Was 2nd Grader Sent to Psychiatrist and then Home For Drawing Stick Figure of Jesus? December 16, 2009

A school in Massachusetts reportedly sent an 8 year old home for making a drawing of Jesus on a cross.  The father says that his son has some learning disabilities but has never been violent.  He said that his son’s teacher asked the class to draw something that reminded them of Christmas.  So, the boy drew the picture which depicted a stick figure on a cross and he used x’s to depict the eyes.  Dad says that his son was suspended and required to take a psychiatric exam.

Now, the school is putting up a defense.  Taunton School District officials say that the 8 year old was not suspended and the situation was handled appropriately.  The school says that the reports are “totally inaccurate.”    They say there was no assignment that the kids make a drawing of Christmas or any other religious holiday. 

No Christmas Drawings Or You'll Go See the Shrink!

Totally inaccurate?  Apparently a school official “cleared” the child for a return to the class after it was determined he did not pose a threat to himself or anyone else.  So, that means that the child was indeed at least removed from the class and he was required to be examined in some way.  This in itself suggests that there was some accuracy to the reports and there is some sort of subterfuge within the school district’s explaination.  This would cause one to be suspicious of the other aspects of the response.  For instance, while they seem to be extremely worried that the world may think that a teacher would ask for a drawing depicting something associated with Christmas, they don’t say what the assignment was for.  I mean, they don’t say that this child just drew the picture on his own.  So, we have a situation in which the school seems to have some sort of criminalization of an 8 year old’s expression and an attempt to try to distance themselves from any suggestion that kids were asked to draw anything that was associated with Christmas.  To be fair, this same school district did have a situation a year ago when a child drew a stick figure drawing of the student shooting his teacher and a classmate.

Nevertheleless, the father is a part time custodian at the school and says that his hours have been cut.  Why do I think that no teachers will be wishing anyone a Merry Christmas any time soon.

Weather Bottom Line:  The GFS is advertising about 2 inches of snow over the weekend.  But, there is hardly a consensus among the models.  We will probably get some on Saturday with the lead shortwave coming down but I’m skeptical about the amounts or the duration given that it would seem that scenario is based on a big low forming off the Carolina coast.  That may or may not happen and the timing have to be right if it did. Then one must assume that it will be able to transport moisture all the way across the mountains to the Ohio Valley.  Possible, yes.  Probable? It will be tough.  Either way, it will be cold.

War on Christmas From All Sides; Bishop Cries Nixes Christmas Carols, Town Goes Faux for Christmas Tree November 30, 2009

The War on Christmas!

Would Dave and Bing Be Protested Off the Stage Today?

Bah Humbug!  When stories arise about people complaining about “Christmas” parades being cancelled or called “Holiday” parades, I have wondered how many people who say that efforts are being made to take the Christ out of Christmas realize that their parades did that long ago.  While the parades say Christmas, rarely do they feature Jesus, angels, a manger scene, Mary and Joseph or anything else that resembles the true story of the Savior’s birth.  Instead, they have Santa Claus, reindeer, toys, presents, snow flakes, horns and other things that are more associated with the commercial, secular ideals of the Christmas holiday.  So, one could say that a name change is more honest as it seems to reflect what the parades generally show.  Truth be told, the story of Christ was probably only rarely a part of most parades and if you want to really make it a Christmas Parade, then you must remove Santa Claus.  But, before I paint this with too broad a brush, there is a town in Scotland that not only returned to having Christmas the centerpiece of their winter festival, it also has religious leaders speaking on hand to speak of the true meaning of Christmas.  Perhaps, they should speak to a Church of England Bishop. 

You kids stop that singing! It's Nonsense!

Now, a British Bishop is pooh-poohing traditional Christmas Carols.  Rt. Rev. Nick Baines says that the traditional carols take away from the true meaning of Christmas and attempts to turn Jesus into a Father Christmas figure.  The Church of England recently published his book, Why Wish You a Merry Christmas which says that the traditional songs bring forth an ideal of Victorian sentiments instead of the Biblical account of the birth of Christ.  He goes on to say that the words of Away in a Manger are nonsense.  He says that All Come All Ye Faithful is foolishness because the people who came, the shepherds, were not faithful but instead were considered the “great unwashed” and the wise men were “outside the covenant people of God.”  I kinda side with the music director at the Eton College who says, “They bring a smile to people’s faces. There’s nothing wrong with feeling like children at Christmas.” 

Reason for the Season No Matter Who Says What

Come on…aren’t people on both sides of the spectrum getting a bit too overzealous?  Let it be a Christmas Parade.  But, if the nincompoops who have nothing better to do than act offended by a title and wish to hurt the feelings of the majority of people are going to raise a ruckous, then so what?  And if people come together for Christmas and sing carols that aren’t altogether accurate, then let it go.  It brings a fellowship that might not otherwise happen and perhaps may even bring people to inquire and discover the true meaning of the birth of who historians Joyce Salisbury and Dennis Sherman callbrought about “the most influential religious transformation in the ancient West.”

