... about 24 years ago, when most businesses stopped taking checks. I am guessing the service charge they paid on a credit card then, was better than the insecurity of bounced checks and those service
• by increasing overdraft charges - - - to both the consumer and the merchants - - - drove everyone to use credit cards
• we also moved to more online purchases and perhaps felt safer with a credit card, then giving out our savings through use of a debit card
All this comes to 2020 and the pandemic. People were home and when they went out (if they didn’t get most things delivered), they totally depended on credit cards.
After 2020, prices shot up.. and have not come down. There are many reasons that are given, supply chain to name one. I feel the number one reasons are: People keep spend and many corporations/businesses have decided they will gouge.
Along with that those same business now are paying more for credit cards - - > 1.5% to 3.5% (I suspect more banks are now charging businesses the upper end). Now instead of $3.50 for a $100 purchase, the gouge offenders are paying $7 for $200. This is still a percentage, but probably 20 years ago, their percentage was 1.5%. When everything costs more, a percentage feels like more.
And the businesses like car repairs and upper-end restaurants just want to pass those costs onto the consumer. In the end
People do keep spending, even though they complain bitterly about it. But I feel like that’s why food prices have stayed so high. Why would a business sell a box of noodles for a dollar when people will pay two or three dollars? They don’t care how mad we are about it as long as we keep doing it.
Great comment Dave Whitman.
Ken that movie sounds like one that definitely deserves watching, thanks
I love the Oscars too. Where else can you see someone come out of the audience, physically assault the host, and then 15 minutes later getting an award and a standing ovation.
You know, I had completely forgotten about that.
I've never heard of that title but I will definitely check it out.
Didn't get through Oppenheimer. Struggled to stay awake.
Really liked Barbie - clever in the message it delivered and just fun.
It's about time that the usury ended with the credit card companies.
Next it's time to tackle the processing fees of these companies so small business owners don't lose money every time someone uses a card. Many places are.now charging the customer an extra fee to use a card.
I hope that Bones of Crows will be available for sale or rent or streaming and best yet, available at libraries. Thank you for highlighting this movie. Sorry I missed it. What you detailed about the essential nullification Consumer Protection agency during the last administration was true about environmental protection agencies also. Those were also resuscitated by the current administration, with more improvemements still pending. As tough as these times are, we simply can't allow this human wrecking ball and his cronies to prevail.
Trying to marginalize the Consumer Financial Protection Agency was not deregulation, it was an assault on consumers.
Agreed. So we're so many other assaults. You are right to express the affect of those assaults.
For this reason alone, WE NEED to keep Biden in the Whitehouse. Now, let's see how much time the main-stream media will give this momentous occurence for the benefit of the middle class.
The revelations of the Canadian "boarding schools" for indigenous children are beyond sad. PBS broadcast a series this year called Little Bird (https://www.pbs.org/show/little-bird/) about their heartbreaking consequences. Bet it can be streamed, and should be.
I'm planning to leave some money for New York State indigenous young women to help with tuition at Vassar College - my far more well-intentioned "boarding school." We need to talk more about finally achieving equality for the First Americans.
Thanks for pointing out. I was not aware of that series on PBS.
Most Americans, when asked, say they feel the country is on the wrong track. Then depending on where they get their information they lay the blame on something, be it Trump, Biden, regulations, lack of regulations…I could go on, but you get the picture. The pervading sense on all sides of the political spectrum, though, seems to be that things are going to hell in a hand basket. I suppose my own particular point of view is colored by the years I have spent working in a school, but I lay the blame squarely on the education system, which since No Child Left Behind (2001) has become more and more about meeting “standards” and passing state tests, and less and less about teaching children to think for themselves.
I think the NCLB Act was an attempt to reform the prior system, the one most of us older folks grew up with, which put children onto tracks early on, set low expectations for the kids in the “slow” class, and concentrated effort on the kids in the “smart” class. Instead of giving up on the late bloomers, the dyslexic, the economically disadvantaged, and yes, minorities, schools were tasked with setting high expectations for every child, and making sure those expectations were met. A laudable goal. But the way they went about it, with the testing and requirements and the need to break learning down into discrete, quantifiable chunks so they could be measured and compared, changed education and not for the better, in my opinion. To put it in really simple terms, the focus changed from teaching children to cook to teaching them to follow a recipe.
