My Genius Nephew ....can be funny too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klQ55wrylSg

Crazytown.....

.......is how a niece of mine thought she looked in this website photo from her NYC charter school. She is a great kid and the school has to be thrilled to have teachers like her.

Way to go Chrissy [she is the teacher on the right]!

Stephanie Does Halloween.....

.......as The Jolly Green Giant...heh heh....I guess, Stephanie, it's fairly common to be confused and uninformed when you spent four years in the Bronx and now you live in Queens and work in Brooklyn. It's like a triple NYC whammy.

Congratulations to .... .....

.....my nephew, David Gullotti, a senior at Loyola University Maryland. The school gave him and a classmate the "Diane Geppi-Aikens Service to Loyola Award" which is the highest honor bestowed upon student leaders. See below quote from the school website [I do not make this stuff up you know]. He is a great kid [so far of course], majoring in bio-physics and hopes to be a doctor. Way to go Dave!

Quote from Loyola Website:

Diane Geppi-Aikens Service to Loyola Award recognizes and honors distinguished members of the senior class whose enthusiastic spirit and unwavering commitment have enhanced the quality of life for students, faculty and/or staff at Loyola University. Named for a woman whose indomitable and generous spirit represented the best of Loyola University, this award is the University's highest honor bestowed upon student leaders.This year's recipients are Dave Gullotti and Ashley Vaughan.

Danielle Elizabeth

My niece and God-daughter had her first baby on Friday. The adorable Danielle Elizabeth was born about 8PM and is 21 inches and 8 lbs. Mother, baby and Dad are doing great; they returned home yesterday after stopping to say hello to Granpop Michael Gullotti.

Sippican Cottage

Sippican Cottage is a great blog. The guy always has good you-tube videos plus he is is a genius philospher. Click below to see a great Monty Python skit.

http://sippicancottage.blogspot.com/2008/08/this-video-is-unlabeled-but-i-think-its.html

Your Flag & Ours

"Your Flag" rests (and dries off ) on our back porch after a long day waving in the wind on our front landing. I say "Your Flag" because though it may reside in our home, it is the flag of every American!

Dead Frog In My Driveway

I like to travel and do a fair amount for my work. But you never know what you will find when you get home. Here is a pic of a dead frog I found in my driveway when I got home from a trip to Pittsburgh for 2 days.

There is a small creek at the front of my property and I can only guess this frog made his way up my driveway (about 250 feet from the creek) where he got smushed by my truck tire?

Crane Collapse in New York City

My niece lives in the 300 block of E. 91st and the crane collapse was at 333 E. 91st. Same damn block! Fortunately, she was out of her apt and on her way to work on the subway when the crane fell!

Of course, she fielded a bunch of phone calls in her classroom from family, etc asking if she was OK.

{Click on the post title to see some NY Post video}

My Annual Advice To The New Grads (a reprise)

Just click on the blog title to see a reprise of my advice to today's college grads. I first wrote this in 2005 and re-post every year in May.

Omar Gets The Keys To His New Home From My Nephew

The Old Horse Finished 3rd At Delaware Park.

Here are some pics of Sky Heat which ran at Delaware Park today and finished 3rd in the 2nd race. Her jockey was Jeremy Rose, who had some fame as the rider of Afleet Alex named after the little girl who founded Alex's Lemonade Stand. Enjoy.

Flowers in my yard

Don't know what these are - planted by the former owner. Really tiny buds. I want to cut out a big round spot in the middle of my yard and plant something that will come back every year. Any suggestions; FYI - I don't have a green thumb.

Campaign Donations

Here is a picture of the first yard sign I ever owned. I bought three signs for $20 each and put two in my yard. I will offer the 3rd sign to my liberal friends and family one by one.

When I bought the signs on the internet, the process made it obvious that legally this is considered a campaign contribution to McCain. So that makes this the third political contribution I have made in my life.

To recap, I gave a big $25 to The Swift Boat Veterans For Truth (still have the receipt on my fridge, heh), $100 to Michael Steele when he ran for the Maryland seat in the US Senate, and now $60 to McCain for the 3 yards signs. That is a total of $185 lifetime.

Screw Health Insurance, Everyone Would Have A Bike....If I Was Emperor

Belated post...

Merry

Christmas to my niece,

Chrissy. This is her new bike and she can't wait to try out her new Trek Cruiser in NYC's Central Park.

This One Is For You.....Go Illinois ...Beat USC

My good friend is an Illinois grad and diehard fan. She is attending the Rose Bowl game today. And I say "Go Fighting Illini...Beat USC!".

Have fun Kiddo at the Parade and at the Game!

(Picture at left is Illinois QB, Juice Williams, an exciting but unpredictable underclassman QB).

8th Grade Exam (from 1895)

Remember when our grandparents, great-grandparents, and such stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. - - -

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , KS , USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , KS , and reprinted by the Salina Journal.


8th GRADE FINAL EXAM

Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no Modifications.
3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb. Give Principal Parts of. lie, lay and run
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft deep, 10 feet long! , and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? < BR>3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter?
8 Find bank discount on $300 for! 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance
around which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U. S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U. S. History is divided.
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus .
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of t he United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas .
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour)
1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, sub vocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u! '.
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two
exceptions under each rule.
6 Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup
8. Mark diacritically and divide i nto syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane,
fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Tim e, one hour)
1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America .
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver,
Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernand ez, Aspinwall & Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Also notice that the exam took five hours to complete.

Gives the saying "she/he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

What happened to us? It is kind of humbling, isn't it?

Luckyoldson AKA LUCY

World Series Tickets

Hope I get a chance to use these but Phils are trailing the Rockies in game two by 6-3. They better start hitting.

These are the only World Series I ever had; I actually plan to give to my niece for her 21st birthday which is the same day as the game (Oct. 27th)!

Separated At Birth ?

Cripes, my brother-in-law (on left)may be related to the Unabomber. Picture at top is random bum photo published in the Philadelphia Inquirer last week.