Doesn't look Bad at Night

And you know what, when everyone agrees on a secular symbol to be put in a public square, then there is still arguing and fighting.  In England, the Dorset town of Poole.  They traditionally placed a Norway fir in the town square at a cost of about 500 pounds.  Remember, there is a global recession.  But so what?  The town pooh-bahs decided that the real tree was dangerous.  They said it had to be cordoned off to keep people at a distance. They say that there was always a danger that it would fall down with high winds.  They say it’s a liability issue and that it costs an additional 3500 pounds to decorate.  Now, keep in mind that the town leadership cut back on Christmas lights this year to save money.   So, the wise leadership decided to spend 14,000 pounds on a phony tree.   People are not happy.  One guy says that its okay at night when all you see is lights, but that it “just looks weird during the day.”  Others liken it to a giant green traffic cone, something from Dr. Who, a witches hat or that “it looks like something that just landed from outer space.” 

The sage of common sense

Presumably, the new fake tree costs  the same to decorate as the old tree.  Why the fake tree is less likely to be blown over by winds than the real McCoy is beyond me.   And, the time when they have a shortage of cash is now so the idea of spending 14,000 pounds today to save money later seems a bit off the mark.  It sorta reminds me of the idea that in Vietnam, a village had to be destroyed in order to save it.   To quote another source of wisdom, “can’t we all get along?”

Weather Bottom Line:   The high Sunday was 60.  We won’t see that again any time soon.  For a longer discussion, look at the previous post as it still applies.  Rain will be in the area probably through midday Monday but big t’storms along a cold front to the south will cut off a lot of the moisture.  Knock about 15 degrees for Monday afternoon. Then we move back to the 50′s for midweek.  End of week looks to hold for highs in the 30′s.  Hey, it happens but don’t let local weather people calling it “bitter cold” fool you. I just saw one call it a “bitter blast” at the same time it was described as “cooler air.”    Also, don’t get too worked up when they ballyhoo snow for Thursday.  It’s not a significant event.

1st “Christmas Parade” casualty of the season; Amelia, Ohio mayor gives tradition tapeworm November 14, 2009

No Parade for Santa This Year in Amelia, Ohio

It’s not even Thanksgiving yet and we’ve already had our first Christmas Parade casualty. Not long ago, the village of Amelia, Ohio voted to remain classified as a village and not dissolve. For the past 28 years, the Amelia Business Association had sponsored the annual Christmas Parade but this year did not do so. The event was taken over by the village but the mayor was advised by attornies that the name should be changed to a “Holiday Parade.” The reason was a fear of lawsuits. Yet, no one is reported to have threatened to sue. The key word is “fear.” Unhappy citizens wanted a “Christmas Parade.” Church groups threatened a boycot and one church denied the use of its parking lot for the event. A group of citizens were working feverishly to fund the “Christmas Parade” going so far as to get insurance. But, lacking the wisdom of Solomon, the mayor of the village of Amelia cancelled the parade altogether. Read the first paragraph of the story carefully. It says that they were afraid of possible lawsuits from “religious groups.” However, nowhere in either story does it say anything about a religious group threatening a lawsuit. The threat from the lawsuit was apparently from no one except the minds of the lawyers and the mayor. Fear and possibility trumped reality…and as usual, the media got it wrong.  But, one thing I’ve always pondered.  These Christmas Parades typically are filled with more secular entries such as snowmen and Santa Claus.  If it is truly to be a “Christmas” parade, why haven’t there been calls for the elimination of the secular portions of the parade that have nothing to do with the real meaning of Christmas but instead secular tradition?

Fishing For Worms

A Nutty and somewhat disgusting This Date in History:

Figure 1

I guess in the 19th Century the tapeworm was a problem in the United States.   The tapeworm is relatively
common in the 21st century in Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. It comes about because of poor hygiene or undercooked meat. It’s really pretty nasty as it lives in one’s intestine and the only real clue that one has it is when it appears…use your imagination of how that happens. From what I have read, there really isn’t a symptom of weight loss. Anyway…so there may have been a problem of tapeworms in 19th Century America. Along comes American ingenuity, which isn’t always so great.

Dr. Alpheus Myers was a doctor in Logansport, Indiana and he came up with a “cure.” He called it a “tapeworm trap” and he received a patent(read details here) for it on this date in 1854. His invention was one that involved no surgical procedure or medicines. All a patient had to do was swallow a capsule of sorts that had bait inside it. Not sure what he used for “bait.” The patent said, “any nutritious substance.” Wonder if a Twinke would work?

figure 2

The capsule was attached to a string and the patient swallowed it “for a suitable duration to make the worm hungry.” What does that mean? An hour? A week? Someone was expected to walk around with a string hanging from his mouth waiting for the worm to get hungry. The worm was then expected to “seize the bait” at which time the trap catches its head in the trap. The string is then pulled out of the patients mouth and the head and entire length of the worm soon follows. I have no idea when one knows he’s caught a worm…does it tug on the line? Can you use a bobber?

If you try this at home, make sure that “in constructing the trap, care should be taken that the spring is only strong enough to hold the worm, and not strong enough to cause his head to be cut off.”

I’ll make a note of that.

Weather Bottom Line:  Enjoy the weekend.  Saturday some folks could kick up toward 70.  Sunday we’ll be in the upper 60′s as clouds increase but I really think that it will be dry for Sunday.  Cooler weather next week with a frontal boundary that will bring some rain.