I remember some years after the state testing began in earnest, a veteran teacher who I really admired, who loved teaching and was really good at it decided to retire early. The reason, she told me, was because the pressure on teachers to have their students pass the tests was so extreme, and the kids had to be trained on how to take the tests so that they could meet the one size fits all standard, and it went against everything she believed in. The English Language Arts test at the time would give children, 4th graders, a reading passage, let’s say on whales, and then the children would have to answer a few questions about it, and then write a short essay about it. The standards for passing dictated, among other things like proper punctuation and spelling, that there had to be at least three details from the reading passage included in the essay. A child who really loved whales and read books about whales and watched National Geographic specials about whales and wrote a lively and interesting essay about whales could fail to meet the standard, and could be relegated to remedial reading, while a child who dutifully regurgitated the three details, no matter how dully, would pass. The teacher found herself saying one day during test practice, “Don’t use your prior knowledge, just stick to the passage.” And that’s when she decided if this is what teaching has become, she could no longer do it.
The tests have been tweaked over the years, but the basic problem remains. You can’t really quantify learning. It’s like the wind. You can’t see it, but you can see what it does. The old system turned out educational haves and have nots. The new system turns out educational robots. And robots are only as good as their programming. In my opinion, if you want to fix what’s wrong with our country, you need to start with education and teaching people to think.
Thank you Tanya for your personal and professional insights into the weaknesses within our current educational system, and the impact this has on teachers as well as students. Your essay is well worthy of a state/national editorial page submission to reach more people.
Thank you for your kind words!
Miss Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn movies myself.
Thank you for the “Bones of Crows” reference.
Louise Penny made the horror of these “schools” a focal point in one of her very popular Three Pines” mystery novels.
I'm a sucker for Bogart and Bergman.
I do not understand how such a highly rated movie is not available to stream on ANY service. Who controls that distribution and why is it being withheld?
I think it comes down to business decisions. If movies did not get a wide distribution or any marketing, then sometimes they are ignored. If not for my role at the film festival, I would not have heard about it.
IIt seems to be available for streaming only in Canada, but can be purchased (for $30!) on Amazon.
Thanks for the background on both counts: Oscars and credit cards. Would like very much to se Bones of Crows. As to credit cards, as one who tries to pay off balances monthly, my heart goes out to those who are not able to.do so and are faced with exorbitant interest charges. Bringing down late fees is great, but how about capping interest charges?
Thanks for pointing to Bones of Crows. Re recent super books on the topic, but focusing on the indigenous in the US , the great David Maraniss has written a two fer of sorts - a sports profile of Jim Thorpe that coincidentally centers on the outrageous behavior of people like Pop Warner at Carlisle, the granddaddy of Indian institutions back in the day. And a less well known sports book, “Brothers on Three”, focuses on slightly more subtle mistreatment involving a basketball team in Montana.
Andrew Jackson's portrait on the $20 bill should be replaced with an indigenous personality. Recommendations accepted.
Credit card fees aka the best (sic) bank scam ever
• our lives (or mine) are almost dependent on credit cards
• in the last couple of years I have walked around with $20 in my pocket for months because I make most of my purchases with credit cards
• when I travel, I can't imagine carrying $2,000 with me. Not sure if you can get traveler's checks. And if you were to depend on using the Automatic Teller Machine.. you might end up paying more in fees
• if you miss a payment... you sometimes one can call and ask for the charge to be forgiven... you probably can't do this every month.. But if you miss a payment every 18 months, and make your payments -- you can be forgiven
• I feel that businesses embraced credit cards... about 24 years ago, when most businesses stopped taking checks. I am guessing the service charge they paid on a credit card then, was better than the insecurity of bounced checks and those service
• by increasing overdraft charges - - - to both the consumer and the merchants - - - drove everyone to use credit cards
• we also moved to more online purchases and perhaps felt safer with a credit card, then giving out our savings through use of a debit card
All this comes to 2020 and the pandemic. People were home and when they went out (if they didn’t get most things delivered), they totally depended on credit cards.
After 2020, prices shot up.. and have not come down. There are many reasons that are given, supply chain to name one. I feel the number one reasons are: People keep spend and many corporations/businesses have decided they will gouge.
Along with that those same business now are paying more for credit cards - - > 1.5% to 3.5% (I suspect more banks are now charging businesses the upper end). Now instead of $3.50 for a $100 purchase, the gouge offenders are paying $7 for $200. This is still a percentage, but probably 20 years ago, their percentage was 1.5%. When everything costs more, a percentage feels like more.
And the businesses like car repairs and upper-end restaurants just want to pass those costs onto the consumer. In the end
Bankers are making out like bandits.
People do keep spending, even though they complain bitterly about it. But I feel like that’s why food prices have stayed so high. Why would a business sell a box of noodles for a dollar when people will pay two or three dollars? They don’t care how mad we are about it as long as we keep doing it.
There's this: https://youtu.be/0XvmRwMGgo4?si=wbEApYBcBdWDPCzy
Also, you can find the trailer online too.
I wonder if the movie can be watched in Canada (or by using a VPN)
When it streams, i would recommend "The Zone of Interest," one of the most important films in a long time.